I'm listening to Nirvana and I can't think of the first time I heard a Nirvana song. I consciously remember Heart Shaped Box from my AM640 days, which would make me about 12 or so. Until a few years ago, that was all I knew about a band that is supposed to be the greatest of the 90s. I remember Kurt's "suicide", or more accurately, I remember Andy Rooney's piece on 60 Minutes the following week, and how I felt Mr. Rooney's judgement was too harsh, even then. But mostly I don't remember, and I don't remember. I would've been nine or ten when Nevermind was released, and in spite of my angstful teen years, I wasn't over disaffected at that time, and I think that's why I missed it. I do actually own a Nirvana CD though, the unplugged one. I bought it last year when MuchMusic aired the unplugged concert to commemorate the anniversary of Kurt's death. At that point, I knew precious little less about the band than I do now, but the few minutes of Unplugged that I saw blew me away...it was unreal. And the CD is quite good. Their cover of Bowie's Man Who Sold the World is eerie. But outside of that, I knew three songs by them (Heart Shaped Box, Smells Like Teen Spirit and Come As You Are), and this train of thought was flitting through my mind the other night when I was trying to sleep and not succeeding. So I asked Erin if I could borrow Nevermind and I'm listening to it right now...I know anything I can say about the band now is only faint praise, praise of the damned, but maybe the music is where I seem to be now.

[as I've been writing this, my friend Sjerps offered to lend me his entire collection of Nirvana CDs, so perhaps I'll be able to continue to write something on this topic.]

more and more I'm wishing I didn't miss every important musical happening...I'm always out of step with the important things...