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Originally Posted by dead_battery
you can hear the burn out death drive on in utero.
if you listen to the very last bits of music he did - the unreleased jams and live fragments - he had got to a weird place where he was oscillating between EXTREME noise jams with garbled nonsense yelp vocals and really sweet happy light songs like do ri me.
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Yup, I think In Utero and Unplugged perfectly reflect those two conflicting sounds that Kurt was exploring in 1993 for his post-Nirvana music. It was I think his best, he broke out of those "formulas" that began to define Bleach/Nevermind era Nirvana, and much like with the San Antonio Spurs, formulaic shit gets boring as the spontaneity is sucked out like a soul. Nirvana WAS fun, and its clear that Kurt wasn't having fun anymore in the spotlight.
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he was getting so intense that i think he realized the bands commercial appeal was going to dwindle, and he was terrified about that.
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Here is where I think the irrationality of Kurt's extreme drug habit and the insanity that is Courtney Love pushed him over. I never though that the "suicide note" was anything more than a letter of resignation, and perhaps after getting high for days Kurt got too depressed rather than excited. I don't think he was all that interested in commercial success with his music, yet was also clearly thinking about what Courtney wanted. It was her that pushed Kurt to start to get more artistically isolated from Krist and Dave, and in particular it was her who pushed Kurt into those bullshit contracts where he got 75% of In Utero and other materials.. Everybody around Kurt was totally surprised and even worried all the more when he began to push for that through lawyers of all people! He lawyered up yo!! A lot of people around him of course really just though it was a reflection of his staggering drug habit, he was known to pay schmuck prices and was doing a lot a day, and the worst thing for an addict is the possibility of a meal ticket which can support an extended drug habit. Looking at what Courtney did with the Nirvana material AFTER his death, it seems quite clear and obvious that all that shit in 1993 with the lawyers was HER. So really, maybe Kurt wasn't scared of losing out on commercial success or acclaim but rather on how that in particular would piss off Courtney Love. This is not to feed into any kind of conspiracy, rather, to point out that their marriage was toxic.
Exactly!
A love your analysis. I've never understood how folks don't like In Utero because it seemed to reflect that evolving, experimental aspect of Kurt's music which first reared its head into view on Endless, Nameless. In Utero is a FIERCE record. It is trying to bridge chaos with that poppy harmony and riff structure that was trademark Nevermind. The noise jams I think were promising, Kurt was expanding his ability to find sound within layers of distortion and feedback and you see glimpses of this on the 1993 tour and In Utero.