As a lyricist, Cobain had begun to move away from the last-minute, free-associative writing techniques he’d used in the past. “There are more songs on this album that are thematic,” he told Savage, “that are actually about something, rather than just pieces of poetry. Like ‘Scentless Apprentice’ is about the book Perfume, by Patrick Suskind. I don’t think I’ve ever written a song based on a book before.”
The result of all these efforts is a far more diverse and adventurous album than Nevermind. Cobain’s songwriting skills had become more focused and assured. “Serve the Servants” verges on the Beatlesque, while “Scentless Apprentice” is among the heaviest things Nirvana ever recorded. Tracks like “Rape Me,” “Heart Shaped Box” and the stately “Pennyroyal Tea” showcased Cobain’s unique sense of melodic phrasing: vocal lines of irregular length that generally resolved on the major third of whatever chord the singer happened to be strumming when the line ended. Cobain’s words and cover art suggest a peacefully resigned acceptance of the life cycle, from birth to death. Even the album’s more disturbing images of disease and pain seem appropriate elements of that cycle.
A similar mood of slightly eerie tranquility pervaded Nirvana’s November 18,1993 appearance on MTV’s Unplugged and the album that was taken from it. The stage decor, with its heavy drapery, candles, flowers and muted blue lighting, was designed by Cobain himself. Seen in retrospect, the set design seems to foreshadow Cobain’s death a few months after the Unplugged appearance. “Kurt seemed to like to take things and internalize them,” says Unplugged producer Alex Coletti. “I’d heard that he was something of a visual artist. So beyond making sure he was happy with the stage set, since he seemed to show some interest in it, I thought it would be good if he had some creative input. He was pretty cooperative. He did specify that he wanted star lilies, which are these big white flowers. ‘You mean like a funeral?’ I asked. ‘Yeah,’ he said. I don’t want to read too much into it, but that memory sure spooked me out a couple of months later.”
“Kurt wanted something that would break away from just the normal, dull TV set,” says Nirvana tour manager Alex MacLeod. “He didn’t want it to look like just a bare stage. He had seen a lot of Unplugged shows before and felt they weren’t really unplugged. His feeling was that a lot of the bands would just use semiacoustic instruments and play their songs exactly the same way they would if they were doing a full show. He wanted to make Nirvana’s Unplugged appearance slightly different, sort of a downbeat kind of set. Really laid back. To just go in and play a bunch of songs and, to some extent, make changes to the arrangements. They tried to stick to acoustic instruments as much as possible. Kurt wanted to make it something that would show a whole different side of the band.”
Being asked to do Unplugged was a validation of sorts for Cobain, a confirmation of his arrival as a significant rock songwriter. The show has always been a tunesmith’s forum, an opportunity to strip away the high decibels and let the songs stand on their own melodic and lyrical integrity. Resisting considerable pressure from MTV to focus mainly on big Nirvana hits in his performance, Cobain assembled a diverse set that included both well-known and lesser-known songs of his, as well as a few covers.
“It was the first time in a long time that I’d seen them so nervous about doing something,” says Alex MacLeod. “Things had gotten to the point where they’d go out and play in front of 7,500 or 10,000 people, like [very nonchalantly] ‘Okay, boom, let’s do it.’ But they were really nervous about doing Unplugged. Because they were really leaving themselves wide open.”
The set turned out to be a rousing success. It was capped by a riveting version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” a traditional tune recorded by one of Cobain’s musical heroes, the American folk-singing archetype, Leadbelly. Having done pained, screaming justice to the death-haunted ballad, Cobain left the stage, never to return.
If only Cobain’s own life had been able to attain a similar sense of triumphant completion. The sad chain of events leading to his death probably began on March 4, 1994, in Rome, when Cobain fell into a near-fatal coma after taking some 60 sedative pills washed down with champagne. Although initially reported as an accident, the Los Angeles Times later stated that the overdose was in fact a suicide attempt and that Cobain had even left a suicide note. (The newspaper cited “sources close to the situation who asked not to be identified” as the basis for this statement.) Two weeks later, Courtney Love summoned police to the home she and her husband shared in Seattle. Following an argument with Love, Cobain apparently locked himself in a room with three or four guns (reports vary) and 25 boxes of ammunition. Love called in the law because she feared he intended to take his life. Cobain denied this, saying he merely wanted to be alone for a while. The officers confiscated his weapons, nevertheless. Cobain had begun to amass a collection of guns, for protection purposes, he said, while he and Love were living in Los Angeles.
By March 28, Cobain and Love had returned to L.A., she to work out some final details on the release of Hole’s new album, Live Through This, he to check into a drug rehabilitation clinic. This was to be the last of several unsuccessful rehab attempts. Three days later, Cobain abruptly left the clinic and apparently flew back to Seattle. Fearing for his safety, Love hired private detectives who tried in vain to locate him. On the morning of April 8, his body was found at a home he owned in Seattle. An electrician who had come to work on the premises made the discovery. Medical experts determined that Cobain had been dead for several days.
Shortly before the death, reports that Nirvana planned to break up surfaced. In his suicide note, Cobain said, “I haven’t felt excitement in listening to as well as creating music for too many years now. I feel guilty beyond words about these things.” The note goes on to thank Nirvana’s fans for their “letters and concern during the last years.”
Among the many ironies associated with this brilliant artist’s short, sad life is that while he was unable to conquer his own intense pain, his music helped millions of fans deal with theirs.
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