Christal
Cooper
Article
2,227 Words
In
Memoriam: Kurt Donald Cobain
February
20, 1967 – April 5, 1994
On Friday, April 8, 1994, electrician Gary Smith
and his team of men went to the Kurt Cobain residence on 171 Lake Washington
Boulevard to install a new security system.
At 8:49 a.m. Smith looked into the window of the greenhouse, located above the garage behind the residence, and noticed something.
At 8:49 a.m. Smith looked into the window of the greenhouse, located above the garage behind the residence, and noticed something.
“I though it was a
mannequin. Then I noticed it had blood
in the right ear. I saw a shotgun lying
across his chest, pointing up at his chin.”
It was determined by the Seattle Police
Department that the male body was in fact that of Kurt Cobain, and that, on
April 5, three days before, he committed suicide by injecting a fatal dose of
black tar heroin and shooting a bullet via his mouth into his brain, killing
him instantly. It would have been only a
matter of minutes that Cobain would have died from the black-tar heroin overdose
if the gun had not been fired, thus Cobain committed an almost impossible feat
–successfully committing suicide twice.
Kurt Cobain could be compared to the
great Ernest Hemingway in numerous ways – both men were heavy drinkers, artists,
writers, and victims of mental illness.
Both men also had suicide in their family history: Cobain’s two uncles and great-grandfather
committed suicide; and Hemingway’s father and two siblings, Ursula and Leichester,
committed suicide.
Both succumbed to the ritual tradition – except
Hemingway was a more ripe age of 61, and Cobain was only 27 at the time of his
double suicide, thus joining the legendry 27 Club with the likes of Jimi
Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison.
On Sunday, April 10, a public
candlelight vigil was held at Seattle Center’s Flag Pavilion attended by 7000
while, at the same time, 70 close friends and family gathered at the Unity
Church of Truth for a private memorial.
One week later Kurt Cobain’s body was
cremated with his ashes contained in an urn given to his widow Courtney
Love. She buried a portion of the ashes
under the willow tree in the back of the 171 Lake Washington Boulevard
residence in April of 1994; in May of that same year she traveled to Ithaca,
New York to visit the Namgyal Buddhist monastery where she had some of the
ashes blessed by monks and transformed into a memorial sculpture; the remaining
ashes were left to his only child, Frances Bean Cobain, who, at the age of 6,
in 1999, scattered the ashes in McLane Creek in Littlerock, Washington.
In this blog post we could talk about how
many albums Nirvana has sold, how many books have been written about the tragic
and mentally ill figure of Kurt Cobain, but it wouldn’t matter the
statistics. All that would matter is
that Kurt Cobain mattered and still matters to so many people. Here are some of their testimonials.
Charles Clifford Brooks
III
Teacher, Poet, Radio
Broadcaster, Publisher
Jasper, Georgia
I
was a freshman at Campbell University when I learned of Kurt Cobain’s
suicide. The grunge movement brought an
enormous amount of peace to my own disenchantment with culture, and Kurt
provided a lightning rod to call me home into the seat of my soul. It was a surreal few weeks that tore at my
ideas of surviving in a world seemingly so cruel to those able to articulate
their deepest insecurities.
I was in my living room one night,
listening to Edvard Grieg’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” that has the
most grief-stricken piece about the death of Aase.
So I took the story of the Mountain King
and fused it with the death of Kurt.
Greig’s “In the Hall of the Mountain
King” contained the only sorrow I could find to mirror my own melody of
loss. This poem juxtaposed the two
stories in a way to illustrate the agony I wrote, and still wear, concerning
the loss of what I felt, and feel, is a brother.
Before
Nirvana, Grieg
Before
Nirvana, Grieg
crowned
the Mountain King.
His
corridors, adopted by grunge
and
old trolls,
walked
one to suicide.
Rock’s
maudlin blonde
got
shot-out pathetic
in
the guesthouse.
Peer
wouldn’t wear
the
same, rotten crown,
his
head against Solveig’s bosom.
Live
at Reading pauses
To
honor Aase’s suite death.
Legions
light funeral pyres.
Violins
mourn the quasi-prophet,
his
family absent and everywhere.
The
last tone,
a
cello far from Norway,
ripples
through Seattle
with
desert sands
and
Bedouin kisses.
Poem
from Whirling Metaphysics (http://www.amazon.com/Draw-Broken-Eyes-Whirling-Metaphysics/dp/0983365539/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1428647188&sr=8-1&keywords=Whirling+Metaphysics)
Copyright granted by Charles Clifford Brooks III
Copyright granted by Charles Clifford Brooks III
Janlyn Diggs
Model and aspiring
actress
Montgomery, Alabama
Kurt Cobain was an amazing musician. I discovered the band Nirvana in early 2012
and I’ve been listening to them every sense.
He had so much raw talent as did the rest of the group.
Cobain’s music inspired me to play guitar, which I still do to this day. I remember first hearing the band name; I searched interviews, songs, etc. and after watching those it was like I had fallen in love. His personality is one like no other.
Listening to their music makes me feel as if I’ve been placed into the 90s in the heart of one of the biggest grunge movements in history. Kurt Cobain has truly inspired me to be who I am today.
