Pearl Jam or Nirvana – Really!

I have stopped arguing about music. It really makes no sense to me anymore. It was a difficult lesson I learnt in 7th grade when I tried to make a friend understand that Deep Purple was not noise and that if Boyzone created a stirring in your loins, you probably are not wired the same way the majority of the world’s population is. The futility of the argument begins with what people expect out of music and what they look for in a good song. It is important to realize that a good song is a conglomerate of many things including but not limited to songwriting, energy, emotion, rhythm and not the least ‘music’.

Good music extends beyond complexity, technique, delivery, record sales or anything for that matter. Even three-chord-trash is sheer aural ecstasy if it is done the right way. If a person has a better technique with respect to singing or playing an instrument, that doesn’t make his music any superior. To cite an example, I would definitely say that Yngwie Malmstien may have a far superior and more complicated technique compared to Dave Gilmour. But when it comes to making better music, Dave would kick Yngwie’s ass and drag it over a field of thistles and pine cones with ease. Often it is the simplicity itself that provides the scope to fill the music with delight.

Now that we have sequestered the spirit of good music away from, technique delivery and sales statistics, it gives me great pleasure to present to you “The idiot’s guide to understanding Nirvana”

1. It’s all about the music
2. Its only about the music
3. Good music and good technique are different
4. The best of Nirvana songs are never played on TV or the radio
5. Nevermind is good, but there are better things too.
6. If band names were related to the energy of their music, Nirvana would have been called the “Big Bang”
7. Personality and personal life are personally not related to music

Now coming to the futile exercise that I have embarked upon.

1. Pearl Jam created Nirvana

Not my favorite choice of words. But nevertheless, Pearl Jam inspired Nirvana. Usein Bolt is the fastest man on earth, neither his coach nor his inspirational guru are. You may take inspiration and training from whomever, but what you become depends on who you are. Every band in Seattle in the late 80’s and early 90’s looked up to the Jam. Not all of them became Nirvana.

2. The Numbers Game - Sales statistics can kiss a dog's furry behind

No Strings Attached / N Sync ~ 11,109,000

...Baby One More Time / Britney Spears ~ 10,472,878

Millennium / Backstreet Boys ~ 12,030,804

Defense rests….



2.2. Pearl Jam post 94 - Yield, No Code, Binaural, Riot Act.

Each of these albums having progressively poorer sales and the last 2 did not make platinum. But since sales statistics don’t mean anything, lets get right into the music. With respect for good music I would like to say that there are a few good songs among the 4 albums, Love-boat captain and Light year to just mention two. But none of the songs are even a shade close to the legend that was Pearl Jam. The songs are devoid of energy and the passion. If you took a song from Ten and played it in a cassette player in which the batteries are just about to die, I am pretty sure it would resemble a song from Binaural.

If longevity is an index of a band’s caliber, one would expect them to age like fine wine, not turn to vinegar. My stand is not that Nirvana would have gone on to do greater glory if Kurt Cobain was still alive, I just have to say that he would still have managed to give 2 good songs across 5 albums. They would have contributed to music just about the same as what Pearl Jam did.

3. Lyrics, Fame and the Suicide Act.

Emotion has been a corner post of music forever as one can remember. Angst was for grunge what melancholy was for Blues. It is tough to distil emotion from music because emotion at many times is what drives music. Even if I were to concede and admit that Eddie Vedder was a better singer and a better song-writer (which I would not do to begin with) I still think Kurt Cobain is a better musician. Kurt Cobain is capable of packing more energy and passion into a song than Eddie was ever able to.

In an attempt to eliminate songwriting skills from the equation, I take the examples of covers performed by the bands. Of all the songs I know that Pearl Jam has covered, I remember a few from Doors and The Who. All of which are good renditions of good songs. But if you take the covers that Nirvana has done, Man who sold the world (David Bowie), Son of a Gun (Vaselines), Plateau and Lake of fire (Meat Puppets) just to name a few. What Nirvana has done to each of these songs is to simply pack an exciting amount of energy and emotion into all these songs. It is like they took an old Honda and fitted it with twin-turbo and differential steering. That is talent that very few in the world are capable of. Take a song and make it better… No, make it phenomenal!

Millions of rock artists including Hendrix, Layne Staley and Randy Rhoads have died in the prime of their careers. Not all of them became Kurt Cobain, because none of them were Kurt Cobain.

4. The Verdict

If you like Pearl Jam better, it comes down to a matter of taste. It is one thing to say that Pearl Jam was a good band. But if you should dare to say that Kurt Cobain was over-rated and that his music was hyped up and that he became famous only because of MTV and his untimely suicide, you may kiss the same the same dog’s furry behind that the sales statistics kissed just a minute ago.