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Rape Me
When the two remaining members of Nirvana attempted to cobble together a box set featuring some of the band's unreleased material, singer Kurt Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, sued, claiming they were simply interested in making a few "quick bucks" off of their former band. All those interested in the Nirvana legacy—record companies, former band members, "the worst of them"—were "feed[ing] on the dead man." A few years later, Love would release Cobain's dairies and journals as a coffee table book, over the protests of his former band mates. And now, the final indignity, again courtesy of Ms. Love: portions of Cobain's diaries are to be printed on a special run of hipster sneakers. According to this article in Ad Age, Love has signed off on Kurt Cobain-branded Converse All-Stars and Jack Purcells.
A 2002 piece from rock critic Jim DeRogatis on the battle over Nirvana's fortune.
TallDave|4.3.08 @ 1:44PM|#
That woman is a jackal and always has been.
If you listen to Cobain's lyrics, it's pretty clear a good portion
of them are bitching about her.
|4.3.08 @ 1:45PM|#
I have it on good authority that Cobain, where ever he is, just committed suicide for the second time.
|4.3.08 @ 1:47PM|#
Dave, thats right. Love was determined to be the Yoko Ono of grunge and shes succeeded.
|4.3.08 @ 1:49PM|#
Courtney Love is a disgusting, narcissistic, egomaniacal snatch
who would dig up Cobain's body and sell flecks of his brain tissue
on eBay if she could get away with it.
I for one would like to tie her down and shit on her face.
|4.3.08 @ 1:50PM|#
She is much worse than Yoko. Yoko never whored out Lennon's notebooks. All Yoko ever did was totally dominate Lennon. But since Lennon was basically a weak and insecure person, someone was going to do that Yoko or no Yoko. I guess maybe turning over all of the home movies for use in Imagine was exploitive, but that is a good film and a think a decent historical record of who Lennon was post Beatles. Love sets a new standard for bitch wife of a rock star.
|4.3.08 @ 1:53PM|#
All Yoko ever did was totally dominate Lennon. But since Lennon was basically a weak and insecure person, someone was going to do that Yoko or no Yoko.
I think you can say the same thing about Cobain. Everyone said he
was rather shy and insecure.
Elemenope|4.3.08 @ 1:54PM|#
A few years later, Love would release Cobain's
dairies
Ewww. I hope not.
Rob W.|4.3.08 @ 1:55PM|#
Semi-relevant Onion story:
http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/stop_making_movies_about_my
|4.3.08 @ 1:59PM|#
"I think you can say the same thing about Cobain. Everyone said
he was rather shy and insecure."
Totally. I still think Cobain was just going to retire from music
and screw her and the bitch offed him.
Episiarch|4.3.08 @ 2:03PM|#
Did anyone else see the documentary Kurt and
Courtney? It starts out as a conspiracy investigation but
morphs into an investigation of Love's heavy-handed management of
Cobain's legacy and her willingness to silence people, after she
tries to kill the documentary itself.
She comes off as a scumbag, of course, but the best part is the end
where the director goes up on stage at an ACLU benefit for Love and
starts asking questions, and is physically removed from the event.
It was beautifully ironic in that it was the ACLU following Love's
wishes and shutting him up.
Good stuff. Even though all documentaries are slanted, Love is
clearly a total shithead.
toshiro_mifune|4.3.08 @ 2:03PM|#
You guys forgot the Cobain Neca dolls, the Cobain signature
guitar picks and Nirvana creeping into ads for Sony PS3
games.
She collects, IIRC 98% of the royalties from their music and
somehow blew through all the money from Nevermind and
Hole.
|4.3.08 @ 2:05PM|#
Epi,
I saw that movie and it is very compelling. I like the scene where
they are talking to some aging punker chick who used to know them
back in the day and she talks about how shy and quiet Kurt was and
what a nice guy he seemed to be and then the narator asked her
about Love and the woman immediately says "she was a shrew."
Episiarch|4.3.08 @ 2:19PM|#
Yeah, John, it's a very interesting film. I don't even give that
much of a shit about Nirvana but watching Love go into thug mode
when confronted was awesome stuff.
Of course, if you've seen the Comedy Central roast of Pamela
Anderson, you can come to no other conclusion than Love is the
biggest piece of scumbag trash currently walking the planet. And
she was supposedly not on any drugs (just alcohol) at that
time.
|4.3.08 @ 2:20PM|#
I think its a possibility that she killed him because he was
either going to retire from music or do a Pearl Jam and continue to
make music but pull back from the spotlight dramatically--no music
videos, no MTV performances, limited touring etc.
