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Nevermind - Nirvana · Barber Cuts: Beats and Bars

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Welcome to Barbara Cuts, Beats and Bars.
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We're a father and daughter music podcast that slices into
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some of the greatest albums, one cut at a time.
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With no industry ties or formal training, just a shared love of
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music, we explore albums across genres, writing favorites and
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skips while digging into what makes each one iconic.
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I bring the beats. And I bring the bars and
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together we deliver real talk and fresh takes from both sides
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of the sound. Hi, I'm Riley.
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And I'm Todd, and welcome to this week's episode of Barber
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Cuts, where we talk about another great album, Never Mind
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yes, Never Mind by Nirvana. And so let's hop straight into
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it. Riley, what are your least
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favorite songs from this album? So my 2 least favorites are
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Polly and Endless Nameless. Now Polly is unfortunate.
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I want to like Polly because I think it's funny, but I just
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don't love the song. Kind of makes me feel
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uncomfortable for some reason, which I think was kind of the
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point of part of the song. But it's just not pleasant to
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listen to all the time for me. And then endless nameless, I'm
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sure. Actually, I'm pretty sure you do
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like this one or you did it some point in your lifetime.
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But it's just overwhelming to me.
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And I think it's the full, I mean, we'll talk about this
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later, but I'm sure. But within the grunge, there are
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a lot more on the punk side of things.
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And this song was like pure punk and screaming and loud and just
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like angry. And I just think it fell short
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on how great some of these other songs are in balancing the angry
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loud and still making it listenable.
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And then endless lameness was just angry and loud and not
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listenable for me. Yeah.
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And so that was one of my least favorites, too.
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And in college I did like it. And you know, again, this goes
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back to something that you wouldn't be too familiar with,
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but this was a hidden track on the original CD.
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And so you just had to keep listening to something in the
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way, which was the last song. If you look at the liner notes,
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Endless name was wasn't even listed.
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I don't want to say it was like 10 minutes.
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If I remember correctly, after Something in the way, the
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beginning of Endless Nameless came on and then you got
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something radically different than the slow ballad of
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something in the way. So very strange.
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But definitely, you know, you know, I guess I've gotten a
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little bit older in my years and years.
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And so it didn't really hold up as well for me.
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The it's the closest one on this album that was just a flat out
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skip for me. I I didn't skip it, you know,
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still listen to it. But yeah, it's the closest one
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for a skip. The other one and and we kind of
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talked about this with Pearl Jam 2 that you see in the endless
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name was I got a really good example of the heavy distortion
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versus I guess a non distorted where you can really hear the
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clean picking of a guitar. And I'm sure it's still
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distorted song, but you can hear the difference between between
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those very clearly in the song. My other one was between Polly
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and what may be somewhat of an argument.
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Moving forward is territorial. Pissing.
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No, don't say that. No, and I landed with
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territorial pissings. The punk side of it really comes
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through on this one and that's the part that got me.
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I like the song. So it's again, not, you know,
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you probably already know what the ratings are for this one,
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but I do like the song. So it's not that, but it's just
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if I have to list ones in here that aren't my favorite, the the
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two that are probably the most punk giving that I'm not a punk
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fan makes sense that they're the ones that I like the least.
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I do like this is one of the other things that we may get
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into later. The the opening of it.
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It does start with them, with the subtle, maybe not so subtle,
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really jab at the hippie culture with the way that it starts.
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Yeah. So but so those are my least
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favorite too. So now Riley, what are your
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favorite 2 songs? So I, in the spirit of punk,
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have three and I don't want to choose more than that or less
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than that. So I have three.
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So the first one is Lithium. I did know Lithium.
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I knew most of these songs before listening to it all the
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way through a few years ago. Lithium just, I don't know, it
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kept being the one that got stuck in my head pretty
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regularly. Especially the part where he
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repeats like the I like it, I miss you, I love you, I killed
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you all over again. I also always think it's funny
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whenever it says I'm so ugly. That's OK because so are you for
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a few reasons. Because that's a really funny
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thing to say to someone. And also like Kurt Cobain was
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like a heartthrob like to to girls like girls loved Kurt
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Cobain or now girls think Kurt Cobain is cute.
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Like speaking for my people of girls like him and Chris Cornell
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were considered like the cute ones of the grunge movement,
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like in you know, but more so than anyone Kurt Cobain.
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So it's just funny that he's like, I'm so ugly.
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And it's like, no, you're not, dude.
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You're you're fine. And I know that's not what it's
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a bigger point than him to think he's ugly, but I liked the
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repetitive nature of the I like it.
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I miss you, I love you, I killed you and I think those are good.
