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Journals(Cobain)

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Journals
First edition hard cover
AuthorKurt Cobain
LanguageEnglish
GenreAutobiography
PublisherRiverhead Books
Publication date
2002hardcover,2003paperback
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (paperbackandhardcover)
Pages280 (hardcover)
294 (paperback)
ISBN978-1-57322-232-7
OCLC50333745
782.42166/092 B 21
LC ClassML420.C59 A3 2002
Second edition paperback cover

Journalsis a collection of writings and drawings by American musicianKurt Cobain,who was the lead singer and guitarist ofNirvana.Though the content is undated, it is arranged in approximately chronological order. It was published inhardcoverbyRiverhead Booksin November 2002, and inpaperbackby Riverhead Books in November 2003.Journalsopened at No. 1 on theNew York Timesbestseller list(non-fiction).[1][2]It contains scrawled notes, drafted letters, shopping lists, and drawings by Cobain.[3]

Release[edit]

Journalswas released one month after the release in 2002 ofNirvana,the self-titled greatest hits album of Cobain's band before his suicide in 1994.[4][5]Billboardthus described the book as a "music driven blockbuster" with a first printing of nearly 375,000 copies.[4]

Letters[edit]

Journalscontains a number of letters, either early drafts or unsent, that Cobain wrote to friends or peers. Included are friendly letters toDale Croverof theMelvins,[6]Tobi VailofBikini Kill[7]andEugene Kellyofthe Vaselines,[8]a tender letter to his wife,Courtney Love,a letter thankingThe Advocatefollowing his interview with the gay and lesbian magazine in early 1992, and even a letter to Simon Fair Timony, the then-nine-year-old stepson ofHalf JapanesememberJad Fair,asking him to contribute artwork for what would becomeIn Utero.It also includes a letter from Cobain and Nirvana bassistKrist Novoselicfiring then-drummer Dave Foster from the band, and angry letters from Cobain toMTVandRolling Stone.

Lists[edit]

Like many music fans, Cobain often made lists of his favorite bands and albums, several of which are included inJournals.His lists included artists fromindieandalternative rock(the Vaselines,Pixies,the Breeders,Sonic Youth,R.E.M.,PJ Harvey,Meat Puppets,Pavement);protopunk,punk rockandhardcore(the Stooges,the Velvet Underground,Butthole Surfers,Sex Pistols,the Clash,the Slits,the Saints,[9]Black Flag,Bad Brains,Fear,Minor Threat,the Faith,Rites of Spring,Flipper,Fang);hip-hop(Public Enemy,N.W.A);blues(Lead Belly); andhard rockandmetal(Black Sabbath'sMaster of Reality,Led Zeppelin,AC/DC,). On his "Top 50" albums list,[10]offerings from such obscure artists asthe Shaggs,Tales of Terror,Marine Girls,Swansandthe Frogscoexist with albums bythe Beatles,David Bowie,andAerosmith.[11]The 1973 Stooges recordRaw Poweris listed at No. 1 on all of Cobain's "favorite album" lists. He also noted an interest ingrungeand theSeattle Sound(Melvins,Green River,Mudhoney,Screaming Trees,earlySoundgarden).

Nirvana-related writings[edit]

Contained inJournalsis an assortment of directly Nirvana-related material, including embryonic lyric drafts,[12]early album tracklists, and even a set of unusedliner notesCobain had apparently written forIn Uteroin 1993. The lyric sheets are especially revealing, showing that some songs, including the band's biggest hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit",underwent major revisions before being recorded for release, while others, such as"Come as You Are",were changed very little, at least from the drafts included. The tracklists are also of interest, revealing, for example, that Cobain had intended to release" girl "and" boy "sides of Nirvana's breakthrough albumNevermind,with songs such as "In Bloom"and"Lithium"on the girl side, and songs like"Sliver"and"Polly"on the boy side.

Punk is musical freedom. It's saying, doing and playing what you want. Nirvana means freedom from pain and suffering in the external world and thats close to my definition of punk rock,exclaim guitarist Kurt Kobain.

–pages 156-159: draft of record company bio of the band for "Nevermind". This bio was never used.

Drawings[edit]

Journalscontains a number of Cobain's roughsketchesand drawings,[13]some of which are light and humorous, such as his drawing of "Eddie",theIron Maidenmascot, his sketch of the band aschoirboyson a hypothetical Nirvana album cover, and his drawing of "Elvis Cooper", in whichElvis PresleyandAlice Cooperare combined into a single entity, but many of which are darker or more violent. Included in the latter are his drawings of asnipershooting members of the swastika-toting Ku Klux Klan from a rooftop (withswastikasdrawn backwards), his drawing of a soldier with afootballhelmet hanging from a noose, and a sketch of his ownemaciatedbody, as well as acomic stripcalled "Mr. Moustache", in which an unborn child kicks through its mother's belly to kill itsmachofather, which arguably influenced the song of the same title off of Nirvana's first album,Bleach.The strip was first published in Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography,Come as You Are.Journalsalso contains a number of drawings of images which would later become a familiar part of Nirvana lore, such asDante'sVestibule of Hell (which appeared on a Nirvana t-shirt), a skinny man on a cross (which appeared in the "Heart-Shaped Box"music video), and maleseahorsesgiving birth (which appeared on the cover of the "All Apologies"/"Rape Me"single).

