Awhile back I saw Cameron Crowe's documentary on Pearl Jam. It was pretty inspiring. I was kind of blown away by the way Eddie Vedder would sacrifice his body during a show in Pearl Jam's early years. Vedder would climb up the scaffolding and then hurtle his body into the crowd. A crazy, death-defying stunt that certainly upped the stakes on their live shows.
The Seattle "grunge" bands combined a little bit of punk and heavy rock, but most of the bands were led by sensitive, "wounded children" like Vedder, Chris Cornell and Kurt Cobain. The Seattle bands were very supportive of each other.
Pearl Jam somehow rode the waves of the initial craziness of the scene, and settled into a long and fruitful career. And they are still doing it. I have always thought Vedder had a great voice, and he is certainly a sincere and charismatic front man.
Still, this all made me circle back to Cobain and his band Nirvana. I've lately been time-tripping, listening to early nineties "grunge" stuff - Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Nirvana. Of course, as we all know, Nirvana flamed out pretty quickly. Cobain for various reasons was not built to endure. I still think his voice was one of the great rock and roll voices of all time.
And Kurt was not a poser. He opened his veins in his music and let it all out. Cobain lived with chronic pain, a mysterious stomach ailment. Supposedly the pain would disappear during a show. Here's Nirvana in peak form at the Paramount in Seattle...
This is a cover - Love Buzz! Thrilling!
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