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Those are 4 interesting ones to put together.
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The next one that I liked was Drain you.
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Part of that is really just I like how it sounds more than
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anything. Something that I didn't realize
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about Nirvana until listening to it this closely is how gross or
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visceral a lot of their lyrics are.
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Like there's there's a very clear difference between their
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style and Pearl Jam style and writing with grunge.
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Theirs is still a lot more nonsense meant to get a reaction
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and especially in this album, they have something to say, but
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it's cryptic what they're saying.
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Where's Pearl Jam has something to say and it's very obvious
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what Pearl Jam is trying to say. So a lot of Nirvana's lyrics are
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kind of gross sounding or just like make you uncomfortable and
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feel icky. Like I mean, it's talking about
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chew your meat for you. Pass it back and forth and a
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passionate kiss like that is like A and like there's a lot of
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those lyrics and Polly is like an uncomfortable just nature of
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it. But I liked how this one sounded
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even despite all of that, and so I I liked I don't know, I think
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part of the reason I liked it is it got a little close into like
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alternative or pop, like the the sound of his tone was like the
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furthest away from the hard punk angry.
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It it sounded like a different genre almost.
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And I I liked how it sounded. Yeah.
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And then the one. They've got in the in the middle
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of that song a very interesting where it's nice and then almost
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like a jaws kind of build up to a very brief guitar solo that
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would that is that is neat. And then they just keep going
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like, you know, they've got very, you know, that that's a
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strange thing in the middle of that song.
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Yeah, I do like. But.
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Yeah, unexpected. The one that I cannot give away
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or not put or list as one of my favorites is Territorial
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pissings. Now I know that's probably not
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popular, but I, I think it's like because it is so different
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and it's almost a mockery. I think it's overlooked a lot
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because it almost feels like, like we talked about Pink Floyd.
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It almost feels like one of the songs that's just instrumentals.
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Like, why would I listen to this by itself, You know?
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That's almost how it feels to me.
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It feels like a fiddler song, but something about the way it's
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not Kurt Cobain, but I can't remember the name of the guy who
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does the mocking voice. It's like Kurt Cobain and
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another guy. And then, yeah, I like there's
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something like addicting about that sound of like the brother,
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like the hard, you know, like alteration of his voice.
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And then, I don't know, I just like the I, I catch myself
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singing that the part where it's like got to find a way, another
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like that part over and over again.
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And then I think like it still has a lot to say in like a short
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song that's like meant to be funny or whatever.
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But my favorite lyric is never met a wise man.
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If so, it's a woman. That's awesome because the song
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was meant to be like a anti anti hippie, but it was mainly aimed
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at like their parents culture more so than hippie anything.
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And so it was talking a little bit about the mistreatment of
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different cultures and women as well.
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And I just love that lyric. Never met a wise man.
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If so, it's a woman. Yeah, I also like the just
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because you're paranoid don't mean they're not after you.
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Yes, yes, that's I was reading on the genius like where it
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annotates it and like some fan went and edited it and it's like
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this is Cobain's way of effing with our minds.
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Like, no, I think it's just a funny thing to say.
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That's. True.
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And and he, and he's even, you know, talked about like a lot of
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a lot of the, the lyrics for these.
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And even I think it's, I think he's mentioned in interviews
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after the album that he, he got upset with people trying to go
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back and find meaning in a lot of the lyrics because he pieced
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together poetry that he was writing to make things fit.
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And so often times there were no themes to any of it.
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It was just random pieces because they fit well too.
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And, and, and he is famously on the side of music comes first
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and then the lyrics fit in. And, and so often times his
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lyrics just fit the music that was already written.
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And so there's sometimes nothing special about them.
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They aren't. Yeah, that's I think that's why.
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Nonsensical. Not in a demeaning way.
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They just don't make sense to a story.
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And some of them do, but not all of them.
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Yeah, I think that's going along with like the difference between
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them and Pearl Jam. That's like the two.
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I mean, there are other ones, of course, like Soundgarden, Alice
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In Chains, but like the ones that people often know.
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I would say it would be those four.
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And then if you had to narrow down, it would be Nirvana and
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Pearl Jam. And I think that's just what
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separates the two of them past just like punk versus metal
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versus all of that is like Eddie Vedder seemed to be very much
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like fit the lyrics to the music like so meticulously to have a
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purpose. And Kurt Cobain, I mean famously
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was just like, no, there's not a meaning like don't dig deep.
