Badass Birthday
On this date, 35 years ago in 1991, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana was released as the first single from the album Nevermind.
And ohmiGOD, EVERYTHING changed!
Prior to that song, by and large, all that was on the radio from the late 80s was rap, sap, crap and heavy metal. None of which I very much liked. I was in my Classic Rock phase: music from the 70s (Led Zepplin, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, David Bowie, etc). And through Bowie, I had had some contact with the alternative/progressive music of the early 80s. I was listening to WHFS out of DC 99.1. They played Bowie (newer stuff) but also REM, Pixies, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Echo & The Bunnymen, etc. And I was moving more into listening to that genre instead of the 70s stuff, though I still enjoyed it.
And then all of sudden, I can still remember it, I was laying on my bed, HFS playing on the stereo by my bed, I was reading a book, I THINK it was the novelization of the movie Aliens, actually, and I heard it. This guitar riff. Like nothing I had heard before. And then the drums kicked in. And then the voice! And I put my book down, sat up and looked at the stereo (for all the good that did). I didn't understand what the hell he was saying, but my GOD I love the way he was saying it. And the music. And it was all NOTHING like I had heard or experienced before. And when it was over, I wanted to hear it again! I wanted to hear who it was and what the song as called. But back in the those pre-Internet days, I got nothing.
Gradually, I went back to reading, but keeping my ear a little more attuned to the stereo. And after a while after, I don't twenty minutes, time for a couple songs and a couple ads, the DJ came on and announced that the phone lines have been JAMMED with callers wanting to know about that song. And I put the book down again and listened. And he said, "It was "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from the band Nirvana, from their album Nevermind". I quickly jumped up and wrote it all down on some paper I had in the room! I didn't want to forget it.
The whole experience was almost like an epiphany! I was gobsmacked.
And within a week I and my neighbor Jeff were in Frederick MD for some reason or another (maybe expressly FOR this reason), and we were in the Fredericktown Mall and they had a Waxie Maxie's there (ahhh, another memory gone) and I went in, found the Nevermind CD and bought that fucker right then and there! And what did I do when I got home? Played that CD all the way through...twice I think.
And my musical tastes were forever changed.
But so was the general music scene. All of a sudden, in that fall of 1991, there was a ton of new bands I'd never heard of before getting airplay. Bands from Seattle, or decked out all in flannel, or part of the new Grunge musical genre. They were everywhere, every station was playing it. And for the next 5 years or so, Grunge ruled (only dethroned by bubblegum pop like Brittany Spears and The Backstreet Boys). But music was never like before.
Honestly, I think you can divide American music of the latter 20th century into Pre-Nirvana and Post-Nirvana. It was a true watershed.
And it came out 35 years ago today!
POLT
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