BREAKING: Kurt Cobain Still Dead On 40th Birthday

[Image courtesy of Stereogum]

Music bloggers of "a certain age" who are not old enough to worship at the altar of John Lennon are noting that Monday [20 February] would have been Kurt Cobain's 40th birthday. You know, if he hadn't self-inflicted a "head injury" that resulted in his early death.

If Kurt were alive today, he might be celebrating his birthday with a special performance somewhere. If you were in NYC on Monday, you might have been able to see some lame cover bands perform some Nirvana songs in tribute to Kurt [cake-shop.com via gawker.com]. It might have been interesting to hear some of these bands explain to their Hipster audiences songs like "Polly" and "Rape Me".

Some of the things Kurt Cobain would NOT be doing if he were alive on his 40th birthday:

* Kurt would not be like Kenny Chesney, pretending not to be gay in an interview with the pretending-not-to-be-gay Anderson Cooper while cooped [ah, pun not intended -- Ed.] up with Coop in a gay box [headline of the day -- "Hick In A Box" -- Ed.].

* Kurt would not be like David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen & "Van Halen", pretending to reunite with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and then pulling-the-rug-out-from-under Nirvana fans hoping to pay $200+ bucks to hear "Drain You".

* Kurt would not be like Sting & "The Police", pretending to reunite with Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic and then playing the lute and yadda, yadda, yadda....

* Kurt would not be like Axl Rose, teasing fans for over ten years about the release of his group's next album.

and finally...

* Kurt would not sell himself out to CSI:Miami or Starbucks.

*****

In honor of Kurt, I leave you with two awesome tracks. "The Man Who Sold The World" is from Nirvana's almost-final performance on MTV's Unplugged just prior to Kurt's death. "Territorial Pissings" is from Nirvana's breakthrough album, Nevermind.

Nirvana [unplugged] - The Man Who Sold The World [mp3, via YSI]
Nirvana [unplugged] - The Man Who Sold The World [mp3, via zShare]

Nirvana - Territorial Pissings [mp3, via YSI]
Nirvana - Territorial Pissings [mp3, via zShare]

*****

And just for grins, I leave with you a track from [Courtney Love's] Hole's Live Through This. One of the worst-kept musical secrets from the early 90's was that Kurt Cobain ghost-wrote Live Through This. [Wha??? You don't believe me??? Puh-leeze! Compare any track on Live Through This with any track from either Pretty On The Inside or Celebrity Skin, and get back to me.]

Hole - Doll Parts [mp3, via YSI]
Hole - Doll Parts [mp3, via zShare]