Song of the day for April 5, 2024
2 min read
Aneurysm by Nirvana is today’s featured song.
On this day 1994, 27-year-old Kurt Cobain took his own life at his Seattle home. Together with bassist Krist Novoselic he formed Nirvana in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987, a band that patented a uniquely gritty fusion of punk and heavy metal that became known as grunge. The band went through a succession of drummers before recruiting Dave Growl in 1990. The hugely influential trio recorded three albums, the most famous of which was 1991’s Nevermind, which included their anthemic Top 10 US and UK hit single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Cobain was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge rock band Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establishment persona, his compositions widened the thematic conventions of mainstream rock music. He was heralded as a spokesman of Generation X and is widely recognized as one of the most influential alternative rock musicians.
In March 1994, he overdosed on a combination of champagne and Rohypnol, subsequently undergoing an intervention and detox program. On April 8, 1994, he was found dead in the greenhouse of his Seattle home at the age of 27, with police concluding that he had died around three days earlier from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Cobain struggled with a heroin addiction and chronic depression. He also struggled with the personal and professional pressures of fame and was often in the spotlight for his tumultuous marriage to fellow musician Courtney Love.
Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in their first year of eligibility in 2014.
Rolling Stone has included him on its lists of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time, 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. He was ranked 7th by MTV in the “22 Greatest Voices in Music” and was placed 20th by Hit Parader on their 2006 list of the “100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time”.