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Whereas and you better seem to wanted people to dig deep on
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certain themes and thoughts. Especially with his like him
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having a story over the course of like 3 songs and different
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albums and stuff like that. Like he he had a storyline in
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his mind and Kurt Cobain just seemed to be a lover of the the
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music and the sound of it and wanted that to be the forefront
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of all of his stuff. True and as.
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A therapy to himself and that, yeah.
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You know, and we'll hit some more of that as we as we get
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into our why listen to this album.
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But so any anything else about why you're wrong on that?
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I mean, why that's one of your favorite songs?
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No, no, no more reasons on why you're wrong on your opinion.
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So my 2 favorites, one of them is in bloom.
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And so I liked the way that this one started loud and then goes
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quiet into the verse and then slowly, slowly during the verse
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builds back up to the the loud chorus again.
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Again, we'll, we'll, this will be mentioned probably several
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times, but we we talked about it in The White Stripes episode
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going all the way back to the Pixies.
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The the loud, soft, loud, quiet, loud.
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And if I'm not mistaken, it's in every single song except for the
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two acoustic ones. They they use that technique.
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But in in Bloom is again, we just talked about piercing
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together lyrics. But often times they may be
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pieced together, but they but each song may still have a
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meaning behind it. And Bloom is one of those.
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And and Bloom is their dig at at people who they saw become
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Nirvana and grunge fans, which Cobain famously hated the word
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grunge because it was just a popular thing to do at the time.
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And so they got the lyrics said he's the one who likes all our
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pretty songs and he likes to sing along and he likes to shoot
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his gun, but he knows not what it means.
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And so that's the telling side of it.
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It's like, yeah, you come along, you sing all the lyrics and you
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you act like you belong, but you really don't know what you're
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doing. And I think that this also
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encapsulated his beef with Pearl Jam really, because he thought
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they were in it for the fame. And so reportedly, though, you
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know, his his beat, you know, and I say they really Cobain's
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beef started with Mother Love Bone, who we mentioned back in
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Pearl Jam. I think it was Andrew Wood who
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was very glitzy and over the top and from that hair metal late
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80s, which is where this movement was starting to shift
16:19
and come out of two of the people from Mother La Bone went
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over with Eddie Vedder continued, but he just continued
16:28
to beef with Pearl Jam is what it seems like because like
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Andrew, if you go look at the personas of Andrew Wood and
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Eddie Vedder, they are fairly opposites.
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So. Yeah, I think like looking more
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into it also, it wasn't, it was strangely a beef with Pearl Jam
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and not like he had. He didn't seem to have a problem
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with Eddie Vedder. Like he didn't seem to have a
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problem with like him as a person.
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He thought Eddie Vedder was great, like as a person and a
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good musician, but just problems with Pearl Jam.
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But I will also say not to be like, obviously there was a lot
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going on in Cobain's life. Like, that's the tragedy of
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Cobain. He seemed to have beef with
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pretty much everything and everyone in a lot of ways.
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He had a lot of stems from his punk side.
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Yeah, but I mean, like, even there's stories of him even,
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like he didn't like Dave Grohl because Dave Grohl wanted to be
17:28
famous and he thought that no one in his band should learn
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instruments other than the ones they're playing.
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Like he never wanted to learn how to play.
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Like he, he had a lot of very strong opinions that were
17:40
usually in the negative about like about everything.
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So it's not surprising to me that he just continued on
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disliking like Cobain disliking the fame, disliking grunge, then
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word disliking like everything that everyone stood for because
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that's like the punk in him. That's nature of that's his
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philosophy at sea. Was to, and some of the things
18:06
that I read about it was that like even with say the, the
18:09
hippie music, the hippie movement, it's not that he was
18:14
anti hippie, but I read somewhere where he was more
18:18
upset that they abandoned the hippie movement instead of
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sticking with it and saying no. And and so that was really more
18:26
of what his thing was, was like, Hey, be authentic and be who you
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are. But yet it's also one of those
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things where, you know, again, I just read articles and listen to
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interviews, you know, never, obviously never talk to the guy,
18:46
but it is it is quite strange that that's what he was upset
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with everybody about. But the difference in music
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between and we've digressed a little bit from favorite songs,
19:00
but the difference between Bleach and Nevermind is almost
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people could say that's what you're angry at others about
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because Leach was not for radio play, Never Mind was definitely
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tailored toward radio play, so. And they said they like he said
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he didn't like it. So like because it didn't feel
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authentic but you still recorded it?
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Right, right. And there's, there are things
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and, and quotes where he's like, yeah, they made me do this, they
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made me do this and I had to do this.
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And, you know, and, and and so there, there was obviously a
19:39
struggle there. And yeah, I will.
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Also say 'cause. He's like what?