Either way she probably didn't like that. She probably didn't like
the fact that he was a good songwriter while she was not.
She collects, IIRC 98% of the royalties from their music and somehow blew through all the money from Nevermind and Hole.
Easy to do with a heroin habit.
Episiarch|4.3.08 @ 2:25PM|#
Look, the conspiracy theories are stupid. Love didn't need to
stage a suicide. All she had to do was work him over emotionally
enough to get him to commit suicide. It wouldn't have been that
hard; the guy was unstable and very depressed to start with. She
might have even done it just through her normal behavior.
Easy to do with a heroin habit.
Heroin ain't that expensive, dude.
|4.3.08 @ 2:26PM|#
Well, Epi, didn't MC Hammer blow like $10 million in the space of a year? And he wasn't even addicted to drugs. Some rock stars are really, really bad with managing money.
Episiarch|4.3.08 @ 2:28PM|#
Cesar, I was just remarking that a drug habit won't make a multimillionaire poor. Stupidity will, you are correct.
toshiro_mifune|4.3.08 @ 2:29PM|#
Easy to do with a heroin habit.
Even with several heroin habits it would be hard to go through all
of Nirvana's cash.
Maybe a heroin & derivatives trading habit.
She just sold a 25% stake in the catalog for
$50 mil . That's a lot of heroin.
|4.3.08 @ 2:31PM|#
I wasn't talking about just the cost of the drug itself. But also the effects, i.e., when you're going through opiate withdraw you're not going to make very good financial decisions.
|4.3.08 @ 2:32PM|#
The funny thing is, if Cobain hadn't offed himself, he'd be just another obscure, washed-up musician like most of the rest of the grunge folks. The shelf life of that genre was pretty short.
toshiro_mifune|4.3.08 @ 2:34PM|#
ChrisO - You're right I never hear Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or STP any more on the radio.
|4.3.08 @ 2:40PM|#
I don't know about Crist Novoselic, but does she seriously think
Dave Grohl could possibly need any money earned by the selling of
Nirvana merchandise?
Kurt Cobain definitely would have gotten a hard-on at the thought
of his private thoughts being worn on the stinking feet of
nostalgic former Seattle-noids, though. Selling products was the
passion that burned in him. Right, Miss Love?
I wonder how Francis Bean feels.
|4.3.08 @ 2:49PM|#
This would be more interesting if we were talking about
a good band.
It's okay, ed. Maybe you'll get lucky and somebody will post a
Puddle of Mudd story tomorrow.
|4.3.08 @ 2:52PM|#
ChrisO
Yeah, no one has ever heard of Foo Fighters or Audioslave...and the
AIC regroup didn't cause a ruckus (big Jerry Cantrell fan, solo,
too).
My kids have stolen all my old Soundgarden (am bitter)...
The shoes..blech. Courtney Love..nausea.
The knee-jerk about "Grunge" has always amused me, though. Someone
peed in someoone's cornflakes. The hair band snobs still blame
"Grunge" fro killing the 80's. Generally forgetting Warrant's
"Cherry Pie"...
|4.3.08 @ 2:53PM|#
Regarding the shoes, i find it tacky and i wouldn't by them, but i fully support her right to produce and make money off them. Same goes for his journal. Kurt doesn't give a shit, he's dead.
|4.3.08 @ 2:53PM|#
It's the principle of it that galls me; Grohl and Novaselic
were in the band. They have more claim to partial
ownership of the name, the reputation and the material than anybody
left alive. Love looks suspiciously as though she had a kid solely
to claim familial right.
At least Yoko Ono had her own extensive body of work to support
herself with.
|4.3.08 @ 3:14PM|#
The problem is that when you are a junkie you lose your
judgement and whatever money you don't spend on your habbit people
steal from you. John Phillips ended up living in a feces covered
split level house broke after making millions off of the Mamas and
the Pappas. He didn't spend millions of drugs. He spent millions
supporting his deadbeat druggie friends and pissing it away on
investment scams pitched to him by crooked snyophants. I would
imagine there is a lot of that going on with Love.
Also, didn't Love move on to Billy Corigan in the 90s and band him
and manipulate him just long enough to get him to write most of the
music on one of the Hole records?