Entries about his health[edit]

Throughout his life, Cobain was physically fragile and sickly; suffering fromscoliosis,undiagnosed stomach ailments (which some argue led to hisheroinaddiction), and a touring schedule that required him to spend hours each night singing, screaming and stage diving.[14]On top of his physical issues, he was diagnosed with clinicaldepressionduring his teenage years.[15]In his private journals, that were later published after his death, Cobain details the horrific stomach pain he experienced. He says that eating was always followed by a relentless, "burning nauseous pain in the upper part of [his] stomach lining".[16]He writes that the pain would, at times, leave him crunched up in his bathroom floor, paralyzed by the discomfort, continuously regurgitating nothing but blood and water.[16]Though the root of his gastrointestinal issues was never determined, and close friends of Cobain argue that it was simply an excuse for his heroin habit, no one can deny the fact that he suffered tremendously.[17]Other bandmates have later recalled Cobain's strange fascination with bodily functions. During a 1989 Nirvana tour, one of the band's singers, Tad Doyle, suffered from dailynauseaand vomiting episodes; Kurt Danielson, a close friend of Doyle's, recalls that Cobain would voluntarily hold a bucket for Doyle to vomit into and often appeared excited to see the end result.[18][14]Danielson remembers that Cobain admired Doyle for his struggle, and viewed his sickness as artistic and authentic.[14]Cobain's obsession with bodily fluids can be more publicly seen in his graphic song lyrics; from sex, to urination, to vomiting, almost 90% of his songs and art were somehow influenced by the human body.[18]In his journal entries, Cobain would often misspell words and put an anatomical twist on his spelling of a word.[14]

Reception[edit]

Seattle Weeklysaid this: "The journals are like an exploded diagram of a tormented soul, a maelstrom of self-pity, intolerant pride, morbid introspection, ingenious self-delusion, merciless self-knowledge, showbiz revulsion, starstruck effusion,Faustianambition, otherworldly detachment, and an iron will helpless to help itself. Packed into 280 pages are shocking confessions, sweetly eloquent letters to brilliant friends, hard-nosed band plans, fulminating political screeds, obscene cartoons, haunting video treatments, and lyrical poetry of tremulous Romantic sensitivity,Bukowskiancrudity,dadaistflippancy, and modernist opacity. "Furthermore, its release reportedly polarized fans, some of whom felt it constituted an invasion of Cobain's privacy, and others of whom saw it as a unique opportunity to better understand him.[19]

Billboardreported that the simultaneous release of theNirvanahits set helped fire cross-promotion at retail and that the album release was providence.[4]

Cobain's daughter,Frances Bean Cobain,stated in 2018 that she will never read her father's journals and that she regretted her mother's decision to publish them in 2002.[20]

References[edit]

  1. ^"Books, Best Sellers: December 15, 2002".The New York Times.December 15, 2002.RetrievedSeptember 29,2017.
  2. ^Huxley, Martin (January 14, 2003)."New Disc Reaffirms Nirvana's Place in Rock's Pantheon".Broadcast Music, Inc.RetrievedMarch 22,2020.
  3. ^Lyric sheets which originally appeared inMichael Azerrad's bookCome as You Are: The Story of Nirvanawere airbrushed in portions upon their reprinting in Journals. This included removal of addresses and phone numbers.
  4. ^abcMorris, Chris (July 19, 2003)."Music Books".Billboard.p. 59.RetrievedJuly 5,2020.Continued from page 5
  5. ^Brandt, Lisa (2003).Celebrity Tantrums!: The Official Dirt.ECW Press.ISBN9781550225662.RetrievedJuly 5,2020.
  6. ^handwritten text, page 1
  7. ^handwritten text, pages 167-172
  8. ^handwritten text, page 92
  9. ^page 257, "top 50":Know Your Product- The Saints
  10. ^handwritten text, page 257
  11. ^"Top 50 by Nirvana [MIXTAPE]".RetrievedMay 8,2013.
  12. ^handwritten text: Smells Like Teen Spirit: pages 136-138, 141; Lithium: page 140; In Bloom: pages 142-144, etc
  13. ^pages 5, 14, 24, 32, 40, etc
  14. ^abcdWood, Jessica L. "Pained Expression: Metaphors of Sickness and Signs of 'Authenticity' in Kurt Cobain's 'Journals.'"Popular Music,vol. 30, no. 3, 2011, pp. 331-349.JSTOR,JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/23359907.
  15. ^Strauss, Neil. "Kurt Cobain's Downward Spiral and Last Days."Rolling Stone,Rolling Stone, June 2, 1994, rollingstone /music/news/kurt-cobains-downard-spiral-the-last-days-of-nirvanas-leader-19940602.https://headtopics /us/kurt-cobain-s-downward-spiral-and-last-days-12262738
  16. ^abCobain, Kurt.Journals.Riverhead Books, 2003.
  17. ^"Buzz Osborne (the Melvins) Talks the HBO Documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck".Talkhouse.Retrieved April 28, 2018.
  18. ^abCross, Charles R.Heavier Than Heaven: a Biography of Kurt Cobain.Hachette Books, 2001.
  19. ^Appelo, Tim (October 9, 2009)."Kurt Cobain's Last No.1 Hit".Seattle Weekly.RetrievedDecember 28,2015.
  20. ^Aubrey, Elizabeth (July 30, 2018)."Frances Bean Cobain says she will never read her father's journals".NME.RetrievedJune 13,2021.
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