BLEACH: Reaching Nirvana 30 Years Later
Apr. 16th, 2019 09:21 pmI've been a casual fan of Nirvana for most of my life. They've been in the periphery of my little world for as long as I can remember, but I never dove all the way in. In 1989, when their first album, Bleach, came out, I was 6. Much more into sparkle ponies and mermaids than punk rock. I don't regret that--sparkle ponies and mermaids are consistently rad, after all--but there's no way I would've understood this music back then.
Still, I grew up in the '90s. Nevermind wasn't exactly hard to find. I've always known who they were. I generally liked their songs. I flat-out loved the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" once we actually got MTV at home and I could see it. Once, I had a confrontation with a high school classmate who was giving one of my friends a hard time for restringing his guitar. (He was left-handed.) I got up in this kid's face and said, "You know who else switched their guitar strings? Paul McCartney! And Jimi Hendrix! AND Kurt Cobain!" He brushed me off with, "Yeah yeah--has been, overdose, suicide, who cares?" "SHUT UP they're LEGENDS!" was my response. Or something like that. I don't know if my friend remembers me defending his honor like that, but I like to think he appreciated it.
And yet, I never felt like Nirvana was, or ever could be, "my" band. I couldn't even tell you why.
So hear I am now, coming up on my thirty-sixth birthday, and I decided that my present to myself this year (I'm allowed one) would be Bleach. Since it's the early, indie album, I expected it to be kind of ragged and grating. Y'know, where you can hear the groundwork of what they'd do later, but with a lot of rough edges. Because that's how most of my other first album purchases of bands I like have gone.
Yeah--no, this was love at first listen.
( If you wouldn't mind, I would like to breathe. )
(Cross-posted to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhoda_rants.)
Still, I grew up in the '90s. Nevermind wasn't exactly hard to find. I've always known who they were. I generally liked their songs. I flat-out loved the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" once we actually got MTV at home and I could see it. Once, I had a confrontation with a high school classmate who was giving one of my friends a hard time for restringing his guitar. (He was left-handed.) I got up in this kid's face and said, "You know who else switched their guitar strings? Paul McCartney! And Jimi Hendrix! AND Kurt Cobain!" He brushed me off with, "Yeah yeah--has been, overdose, suicide, who cares?" "SHUT UP they're LEGENDS!" was my response. Or something like that. I don't know if my friend remembers me defending his honor like that, but I like to think he appreciated it.
And yet, I never felt like Nirvana was, or ever could be, "my" band. I couldn't even tell you why.
So hear I am now, coming up on my thirty-sixth birthday, and I decided that my present to myself this year (I'm allowed one) would be Bleach. Since it's the early, indie album, I expected it to be kind of ragged and grating. Y'know, where you can hear the groundwork of what they'd do later, but with a lot of rough edges. Because that's how most of my other first album purchases of bands I like have gone.
Yeah--no, this was love at first listen.
( If you wouldn't mind, I would like to breathe. )
(Cross-posted to
rhoda_rants.)