Kurt Cobain: February 20, 1967 - April 5, 1994

Kurt would have been 37 years old today. There has been a tremendous amount of coverage of the 10th anniversary of his passing including vigils held in Seattle.

Cobain wrote 'It's Better to burn out, than to fade away' from Neil Young's song 'My My, Hey Hey' lyrics in his suicide note and the mourning and grieving still continues.

Cobain's use of the lyrics had a profound impact on Young, who recorded portions of the 1994 'Sleeps With Angels' album in his memory. While there has been debate about whether Kurt Cobain or Neil Young is the "Godfather of Grunge", today it all seems to be a rather moot point.

From The Rock and Roll Report:

"You can toss all that "voice of a generation" crap out the window and summarize what Kurt Cobain did for rock and roll quite succinctly: he re-introduced both the guitar and attitude back into rock and roll while relegating the spandex and smoke bombs to the sideline and this is something rock and roll always needs once in awhile to keep its excessiveness in check.

The fact that he killed himself is a sad and tragic fact that will unfortunately always overshadow his contribution to rock and roll in the years to come as the way he died and not the music he created with the rest of the guys in Nirvana will be the lasting memory most people will have of Kurt Cobain. That is perhaps the saddest legacy of all.

If you really want to pay tribute to Kurt Cobain, don't bother with all the bullshit of why or how he died but listen to his music and those bands and musicians that influenced him. Then maybe try and pick up a guitar yourself and see what happens."

Well said Mark. Thanks.

Kurt is gone but not forgotten. So long live grunge!

Archived comments on Cobain's legacy.

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