74 Kurt Donald Cobain Quotes on Music

Kurt Donald Cobain quotes on music

1. Same thing happened in the Punk Movement in the late 70's. It's like, major labels were signing punk bands right after the band's first gig, y'know, a punk band would start, play one gig, and get signed to a major label right away, 'cause it's a trend. That just shows there are a lot of old school dinosaurs in the record industry who need to be weeded out.

4. Music comes first. Lyrics are secondary... Most of my lyrics are contradictions. I'll write a few sincere lines and then I'll have to make fun of it. I don't like to make it too obvious because if it is too obvious it gets really stale. You shouldn't be in people's faces 100% all the time. We don't mean to be really cryptic or mysterious but I just think that lyrics that are different and weird and spacey paint a nice picture. It's just the way I like art.

9. With the lights out, it's less dangerous Here we are now, entertain us I feel stupid, and contagious Here we are now, entertain us.

11. He's the one Who likes all the pretty songs And he likes to sing along And he likes to shoot his gun But he knows not what it means.

29. Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld So I can sigh eternally.

33. And the flowers sing in B minor And the birds fly happily.

41. I just feel bad for all the kids who are forced to buy their music from big chain stores and have to have the edited music

44. Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second rate freudian evaluation on my lyrics when 90% of the time they've transcribed the lyrics incorrectly?

65. If it's illegal to rock and roll, throw my ass in jail!

69. I'd like to live off the band, but if not, I'll just retire to Mexico or Yugoslavia with a few hundred dollars, grow potatoes, and learn the history of rock through back issues of Creem magazine. (1989)

71. Rap music is the only vital form of music introduced since punk rock. (1990)

72. I knew I was different. I thought that I might be gay or something because I couldn't identify with any of the guys at all. None of them liked art or music, they just wanted to fight and get laid. It was many years ago but it gave me this real hatred for the average American macho male. (1991)

74. If I went to jail, at least I wouldn't have to sign autographs. (1991)

75. I would like to get rid of the homophobes, sexists, and racists in our audience. I know they're out there and it really bothers me. (1992)

76. We sound like the Bay City Rollers after an assault by Black Sabbath. And, we vomit onstage better than anyone. (1992)

77. Hope I die before I turn into Pete Townshend. (1992)

78. Guns N' Roses are a shitty band that makes shitty music. (1992)

79. I just can't believe anyone would start a band just to make the scene and be cool and have chicks. I just can't believe it. (1992)

85. Jocks have completely taken over music... And just to get back at them, I'm going to start playing basketball. (1993)

90. I can't play [guitar] like Segovia. The flip side of that is that Segovia could probably never have played like me. (1994)

91. I just think there's a breed of people who honestly like music. And there aren't very many of 'em, really. Those are the people who usually become musicians. It doesn't really matter what environment you grow up in. It's just some environments are more restrictive than others. (1994)

95. What's the matter with all you people at the back, did you come here to see Gloria Estefan? (11/27/93 at AT&T Bayfront Park Amphitheater, Miami, Florida)

96. OK, you trained monkeys, everybody jump up and down. Let's bring back the good old pogo! (12/31/93 at Oakland Coliseum Arena, Oakland, California)

98. This song is dedicated to Frank Zappa, and River Phoenix, Fred Gwynne who played Herman Munster, Dixie Lee Ray, Thomas P, Tip O'Neil, and you, dumb ass, who just threw water on me. (01/07/94 at Seattle Center Arena, Seattle, Washington)

106. In his way, he was the closest equivalent this decade and this generation of rock fans had to a John Lennon, and I don't make that comparison easily or impulsively.

107. I think one of the reasons so many people connected to him is they could tell his music was really pure and instinctual.

109. He had an amazing ear for melody.

112. I remember watching Kurt come through and thinking, 'God, this music is nuclear', This is really splitting the atom. They raised the temperature for everybody. Manufactured pop never looked so cold as when that heat was around. Nirvana made everything else look silly.

113. In 1991 there was a kind of shift in rock music in America - it was shifting away from all the hair bands in LA. And with Kurt Cobain you felt you were connecting to the real person, not to a perception of who he was - you were not connecting to an image or a manufactured cut-out. You felt that between you and him there was nothing; it was heart-to-heart. There are very few people who have that ability. I never met him but our guitarist Kirk Hammett had a relationship with him. We were doing this tour with Guns N' Roses in the US in 1992 and we wanted Nirvana to come out and join us. Kirk asked Kurt, but while Cobain said he would play with Metallica anywhere in the world, at any time, on any stage, he would not step up on the same stage as Guns N' Roses - obviously he felt that Axl was the antithesis to what he was. As I said, I never met Kurt, and he's probably the only guy in rock'n'roll that I have never met that I really wanted to - other than Bon Scott maybe. What a sad thing we can't hear the fourth Nirvana album. It would have been so great to be able to see how that would have evolved.

115. I remember the first time I saw him. I was 14 years old. I saw the 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' video and instantly fell in love with him, even though I couldn't see his face. I just wanted to see his face so much. After weeks of finding out anything I could about Nirvana, I saw his face - and he had a face like an angel. I loved him. He was my platonic love.