Cobain’s music inspired me to play guitar, which I still do to this day. I remember first hearing the band name; I searched interviews, songs, etc. and after watching those it was like I had fallen in love. His personality is one like no other.
Listening to their music makes me feel as if I’ve been placed into the 90s in the heart of one of the biggest grunge movements in history. Kurt Cobain has truly inspired me to be who I am today.
Christine Duray
Artist
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet, Illinois
Okay, first of all, I love
Nirvana, such a void in music until they came out. I first learned of Cobain's
death and really didn't think much of it except sadness. Sometimes they say
those who shine the brightest among us are the first to burn out.
My work is about expressions, I
want to capture the thoughts, the moment that image was captured and turn them
into my creation, I usually shoot for the eyes to do this but in the image of
Kurt his eyes are closed. Still the emotion, the feeling was there. I knew it
had to be captured in my own way. My work of Kurt Cobain is to honor his
greatness and passion he had to stand on his own two feet.
Katie
Longstaff
Stay-at-home-mom
Australia
Some people remember where they
were when they heard Princess Diana died.
Others, Elvis. But for me, I
remember the moment I found out that Kurt Cobain had die.
You see, I’d always felt myself as
being a bit of a misfit. Multiple
changes of school meant I spent a large majority of my schooling years being
regarded as “the new” girl – always under scrutiny, never fitting in. At last, settling in a small country town, I
tentatively struck up a friendship with other ‘misfits’ during the early stages
of teenage angst. While the other girls
our age were listening to the repetitious drone of techno and dance music, we
found a solace in the darker ballads of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.
The Grunge phase in Australia was
only in its early states. Spiderbait,
Hole, and many others were slowly gaining popularity with many teens. “Smells like teen spirit” became a favorite
with the cheerleaders and I can recall many hours spent in the basement with
friends, frantically trying to come up with a routine for the athletics
carnival the next day.
For me, it wasn’t about the
rebellious stigma attached with listening to “heavier” music as it was seen
back then – there was something in the lyrics that just seemed to echo in my
soul, almost as if he understood the agony of growing up weird. He was the person celebrity who made it ok to
express the darker side of being a teenager.
The day Kurt died is etched
clearly in my mind. My bus always
arrived at school a little earlier than my friends, so it was tradition to wait
for the others before going inside. I
knew the moment my two friends got off their bus that something had
happened. One was openly crying and the
other’s eyes were blotchy and red. They
told me in a quite voice: “Kurt
Cobain committed suicide this morning.”
Pain, betrayal, hurt and confusion
were instant friends. To actually take
his own life nearly felt like treachery – how could he abandon us like
that? So suddenly? With no real explanation?
We wore black for months. On his birthday, after a few stolen drinks
we’d smuggled into a friend’s birthday, we pulled out the Ouija board to get
our answers. But other than a hangover
and messy, drunk, emotional teenagers, we achieved nothing.
I still have my own theories and I
don’t want to believe that he abandoned us like that, but I guess I’ll get my
answers one day.
Tarun
Sharma
Artist
India
When I was 9 years old (or) maybe
8 I was crazy about rock music and then I started finding some rock music on
YouTube and I found Nirvana.
Tracie Schaeffer
Artist
Montgomery, Alabama
I
have to be honest; I don't remember where I was when I found out Kurt Cobain
died. I do remember my 10th grade science lab partner (1991) gave me a dubbed
copy of a Nirvana ep at school. At the time I was heavy into hair metal and I listened
to that tape and I never listened to another hair band again.
I also remember keeping the issue of the People
magazine about Kurt's death in my car for at least six months and I'd
read it at least once a week.
Fay Smith
Writer
Aberdeen, Washington
I didn’t actually discover Kurt until
after he died. I listened to talk radio
at that time. One night in July 1994 I
watched the Saturday Night Live with Nirvana.
As soon as they started singing “Heart-Shaped Box” I knew I was
obsessed.
I came to Aberdeen, Washington, Kurt’s
hometown, for the first time in June 1995, and returned many times when I was
living in Denver and Montana.
In 2005, during one of my trips, I
applied for a job at the hospital here (the one where Kurt was born) and was
hired. My house is within walking
distance of the house where Kurt spent his first few years.
Soon after that I met Leland Cobain,
Kurt’s granddad. He was wonderful and he
loved to talk about Kurt. Sitting in the
living room where Kurt lived (and) seeing the back yard he used to mow made him
very real to me.
He ceased being Kurt Cobain the world-renowned
star and became Kurt, the teenager who pretended the lawn mower wouldn’t start,
who made a dollhouse for his grandmother.
He was like a long lost friend.
Sometimes I think I see him, disappearing
around a corner, or just out of sight at the bridge. He is real to me even though I didn’t
discover him until too late.
Kenny Squires
Musician and magazine writer
St. Louis, Missouri
I used to sit in front
of my cheap stereo and listen to In Utero, following along with the lyrics in
the liner notes. Lyrically, the songs
all have at least one distinct image (“…meat-eating orchids…”) or play on words
(“…contradictionary files…”). I’d never
heard lyrics like that before.
