Kurt Cobain

From Wikiquote

Jump to: navigation, search
All in all is all we are.

Kurt Donald Cobain (1967-02-20 – ca. 1994-04-05) was the lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist of the Seattle grunge band, Nirvana.

Contents

[edit] Music

[edit] Bleach (1989)

  • I need an easy friend
    A girl, with an ear to lend
  • She loves him more than he will ever know
    He loves her more than he will ever show.

[edit] Nevermind (1991)

  • With the lights out, it's less dangerous
    Here we are now, entertain us
    I feel stupid, and contagious
    Here we are now, entertain us.
  • He's the one
    Who likes all our pretty songs
    And he likes to sing along
    And he likes to shoot his gun
    But he knows not what it means.
  • Come as you are, as you were
    As I want you to be
    As a trend, as a friend, as an known enemy
    Take your time, hurry up
    The choice is yours, don't be late.
  • I'm so happy
    'Cause today I found my friends
    They're in my head.
    I'm so ugly, that's okay
    'Cause so are you,
    We've broken our mirrors.
  • Polly wants a cracker
    Think I should get off her first,
    Think she wants some water
    To put out the blow torch.
  • One baby to another says
    I'm lucky to have met you
  • The finest day that I ever had
    Was when I learned to cry on command

[edit] In Utero (1993)

  • Hate me
    Do it and do it again
    Waste me
    Rape me, my friend.
  • My heart is broken, but I have some glue
    Help me inhale, and mend it with you
    We'll float around, and hang out on clouds
    Then we'll come down, and have a hangover
  • I take pride as the king of illiterature.

[edit] B-sides and compilation tracks (1989-1993)

  • And the flowers sing in D minor
    And the birds fly happily.
  • And if you save yourself
    You will make him happy.

[edit] Posthumously-released (post-1994)

  • I need you around
    To remind me what not to become.
  • If I may, and if I might
    Lay me down, weeping.

[edit] Video

[edit] MTV Unplugged In New York (Album: 1994; Video: 2007)

  • [To Krist Novoselic] No, I don't remember the little bird [on Davey and Goliath]. Remember that really evil episode where...he was really mad at this kid, and he had all these visions of how he was going to... "First, I'm going to take him up to a hill and tie him to a tree and tar and feather him!" That was evil, that wasn't Christian at all!
  • I don't think MTV would let us play that. (After an audience member requests the band play "Rape Me.")

[edit] Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out! (1994)

  • They (Extreme) surround themselves with these professional, dickhead, commercial rock and roll guys...when they show up at an airport, their manager runs ahead of them and yells at the people greeting them, 'No video! We want a path straight to the van! We don't want any pictures taken!' Y'know, I'm like, "So what?"
  • Same thing happened in the punk movement in the late 70's...a punk band would start, play one gig, and get signed to a major label right away, 'cause it [was] a trend. That just shows there are a lot of old school dinosaurs in the record industry who need to be weeded out.
  • We're waiting for the dinosaurs to die out. They will die. And then we'll move into their homes.
  • I would like to think there's some purity in us, yeah. Naive - y'know, purposely naive.
  • Music comes first; lyrics are secondary. Most of my lyrics are contradictions. I'll write a few sincere lines, and then I'll have to make fun of [them]. I don't like to make it too obvious, because if it is too obvious, it gets really stale. You shouldn't be in people's faces 100% all the time. We don't mean to be really cryptic or mysterious, but I just think that lyrics that are different and weird and spacey paint a nice picture. It's just the way I like art.

[edit] Print

[edit] Journals (2002)

  • I use bits and pieces of others personalities to form my own.
  • John Lennon has been my idol all my life but he's dead wrong about revolution... find a representative of gluttony or oppression and blow the motherfucker's head off.
  • Maybe someday I'll turn into Helen Keller by puncturing my ears with a knife, then cutting my voicebox out.
  • Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate Freudian evaluation on my lyrics when 90% of the time they've transcribed the lyrics incorrectly?
  • I am not gay, although I wish I were, just to piss off homophobes.
  • Birds are and always have been reincarnated old men with Tourette's syndrome having somehow managed to dupe the reproductive saga. They fuck each other and tend to their home repairs and children while never missing their true mission. To scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth. They know the truth. Screaming bloody murder all over the world in our ears, but sadly we don't speak bird.
  • I only remember a few things about Jimmy Carter. He had big lips and liked peanuts. I now know that Jimmy Carter was and is a good man.
  • I mean I like to be passionate and sincere but I also like to have fun and act like a dork. Geeks unite.
  • My generation's apathy. I'm disgusted with it. I'm disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.
  • To be positive at all times is to ignore all that is important, sacred or valuable. To be negative at all times is to be threatened by ridiculousness and instant discredibility.
  • Assassinate the greater and lesser of two evils.
  • Thank you for the tragedy. I need it for my art.

