Kurt and Lana top Courtney Love’s list of musical greats, if you ask her.
In an interview on Marc Maron’s WTF podcast, the singer/songwriter named her late husband Kurt Cobain and artist Lana Del Rey as the only true musical geniuses she’s met in person.
“They can Spielberg anything,” the Hole lead singer said in an interview with Maron. “[R.E.M.’s Michael] Stipe? Bono? Yes, these are people that I know and love. Billie Joe [Armstrong], sure. But Lana? She’s got a magic thing. And she’s not even f—ed up!”
During the 2015 Endless Summer Tour, Love made six stops with Del Rey, telling Maron that Del Rey was a “real, true, fantastic friend.”
“She’s got the integrity Kurt had,” Love stated. “The only two people I know that I can say [that about].”
Love compared the feminized version of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” by Del Rey to Nirvana’s interpretations of the Meat Puppets songs “Plateau,” “Oh, Me,” and “Lake of Fire,” which the band performed during their MTV Unplugged special in 1993.”
She also recalled introducing Del Rey to singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell while in Portland, and how meeting Mitchell inspired Del Rey’s “Fucking Whole Thing.” I made it clear to Maron.
“My boomer rock critic friends are calling after Norman Rockwell, ‘Hey your friend, she’s pretty good,'” Love recalled. “And I said to her, ‘Welcome to the Thunderdome, Ms. Del Rey.'”
Love and Maron also talked about Love’s first studio album, following Hole’s 2010’s Nobody’s Daughter. The song title “Kill F—- Marry” was believed to be based on the defamation case of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard.
On April 5, 1994, when he was 27 years old, Cobain, the lead singer of Nirvana and the personification of the grunge alt-rock movement of the 1990s, committed suicide.
Cobain Music Contributions
American musician Kurt Donald Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist and chief songwriter of the rock group Nirvana from around February 20, 1967 to around April 5, 1994.
The thematic boundaries of popular rock music were pushed by Kurt Cobain’s disturbing songs and subversive imagery. He has been hailed as the voice of Generation X and is considered one of the most important artists in the development of alternative rock.
In order to establish Nirvana as a part of the grunge movement that started in Seattle, Cobain co-founded the band in 1987 with Krist Novoselic and Aaron Burckhard.
Nirvana achieved international popularity with “Smells Like Teen Spirit” off their critically praised second album, Nevermind after signing with major label DGC Records (1991).
Following Nirvana’s unexpected success, Cobain was lauded as the voice of his generation, but he disliked this, feeling that the general public had misunderstood his message and artistic vision.
Other songs that Cobain composed for Nirvana besides “Smells Like Teen Spirit” include “Come as You Are,” “Lithium,” “In Bloom,” “Something in the Way,” “Heart-Shaped Box,” “All Apologies,” “About a Girl,” “Aneurysm,” and “You Know You’re Right.”
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Went Through
Cobain had chronic health issues including depression and heroin addiction during the last few years of his life. He also struggled with the rigors of his fame on a personal and professional level and had a difficult marriage to his fellow artist Courtney Love.
Later, Cobain underwent an intervention and entered a detoxification program after overdosing on champagne and Rohypnol in March 1994.
The singer was discovered dead at his Seattle residence on April 8, 1994, at the age of 27. Police later determined he had passed away on April 5 from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head.
Along with comrades Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl from Nirvana, Cobain was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, their first year of eligibility.
By Rolling Stone, Cobain was listed among the 100 Greatest Songwriters, 100 Greatest Guitarists, and 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
In its list of the “22 Greatest Voices in Music,” MTV rated him seventh. On Hit Parader’s list of the “100 Greatest Metal Singers of All Time” from 2006, he was ranked 20th.
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Who is Lana Del Rey
American singer-songwriter Elizabeth Woolridge Grant, higher regarded with the aid of her level call Lana Del Rey, was born on June 21, 1985.
She is renowned for the cinematic quality of her music, which explores tragic romance, glitz, and melancholy while making frequent references to contemporary pop culture and 1950s–1960s Americana.
In addition to being nominated for six Grammy Awards and a Golden Globe Award, she has won several awards, including a Satellite Award, two MTV Europe Music Awards, and two Brit Awards.
At the Hitmakers Awards, Variety recognized her as “one of the most influential singer-songwriters of the 21st century.”
Del Rey, who was raised in rural New York, relocated to New York City in 2005 to pursue a career in music.
The singer’s breakthrough occurred in 2011 with the viral popularity of her track “Video Games,” following many endeavors, including the release of her self-titled debut studio album. She subsequently secured a recording deal with Polydor and Interscope.
With her second album, Born to Die (2012), that featured the sleeper hit “Summertime Sadness,” she found both critical and commercial success.
The third album by Del Rey, Ultraviolence (2014), debuted at number one in the United States and made greater use of guitar-driven instrumentation. 200 on Billboard.
In contrast to her critically lauded the sixth album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, her fourth and fifth albums, Honeymoon (2015) and Lust for Life (2017), witnessed a return to the stylistic traditions of her earlier releases.
Her next album, which focused on soft rock, was followed in 2021 by Chemtrails over the Country Club and Blue Banisters.
Photo: Stereogum