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Ultimately A tragic struggle with him, but definitely a
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struggle. Yeah I I partially believe that
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one because like with MTV Unplugged he played like a few
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songs from his like most famous album and like 3 songs from the
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Meat Puppets and like it just completely did his own.
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Thing that David David Bowie song in there like.
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Yeah, like. He.
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He did seem to genuinely dislike the fame that Nevermind got him
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and was constantly trying to be like that's not who I am.
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Right. Right.
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And there it was that struggle. But back to.
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Yeah, like Doctor S we'll test the editing skills and see if
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that gets moved. No, it won't.
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So my favorite song off the album was much like one of
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yours, Lithium. I love the intro, the the deep
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guitar notes that are kick starting it off and very simple
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to begin the song. I like the opening lyrics.
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I'm so happy because today I found my friends.
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They're in my head. And so you immediately see the
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wrestling I think that he's doing with a lot of what's going
20:57
on. And, and the song, again, it's
20:59
got a deeper meaning of, of somebody losing a loved one and
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then all their friends leave them.
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And essentially eventually the person turns to religion.
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He's quoted as saying that in the song, a guy's lost his girl
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and his friends and he's brooding.
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He's decided to find God before he kills himself, which is
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awfully and again, tragically foreshadowing.
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But so you got those opening lyrics.
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Then again, the loud chorus went it off on the kicks in.
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And then the second verse actually starts with I'm so
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lonely. That's okay.
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So you go from the first verse of I Found My Friends, They're
21:44
in my head to the second verse he's talking about being lonely.
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And then I think the third verse actually shifts back to I'm so
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happy I found my friends there in my head.
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So again, just the turmoil that that and wrestling that whoever
22:00
the person is, which is probably himself, you see the turmoil
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that person's going through. And just another note about the
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song, You and I are not alone in this that 2013 Rolling Stone
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readers poll. Lithium won the best Nirvana
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single over Teen Spirit, and they even put in their notes by
22:28
a pretty comfortable margin. So which Which I found a little
22:31
bit interesting I think. Along the lines of that, I have
22:37
to shout out Teen Spirit for saying Mosquito in their song.
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I have to acknowledge that. We'll say say that real quick
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because now we want we want to shift over to what what makes
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this album worthy of a listen. And we can't talk about this
22:55
album without starting with Smells Like Teen Spirit.
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I think that's the only appropriate way to start.
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Even though it didn't pick our favorites, I intentionally did
23:05
not list it just because of what it is.
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I love the song but you going back to mosquito.
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So they say mosquito. So that's probably why it got so
23:18
famous. So everyone really likes
23:19
mosquitoes like me and wants them to get fame.
23:22
No, I mean, come on. Smells like Teen Spirit, I
23:28
think. I think is has become one of the
23:34
more recent songs that everybody knows, like Bohemian Rhapsody,
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like this was this was the era where like all of a sudden
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there's songs that everybody knows if they come on as soon as
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that intro plays, like it's an iconic intro.
23:50
And it became like, you know, it became like Bohemian Rhapsody.
23:57
And the one songs that I can't remember right now, that's just
24:03
a small town girl living in the only world.
24:05
What's that song? Just a small town girl.
24:08
Don't stop believing. I got there.
24:11
Like one that as soon as it plays, everyone knows the song
24:14
and wants to sing along, even if half of it is just mumbling
24:19
because people don't actually know the lyrics of teen spirit,
24:21
but they try. It just became like this, this
24:25
anthem of like a teen angst and in an in an A time that I wasn't
24:34
alive for, but teens were very angst filled.
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It was an enst filled time period like Cobain kind of was
24:45
what was the norm. Like, people were just angry.
24:48
Like things were changing. People were angry.
24:50
People didn't know what to do. And like, Smells like Teen
24:54
Spirit, like the not necessarily the meaning, but the exact
24:58
lyrics were what a lot of people like, identified with of like,
25:02
oh, just entertain us. Like, you know, like that's
25:06
everything is just complacent. You know, that's what, yeah,
25:11
people felt like in that time. It became an anthem for the
25:14
people way more than anything else could be.
25:17
Right. And, and it was, you know, often
25:20
seen it described and you know, rightly or wrongly, because this
25:24
is of course a gross stereotyping, but the theme song
25:30
of Generation X that that generation, you know, small
25:35
generation that felt overlooked, left on her own, very
25:40
independent, very cynical. And then this song like fits
25:47
that. And and I think the video as
25:51
well, like captured it fit it like fit the song, fit the
25:56
generation, fit the teen spirit for, you know, even though of
26:02
course you know the name, the name came from the a phrase
26:07
written by his friend and said Kurt smells like teen spirit.
