Close to 20 years ago on the morning of a subdued April 5 that was embossed in its usual grey sky, in a place where the rich and famous were tucked away in a mighty elite and gilt-edged area of Lake Washington, a single gun shot was fired, and just like that a promising life, a promising future came to an end. No one heard the gun shot, perhaps it was due to the way it was fired; it concealed the sound and managed to hide the secret of the unfortunate day. No one knew what happened that day on April 5 and if anyone felt strange, if for one second a current passed the bloodstream, it was immediately dismissed as the usual electric jolt we tend to experience some time in life. Three days later, the body was found by an electrician named Gary Smith; poor old Gary, didn’t even knew who that was until he had to make a phone call to confirm his suspicion. One minute later, the world was in the loop; yes, Nirvana’s blonde-haired, blue-eyed, lead singer and principal song writer was dead, at the age of 27 and at the height of his short-lived career. The news headlines absorbed everything there was to be absorbed and couldn’t be anymore direct in publishing the words on their front pages;
‘KURT COBAIN was found dead at his Seattle, Lake Washington mansion, from a self-inflicted gun shot 3 days after his apparent suicide’
That was 20 years ago, so much has changed since then, his daughter is all grown up, his rock-star wife is still around, doing what she does best – forever finding a way to be in the limelight and Kurt, dear old Kurt’s stories has travelled two decades into the new millennium; still void of transparency, sometimes feeling as if that this case right here, which sometime is being concluded as murder, a cover-up, a conspiracy theory, a staged murder-suicide and more, has yet to find its closure. Despite the fact that it has been 20 years since the private investigator publicly stated that it was a murder, we are still here, waiting, some of us still seeking, because for some of us, it was just too flimsy, it lacked sufficient proof contradicted by evidence that merely made any sense, and if we were stupid enough to ask; the question would have been, did the Heroin killed him first or the gun shot? Of course, even a stupid person would say that’s stupid – Kurt Cobain shot himself after administering a lethal dose of heroin that was enough to bring down a horse, maybe a cow too or even a unicorn? Why not? A unicorn by all means is just the creation of an absurd mental imagination so is the fact that a guy as weak and sick as Cobain, could digest that much of heroin and still pick up a short gun that was just too long for his own good, somehow elastically managed to not pull, but push the trigger and bang, there you go, not a perfect death after all. But who cares, it’s better too burn out than fade away.
Clearly suffering from an unrefined illness, Kurt Cobain’s struggles in life, his potentially disparaging material reverberating where it should ignite. By contrast, the rock engineer, suggested a future void of self perseverance, no matter how much headlines he was lurching out, how many sold-out concerts he was playing at and no matter how much money his name was making – in truth, he was uncomfortable with the fame, more so with the preposterous and amplified title – he was no Messiah, not by any decree, it was just an unfortunate turn of events that he managed to sting deep into the senses when the track ‘Smells Like Teen Spirits’ hit the speakers and took the stand – the right track at the wrong time.
Nirvana was a bitter sweet tale and percussion of a band driven by great forces reminiscing fondly on the sublime. Breathing new life into punk-rock sound that reached its peak in the late 80s and early 90s, Nirvana’s clean cut tones, intimate lyrics and devil may care attitude placed some glorious simplicity back into music. They saved what was left out of it, they saved rock at a time when pop was reigning high on the charts, there’s no easy way to celebrate the victory of terminating the King himself to take over his position on the charts; Nirvana was at one point of time; the saviour of rock, the flagship band, the pride of Seattle, and its frontman, Kurt Cobain became the spokesman of a generation without his own approval. Generation X, it was just a matter of time before X became Y and Y became Z, the only difference was that, Kurt Cobain, did not bother waiting for the transition to happen. He left with a huge question mark that still reigns high on the map, why would he kill himself when things were fine? When the world saw the dotting father he was.. we do feel stupid and contagious thinking about it.
Last week, the Seattle Police Department finally shared “new evidence” found at Kurt Cobain’s murder scene that was destroyed months after his death, and for those who were still with hopes that this would eventually shed some new light into the investigation, which by all means was concluded long ago can now go back to blogging about how the SPD will not allow sloppy police work to tarnish their reputation. It was suicide – not a murder and that’s it. So there has not been any new leads, no reopening of any case and what’s final is final, even now, after new photos coincidentally emerged just as we are a week away from celebrating his unfortunate demise.
The Associated Press describes the pictures below –
“One was an image showing a box containing a spoon and what appear to be needles on the floor next to a cigarette and sunglasses. The other showed the paraphernalia box closed, next to cash and a wallet that appears to show Cobain’s identification.”
The newly released images were taken at Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love’s apartment in Los Angeles. In 1992 shortly after their holy matrimony, which was also at the time when Kurt Cobain’s career was at all time high, the newly-wed moved to an apartment in Los Angeles’ Fairfax district. It was during this time when Kurt Cobain became more intimate with his art rather than his beloved guitar. It is said that he continued painting for months using acrylics and oils, to a point where at times he started mixing his blood, cigarette ashes, semen and fecal matter (body waste) into his art. The Cobain’s apparently moved out when they came home from a tour to find that the bathtub had a major leak that had flooded most of the apartment. Some claims has been made that it was the same bathroom in which, Kurt wrote the song ‘Heart Shaped Box.’ Below are the pictures that were released recently;
And a few pictures of the man himself at the apartment in which these two romantic idealists managed to spend their time smiling at the beauty of destruction.
Kurt Cobain’s 20th will also see Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this coming April 10.
You can also check out the photo of the apartment at:
http://www.feelnumb.com/2010/08/10/kurt-cobain-los-angeles-apartment/
Kurt Cobain’s residency history, if you wish to learn more;
http://shapedbox.blogspot.com/2010/12/home-address.html
How would he look like now;
http://sachsmedia.com/rockheaven/
..and hey, have you seen an avid heroin user with arms this clean? Contradictory to what his biographer wrote in his book, his arms looks pretty clean for an avid, all-day, all-night user, so where were the unicorns again? Oh yeah…even the unicorns are high these days…
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