In the fall of 1991 yours truly smelled like a mix between Gillette clear gel Arctic Cool deodorant, french fries, and OREO cookies. But in my defense, millions of other 15-year-old boys in grade 11 probably smelled much worse than me. I have vivid memories from that time of my life, which are highlighted by not only smells but music as well.
When NIRVANA’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started to catch fire on the radio I can remember anxiously listening to Rick Dees’ Weekly Top 40 and waiting desperately for that song to get its turn. It will forever be woven together with my memories of late high school, and more than 20 years later it still gives me goosebumps and makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Which is why I hope on November 29th when Christie’s in London puts Kurt Cobain’s smashed guitar from the iconic music video up for auction, that whoever ends up owning it will treat that precious piece of rock history with the respect it fully deserves. As Complex writes in their story, “The 1960s Japanese Zen-on bass guitar was purchased from a pawn shop for the filming of the video and was later smashed into pieces during the shoot. With the remaining bits expected to fetch as much as $40,000, this is one of the coolest pieces of Nirvana memorabilia from their epic run in the early 1990s.”
In case you missed it, I wrote a story in January of this year which links to an interview where NIRVANA bassist Krist Novoselic discusses the 20th anniversary of the band’s groundbreaking album Nevermind and reveals the hidden story of how that album was made and how he and the band were shocked when “Smells Like Teen Spirit” began to emerge as the sleeper hit of the album. You can listen to the entire fascinating interview by CLICKING HERE.
