A look back on the words of Kurt Donald Cobain

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A lot of people loved Kurt Cobain.  I loved him.  However, it wasn’t the love he needed or necessarily wanted.  Fame comes at a price and for Kurt, that payment was his life.  The media liked to say that he was my generations John Lennon, but John got to be forty years old.  What would we have learned from Kurt and his music had he lived to be middle age, rather than taken from the light at age 27?  Some say he was just another member of that dumb club.  The “27 Club” which lifted the red velvet rope for Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Brian Jones, Jimi Hendrix and more.   

He was most like a big brother to me more than anything.  He spoke through his music and pointed out the idiosyncrasies of our society.  Only when an artist gets older do we tend to realize the kind of person the truly are.  They can reflect and tell us exactly what they were feeling at a certain moment in time.  They can explain what meteoric rise feels like.  They tell us about the highs and lows and everything else in between.  They can analyze themselves in a way that we never could.  We can only guess. 

When someone like Kurt Donald Cobain is only in our lives for a short time, we only gather fragmented pieces and try to understand a human being that we never could.  However, Kurt was a creator and so he left us his art.  We have his music streaming from devices for millions more to hear for the first time. We have some concert footage and tales from friends and loved ones.  We have paintings and photographs, but most importantly we have his words.  Kurt was never shy about speaking up and saying what he thought was right and most likely, unknowingly, righteous. Below is a collective of Kurt Cobain quotes. We can still learn from this man that left us wanting more. 

“I’m a spokesman for myself. It just so happens that there’s a bunch of people that are concerned with what I have to say. I find that frightening at times because I’m just as confused as most people. I don’t have the answers for anything.” 

“I’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.” 

“They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same.” 

“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape. Go to the source and start there.” 

“Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‘nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.” 

“I really miss being able to blend in with people.” 

“If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us — leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.” 

“I like the comfort in knowing that women are generally superior and naturally less violent than men. I like the comfort in knowing that women are the only future in rock and roll.” 

“I am definitely a feminist. I’m fucking disgusted by the way women are still treated. It’s 1993 and some people still think we’re in 1950s. We need to make more progress. There needs to be more female musicians, more female artists, more female writers. Everything is dominated by fucking males and I’m sick of it!” 

“My generation’s apathy, I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism and all those other -isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.” 

“Rock ‘n’ roll has been exhausted. But that was always male rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a lot of girl groups, just now, within the last few years. The Breeders and the Riot Grrrls all have a hand in it. People are finally accepting women in those kinds of roles.” 

Kurt was a massive supporter of LGBTQ+ advocacy. Although he was not gay himself, Cobain often claimed that he wished he had been in order to annoy the homophobes. He wore dresses at shows and to events to mess with the heads of his advisories on this subject. He longed for the women to lead and I think he would be so happy with the music trend of female empowerment, but also disappointed that we hadn’t gotten further across all platforms in society. 

Kurt Cobain was most certainly ahead of his times. The sound of his music, the power of his lyrics and his outspoken against-the-”norm” opinion not only revolutionized rock, but it also changed music forever.  He certainly opened my eyes and made me question how I was thinking.  

Thank you, Kurt, and Happy Birthday.