TalkAwhile - The Folk Corporation Forum

Artists => Fairport Convention => Topic started by: Philip W on March 05, 2009, 12:31:23 PM



Title: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Philip W on March 05, 2009, 12:31:23 PM
The new issue of Classic Rock magazine (April) claims that a copy of Liege and Lief "was never far from Kurt Cobain's side". Is this a well-known fact? It's a new one on me.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: davidmjs on March 05, 2009, 12:34:22 PM

The new issue of Classic Rock magazine (April) claims that a copy of Liege and Lief "was never far from Kurt Cobain's side". Is this a well-known fact? It's a new one on me.


Never heard it before, but then I've never paid too much attention to the Kurt Cobain mythology, preferring my dead rock stars from a quarter of a century earlier.  

My first response when thinking about Nirvana's music is that he obviously never paid too much attention to it...even the acoustic stuff doesn't really have any obvious connection does it?


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Jim on March 05, 2009, 12:38:14 PM
it just goes to show he had better taste in music than women


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Anji on March 05, 2009, 12:39:49 PM

it just goes to show he had better taste in music than women


you can't help who you fall in love with, Jim...................................  ::)


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Jules Gray on March 05, 2009, 12:43:26 PM

My first response when thinking about Nirvana's music is that he obviously never paid too much attention to it...even the acoustic stuff doesn't really have any obvious connection does it?


Well the acoustic stuff did reveal an awareness of American folk music, like Leadbelly.  It's only one small leap from that to checking out a bit of British folk rock!  Personally I can hear some parallels.  Cobain's song Polly is a kind of punk bastard offspring of the trad murder ballad (even if this time, the victim escapes!).

I liked Nirvana.  I was quite taken with Nevermind when it first came out.  But his suicide put me off - I haven't played one of his records since.  Too much darkness and cult of suicide crapola surrounding the vibes of the music now for me.  But that's a shame, because I do think he was a strong songwriter, and that the band was very exciting.

Jules


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Jim on March 05, 2009, 12:44:01 PM


it just goes to show he had better taste in music than women


you can't help who you fall in love with, Jim...................................  ::)


yeah ,i know, but Courtney Love, thats what happens when your drug intake gets out of control, ask John Lennon, or maybe better to ask Cynthia :'(


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Dan O. on March 05, 2009, 01:46:37 PM
Kurt Cobain...what a waste, if he was that down on things all he had to do was retire and never make another record or play another gig, not kill himself ! I agree with the above comment about cult of suicide crapola, when not enough attention is paid to the music he made. As for his love of FC...well, stranger things have happened, I know he loved Black Sabbath, Cheap Trick and even Joy Division (?), so while the theory is a new one on me as well, I can't discount it.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: David W on March 05, 2009, 01:49:38 PM
Well if Dave Grohl is a Nick Drake fan why not KC and fairport?


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Jamie73 on March 05, 2009, 02:11:25 PM
True.

Had the idiot not topped himself he may well have ended up at that US/UK Folk Connections thingie at the South Bank.

Johnny Rotten loved Steeleye so stranger things have happened.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: LadyD (Sarah) on March 05, 2009, 02:15:54 PM
I like Nirvana's music....and recently re-listening I kept thinking I heard folkie influences in the music...maybe I wasn't imagining it.  ::)


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: davidmjs on March 05, 2009, 02:24:01 PM
Maybe if you play Territorial Pissings backwards whilst imbibing large quantities of Kurt's anaesthetic of choice you can hear Matty Groves?  

Maybe not.....


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Nick Reg on March 05, 2009, 04:06:31 PM
What other Fairport sightings are there?
I'll start with a picture of Swarb in the Mott The Hoople box set.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Jamie73 on March 05, 2009, 04:45:56 PM
Joe Strummer loved Sandy and wanted to meet her. Never did unfortunately.

J


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: PeteD on March 05, 2009, 05:06:43 PM
Slightly off topic but I always thought the MTV Nirvana unplugged in New York recording was one of the greatest live performances I have ever heard. There were parts on that that really did make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!  


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: MikeB (Mike) on March 05, 2009, 05:56:42 PM

Slightly off topic but I always thought the MTV Nirvana unplugged in New York recording was one of the greatest live performances I have ever heard. There were parts on that that really did make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!  