[edit] Print interviews (1989 - 1994)

  • In Aberdeen, I hated my best friends with a passion, because they were idiots.
    • As quoted in The Daily Of The University Of Washington (May 5, 1989)
  • I'd like to live off the band, but if not, I'll just retire to Mexico or Yugoslavia with a few hundred dollars, grow potatoes, and learn the history of rock through back issues of Creem magazine.
    • As quoted in The Daily Of The University Of Washington (May 5, 1989)
  • It's really not hard to keep your dignity and sign to a major label...Most people don't have any dignity in the first place.
    • As quoted in Sounds (October, 1990)
  • Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock.
    • As quoted in M.E.A.T (September, 1991)
  • I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn't identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music, they just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male.
    • As quoted in Melody Maker (September 14, 1991)
  • Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth. And it happens every few minutes.
    • As quoted in New Musical Express (November 23, 1991)
  • Hope I die before I turn into Pete Townshend.
    • As quoted in BAM (January 10, 1992)
  • I would like to get rid of the homophobes, sexists, and racists in our audience. I know they're out there and it really bothers me.
    • As quoted in SPIN (January, 1992)
  • We sound like the Bay City Rollers after an assault by Black Sabbath. And, we vomit onstage better than anyone.
    • As quoted in Guitar World (January, 1992)
  • If I went to jail, at least I wouldn't have to sign autographs.
    • As quoted in Details (February 1992)
  • I just can’t believe anyone would start a band just to make the scene and be cool and have chicks. I just can’t believe it.
    • As quoted in Option (January/ February, 1992)
  • Zits are beauty marks.
    • As quoted in Sassy (April, 1992)
  • All drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all. But I’m not going to go around preaching against [them].
    • As quoted in Rolling Stone (April 16, 1992)
  • I wouldn’t wear a tie-dyed tee-shirt unless it was dyed with the urine of Phil Collins and the blood of Jerry Garcia.
    • As quoted in Melody Maker (July 18, 1992)
  • Yeah, I was run out of town. They chased me up to the castle of Aberdeen with torches. Just like the Frankenstein monster. And I got away in a hot air balloon. And I came here to Seattle.
    • As quoted in Monk Magazine (October, 1992)
  • If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.
    • As quoted in Monk Magazine (October, 1992)
  • Jocks have completely taken over music... And just to get back at them, I’m going to start playing basketball.
    • As quoted in Musician (October, 1993)
  • I wouldn't have been surprised if they had voted me Most Likely To Kill Everyone At A High School Dance.
    • As quoted in Howl (July 22, 1993)
  • If I could get that girl to publish her poetry, the world would change. (On Courtney Love)
    • As quoted in SPIN (October, 1993)
  • The thrill and embarrassment of becoming international pop stars was too much, so we opened our mouths and put our foot in sometimes.
    • As quoted in Details (November 1993)
  • I'm a much happier guy than a lot of people think I am.
    • As quoted in Rolling Stone (January 27, 1993)
  • I can't play [guitar] like Segovia. The flip side of that is that Segovia could probably never have played like me.
    • As quoted in Fender Frontline Magazine (Fall 1994)

[edit] Stage banter

Note: All stage banter sourced from The Live Nirvana Tour History

  • Hello, we're major label corporate rock sell outs. (04/17/91 at the O.K. Hotel, Seattle, Washington)
  • There is plenty of Hühnerfleisch in the Kühlschrank. (There is plenty of chicken in the fridge) (08/27/91 at Bremen, Germany)
  • Hi, my name is Kurt Cobain, I'm homosexual, I'm a pagan, I'm a drug abuser, and I like to fuck pot-bellied pigs! (12/02/91 at Newcastle, UK)
  • What's the matter with all you people at the back, did you come here to see Gloria Estefan? (11/27/93 at AT&T Bayfront Park Amphitheater, Miami, Florida)
  • OK, you trained monkeys, everybody jump up and down. Let's bring back the good old pogo! (12/31/93 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California)
  • I spent all of my life trying to stay away from sports and here I am in a sporting arena. (12/30/93 at the Great Western Forum, Inglewood, California)

[edit] Misattributed

  • Wanting to be somebody else is a waste of the person you are.
    • True source unknown
  • Nobody dies a virgin... Life fucks us all.
    • True source unknown
  • I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.
    • True source unknown

