Jesse Berstein, Kurdt Cobain (1 Viewer)

I really appreciate Bukowski's realism but i understand it and can really relate to it being a downtown city kid my whole like, I get it. It sort of reminded me of this Seattle poet Jesse Berstein that I used to really like (not ME and NOT a promotion) ... Bukowski's way more raw.
 
Steven Jesse Bernstein was great. Yes, This Jesse Lee is not Bernstein. Bernstein committed suicide years ago. He was very powerful and disturbing. Very much worth reading, or better yet, pick up his album on Sub Pop called PRISON.

Bill
 
The album is great, it was one of the finest releases during the Seattle hype.
I guess I heard it when he was already gone, more noise comes to my mind.
 
"The face" is a disturbing piece. It is the only piece without music behind it.

But really, the whole album is worth a listen.

Bill
 
on that note (this might be a really stupid question to pose), what do you guys think of Cobain as a writer - without the music behind the words?
 
I love Cobain. However, without the music, eh, not so sure myself. I mean, we really only have about 3 albums to go by.... I would not, even if you paid me, say Cobain was a great lyricist. I don't know that he was even good. He had catchy hooks, and choruses, but I'm sure I'll be damned for this, I think NIKKI SIXX is a better writer than Kurt Cobain.....
 
" I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black."
Is that love turned into unconditional surrender?

Honestly, I didn't care too much about Nirvana and their lyrics. You couldn't spend a day without hearing their songs; it was like a locust swarm attacking your ears. I've read the textbook to In Utero and couldn't figure out much sense. It might have passed me by. Though I liked the "Stay away!" and "Get away!" screaming a lot, I could relate to that in a simple ftw sense.

One book I really love is The Perfume by Patrick Süsskind and I didn't like Cobain's lyrics on it, they could have been written by any average schoolboy.

Edit: It was not a stupid question at all. I should have put that on top of my reply.
 
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I think Kurt himself even said he wasn't a great lyricist; that the lyrics weren't that important to him and he just threw out whatever came into his head. He was usually saying absolutely nothing at all. The ironic thing is, it was through all that nothingness that so much could be read into it. That was really his gift and others who tried to emulate it failed miserably. Billy Corgan and Scott Weiland come to mind; two douchbags who thought that by purposely being obscure and abstract, that they could come across as profound and poetic. They tried to say so much and ended up saying nothing at all--the complete opposite of Kurt. (And this is coming from someone who isn't a Nirvana fan)

Anyway, once again the Bukowskism comes to mind--Don't try.

Someone should put together a collection of all the "tryers" throughout history, make a book out of it and have it distributed throughout our public school system. I think it would change the course of human history. If kids had a clear cut picture of what not to be like, half the battle would be won.
 
Well, me too, but only because of the Zepplinesqe (is that a word?) riffs.

But Weiland was hopeless. Even Slash couldn't make him appear cool.
 
I always really liked Cobain's juxtaposition of things in a lot of the songs, but... without the music, I don't think it would have done it for me. I'm a huge Nirvana fan and I can't imagine Kurt Cobain's words without music... I don't think it would work.

I'm gonna look up this Jesse Berstein fella... sounds interesting.
 
Cobain's lyrics depended on the music as much as every other songwriter's.
For me - the "eat cancer....turn black" line was a fine choice of words. As when he rhymed "married" with "buried". After hearing that, I knew he was in trouble. So did many....
 

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