Taktix®|4.3.08 @ 3:19PM|#
Well, Epi, didn't MC Hammer blow like $10 million in the
space of a year? And he wasn't even addicted to drugs. Some rock
stars are really, really bad with managing money.
I'm fairly certain Hammer lost his bling in a bad real estate deal,
rather than pissing it all away. Not that it makes him any less
stupid, but it doesn't exactly fit the "sex+drugs+rock n'roll=ruin"
model...
|4.3.08 @ 3:19PM|#
Oh how I long to read about her over-dosing. Soemthing tells me she smells nothing like Teen Spirit.
|4.3.08 @ 3:22PM|#
Holy fuck, these sneakers are a new low point of civilization.
Celebrity Skin residuals drying up?
For all her many, many faults, she looked good in Larry
Flynt tho'.
T|4.3.08 @ 3:35PM|#
The knee-jerk about "Grunge" has always amused me, though.
Someone peed in someoone's cornflakes. The hair band snobs still
blame "Grunge" fro killing the 80's.
Actually, as a long term metal head, I was happier than a clam when
Grunge drove metal off the media stage and it went back
underground. Once everybody gave up the idea of selling a billion
records and being on MTV, they went back to making music and not
giving a fuck about how offensive or ugly they were.
Dave W.|4.3.08 @ 3:37PM|#
Look, the conspiracy theories are stupid.
I think she had him killed. Then again, I think Elliot Smith was a
homicide victim. And Daniel Smith for that matter.
Travis|4.3.08 @ 3:47PM|#
I like Nirvana but everytime I hear a Hole song I know it's only
because of her connection to Nirvana.
If I were married to that ugly, untalented whore I probably kill
myself to.
|4.3.08 @ 3:49PM|#
T,
As a former Metal Head, Metal neeeded to die in the 80s and come
back as something else. Some one on another thread a few days ago
compared the current state of rap to the state of metal in the late
80s. I thought it was a pretty spot on comparison. Both of them
became completely self indulgent and a parody of what they started
out as.
|4.3.08 @ 3:54PM|#
ChrisO - You're right I never hear Soundgarden, Pearl Jam or
STP any more on the radio.
Nirvana's sales were already on the downswing when those bands were
on the way up. I contend that Soundgarden and STP are much more
"classic" bands than Nirvana was, maybe in part because they had
broader appeal. Even as a true metalhead, I liked Soundgarden and
STP, while Nirvana sounded like three random idiots who stumbled
into a room full of musical instruments.
The knee-jerk about "Grunge" has always amused me, though.
Someone peed in someoone's cornflakes. The hair band snobs still
blame "Grunge" fro killing the 80's.
Which is, of course, inaccurate. The music industry's knee-jerk
overreaction to grunge partly "killed the '80s." There were plenty
of fans out there who didn't like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and wanted
metal, but the major labels weren't interested anymore. Wussy hair
bands were totally played out, but there were plenty of real metal
bands in the '90s like Nevermore, Forbidden, and Iced Earth who
never really got a shot because the brainless A&R idiots were
fixated on flannel shirts.
|4.3.08 @ 3:55PM|#
For all her many, many faults, she looked good in Larry
Flynt tho'.
If you like fucking heroin addicts with skinny legs and droopy
tits.
Dave W.|4.3.08 @ 3:57PM|#
Dave, did you youtube your Today interview?
No. I don't know if anybody even has a video of it. besides,
phil might find it and start publicizing it more than I
want.
I just answered one question, though -- not quite an interview.
|4.3.08 @ 3:58PM|#
ChrisO,
I saw Pearl Jam in concert a few years ago. After I got beyond what
a pretensious ass Eddie Vedder is, I was really impressed. I found
them to be in concert at least more of a classic 70s hard rock band
in the mold of Crazy Horse or the Who. They finished the show with
the best cover of Baba O'Reily I have ever heard.
|4.3.08 @ 4:02PM|#
I saw Pearl Jam in concert a few years ago. After I got
beyond what a pretensious ass Eddie Vedder is, I was really
impressed. I found them to be in concert at least more of a classic
70s hard rock band in the mold of Crazy Horse or the Who. They
finished the show with the best cover of Baba O'Reily I have ever
heard.
I think that's probably true. I really enjoyed the Ten
album, but found that the ones after that were musically and
vocally weak. Eddie Vedder went from a pleasing baritone, ala
pre-hair metal David Coverdale, into shrieking tunelessly like he
was passing a kidney stone.
