An overview of unrealized Cobain/Nirvana Projects, from 1988-1994. Compiled by Osty Gale.
Special thanks to other LiveNirvana Contributors, whom helped with this: James Asheton, Douglas Baptie, Tim Bucknall, Riccardo Cogliati, Justin Douse, Dave Ewing, Rodrigo Fereira, Mike Jenkins, Adrian Karlson, Chris Lomas, Robert McSweeney, Brian Peterson, Charlotte Sheridan, Christopher Shoup, Nick Soulsby, Frank Speuf and Spencer Webb.
1988:Cobain wanting to release Floyd The Barber/Spank Thru/Love Buzz as a single. Although Love Buzz did get released as a single, the others did not.
A Mark Lanegan/Nirvana Collaboration - Mellow 4-track stuff alongside some heavier tunes, releasing the tape on K records.
Nirvana wanting to release an Extended Play in May.
1989/1990:
"The Jury" side-project, with Novoselic, Lanegan, Cobain and Pickerel. While songs were completed, only one song, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?", was released during Cobains' lifetime.
Mark Pickerel:In August 1989, Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic formed an offshoot band with Mark Lanegan and Mark Pickerel of The Screaming Trees.
We were all becoming big blues fans, recalls Pickerel.
We were trying to create a modern day version of Cream or Led Zeppelin. We started with Leadbelly, and we were going to branch out from there, Pickerel explains.
Much to Pickerel's disappointment, the group never followed through to finish the record, I really had high hopes for it. I wanted it to be a working band. But it just wasn't meant to be, I guess.
J Masics joining Nirvana.
J Mascis:"The first instance occurred during a conversation between Mascis, Cobain and Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore following a Nirvana show at Maxwell’s in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 13th, 1989 (just two days before they released their debut LP, Bleach).
“Kurt said, ‘you should join my band,'” Mascis recalls. “I think he was sick of the guy Jason Everman who was in the band at the time, and thought I should play guitar. I didn’t think much about it.”
Mascis says Cobain also considered him for “Sliver,” a song Nirvana released in 1990. “Later, there was also talk of playing drums on a single they were doing, but it ended up being Mudhoney drummer Dan Peters.”
Patty Schemel joining Nirvana.
A second Sub Pop album, entitled Sheep.
Signing with K Records.
Signing with Touch and Go Records.
A Joint split single, featuring Cobain/Vail on Side A, and Crover/Shane on Side B.
Everett True:“The idea of recording a joint single, featuring Kurt and Tobi on one side, and Dale and Debbi on the other, was floated.”
Cobain wanting to release "In Bloom" as the debut single from the then-conceived Sheep sessions.
Cobain wanting to release a promotional EP [with cover artwork featuring the band as Choir hymnal singers], conceptually titled NIRVANA Sings Songs of DEVO WIPERS VASELINES & NIRVANA, which would've been released on DGC Records (in co-operation with Sub Pop as part of the signing with DGC, and would've featured the following songs:
1. In Bloom - Apr. 2-6, 1990
2. Sliver - Jul. 11 & 24, 1990
3. D-7 - Oct. 21, 1990
4. Turnaround - Oct. 21, 1990
5. Molly's Lips - Oct. 21, 1990
6. "& maybe" Son of a Gun - Oct. 21, 1990,
Releasing a longform video, that the band would then sell to fans.
Jon Snyder:"Yet another session involving the facilities at Evergreen. The original concept was to do stuff in the studio, then go to Aberdeen and shoot a bunch of other stuff and turn it into some hour long thing they would sell to fans, says the session's director, Jon Snyder. And Kurt knew that I worked in Evergreen's television studio."
Nirvana experimenting with saxophones.
Kurt Cobain:"Not very much. If we did, we'd use saxophone minimally, like The Stooges. Just a little saxophone here or there or something. I could see it happening like that. We're gonna use a cello on a couple of songs on the new record. Strings."
1991:
Nirvana appearing on The Damned tribute compilation, “Another Damned Seattle Compilation".
“Through the second half of 1990, 18 Seattle bands signed on to the project with song choices. In the winter of 1990-1991, 15 of the bands recorded their tracks with Jack Endino and Chris Hanzsek at Reciprocal Recording, with each band allotted 3–4 hours of recording time over several weekends.
Three bands originally scheduled to record but not appearing on the compilation were Cat Butt, Tad, and Nirvana: Nirvana unable to commit due to their signing with DGC Records and Gold Mountain Entertainment in the midst of recording schedule negotiations."
1992:
An animated Lithium music video, directed by The Brothers Quay.
Kerslake v. Nirvana, 1994:Animation Selects:
- Prego wakes up from sleep in her bed. Her bed/sink/closet etc. are located in a forest; rather than within walls. She washes her hands/head at sink (Panels 1-10B)
- Twirling pin cushion head (Panels 12-12A)
- King on throne with book in lap/throne is on elevated ruins (similar, perhaps to the ruins down south or in Egypt) in the forest (Panels 23-25D)
-Prego in closet full of dolls, loads wagon (Panels 31A-31C)
- Details of wagon contents/march/dolls constructing (36-38)
- Sequence of Prego opening doors (freestanding)/marching upstairs to lay egg on the sleeping King's lap/book close/egg crush/walk away (Panels 52-61A)
Note: for reasons of relevance/screen time/budget/etc., I have concentrated the action and modified the number of sets so that everything takes place within the forest. You will still see Prego journey some distance before she comes upon the King's Ruins.
- Animation scenes are now being filmed using various types of dolls and puppets moving about in a psychedelic fashion, in the style of the Brothers Quay.
Kurt Cobain:"Yeah, we’re gonna put out a "Lithium" single within a couple of months. It’s gonna have a doll theme. I’ve been collecting old dolls for most of my life and I make dolls out of clay that are replicas of 18th century Yugoslavian dolls.
They’re really weird, they have elongated heads and have really long fingers. Kinda like a Brothers Quay video. It’s gonna be a rip off of a Brothers Quay video because we asked them to do our video and they refused. There’s not much of a theme other than the dolls doing weird, surreal things with each other. When Courtney goes to get another ultra-sound we’re going to video tape the baby in her womb and put that in the video too.
Michael Azerrad:"Cobain originally wanted the video to feature an animated story about a girl named Prego who lives in a house in a forest. One day, she finds a big pile of eggs in her closet and puts them in a train of three wagons that she wheels through the forest until she comes to a king's castle. By that time, all the eggs but one have cracked and she takes that egg and carries it up to the king's throne and places it on a large book that's on his lap. He's asleep, but when he awakens, he opens his legs and the book slides between them and closes on the egg."
Dead Moon touring with Nirvana in the United States.
Toody Cole:"Both Dave Grohl and Kurt Cobain tried to line up several different shows, and unbelievably, they all fell through for one reason or another. It could have been a big break for us, but whatever. If we make a prior commitment, that's what we stick to."
Cobain wanting the Incesticide liner notes to be changed, last minute, to include a venomous rant against the media
Cobain and Love talked about taking an ad out in the Seattle weekly The Rocket, to declare that the Clarke/Collins book was unauthorized
Cobain meeting Gus Van Sant, in Summer 1992, and wanting to do a movie with him.
Courtney Love:"He met Gus Van Sant and wanted to do a movie with him. He loved the idea of being a movie star - period."
Gus Van Sant:"I remember that Kurt Cobain, when introduced to me, looked at me as if I wasn’t nodding to him and saying hello. He just stared at me like a kid will do when watching a television. He had short blond hair in a kind of bowl cut. It was summer of 1992, and an Oregon activist group and myself had contacted his manager, Danny Goldberg, to help us with a fundraiser in Los Angeles, to battle a particularly vicious anti-gay initiative in Oregon, proposition 9, that would have made it illegal to be out as a gay or lesbian teacher in public schools or as any kind of state worker, which would have meant politicians, road workers, police, etc. Courtney Love had been particularly big on helping the issue, which Danny told us when we first met him, and he wanted to get as many people involved as he could. And we organized the fundraiser with Tom Arnold and Rosanne Barr’s help at the home of my agent John Burnam in tony Bel Air California.
The night before the actual event, we were invited to the home of Danny Goldberg, and it was an occasion to meet Kurt and Courtney, who showed up late as we were eating dinner with Bob Guccione Jr, who ran Spin magazine, and Rosemary Caroll, Danny’s wife, and D-J Haanraadts, my boyfriend. Kurt sat a couple of places away from me and just stared down the table, in a very odd way. I started to guess that maybe he had just gotten out of a rehab, because of his short haircut, and his wide eyed stare, which was particularly open and fresh and innocent, which can happen when people just get out. I remember him sitting there not saying anything, but the presence in the room was tilted all of a sudden, like the big rock star had entered and was sitting at the end of the table not saying anything. The others were perhaps used to it, I wasn’t. Courtney, on the other hand, was very talkative.
Then, later we were all sitting in the back yard smoking, and Courtney was reading from a rock and roll magazine, and doing a kind of stand up routine, dissing the quotes from the magazine, referring to long standing backstage arguments between rock performers in the northwest music scene, people I didn’t know. The thing that I noticed the most was Kurt. He was laughing hard at Courtney’s routine. And we started to laugh along partly because Kurt was laughing—and sometimes he would add a few comments along with Courtney. They were really into this magazine article. I pretty much just listened and started to realize that I was really fascinated by Kurt. And at the same time, realizing some of this fascination was probably what drew everyone to him. He had a lot of unexpected charisma. It was also a time for me when I didn’t really know his music so much, mostly just the legend, and the rock star image.
Other bands in the northwest whose music I did know were Greg Sage, Napalm Beach, and Poison Idea. Napalm Beach was the band that had the most “grunge” sound, Sam Henry was the band leader, and it was a sound that we used to call Penitentiary Rock in the mid-eighties.
When we left Danny Goldberg’s house Kurt and Courtney got into a very small red Toyota rental car. Kurt was driving. They turned and said “We’re down here in L.A., we don’t know how long we’re going to be here. We don’t have any friends.”
D-J and I said, “We’ll be your friends. Come to the fundraiser tomorrow, there will be people that you probably know. Danny and Rosemary will be there.”
They said okay, but they never showed up to the fundraiser. Kurt later volunteered to play a concert to raise money for “no on 9” the next month in Portland, which he did with Nirvana. But that night was the one and only time that I saw Kurt, when he and Courtney drove away in their red Toyota."
Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines) joining Nirvana as a touring guitarist, and join in the writing process.
Eugene Kelly:“In fact, Kurt had sounded out Eugene Kelly of The Vaselines 18 months before. Kelly had been in the middle of recording his first album with his new band, Eugenius, at the time.
‘There were loads of messages from their tour manager to call them,’ he later recalled. ‘I phoned them up in Los Angeles and … Kurt said to me, “We’re having a three-month break, then I want you to come over and write songs, maybe join the band.” I was like, yeah, definitely, but I’ve got to finish this record first. After that I never heard anything more.
I’m kind of glad it didn’t work out because I’d have come along and hit them with happy, poppy tunes, and In Utero wouldn’t have happened.”
Cobain opening his own art gallery.
Jesse Reed:"He said he was getting out of music and he was taking painting seriously. He had six easels, and everything was full; there were eight paintings there. He was doing three a day, he told me. Kurt mentioned to me that he was thinking of opening his own gallery"
Nirvana starting their own fanzine.
Kurt Cobain:"We're going to put out our own fanzine and I think we're going to do a compilation tape to go along with it of some of our favorite songs. Just like if you were going to make a tape for your friend, of old punk rock records. I don't know what the fanzine will be about, I don't want it to be a homage to the band. I'm thinking of getting a bunch of people to contribute to it and just write what they want on any subject."
1993:
Steve Turner (Mudhoney) or Buzz Osbourne (The Melvins) joining Nirvana as a touring guitarist.
Dave Grohl:"What Pat added more than anything was an injection of life and happiness to those last months of Nirvana. We’d talked about getting a second guitar player: we talked about Steve Turner, we talked about Buzz Osbourne, but of course we didn’t want to break up Mudhoney or The Melvins."
A Japanese tour in 1993/1994 because Pearl Jam would've been there.
Releasing In Utero, the way he stated in his journals (first on vinyl and cassette, then CD, retitled as Verse, Chorus, Verse).
Recording In Utero on 8-track and in mono.
Nirvana doing a Young Marble Giants cover of "Credit in the Straight World".
Everett True:“Hole later covered the Giants' ‘Credit In The Straight World’ – a song that Kurt had originally earmarked for Nirvana.”
A "Rape Me" music video.
A "Scentless Apprentice or Milk It music video".
Kurt Cobain:“A drunken, fucked up man in a room full of people at a party, man has a gun and is stumbling around falling down threatening to shoot. The man has wild glossy stare..”
Wanting "Scentless Apprentice" to be the 2nd single, after Heart-Shaped Box.
Kurt Cobain:"I have my heart set on—everybody, the whole band has their heart set on—releasing 'Scentless Apprentice' after 'Heart-Shaped Box".
An "All Apologies" music video - [note: striking similarities to Scentless Apprentice/Milk It music video ideas featured in Journals.
Bobcat Goldthwait:"I actually spent a lot of time with Kurt and got to be his friend. At the time, he wanted to do a video for 'All Apologies.'
Kurt wanted it to be him drunk at a party with a gun, but I said, 'No. You know, you should sing that song as Lee Harvey Oswald. You know, and you're, like, singing into the lens. And then, you're assembling your rifle up in the book depository.'He says, 'Yeah, but I can't because MTV won't let you have guns.'
And I said, 'What if it's a pie? You're assembling a pie. And then you throw it. Either Dave or Kris could be Kennedy, and the meringue would hit the back of their head.'He was like, 'Yeah! That's a really good idea!'
That's when Nirvana's manager told us we couldn't travel together anymore."
Cobain originally wanting to title In Utero as I Hate Myself And Want To Die, as well as Verse Chorus Verse.
Kurt Cobain & Krist Novoselic:“MTV: At one point you were gonna call it I Hate Myself And Want To Die?
Kurt: Yeah.
Krist: Then it was Verse Chorus Verse"…
Kurt: Those are fine titles, but… just like "Rape Me," y'know, the title itself confuses people, people would take it too literally, they would think that we're being serious, because no-one sees the funny side of us hardly. Y'know, every picture- if we take a photo-shoot, y'know, we may smile or make goofy faces 90% of the time, but if we frown for 3 seconds, they'll use those 3 second shots, y'know? And I've just noticed this image of us as being a serious, angry, pissed off band.
Cobain wanting to re-title In Utero's censored Rape Me title as "Sexually Assault Me" before going with "Waif Me".
Danny Goldberg:“The mass retailers also had balked at the song title “Rape Me” being listed on the back cover. Kurt jokingly suggested they change it to “Sexually Assault Me,” but to make a quick graphic change he knew they needed to replace one four-letter word with another, so he came up with the meaningless “Waif Me.”
Cobain writing to Simon Timony (then 6-years old, son of Jad Fair, and in his own band The Stinky Puffs), to create the album artwork for In Utero. The letter, was delivered post-mortem. No artwork by Simon was ever started.
Cobain wrote but never sent, a letter to Tobi, in regards to wanting to finish their oft-talked Bathtub Is Real project with Tobi.
Jamming/Collaborating with Ben Shepherd and Buzz Osbourne & somebody else.
Ben Shepherd:“The last time I saw Kurt, Frances was in the backseat, and we were mixing the Hater record [released Sept.21st, 1993] on 3rd Ave. I was walking with Kim [ Thayil, Soundgarden] and someone else towards the House of Leisure and I saw Kurt and I ran up and said, ‘Hi,’ to him. He goes, ‘Hey, get in here,’ because he didn’t want to talk to the other guys. We drove around the block, caught up real quick and said we’d get in touch with each other really soon. Through the grapevine I’d hear how he wanted to jam with me and Buzz [ Osborne] and somebody else. I was like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’ We tried to set it up, but that was the last I saw him.”
Releasing a compilation tape of favourite punk songs with vinyl version of album (In Utero)
Cobain quitting Nirvana, to join Courtney's band, Hole.
Lawrence Romance & Kurt Cobain:“You've co-written a song on the new album with your wife, Courtney Love. Do you foresee further collaborations?"
"It's a nice thought. I'd like to, but... to tell you the truth, I would rather just quit my band and join Hole, you know-only because when I have played music with them, there's a level of connection that's a little bit higher than with anyone else I ever played with. It's amazing.
It's totally satisfying for Courtney and I, but completely unrealistic because we're already so intertwined with each other. Most people don't even think of the band Nirvana, they think of Kurt and Courtney, and it's just too much, it gets in the way.
People would overlook the music and look into other things. It just wouldn't be taken seriously, so... I'd like to someday, but now I can't see anything for the next five years or so. We still jam together once in a while. It's such a sad situation. I really wish we could just join bands."
Re-recording Unplugged in the studio, as an album, without the involvement of MTV.
Scott Litt“There might have been a thought of making an album out of it because they were so happy with it. But when Kurt and the band found out that MTV would receive a significant amount percentage-wise from the album sales, he said we should just go across the street to another studio and record it again!
1994:
Australian & Japan tour dates with TAD after the European tour - The band, at the time, decided on doing Lollapalooza instead.
Krist Novoselic:“Novoselic revealed that Nirvana will join the lineup for Lollapalooza '94, the fourth annual touring alternative-rock festival (dates haven't been announced). Band members are looking forward to the tour, a first for Nirvana."We were going to do an Australian/Japanese tour at the end of our European tour this spring, but we decided to blow that off so we could be fresh for Lollapalooza," he said."
Lollapalooza 1994 Tour dates.
Everett True:“Kurt finally confirmed he was cancelling Lollapalooza in the second week of March.”
A Nirvana Performance at Woodstock '94.
Entertainment Weekly:“We’ve got Streisand, the Eagles, and the Rolling Stones for the summer, and now this: the official announcement of Woodstock ’94 (Aug. 13-14), an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the famous festival. Among the acts: Aerosmith, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Metallica. ”The goal is for this generation to have its own Woodstock,” says a source. With this in mind, promoters are still pursuing Nirvana, who are rumored to have pulled out of Lollapalooza ’94 due to Kurt Cobain‘s health. Tickets, which may cost as much as $150, will go on sale in May.
An album of old Blues covers, with Greg Sage.
Greg Sage:“I heard from some people in Kurt’s camp, in his circle, that he wanted to come to Arizona and record at my studio, Zenorecords, and do an album of old blues covers,” says Sage. “I thought that would be good for him personally, but how do you go from mega-million LP sales to an album of old blues covers from a corporate point of view? Two weeks later he was gone.”
Robert Lang session in April, '94, possibly with only Cobain.
Robert Lang:“Lang reports that the band were very happy with the fruits of their efforts: They told me it was the quickest and fastest recording they'd ever done. And they wanted to come back and finish up after the European tour. Lang indeed got a call from Gold Mountain, booking the band in for a week in April: They were on my books to work on more material[...]Cross's account contradicts this, saying that is was merely Cobain's intention to return to the studio, but that nothing was actually booked.
Grohl/Cobain collaborations.
Dave Grohl:“In fact he had played Cobain a demo version of Alone + Easy Target as far back as December 1991. "Kurt was staying in a hotel in Seattle at the time, as by then he'd moved to LA," Grohl remembers. "
I'd told him I was recording and he said, 'Oh, I wanna hear it, bring it by...'
He was sitting in the bath-tub with a Walkman on, listening to the song, and when the tape ended he took the headphones off and kissed me and said, 'Oh, finally, now I don't have to be the only songwriter in the band!' I said, No, no, no, I think we're doing just fine with your songs.
Pat Smear later told me that Kurt loved the [Foo Fighters song] Exhausted too, and he wanted Nirvana to do it, but he didn't want to ask me if he could change the lyrics.
I wish he had because I would have said, 'Absolutely.' To have that beautiful voice over one of my songs would have been amazing."
Nirvana/Cobain doing a cover of Dead Moon's song "Dagger Moon."
Weeden Cole:“Even Kurt Cobain who, word around the campfire was that they were working up a version of “Dagger Moon”. That’s what I hear but it never came to fruition because he’s not alive, anymore. He would’ve done a great version of that. Kurt was a shy introvert around my Dad, and completely intimidated! He would sit in the back, watching attentively. Andrew would spot him and point him out to others, then draw him out to be included…Mainstream audience has NO clue!"
Collaboration with Michael Stipe composing the Soundtrack to a Stern Brothers film.
Michael Stipe:“Michael had proposed that the two should work together on a soundtrack for an independent movie being made by the Starn Brothers who had worked on the Out Of Time album sleeve: It was an attempt to get him out of this place he was in. I was talking to him up until he disappeared.
I had this project that these people had come to me with and they said that their ideal would be to have either me or Kurt do the music for the film. I sent him plane tickets but he just didn't want it."
"I simply constructed a project to try to snap Kurt out of a frame of mind, I sent him a plane ticket and a driver, and he tacked the plane ticket to the wall in the bedroom and the driver sat outside the house for ten hours. Kurt wouldn't come out and wouldn't answer the phone."
Nirvana/R.E.M. Co-headlining Tour.
Mike Mills:“We'd been talking about touring together, and Kurt and Michael had talked about working together. I think that there would certainly have been some sort of collaboration between ourselves and Nirvana had that continued."
Cobain moving toward the film industry - Was offered a part in The New Age [released Sept. 16, 1994]. Cobain meeting John Cusack and wanting to do a movie with him.
Courtney Love:“They offered Kurt a part in "The New Age" and he was jumping up and down. He met John Cusack [11/15/93] and wanted to do a movie with him."
Cobain starring in Pulp Fiction. (Davis, 2006) note: Tarantino, later on, debunked said statement from Love].
The Lollapalooza CD-5
Neil Strauss:“Despite increased demand for Nirvana songs in the wake of Kurt Cobain’s suicide, the band’s label, Geffen Records, recently chose propriety over profits. It scrapped two Nirvana projects in the works: a third single from In Utero, ‘Pennyroyal Tea,’ and a CD-5 to be released during this summer’s Lollapalooza tour, on which Nirvana were expected to perform.”
Project with Lydon
John Lydon:“Kurt and me were going to meet but he would only meet me if I would take him to the zoo, him and his kid. It was just bizarre. I wasn't walking around a bloody zoo with him and his brat!"
Working with John Robinson from The Fluid and Mark Lanegan, on "softer, gentler" music.
John Robinson:"I had what seemed like it was going to be an interesting opportunity present itself right after the Fluid broke up. Nirvana came through Denver at the end of '93 - I think it was in December - and I was hanging out with them.
I was talking to Kurt after the show, and they were all very curious about what had happened with the Fluid. At the time, I was feeling a little bit bruised, I think, and just wanted to do really pretty music. I had a piano songs at home, and I was writing songs on piano - and when I started to think of additional instruments, I was thinking along the lines of cellos and French horns. I wanted to do something really soft and pretty and described that to Kurt, and he said he wanted to do exactly the same thing. I said, "I'm just a little tired of screaming," and he looked at me and said, "Me, too." And he said, "You know what? I've been talking to Mark Lanegan from the Screaming Trees - we've been talking about making a record like the one you're describing. Why don't you come to Seattle and make this record with us? We'll do three or four of your songs, three or four of mine, three or four of Mark's, and make a pretty record."
Of course, I was excited about that prospect. He told me they had one more tour to do in support of In Utero over in Europe, and told me that when they got off the road, why don't you go in and record the songs you have while we're doing this tour, and then send me a cassette and we'll start working on this project after I get off the road. He didn't survive very much longer after that tour in Europe ended, and I'm not sure if that ever would have become a reality. But at the time, I thought that would become my next project after the Fluid, and I was very excited about that possibility for numerous reasons."
Cobain's original vision for Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! [originally more expansive, released version was cited as "the base-layer"]
Kurt Cobain:“Kevin and Co for the long form:
"On Anurysm,: Keep the audio from the Amsterdam show but keep edits from (some word) the same". This was crossed out and replaced with:
1.On Anurysm; Keep Amsterdam audio when first change happens ie Kurdt in over coat
2. Take out Dave & Chris playing Aerosmith song
3. Put subtitle in "Bronchitis" flashing throughout Dive
4. Video footage of us with Jason "the early years". Put in subtitle Jason Everman guitar Chad Channing drums Rhino Records LA 88. Song Sifting
5. cut out the last half of Dave talking about new bands
6. Start my rant just as I say Black Flag Flipper, leave the rest
7. Rock Star lesson: (sub title for Come As You Are) when guitar is out of tune, sing out of tune along with it
8. England's prestigious Top of the pops equivalent of US American Bandstand. Cut to 1st In Bloom video we did with one camera in dresses destroying the set
9. Replace Molly's lips with Reading version with Eugene singing
Add the scene where I hand the guitar to the audience. I think it's from Reading and the penis and flower petal face in camera performance piece Kurdt does in Rio."
Danny Goldberg:“The only time he ever called me to complain about Geffen Records was when their international department was dragging its feet getting him some European video transferred to American standard so Kurt could watch it and make notes for a long-form home video. Several times when I visited him Kurt was feverishly working on it.
He created a montage of the band smashing their instruments. He included a question from a TV interview where Krist was asked if Nirvana provoked their audience and the bass player answered, “No, they provoke us.” When Kurt asked about Nirvana’s influence, he answered, “If bands have been influenced by us I“hope they’ve been influenced by the sincerity we try to put out.”
He found a clip of Gersh saying, “This is not just a successful record, it’s some sort of a phenomenon,” and one of me debating a right-winger on CNN in which I said, “Entertainment makes people feel less alone, which is a positive thing.” I can’t imagine that any Nirvana fan cared about these moments. It was just Kurt’s way of making each of us feel included in his version of Nirvana’s ascent. After Kurt’s death, Krist and Dave oversaw the video’s completion with Kevin Kerslake as the director.”
Kevin Kerslake:“The team that finished the film was the same team that started it… With a lot of the videos that I did with Nirvana, you could say that stream of consciousness played a role…
We wanted something that just washed over you rather than simply taking you on some sort of narrative ride. Even the stuff that we were going to shoot for it was supposed to have that sense that you were stuck in a bubble—but it wasn’t supposed to just be the one bubble it ended up being.
It was supposed to be a few different takes on the experience of being him, of being in the band… This was just the stuff that was under his bed, on his shelves and on the floor throughout the house. We hadn’t yet gone on a big hunt for other footage that existed. We were just sort of forming the “base coat,” if you will, for the movie that was going to be painted over with many different brushstrokes.
It ended up being, to me personally, something that still feels just like a base layer … because the appearance and likeness rights hadn’t yet been obtained for various people who were in certain shots or scenes—because those people couldn’t be found or didn’t want to be in the movie—we ended up cutting a lot.”
Stinky Puffs collaboration in Spring 1994, in San Francisco at The Residents' recording studio.
Simon Timony:“When I was in Cathys' class (1994), my friend who I loved who was in a band in Seattle killed himself. We were going to do some recordings together in the spring and he said he was going to send me some drawings. I sent him a fax saying that we would be in San Francisco at the same time and we can use the Residents studio."
Pennyroyal Tea single & Video Treatments.
Rob Fellows:"The single was ultimately cancelled as soon as Cobain was found dead.
The single was cancelled because the record label did not want to be seen as cashing in on Cobain's death [1,2], and the title of the B-side, I Hate Myself And Want To Die, did not help matters [1]. Fellows recalls that retailers requested Nirvana releases following the suicide, but they were declined out of respect for Cobain."
Julien'sLive Auctions:"A collection of xerographed sheets containing detailed video proposals for Nirvana’s song “Pennyroyal Tea” from their last album In Utero. Potential writers for the project, which was never fulfilled due to Kurt Cobain’s death, were Steve Brown, Peter Care, and Mark Romanek. Together with a faxed letter from Nirvana’s lawyer, Rosemary Carroll, to Susan Collins of Virgin Music advising the proper percentage rates for songwriting royalties to be distributed to Cobain and his bandmates, along with two sheets listing the rates for each song. All three sheets contain handwriting in ink. Also includes four inkjet photographs taken by Mississippi artist Birney Imes from his Juke Joint series, which were possibly being considered for Nirvana album art."
A Nirvana and Sepultra and Dead Kennedys Tour.
Max Cavalera:Yeah, Dave Grohl and the bass player, Krist Novoselic, were talking about it. I think they wanted to take us and the Dead Kennedys – which would have been an insane tour. Sepultura, the Dead Kennedys, and Nirvana would have been great – it would have been one of the best tours ever. But it never came to life unfortunately, because Kurt passed away.
Cobain wanted to live in a Scottish castle, or in Scotland and join the BMX Bandits musical group.
Charles Peterson:“I remember late one evening I was working with Kurt for a magazine in Manhattan. He was just sitting, talking about life with me, then out of the blue he said, ‘I want to buy a castle in Scotland.’ Kurt really did want to make his home there. It was maybe a pipe-dream but he wanted to make it a reality. He was serious when he said it. He was enamoured with Scotland and the music scene in Glasgow especially.
Cobain wanted to collaborate with Iggy Pop.
Iggy Pop:"He called me up once at two in the morning. But this was when I was old enough to start going to bed at 9.30. When I’m not gigging I’m sensible so I didn’t take his call. It was cool because it was a great musician at this peak and he’s going ‘Iggy this is Kurt Cobain, let’s get in the studio man.’ So he leaves me a number for the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Then every time I would call it was like, ‘Mr Cobain is under the bed,’ or ‘We haven’t heard from Mr Cobain in three days.‘”
Cobain singing on a Mike Watt-penned song, entitled "Her Project", for Ball-Hog or Tugboat?, left unrecorded after Cobain's passing.
Mike Watt:“Another track worth noting is one that never made it past the drawing board: “Her Project,” a song that Watt wrote for Kurt Cobain to sing for Ball-Hog or Tugboat? but left unrecorded after Cobain’s suicide last April.
Cobain's holiday in Cambodia, with Youri Lenquette never materialized.
Youri Lenquette:“I was trying to call him because he’d said this Cambodia thing with enough certainty that I thought I needed to know yes or no because I couldn’t put a two-week trip to Cambodia in the middle of my schedule without organizing. I was trying to call his home, he gave me a number, his home number, I called… There was no answer.”
Cobain's fishing trip with his grandfather, Leland Cobain.
Leland Cobain:“Kurt told Leland that when he returned, he wanted to plan a fishing trip. During their dinner, Kurt was interrupted on three occasions by other patrons asking for autographs. “He signed them and asked what they wanted him to say,” observed Leland. “But he told me he didn’t like doing it.”
Cobain attending the Cobain family reunion.
Art Cobain:“He was getting really fed up with his way of life, Art invited Kurt to the upcoming Cobain family reunion when he returned from Europe."
Cobain starting his own record label.
Debbi Shane:“I thought Kurt was going to start his own record label."
Nirvana appearing on a David Bowie tribute album.
New Musical Express:“Finally, Nirvana, U2, Suede, Smashing Pumpkins and Aerosmith are among the bands rumoured to have been asked to record cover versions of David Bowie songs for a compilation album.
A spokesman for Bowie told The Maker that the star had been personally approaching artists, asking them to join in the project. "So far, I think most of the conversations about it have been artist-to-artist," he said.
The involvement of Nirvana looks particularly likely, given that the band have already included a version of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold THe World" in their live sets and in their recent performance on "MTV Unplugged."
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