[edit] Quotes about Cobain

  • I really enjoyed working on [In Utero]. I'm really sad Kurt's gone. And I would do it again.
  • Nirvana were like...power-chord music with the occasional Sonic Youth-y flip-out in it. But the power of that band is Kurt Cobain's voice, which is just fucking caramel–a beautiful rock voice.
  • I only met Kurt once...I was touched by him. He seemed a little shell shocked as though he felt yet another shoe might drop at any time.
  • People were trying to call me to do interviews on the anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death. They want me to say some poignant shit about some poor guy who blew his head off. It's just like, "Give me a fuckin' break, man"...Just say the guy made some good records, and let's get on with it.
  • I remember watching Kurt come through and thinking, "God, this music is nuclear," This is really splitting the atom. They raised the temperature for everybody. Manufactured pop never looked so cold as when that heat was around. Nirvana made everything else look silly.
  • I was simply blown away when I found out that Kurt Cobain liked my work, and I always wanted to talk to him about his reasons for covering "Man Who Sold The World." It was a straightforward rendition and sounded somehow very honest. It would have been nice to have worked with him, but just talking would have been real cool.
    • David Bowie, according to Kurt And Courtney: "Talking" by Nick Wise.
  • Cobain was very shy, very polite, and obviously enjoyed the fact that I wasn’t awestruck at meeting him. There was something about him, fragile and engagingly lost.
  • I'm sorry I couldn't have spoken to the young man. I see a lot of people at the Zen Center, who have gone through drugs and found a way out that is not just Sunday school. There are always alternatives, and I might have been able to lay something on him. Or maybe not.
  • The only person I have any respect for as a songwriter over the last 10 years is Kurt Cobain. He was the perfect cross between Lennon and McCartney...but he was a miserable fuck at the same time.
  • A couple weeks ago, one of my students gave me a mixed tape of Kurt Cobain and there was a version of "Black Girl" of great artistry. Great vocal control and subtlety, it's almost as good as Leadbelly's.
    • Allen Ginsberg, quoted by George Petros in "ALLEN GINSBERG. GROOVIN' GURU. Beat laureate ALLEN GINSBERG goes bananas," Seconds, Issue 28 (1994).
  • I still dream about Kurt. Every time I see him in a dream, I’ll be amazed and I get this feeling that everyone else thinks he’s dead. It always feels totally real, probably because I’m a very vivid dreamer. But, in my dreams, Kurt’s usually been hiding - we’ll get together and I’ll end up asking him, "God, where have you been"
  • Kurt really reminded me a lot of John [Lennon] in his writing, singing, and guitar playing. More attitude than technique, but he had incredibly strong rhythm and a great solo sense. Nirvana's Nevermind album is as good as anything ever produced in rock'n'roll. It was talking to me. I'd finally heard a new band speaking to me from the past, present, and future.
    • Jim Keltner, according to Classic Rock Albums: Nevermind by Jim Berkenstadt and Charles Cross.
  • And he could be a real grumpy bastard, but that was part of his power. You know, without saying a word he could make the whole room feel like shit. You know? And he also had an intense narcissism...But he also didn't have one ATOM of rock star ego, and he needed it. He didn't give himself enough credit. I mean, he knew he was the shit.
  • He was a revealing symbol [of Generation X]. He called himself passive-aggressive. There was self-pity, whining. There was a diminishment, a diminution. He was sitting there in his sweater, hunched over his guitar, looking like a little lost boy. Compare that with the great figures of my generation: Jimi Hendrix. Pete Townshend. Keith Richards. The great achievements of rock--of the Sixties, in fact--were done by assertion and energy. This is why I'm worried about the future.
  • Yeah, he talked a lot about what direction he was heading in. I mean, I know what the next Nirvana recording was going to sound like. It was going to be very quiet and acoustic, with lots of stringed instruments. It was going to be an amazing fucking record, and I’m a little bit angry at him for killing himself. He and I were going to record a trial run of the album, a demo tape. It was all set up. He had a plane ticket. He had a car picking him up. And at the last minute he called and said, "I can't come."
  • He's your archetypal small guy - wiry, defiantly working class and fiery.
    • Everett True, in "Everett True Thrashes It Out With The Latest Wizards From Seattle's Sub Pop Label Who Arrive In Britain Next Week," Melody Maker (1989-10-21).
  • You know, I always thought I'd go first. I don't know why I thought that, it just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis - far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense.
  • He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.