Absolutely. Cobain's cover of Leadbelly's Where did you sleep last night? is phenomenal.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: koho (Koen) on March 05, 2009, 07:55:38 PM
I got into Nirvana way after the event, as I usually do  ::) ... in retrospect, strange that this became, for a while, "mainstream", a weird little bubble in time - considering what was mainstream before (80s) and after.
Surprised about Cobain being apparently into L&L. It's one of those what if's - what would he have done had he not done what he did in April 1994? He came a long way in a very short period of time. He sure had an interest beyond the more obvious punk/metal/etc influences. As I am into a heavy King Crimson phase currently, I know Cobain was completely into their album Red.

Never mind the hype at the time: Nevermind and In Utero - intense, fantastic.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Mr Cat (Lewis) on March 05, 2009, 09:14:54 PM
I'm not so sure we should read a huge amount into this..Dave Grohl admires Nick Drake, but the FooFighters are not especially reminiscent of Nick.  


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: LadyD (Sarah) on March 06, 2009, 10:46:04 AM


Slightly off topic but I always thought the MTV Nirvana unplugged in New York recording was one of the greatest live performances I have ever heard. There were parts on that that really did make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!  


Absolutely. Cobain's cover of Leadbelly's Where did you sleep last night? is phenomenal.

I didn't know that was a cover.  :o

ironicly...Nirvana tunes cheer me up when I'm down. :-\


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Bridgwit (Bridget) on March 06, 2009, 11:31:50 AM
There is a school of thought that says that if you're down you should listen to depressive/depressing music as it will match your mood and thus you will find harmony. 8)

Personally, if I'm a bit cheesed off the last thing I want to listen to is Walking in Sunshine, it just serves to remind me what a grumparse I am and reinforces my bad mood. >:(

Nirvana is good for singing along to when you're driving.  :)


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Smithsinarazz on March 06, 2009, 11:32:55 AM



Slightly off topic but I always thought the MTV Nirvana unplugged in New York recording was one of the greatest live performances I have ever heard. There were parts on that that really did make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!  


Absolutely. Cobain's cover of Leadbelly's Where did you sleep last night? is phenomenal.

I didn't know that was a cover.  :o

ironicly...Nirvana tunes cheer me up when I'm down. :-\


I'm with you there Lady. Nothing like a bit of miserable music to cheer you up!

Going off the subject slightly, I was on the train the other day and I saw a very small boy (about three or so) wearing a Nirvana T-shirt. I couldn't decide what to think of this.. on the one hand, he was evidently born some twelve years too late, and should his parents really be teaching him about angst, death and despair so young? On the other, it beats Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

That's all assuming that his parents did actually play him the music and that the T-shirt wasn't just an old one of his dad's that had shrunk in the wash and was the only one clean.  


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: LadyD (Sarah) on March 06, 2009, 11:40:44 AM

Nirvana is good for singing along to when you're driving.  :)


Nirvana -come as you are is the only song I can get a decent score on, on 'singstar'.


I'm with you there Lady. Nothing like a bit of miserable music to cheer you up!

My 'bad mood' playlist included Nirvana, AFI, Rise Against and Evnessence.
Whenever its a really bad time of the month 'Pain' is the track I play.
Fave Nirvana song though is pennyroyal tea.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Neil on March 06, 2009, 03:16:06 PM
And now we are officially off-topic.

Cobain having a copy of L&L is an example of how influence is not really to do with what the band sounds like. If you look at the themes on L&L they are quite dark it is only familiarity that has lent them the cozy comfort they have taken on.


Title: Re: Kurt Cobain... and Fairport?!
Post by: Dr Monk on March 07, 2009, 11:41:47 AM

 influence is not really to do with what the band sounds like.


Agreed - sometimes it's about appreciating and learning the craft of songwriting.
I agree that there's fair bit of suicide 'crapola' aurrounding Cobain, but he's deifnitely a great songwriter.
Whilst fairport may seem a jump, Nick Drake and even some of RT's early stuff is fairly dark and not a million miles away from the tone of some of Cobain's writing (The former not being immune to a bit of journalistic suicide/early death hype either, just on a smaller scale and in a more middle class accent).
I got into Nick Drake when I was about eighteen after the Black Crowes, who I idolised at the time, kept name-checking him. Though some of their stuff is less of a jump from Drake than you might think (Nonfiction and Thorn in my Pride spring to mind) it's another good example of 'influuence' not only being about direct relations to sound, but appreciating craft.