Happy 20th Anniversary to Nirvana's Nevermind

      On Saturday, September 24, 2011, Seattle's Experience Music Project (EMP) celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's top-selling album, Nevermind. Featuring the popular single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana's second album knocked Michael Jackson off the top of the billboard charts in 1991.

      The EMP is currently featuring an exhibit entitled Nirvana: Bringing Punk to the Masses. Several of Kurt Cobain's guitars as well Krist Novoselic's bass and Dave Grohl's drums are on display. This large collection of Nirvana memorabilia includes demos of Kurt's first songs that were made with his aunt's eight track player. Visitors can see art work that Kurt created during his senior year at Aberdeen High School. The exhibit includes stage prop mannequins known as the "In Utero Angels" from the tour promoting Nirvana's third and final album, In Utero.

     Grunge rock is a form of alternative rock that became popular in Washington State in the mid eighties. Known as the "Seattle sound," grunge rock is characterized by distorted electric guitars and angst-filled lyrics. The release of Nirvana's Nevermind album and Pearl Jam's Ten album helped grunge rock attract a mainstream audience in the early nineties. The exhibit at the EMP features the music of other grunge rockers that Nirvana knew and liked. Visitors can listen to Pearl Jam, Mia Zapata and the Gits, Bikini Kill, Alice in Chains, and more.

     On Nevermind's 20th anniversary, a video of Nirvana performing at the Paramount Theatre was shown in the EMP's Sky Church.

The sculpture above can be seen at the EMP. It was made of 700

guitars to symbolize the roots and branches of American pop music. 

 

Young Street Bridge or Kurt Cobain's Bridge?

       On July 28, 2011, Aberdeen's City Council  voted 10-1 against renaming the North Aberdeen Bridge after the late Kurt Cobain. Many residents were opposed to renaming the bridge after Kurt Cobain because he was addicted to drugs, committed suicide and often made derogatory comments about his hometown. Instead, a small park near the Wishkah River will be named "Kurt Cobain Memorial Landing."

      An accomplished musician and songwriter, Kurt Cobain was the frontman for the grunge rock group, Nirvana. In the early 90's, 25 million copies of of Nirvana's albums were sold in the USA alone.   

      The council also voted not to make "Young Street Bridge" the official name of the North Aberdeen Bridge. For years, the bridge was called  "Young Street Bridge" after Alexander Young, a pioneer who founded Aberdeen's first sawmill. The sawmill was important because the economy of the Pacific Northwest depended heavily on the lumber industry in the 19th and 20th centuries.

      It is easy to understand why Aberdeen's city council voted not to rename the bridge after either man. Other cities have had problems when streets, bridges and other landmarks are named after heroes.When my husband was stationed at Fort Benning in the mid 90's, a problem occurred in Columbus, Georgia. Columbus' city council had voted to change the name of Thomas Jefferson Boulevard to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. After the street signs had been changed, the council decided that they were wrong. It isn't proper to honor one hero by disrespecting another. The council then voted to change all  "Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard" back to "Thomas Jefferson Boulevard."

      Many residents of Aberdeen believe that their city has already done enough to honor Kurt Cobain. The city's welcome sign includes the phrase, "Come as You Are," from Nirvana's Nevermind Album. A statue of an electric guitar was unveiled in a small park last April. A sign about Kurt Cobain stands in the same park.

      Yet people come from all over the world to see the bridge Kurt mentioned in his song, "Something in the Way." Tourists bring revenue. If Kurt Cobain made made negative comments about Aberdeen, he is still helping his hometown's economy by bringing in tourist dollars.

     Would naming the bridge after Kurt Cobain suggest to children that drug addiction is acceptable? Would naming a bridge after a person who committed suicide encourage others to commit suicide? Some people seem to think so. But they seem to lack compassion and to be rather judgmental. Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases like cancer. Depression is also an illness. Would they have refused to name the bridge after Kurt Cobain if he had died of cancer?

    This Washingtonian prefers to remember Kurt for his musical genious rather than dwell his mistakes. Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh suffered from mental illness, abused absinthe and committed suicide at age 37. If we focus on Van Gogh's illness and shortcomings, we might miss the beauty of his masterpiece, "Starry Night on the Rhone." 

        

From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah

     Eighty three degrees and without a raindrop in the sky! Washington's warm weather was so inviting that I couldn't resist taking my children on a trip to the beach.

     After crowding into my Jimmy, the kids and I took Interstate 5 south, the 101 west and then Route 8 toward the beach cities. As we entered the small town on the Olympic Peninsula where grunge rock's icon Kurt Cobain grew up, we passed a sign which stated, "Welcome to Aberdeen -- Come as You Are." We were enjoying lunch at a Subway sandwich shop near WalMart when I remembered reading that Nirvana's fans had erected a statue to honor Kurt on the seventeeth anniversary of his death.

     I had to see the statue and pay my respects to Kurt. More importantly, my teenage daughter, Kate, had to!

     We asked some locals for directions. They told us that Kurt's statue was located near a bridge by the cemetery. We drove across what appeared to be an ordinary overpass before we realized that it was the Young Street Bridge. Turning around, we crossed the winding river and entered a quiet neighborhood of older houses with colorful wooden siding. I parked the truck.

      At the entrance of the KC Waterfront Park stood a lifesize, concrete statue shaped to resemble a guitar that Nirvana's frontman once commissioned from Fender.

     Kurt Cobain lived two blocks away from the Young Street Bridge when he was a boy. The bridge became one of his favorite places to hang out. He claimed that he lived under the overpass for several days when he was 15. This experience inspired him to write his popular song, "Something in the Way."

     Someone painted the words "In Memoriam: From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah" on the bridge's concrete support beam. Brightly-colored graffiti was spray-painted under the bridge. My kids were delighted by the rumble they heard when a motor vehicle drove across the overpass.

      People come from all parts of the world to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain. The small park near the Young Street Bridge is the only memorial for Kurt because his body was cremated. One third of his ashes were sprinkled into the Wishkah. A sign erected on the grassy knoll stated that Kurt's spirit flows with the river under the bridge twice daily.