[edit] Lyrics about Cobain

  • I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
    And the night Jeff Buckley died
    And the night Kurt Cobain died
    And the night John Lennon died.
  • You can hear them crying down the lane
    From Portland to Maryland
    From Greece to Spain
  • A transvestite in trouble, gee
    We can make a double CD
    People want to see blood,
    To see 'em messed up like a Kurt Cobain
  • Thanks to Elvis and Kurt Cobain
    The world will never be the same
  • It's a shame about your future
    It's a crime about your past.
    • The Fall (Kurt's Blues) by Cher
  • Blown away by fame
    We could all feel the shotgun hit the floor.
    • The Day Seattle Died by Cold
  • What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?
  • My sister, she says she knows Elvis Presley
    She knows Jesus, John Lennon, and Kurt Cobain personally
  • Kurt Cobain was so young
    Sad to see this poet's gone.
  • A whole generation of kids blowin' out their fuckin' brains to this Kurt Cobain music
    • Devils's Night by D12
  • A daily dose of eMpTyV
    Will flush your mind right down the drain
    Shannon Hoon and Kurt Cobain,
    Make yourself a household name
  • My favorite color is red, like the blood shed
    from Kurt Cobain's head, when he shot himself dead
  • And I want it so bad I'd shoot the sunshine into my veins.
    I can't remember the good old days.
  • And going for the clincher, a girl cries out in vain
    How Jesus lived 6 years longer than Kurt Cobain
    And Jesus' hair was longer, and Jesus' arms were stonger
    And Jesus's eyes were bluer, and Jesus' thoughts were truer
    • Jesus Lived 6 Years Longer Than Kurt Cobain by The Floors
  • He's never been in love
    But he knows just what love is
    He says, "nevermind"
    And no-one speaks
  • He lies in an empty room
    With his hair burnt to the back
    It sure sounds funny
    When you say his name like that.
  • Or take me away like a bullet from Kurt Cobain
  • And they told me
    The times have changed
    Cause' our parents had Hendrix, Janis and Jim
    But what about River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain.
  • Y hoy me encuentro tan solo y triste
    cual hoja al viento
    quisiera llorar, quisiera morir,
    como Kurt Cobain, de sentimiento.
    (And today I am so alone and sad
    like a leaf in the wind
    I wish to cry, I wish to die
    like Kurt Cobain, of feeling)
    • Decadencia(en vivo) - Heroes del Silencio
  • I'll finish with a bang like Kurt Cobain's biography
  • Help me please
    Burn the sorrow from your eyes
    Oh come on, be alive again
    Don't lay down and die
  • They all stand straight and swing to the side
    No heads, but they feet still glide
    Take a step back, twist and dive
    I even seen Kurt Cobain get live
  • The whole world was crying when Kurt's gun went bang
    When Eazy-E died though, it wasn't no thang
    Rapper dies of A.I.D.S. but you hardly mention
    Rocker blows his face off and becomes a legend
  • And a memory that can ease your pain
    Like a melody from Kurt Cobain.
  • Ne me parle pas de travail à la chaîne
    Je veux pas finir comme Kurt Cobain
    (Don't talk to me about working on the assembly line/I don't wanna end like Kurt Cobain)
  • Way out in Seattle
    Young Kurt Cobain
    Snuck out to the greenhouse
    Put a bullet in his brain.
  • If I think, I think of you
  • Keep them high like Kurt Cobain.
  • Some believe that you are God,
    Others say you were an idiot.
    But I only see a good, sad man,
    Who's name was K. Cobain
  • Johnny wishes he was famous
    Spends his time alone in the basement
    With Lennon and Cobain
    And a guitar and a stereo.
  • Having conversations with Kurt Cobain
    I'm drowning my fears in the acid rain.
  • And so I parallel the brains of Cobain.
  • He gathered up his loved ones
    And he brought them all around
    To say, "Goodbye, nice try."
  • Left on the floor
    Leaving your body
    When highs are the lows
    And lows are the way** Tearjerker by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
  • Maybe if I put a bullet in my brain
    They'd remember me like Kurt Cobain
    And the parasites on MTV
    Would wipe their eyes and act like they knew me
  • Yeah the whole byrd gangs in here like Kurt Cobain was here.
  • Sometimes I wonder what goes on inside her mind
    When she said she thought Dave Grohl had died, and Kurt Cobain was still alive.
  • Hard luck god, he never had a chance, you know.
    Incurable romantics never do.
  • There was this boy who played in a rock n' roll band
    And he wasn't half bad at saving the world
    She said he could do no right, so he took his life
    The story is true
  • Toward another, he has gone
    To breathe an air beyond his own.
  • Disturbed by the fame
    Just like Kurt Cobain.
  • Kurt Cobain reincarnated
    Sighs and licks his face.
  • So I watched pay per view and polished my shoes and my gun
    Was diggin' on Kurt Cobain sing about lithium
  • He rocked the United States by flying all over the country and playing that rock and roll
    He is a good singer
    He is my rock star
  • Too late,
    He sleeps with angels
    Too soon,
    He's always on someone's mind.
    • Sleeps With Angels by Neil Young with all these quotes we come to the conclusion that kurt cobain was and still is the #1 guitarist in our mind...right?
  • Любой, имеющий в доме ружье приравнивается к Курту Кобэйну,
    Любой, умеющий читать между строк обречен иметь в доме ружье...
    • Anyone with a shotgun at home equates to Kurt Cobain,
      Anyone able to read between the lines is destined to have a shotgun at home.
    • Пой мне еще - Сплин
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has an article about:
Retrieved from "http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain"