Achieving Nirvana
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I first got into the grunge band, Nirvana, the same way nearly everyone else I know did. Somebody I used to hang around with had a copy of Nevermind on cassette that circulated the group and/or was played at various social gatherings. Not even the original, but a taped copy. At the time, I had two social groups I saw a lot—one in school, and another outside. Both groups had a Nirvana cassette in circulation.
I don't recall exactly when it was, but I'm pretty sure it was towards the end of 1993, which probably puts it around the time Nirvana's third studio album, In Utero (not counting Incesticide), was released and found its way to the top of the album charts. I would have been 12 at the time and it wouldn't have occurred to me that what I was listening to would ultimately have such a massive impact. I'd listened to rock music before—mostly older stuff like Black Sabbath or Queen—but Nirvana was something totally different. They started me on a musical path that I'd never thought to take.
It was some time later when I was able to buy the albums for myself. As a child of 12, having money to buy such luxuries was unthinkable. I suppose that's why most people of my age heard Nirvana for the first time the way I did. Everybody listened to a cassette copy of Nevermind because we were too young to afford to by the original. Interestingly, it never occurred to me at the time that I didn't actually know anybody who even had the original, so it's a mystery where the copy came from. And so many of my friends have similar stories, even those I've only met in recent years.
In many ways, this speaks volumes about how important Nirvana were. There aren't any other albums I can think of (at least for my generation) that people felt so compelled to expose their friends to. Nirvana was something totally different at the time and it was such an awakening. By the time I heard Nevermind in full, it had already been out for a couple of years, but the impact for me was still massive.
I do have vague recollections of Smells Like Teen Spirit coming out insomuch as I recognised the song when I heard the album for the first time. Unfortunately, that single didn't do as well as it should have in Britain though, as has been the case with all great music over here since the late 60s and early 70s. Our charts seem to be saturated with the mundane and the unoriginal, and the genuinely spectacular somehow escapes notice. As such, the sparkling gems that occasionally surface become all too easily missed.
It's been many years since I was introduced to Nirvana and they still hold a special place in my heart. A couple of months ago it was the fifteenth anniversary of the death of singer/guitarist, Kurt Cobain, and the end of that band. But their influence lives on today not just in the memories of those who remember it, but—I'm pleased to see—in the newer generation that doesn't. I'm so very grateful for those early cassettes.