26:09
And she was talking about his deodorant and he was like, Oh,
26:12
that's great. And it just fit a literal
26:18
figurative teen spirit in the country at that time.
26:22
I don't I don't know why. I don't know how but it it just.
26:26
It just did. Yeah.
26:28
I mean, I think it's it's very similar to our episode last week
26:34
about Marvin Gaye. Like, yeah, he that album just
26:38
was perfect for that exact time. And it's like lightning struck,
26:41
you know? Yes, yeah, the planets aligned.
26:44
It was the right exact time. And I think that's exactly what
26:46
Smells like was, you know, I mean, Pearl Jam had their songs.
26:50
It became anthems like, like their main songs and everything
26:53
like that, but nothing compared to Smells like in the sense of
26:58
so widely known. Everybody knows that song,
27:00
everybody knows Nirvana because it was just like lightning
27:03
struck. You know, and so the you know,
27:08
this the song itself, it was. And he's even talked about it.
27:12
It was his attempt at writing the ultimate pop song.
27:15
And it was inspired by his love of the Pixies, which again, goes
27:20
back to why you hear this loud, soft, loud in this song and
27:25
obviously through throughout the album.
27:28
But more just really about about the song itself.
27:33
Over 2.5 billion streams on Spotify, so that ranks it as the
27:39
number 76 most strange songs and only 175.
27:45
According to our good friends at Wikipedia, 175 songs as of this
27:50
recording have gone over the 2 billion mark, so it's in pretty
27:56
rarefied air. It is also listed as the number
28:02
5 Best Song of all time, and the 2024 edition of Rolling Stones
28:09
500 Best Songs. Artist, writers and industry
28:12
figures all voted on those. And it's actually right in front
28:18
of What's Going On by Marvin Gaye was number six in that same
28:23
list. So some pretty good songs up at
28:27
the top, but ironically not one of the band's favorite songs to
28:34
play. They ended up not liking it.
28:37
I'll put in little air quotes because it seems again, going to
28:42
some of what Cobain's thing was, the people that listen to it
28:46
thought that was Nirvana and nothing else.
28:50
And especially Cobain didn't like that.
28:53
He thought they were much bigger and better and had better songs
28:57
than that. And so that irritated him from.
29:00
What and I would say that most Nirvana fans would side with
29:07
Cobain in that one like they they do like smells like is
29:11
distinctly different from most Nirvana music.
29:15
And I will also say I think this this is also going along with
29:19
why I think people should listen to this album.
29:23
I think Cobain is right in saying that purely because
29:28
Cobain is like or was like one of those musicians that loved
29:35
music 1st and everything else came after.
29:40
I mean he has a famous list of the top albums or artists.
29:44
Like he famously loved music and didn't just like love listening
29:50
to it. He loved the intellectual side
29:52
of music, it seemed, and what works and why it works and how
29:56
things work and who all these people are and the genres that
30:00
he liked and the albums that he listed were so different from
30:05
everything. And he was trying to pull
30:06
inspiration from all of them. And so when he's just trying to
30:10
make a generic pop song, you know, and smells like, and
30:13
everyone loves it and thinks that that's him.
30:15
And he's realizing that he's pulled from these hundreds of
30:18
artists that he's like technically learned from.
30:22
Like that's a punch to the gut. That's like, you don't know how
30:24
hard I've worked and how much I love what I'm doing.
30:28
And you're just taking me and generalizing me like that is.
30:32
That is a struggle. I I can't imagine being so
30:36
enthralled and involved with understanding music and then
30:40
being limited to 1 singular song like that is so beyond
30:47
frustrating. Like, and you can see where his
30:49
mental space would be because of that.
30:51
Like your whole fame and everything.
30:54
Like all of a sudden millions of people know you for one thing
30:57
that you don't agree with. And it's like it's haunting to
31:01
be in. That's a haunting place to be
31:04
and devastating. Than from.
31:06
What it led to but. Yeah.
31:10
And so from from some of the other things that I saw, one of
31:13
their more favorite songs to play live was Drain You that you
31:19
mentioned earlier. So, But again, so we much like
31:27
the album itself and when it was released, you start to listen to
31:32
it potentially because of Teen Spirit, but then you get to the
31:36
rest of the album. And yeah, Teen Spirit is the
31:41
song that really kick started what what ended up becoming
31:45
known as the grunge movement. Yeah, it had really started a
31:49
little bit before then, but the song really kick started it and
31:54
then the album was good. And then, you know, and that may
32:00
also be a little bit of of his beef with Pearl Jam at the time,
32:05
because they're they're album was more than we mentioned in
32:09
that episode, more of a slow build.
32:11
And I think he may have thought that they capitalized off of
32:17
this, you know, who knows? But it's definitely more radio
32:22
friendly than their first album. And again, how many people, if
32:28
you go ask, no, they have a first album not called
32:31
Nevermind. And I think that.
32:34
Watch this, the first album that's like pure punk.
32:36
Yeah, and and I think that's that was probably one of his
32:40
biggest beefs with the whole fame was like, they don't like
32:44
us because of us. They like us because of this one
32:47
song and they don't listen to anything else.
32:50
Yeah. But again, much like we talked
32:52
about with Pearl Jam, throughout the the song you hear themes of
32:59
anti sexism. You mentioned one of them
33:02
earlier about it being a woman. Alienation, heartbreak, anti
33:08
establishment stuff. There's also much heavier
33:13
influence of punk here in Nirvana then there was in Pearl
33:19
Jam, our recent greatest grunge album.
33:25
But while it does have the punk undertones, it's way more
33:30
palatable than true punk to me. Going back to listening to the
33:38
Sex Pistols, which was difficult and unbearable for me, sorry,
33:44
but it, you know, And so it definitely was more palatable
33:48
than that for me. Yeah, I would agree.
33:51
I I just, I listen to this album all the way through, I think my
33:54
freshman year of college, I'm a senior now.
33:58
And like, as soon as I listen to all of it, I immediately knew
34:03
that Smells Like was a great song, but not like a favorite.
34:08
And so I think to your point, it's very easy.
34:13
As soon as you like, it may pull you in, but once you listen to
34:16
the rest of the album, you realize there's something more
34:19
than just Smells like. Yeah, for sure.
34:23
And, and we'll also say last week's album was like that as
34:27
well. Like what's going on?
34:29
That's the song that most everybody will know from that
34:34
album. But when you listen to the
34:35
entire album, right, Wow, this is a great album.
34:41
And you mentioned, you know, lightning and a bottle with the
34:44
perfect timing and perfect storm, but this is same same
34:49
type of same type of thing. The, you know, and the other
34:53
thing to mention though, that you we've we've hit on and we
34:58
talked about it with Pearl Jam song lyrics are dark, personal
35:06
and, and even a, a want to show the characteristics maybe of a
35:12
sensitive, introspective songwriter as opposed to much of
35:18
what you got drugs, sex, party and lyrics coming out of the
35:25
hair bands of the 80s rock'n'roll.
35:29
And so that was that was something that was again, very
35:32
new at the time with these bands coming through.
35:37
And then lastly, 2 points I want to make going back to the
35:41
Rolling Stone 500 greatest albums, 2020 and 23 have this
35:46
album, you know, not the song, it did the album at #6 as well.
35:52
So it's way up there as an entire album.
35:56
And then some other artists that may be known that have been
36:02
influenced by Nirvana and some particularly by this album, Foo
36:06
Fighters, duh, you know, it's got Dave Grohl, Weezer, Lana Del
36:13
Rey, Bush and Phineas. So he there I saw a quote by him
36:19
talking about how much he loved Never mind.
36:25
It's like it's pretty. Yeah.
36:27
I think Never Mind is just genuinely, like you said, it had
36:32
been forming before, but smells like and Never Mind were the
36:38
gone at the starting line of grunge.
36:41
It wasn't warm up anymore, It wasn't lining up.
36:43
It was go time. Like they genuinely you can
36:47
credit them for being the main starters of like this giant
36:50
movement and everything else comes with them.
36:53
And that's so unique to have in music and such a cool thing to
37:01
be able to listen to you and be a part of listening to you.
37:05
And so that's my you should go listen to this album, even if
37:08
you don't like grunge, just because it's it's so weird to
37:11
get like a true like, oh, this like revolutionized music in a
37:16
way. And it's getting harder and
37:18
harder for that to happen the more it happens.
37:21
So I just think it's unlike anything else.
37:23
And that's why it became so big. And, and the other thing that's
37:28
that's devastating about it though, is that it seemed to be,
37:35
you know, and I'm, I'm sure there's other genres, you know,
37:37
we don't study all this stuff. We just do a little research on
37:40
each of these albums and just what we've potentially, what me
37:45
live through with some of them. This was meteoric.
37:50
Like it was fast and a lot of those folks from those bands
37:58
couldn't handle it. And that's the unfortunate side
38:00
of it. And obviously some did, did
38:04
fine. They did OK, but not all of
38:07
them. And that's the that's the sad
38:09
nature of just the fame that just shocked all of those bands
38:17
because of this song and this album and really the song
38:22
blasting through the roof like it did so.
38:26
Yeah, I think that's devastating to always.
38:31
It's a death like that is devastating, but when like the
38:37
artist is considered one of the best bands, one of the best
38:40
artist of all time, like for it to be cut so short is like the
38:45
ever balance of like that solidified their fame.
38:48
And that's awful that that's what did it.
38:51
But it did partially. You know, everybody knows
38:54
Cobain's story, like people, people remember where they were
38:57
when they found out that Cobain passed and what had happened,
39:00
like fans and stuff like remember stuff like that.
39:04
And it it just became even more made him even more infamous,
39:11
which I think he would forever resent as it goes against
39:18
everything. But that's that's with a lot of
39:20
these artists. I mean, like Chris Cornell, he
39:22
he made it longer and continue to make music, but like we lost
39:26
him too soon too. And it's just it.
39:29
They were good examples of normal people experiencing fame
39:34
and how awful fame can be. And you don't see that a lot in
39:38
media. Just normal people all of a
39:41
sudden becoming very famous. But I think.
39:45
And, and Lane Staley was the lead singer of Alice In Chains
39:50
and, and he died early too, I mean, early 2000s and, and
39:55
those, a lot of people would say those are your BIG4, Pearl Jam,
39:59
Allison Chain, Soundgarden and Nirvana.
40:02
And all of them took off. And you know, there were other
40:05
bands that that came after that. It is, it is tragic when you go
40:11
look into some of that, but. But I, I think part of that too
40:15
really quick is this. These were also like interesting
40:21
pop figures to be famous. And so that's partially also
40:24
what was enthralling about them. Just like these guys were like
40:30
interesting pop stars in a sense.
40:32
Like they weren't your hair metal guys who were just
40:34
bragging about all this stuff and like, quote UN quote, dumb
40:37
blondes, you know, like these people seemed well read, well
40:41
educated in their own ways. They were all very
40:44
philosophical. Like I bet all of them read a
40:47
bunch of philosophy or like had a bunch of theories about like
40:51
what is right, what is wrong, like all of that.
40:53
You can tell in their lyrics that they do have some basis of
40:56
whether like, not technical, obviously, but like an idea of
41:00
like philosophical questions that we're struggling with.
41:05
And so I think that's another reason, like, fame impacted them
41:09
almost more because they were asking the questions of like, is
41:13
this right? Is this me?
41:14
Is it right for me to be only identified as one song?
41:16
Like, that never seemed to be a problem for the figures before,
41:21
but it also gave like, different people.
41:23
Like people began asking the same questions and thinking the
41:27
same way and becoming more introspective because of these
41:30
people, because they were pop. Like it was a very interesting
41:34
shift in pop figure from what it was to all of a sudden Rudy and
41:39
questioning. And like the famous clip of them
41:43
saying like, Madonna charges like 40 something dollars and
41:48
Kurt Cobain would be like who would charge that much for a
41:51
concert? And like all the comments
41:52
underneath that are like Cobain would hate today.
41:55
Yeah. For real, like all concerts
41:57
being like $300, you know, like they were all very stark in
42:01
their opinions and vocal about it and and it being more
42:07
personal. They were just very open people
42:09
and that's hard to be while being famous.
42:12
And that was never a struggle so much until this movement added
42:17
with drugs. Yes, the unfortunate side.
42:22
So let's do ratings. Riley, what are your ratings?
42:27
My personal rating is a nine. I love Nirvana.
42:31
I love how it sounds. I also like Nirvana more than
42:35
just never mind. My favorite song by them is
42:38
often set aside. Even Grandma Take Me Home, baby
42:43
Grandma Take Me Home. But I do enjoy Nirvana, I enjoy
42:50
learning more about them. I enjoy the culture of the band.
42:53
I think they're very interesting thing and time to study.
42:57
And so I would give it a nine. I would say for objective
43:02
ratings, a 9.5 to attend like it's an it's another one to it
43:07
would be hard to argue the less than perfect just with endless
43:10
nameless being what it was. It was a 9.5 for me.
43:14
But even in like, it's hard for me to say because like in the CD
43:19
with you saying it's like a hidden track, it's it's meant to
43:21
be like only true fans will listen to this and true fans
43:24
would like Nirvana for their punk, you know, and stuff like
43:27
that. I just don't get to see that
43:28
side of things. So it like brings it down for
43:31
me. But like on ACD it might be
43:33
like, Oh no, that was objectively very smart thing to
43:36
do, you know. So I'm ending in a 9.5 which is
43:40
still very high. Yeah, so my personal rating is
43:46
A10. This is again up there with
43:50
Pearl Jams 10. My objective rating is a nine
43:54
because, as I've mentioned, I am slightly more of a Pearl Jam
44:00
fan, so I can't give it higher than what I gave Pearl Jam.
44:05
And I'm sticking to my guns, which would make Cobain happy.
44:11
But if you know, I could also understand like a 9.5 because
44:17
like it did, it did kick start. And so that that whole thing.
44:23
And so it's one of those, it's one of those things that you
44:25
never know because what what's happened has happened.
44:28
But does does this grunge and quote movement kick start the
44:34
way it did? If this song doesn't come along
44:38
and this album is just this album, say take that song off.
44:43
Does it become a slow burn to to happen?
44:46
Of course you never know. Those are my ratings to now.
44:53
Song of the week. Riley, what is was I guess your
44:57
song of the week? So my song of the week is
45:01
Resilience by Pierce The Veil. Here's the Veil is a screamo
45:09
band. Sometimes Resilience is not Jaws
45:14
of Life album is mainly not. I recommend listening to Jaws of
45:18
Life. It's mostly singing and really
45:22
good music, but Resilience is the one that I always come back
45:26
to. I got to see them play it in
45:28
concert acoustic. That was incredible and I just
45:33
recently rediscovered it on shuffle and have just been
45:36
listening to it ever since. Very nice.
45:40
So Pierce The Veil. Resilience.
45:42
And so you'll actually no mind. You may have actually heard it.
45:47
And then I'm like, oh, I remember that one while we were
45:51
driving around Knoxville, Mass. Don Quixote's.
45:58
Oh, go listen to. Was, was, was it, Were you in?
46:02
Were you in the car when it came on?
46:04
Yes, yes. Yes.
46:05
And then it came on again the next day and I was like, let's
46:08
go, Matt. Yeah, so, so, so Ty Garvey, who
46:15
is the lead singer, which we actually have a connection with,
46:20
He did. Did he lead worship while you
46:23
were at the youth group or Eddie or like by then?
46:27
For like half a year. But I went on.
46:29
I went to the beach with. Oh yeah, on another trips, on a
46:34
beach trip after, Yeah. I bonded with him at the beach.
46:38
Nice, he was the. Judge in a court in a fake court
46:41
setting that I was a part of and so I had to plead my case to tag
46:45
our. Great, so you know Don Quixote's
46:49
horse, you know, So 329 monthly listeners and you know, I just
46:57
the first lyric of that song is why don't we fly to your house
47:03
in my helicopter? And like just the the lyrics of
47:09
that was pretty good. It's just a really good little
47:12
song. And then also shout out to the
47:16
album covers because the album covers covers are awesome as
47:21
well. And I'll let you tell because I
47:24
don't I can't even remember who. Who are the album covers
47:28
they're? They Michael first name, I'm so
47:32
used to calling him they're Michael Bowman's kid.
47:35
Throughout the years he was another person at our church,
47:39
but he he stayed good friends with Ty and so it's his kid
47:44
throughout the years. And they're just dressed up in
47:47
various little funny things. I mean, it's, it's just, it's
47:50
just great. So Don Quixote's Horse Math is
47:54
your song of the week. So that being said, that leads
48:00
us to our next album. So our next album is one that I
48:07
was alive for. I think it.
48:09
Might be the first one that I was alive for.
48:11
Yeah, I think we've gotten close.
48:12
I think we've gotten one in the same year.
48:16
But it was. Earlier in the year.
48:18
Yes, I think this is the first one that I was alive for.
48:21
Huge. It's plus by Ed Sheeran, and
48:25
that's plus sign, not the word. Plus the word plus you go search
48:31
for it. To join us in our listening
48:33
adventure, you can either just search for Ed Sheeran or Plus
48:36
Sign. Oh yeah.
48:38
So actually next month, listen along with us.
48:41
Do you have anything else? I do not.
48:44
So until next time. Oh wait, our socials?
48:48
Aren't we supposed to plug those?
48:49
Is that technically what we're supposed to do as podcasters?
48:53
Go follow us on Barber Cuts. We're going to have a lot of
48:55
editing. Go follow us on Barber cuts pod
48:59
on all of the socials that you can find or think of other than
49:03
Snapchat, and then like, comment, subscribe, follow
49:09
wherever you can and join us in listening to our songs of the
49:14
week and plus by Ed Sheeran. And our Spotify playlist, which
49:19
maybe one day Riley will add songs to it, but mine are there.
49:23
There's so many things I have. To say for shame, for shame.
49:26
So now until next time, I'm Todd and.
49:31
I'm Riley and this has been another episode of Horror Cats.