116. He had a touch most guitarists would kill for.

117. I only met Kurt once...I was touched by him. He seemed a little shell shocked as though he felt yet another show might drop at any time.

118. You know, I always thought I'd go first. I don't know why I thought that, it just seemed like I would. I mean, I didn't know him on a daily basis - far from it. But, in a way, I don't even feel right being here without him. It's so difficult to really believe he's gone. I still talk about him like he's still here, you know. I can't figure it out. It doesn't make any sense.

119. I meet him a few times. He was an pretty cool guy.

120. In twenty years from now, when people will look back at the 90's, they wont remember the commercial giants like Ace of Base or Backstreet Boys, they will remember the artistic bands and artists like Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

121. I think one of Kurt's strengths was his simplicity. He knew how to write really catchy songs that said a lot without doing too much.

122. The only person I have any respect for as a songwriter over the last 10 years is Kurt Cobain. He was the perfect cross between Lennon and McCartney...but he was a miserable fuck at the same time.

123. Cobain was a marvelous singer...I heard his unplugged version of that Leadbelly song and it was such a perfect vocal that I was really moved.

124. He had a wonderful balance of raw, dangerous anger, but also he was this delicate, fun person...He was brilliant, but he played dumb. And you know, Kurt was funny as shit.

125. Kurt chewed bubblegum in his soul.

126. Kurt Cobain was one of the best of our time

127. I dont think there's any better expression for that era (the 90s) then Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

128. Rage and aggression were elements for Kurt to play with as an artist, but he was profoundly gentle and intelligent.

129. He had life figured out really young. He knew life wasn't always fair.

130. [He] was very talented, but he was passive-aggressive, kind of a whiny white guy, basically.

131. [If he] applied the same brain to his music that he applied to his drug-infested life, its reasonable to think that his music may not have made much sense either.

132. I think Kurt was one of the deepest thinkers we've had in popular music over the last 20 years and if anyone deserves to have his songs dwelled upon it's him.

135. He really, really inspired me. He was so great. Wonderful. One of the best, but more than that. Kurt was one of the absolute best of all time for me.

136. There's something wrong with that boy. He frowns for no good reason.

137. That kid had heart.

138. I don't know why everyone on earth felt so close to that guy; he was beloved and endearing and inoffensive in some weird way. For all his screaming and all of his darkness, he was just lovable.

139. He was a genius.

144. They all stand straight and swing to the side No heads, but they feet still glide Take a step back, twist and dive I even seen Kurt Cobain get live

145. The whole world was crying when Kurt's gun went bang When Eazy-E died though, it wasn't no thang Rapper dies of A.I.D.S. but you hardly mention Rocker blows his face off and becomes a legend Heroin and a shotgun, a hero is made Maybe I should do that shit so J can get paid

148. There was this boy who played in a rock n' roll band And he wasn't half bad at saving the world She said he could do no right, so he took his life The story is true

153. He rocked the United States by flying all over the country and playing that rock and roll He is a good singer He is my rock star

155. He needs a quiet room With a lock to keep him in It's just a quiet room And he's there He plays an old guitar With a coin found by the phone It was his friends guitar That he played He's never been in love But he knows just what love is He says nevermind And no-one speaks

157. Thanks to Elvis and Kurt Cobain the world will never be the same

158. Kurt Cobain, we was good friends Ozzy Osbourne too.

161. What of Kurt Cobain, will his presence still remain?

162. A whole generation of kids blowin' out their fuckin' brains to this Kurt Cobain music

163. And going for the clincher, a girl cries out in vain How Jesus lived 6 years longer than Kurt Cobain And Jesus' hair was longer, and Jesus' arms were stonger And Jesus's eyes were bluer, and Jesus' thoughts were truer

164. And a memory that can ease your pain Like a melody from Kurt Cobain.

165. Way out in Seattle Young Kurt Cobain Snuck out to the greenhouse Put a bullet in his brain.

167. Johnny wishes he was famous Spends his time alone in the basement With Lennon and Cobain And a guitar and a stereo.

168. Having conversations with Kurt Cobain I'm drowning my fears in the acid rain.

170. Cobain, can you hear the spheres Singing songs off station to station?

171. Yeah the whole byrd gangs in here like Kurt Cobain was here.

172. Now I'ma pull a fuckin' Jeffery Dahmer, now he's suicidal, just like NIrvana.

175. Kurt Cobain reincarnated Sighs and licks his face.

178. I'll finish with a bang, like in Cobain's biography

179. A daily dose of eMpTyV Will flush your mind right down the drain Shannon Hoon and Kurt Cobain, Make yourself a household name

185. And they told me The times have changed Cause' our parents had Hendrix, Janis and Jim But what about River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain.

186. Y hoy me encuentro tan solo y triste cual hoja al viento quisiera llorar, quisiera morir, como Kurt Cobain, de sentimiento. (And today I am so alone and sad like a leaf in the wind I wish to cry, I wish to die like Kurt Cobain, of feeling)