re: Kurt Cobain

His "suicide note" sounds like a retirement letter until the last two lines, which are written in a different handwriting.

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Would Nirvana have been the biggest thing ever if he hadn't died?

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They would have broken up. Cobain would have gone solo or collaborated with Michael Stipe. Or both.

And Dave Grohl wouldn't have waited around for Cobain. He would have started his own band and it would have been successful (even if it wasn't Foo Fighters), and he wouldn't have any desire to go back to being Nirvana's drummer.

So, yeah, Nirvana would have died even if Cobain had lived. They might have eventually reunited - with a different drummer -- and put out another Nirvana album. But there's a good chance it would have sucked.

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People who hate Pearl Jam are just butthurt that in 1992 they invested in and bet on the wrong horse.

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That's silly. Everybody who listened to Nirvana also listened to Pearl Jam and vice versa. You didn't have to choose one or the other.

And people don't hate Pearl Jam; they just stopped listening because Pearl Jam stopping making anything worth listening to. Well, that's at least what happened in my case.

I loved early Pearl Jam. And then I bought No Code. I never bought or otherwise acquired another Pearl Jam album.

To be clear, I'm glad that you still like Pearl Jam. If the music they're making still appeals to you, then that's great. There's nothing wrong with calling Pearl Jam your favorite band. But there's plenty wrong with thinking that people who don't love Pearl Jam arrived at that conclusion because "they invested in the wrong horse".

No, the answer is much simpler. Peoople just stopped liking the music they were putting out.

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Pearl Jam was at least as big as Nirvana at the time Kurt killed himself, if not bigger. And they aren't what I'd call the biggest thing ever.

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Not true.

Nevermind changed the game.

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Pearl jam just always came across as shallow and cheesy "alt rock"

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What the frick are you talking about? I don't even know how to argue against this, it's just absurd. And didn't you defend Imagine Dragons some time back? You're either trying to get a rise out of someone or you're huffing freeon. And make a goddamn hangout prediction!!

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Pearl jam just always came across as shallow and cheesy "alt rock"

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You were 5 years old in 1991. How the hell would you know?

FWIW, Nevermind/Facelift/Ten all came out around the same year(s) and all 3 were equally as huge.

Of the 3, Pearl Jam was by far the more established because it was more or less a Mother Love Bone all stars tribute band with some new guy who looked like a surfer and had a deep voice.

Nirvana had their Seattle/Sub Pop following and blew up with the teeny bopper crowd right away. The fact that they blew up kind of turned off the Sub Pop crowd. Same for Alice in Chains.

If you were to do a side by side of all 3 bands and say which one comes across as the most cheesy "alt rock" - 9 out of 10 would probably say Nirvana.

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Of the 3, Pearl Jam was by far the more established because it was more or less a Mother Love Bone all stars tribute band with some new guy who looked like a surfer and had a deep voice.

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Tribute band isn't the way I would put it. Temple of the Dog was the tribute band.

1. Mother Love Bone was Andrew Wood, Gossard, Stone, and two other dudes.
2. Andrew Wood died.
3. Gossard and Stone decided to form a new band. They were going to call iit "Mookie Blaylock". They needed a lead singer and had brought in Eddie Vedder, who lived in San Diego, to audition to be in the band.
4. Chris Cornell was a close friend of Wood's and wanted to do a tribute album to him (called Temple of the Dog). He enlisted the services of Gossard and Stone for the tribute album, along with Soundgarden's drummer, and another guy, Mike Mccready.
5. Steps 3 and 4 were going on simultaneously, and so Vedder was in the studio when they were recording Temple of the Dog, and ended up joining Cornell on the track Hunger Strike.
6. Gossard and Stone were blown away by Vedder and so he became the lead singer of Mookie Blaylock which was changed to Pearl Jam before it ever had a chance to become Mookie Blaylock. Which is a damn shame.
7. The other Temple of the Dog member, Mike Mccready, also joined Pearl Jam.

The rest is history.


But to say that Pearl Jam was more established because of the Mother Love Bone connection isn't really accurate. Mother Love Bone was a very very big deal in Seattle, but outside of Seattle they were pretty much unknown. Most people (outside of Seattle) learned about Mother Love Bone because they were listening to Pearl Jam. Not vice versa.

It seems fashionable to bash on Nirvana, as most criticism is unfounded (especially when one views what bands they proffer up as contemporaries and superior).

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Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains were way better

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