_album_cover.jpg)
The anger and pain in Kurt Cobain’s voice
resonated my own dealing with most of the people around me. That’s the main thing he did for me – he helped
me to realize that I wasn’t alone.
Between that, the great songs, and the beautiful noise he made, it’s almost
impossible to imagine what my life would have been like without him.
Photograph Description And Copyright Information
Photo 1
People Magazine issue April 25, 1994
with Kurt Cobain on the cover.
Fair Use Under the
United States Copyright Law
Photo 2
171 Lake Washington
Boulevard in Seattle, Washington
CCBYSA
2.0
Photo
3
Kurt
Cobain’s body with a Seattle Police Detective kneeling over it.
Released
by the Seattle Police Department
Fair
Use Under the United States Copyright Law
Photo
4
Ted Moore cigar box with
Cobain’s heroine “tool kit” that he used to inject himself with before shooting
the fatal bullet.
Released by the Seattle
Police Department
Fair Use Under the
United States Copyright Law
Photo 5
Kurt Cobain’s foot next
to the bullets.
Released by the Seattle
Police Department
Fair Use Under the
United States Copyright Law
Photo 6
Hemingway
at a fishing camp in 1954. His hand and arms are burned from a recent bushfire;
his hair was burned in the recent plane crashes.
Public
Domain
Photo 7
Jimi
Hendrix performing for the Dutch televiswio show Hoepla in 1967
CCBBYSA
3.0
Photo 8
Janis
Joplin
Publicity
Photo 1970
Public
Domain
Photo 9
Jim
Morrison
Publicity
Photo 1968
Public
Domain
Photo 10
Kurt
Cobain’s public memorial service at the Seattle Center Flag Pavilion on April
10, 1994
Fair Use
Under the United States Copyright Law
Photo 11
Unity
Church of Truth in Seattle Washington
Fair Use
Under the United States Copyright Law
Photo 12
Spin
Magazine cover with Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, and baby Francis Bean Cobain
December
1992
Fair Use
Under the United States Copyright law
Photo 13
Charles
Clifford Brooks III
Copyright
granted by Charles Clifford Brooks III
Photo 14
Photo-shopped
image of Janlyn Diggs, baby doll head, and Kurt Cobain
Photo-shopped
by Christal Rice Cooper
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Photo 15
Edvard
Grieg in 1888
Portrait
published in The Leisure Hour (1889)
Public
Domain
Photo 16
Edvard
Grieg’s two phrase theme, written in the key of B minor.
Public
Domain
Photo
17
Modeled
by Janlyn Diggs
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs.
Photo 18
Modeled by
Janlyn Diggs
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Photo 19
Janlyn
Diggs holding two rocks – one of Kurt Cobain’s image and the other of Kurt
Cobain’s signature.
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs.
Photo 20
Christine
Duray
Copyright
granted by Christine Duray
Photo 21
Pencil
drawing of Kurt Cobain
Attributed
to Christine Duray
Copyright
granted by Christine Duray
Photo 22
Katie
Longstaff
Copyright
granted by Katie Longstaff
Photo
23
Painting
of Kurt Cobain
Attributed
to Connie Stevens (connieastevens@hotmail.com)
who did the painting as a gift for her daughter Katie Longstaff
Photo 24
Kurt
Cobain (front) and Krist Novoselic (left) live at the 1992 MTV Video Music
Awards
CCBYSA2.0
Photo 25
Announcement
from the band encouraging people to participate in the making of the music
video for "Smell Like Teen Spirit"
Fair Use
Under the United States Copyright Law
Photo 26
Photo-shopped
image of baby dolls, Kurt Cobain, Janlyn Diggs holding skull
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Photo
27
Janlyn
Diggs holding Kurt Cobain’s suicide note.
Copyright granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Copyright granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Photo
28
Janlyn
Diggs with quote by Kurt Cobain on cardboard box.
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs
Photo
29
Janlyn
holding anti-suicide sign
Copyright
granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs.
Photo 30
Tarun
Sharma
Copyright
granted by Tarun Sharma
Photo
31
Painting
of Kurt Cobain by Tarun Sharma
Copyright
granted by Tarun Sharma
Photo
32
Tracie
Schaeffer
Copyright
granted by Tracie Schaeffer
Photo 33
and 34
Kurt Cobain’s Heart
Artwork by
Tracie Schaeffer
Copyright
granted by Tracie Schaeffer
Photo 35
Fay Smith
Copyright
granted by Fay Smith
Photo
36
Sign erected in 2005 in Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington in
tribute to him. It was paid for by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee and is a
reference to the Nirvana song "Come as You Are"
Photo 37
Grays Harbor Hospital where Kurt Cobain was born located in
Aberdeen, Washington
Attributed to Joe Mabel
CCBYSA3.0
Photo 38
Kurt Cobain in the 2nd grade. This photo was printed on the brochure for
Kurt Cobain’s funeral.
Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law
Photo 39
Janlyn Diggs reading Kurt Cobain’s journals.
Copyright granted by Christal Rice Cooper and Janlyn Diggs.
Photo 40
Kenny Squires
Copyright granted by Kenny Squires
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