Nirvana, Schmirvana

Cowgrit and I were just winding down from our Sunday activities by watching the last few minutes of “The Top 100 Songs of the 90s” on VH1. We saw numbers 15 through 1, and many of the songs brought back memories of our courtship days. But some of the songs we had never heard — the commentators went on and on about how these songs we’d never heard were great and decade defining. What?

After having watched a few of these “Top 100” shows of various flavors on VH1, I’ve come to believe they determine the order for the list by agitating a howler monkey and recording where his poo splats on a wall listing the 100 songs. And the commentators must have all been around 14 years old, and the songs they talk about must have been their first experience with any music, or the specific artist.

I won’t go into depth about the whole 100 list, but I have to gripe about the number 1 song — Smells Like Teen Spirit, by Nirvana. The band and the song and Kurt Cobain has been so over hyped as to cross into absurdity.

I remember when I first heard the song: A player in my D&D gaming group brought his CD to my apartment (where we played D&D at the time) and played it while we waited for the others in our group to arrive. The tune was hypnotic, yeah, and it stayed (and stays) in your head for a long time after hearing it. But what the hell were the lyrics? I’ve heard the song (or at least parts of it) a couple dozen times over the years, and I still don’t know anything Kurt sings other than, “Here we are now, entertain us” — and I wouldn’t bet my life that I’m actually understanding those lines correctly.

Generally, it’s a decent song, despite Cobain’s lyrics being less intelligible than Stevie Nicks’. I’m not knocking the song itself. I don’t put my hands over my ears when I hear it. But it ain’t great, and Cobain ain’t a genius.

My gripe is with the hype and hysteria over the “genius” of it and Cobain. For full disclosure, I was around 24 years old when it came out in 1991. Maybe I was just harder to impress, having a much larger catalog of great songs because I’d lived longer. It wasn’t my first introduction with songs that supposedly had deeper meanings.

At the time of Cobain’s death — just 3 years after Teen Spirit‘s release — I didn’t care. I noted the hysteria among the college music crowd, but “So what?” I thought.

But then, about five years ago, I saw “The Top 100 Shocking News Stories in Music,” (again on VH1). Kurt Cobain’s death was number 3. “You have got to be kidding me,” I thought. A one-hit wonder singer couldn’t take the stress of fame and fortune and commits suicide just three years into his “genius”?

Now, I’m not really belittling Kurt Cobain, or his death. My point is that it’s ridiculous that this is ranked as the third top shocking news story in music. I compare this rank with John Lennon’s death — ranked at number 7.

I’m not a big Beatles or John Lennon fan. I like their music, some better than others, but I’ve never owned any of their albums. In the grand scheme of things, surely John Lennon’s murder should rank as a more important news story than Kurt Cobain’s suicide. I mean, hell, Lennon had more hit songs than Cobain had years of life. Yet Cobain’s death ranks as more shocking and important than Lennon’s?

So, for VH1’s “Top 100” anything shows, they should just drop the ranking of the items and just discuss them in no order. Leave the howler monkeys alone.

Bullgrit