But I've heard they're great in concert, and I'll be seeing them at
Bonnaroo this year.
|4.3.08 @ 4:05PM|#
I for one would like to tie her down and shit on her
face.
I think that's how she paid the rent before she met Kurt.
|4.3.08 @ 4:06PM|#
"But I've heard they're great in concert, and I'll be seeing
them at Bonnaroo this year."
Have fun. I actually went to Bonnaroo last year with my wife as a
guest of microsoft. It was a blast. Got to see The Police. Pearl
Jam has a great drummer and really good guitarists. If they are on,
they are well worth seeing.
|4.3.08 @ 4:07PM|#
John...I've seen that PJ "Baba O'Reily" on youtube..it really
was fantastic.
ChrisO:
"Which is, of course, inaccurate. The music industry's knee-jerk
overreaction to grunge partly "killed the '80s." There were plenty
of fans out there who didn't like Nirvana and Pearl Jam and wanted
metal, but the major labels weren't interested anymore. Wussy hair
bands were totally played out, but there were plenty of real metal
bands in the '90s like Nevermore, Forbidden, and Iced Earth who
never really got a shot because the brainless A&R idiots were
fixated on flannel shirts."
A&R "idiots" weren't fixated on flannel shirts all that long,
they moved very quickly onto the next "big thing"...and today you
have all the pop/emo/whatever the hell they call it..oh and
hiphop/rap. A&R goes for whatever the kids are listening to.
And it ain't Iced Earth.
I quit watching MTV when they dropped the MTVX channel..
|4.3.08 @ 4:07PM|#
But I've heard they're great in concert, and I'll be seeing
them at Bonnaroo this year.
Confirmed. Pearl Jam has opened three national tours in Missoula,
Mont., where I'm from (bass player Jeff Ament lives here). I've
seen them in concert five times, and they blew me away every single
time.
Pearl Jam is a band that just kicks ass, Eddie's love of Noam
Chomsky and Howard Zinn notwithstanding.
|4.3.08 @ 4:11PM|#
One thing that I keep trying to convince people of is the
irrelevancy of the number of zeros when you're discussing financial
matters.
People who are good with money can save money when living on a few
dollars a day. People who are bad with money can blow through
millions in no time at all. It really isn't any harder to let ten
million slip through your fingers than it is to let ten
dollars.
I've always thought Love was a total skank, but it was cool because
she embraced her skankhood. She named her band Hole for crying out
loud. Like the way Madonna embraced being a slut. And yet I have
nothing but contempt for Paris Hilton despite the fact that she
owns being a stupid spoiled whore. I have no idea how or why I draw
the line there. It's probably very hypocritical of me.
bitchy geezer|4.3.08 @ 4:12PM|#
Soundgarden was a metal band, so of course metal fans
liked them - once they heard them. I'd been foisting them on
metalheads and classic-rock dudes with great success for years
before they broke out. They were ready to be famous.
Pearl Jam was proto-Creed, made for the same idiots. There were
millions waiting for them, too.
Nirvana was a fluke. They were a more melodic than average
noise-rock band who never should have been famous. Seeing them open
for Loop and Mudhoney at shitty bars made sense. Seeing them on MTV
even once was weird. What happened after that was all
marketing. That's why no popular bands since them have sounded like
them. That's not a kind of music that many people genuinely
like.
I can't blame the guy for hating his life. It was the wrong
one.
Taktix®|4.3.08 @ 4:12PM|#
John,
As a dedicated Pearl Jam fanatic, I will tell you their true talent
is wasted on the radio, in videos, etc. They have always been at
their best during live shows (think Eddie climbing on the rafters
in the Evenflow video).
Eddie hated the pop-culture way their music was being taken. They
had some of their popular songs from Ten remixed by Brendan
O'Brien, who produced their later albums and much of Soundgarden's
work.
Eddie even fired their drummer, David A., for doing an interview in
Modern Drummer magazine (likely more a last straw than a core
dispute, David A. was very pro-gun.
In fact, Glorified G, an pro-gun-control tune, was written the day
David A. brought two newly-bought pistols to rehersal).
Don't get me wrong, I hate Eddie's politics, but they have been
rocking for a long time.
|4.3.08 @ 4:19PM|#
And she was supposedly not on any drugs (just alcohol) at
that time.
Say Episiarch, have you ever considered the benefits of owning your
own bridge?
|4.3.08 @ 4:27PM|#
TakTix,
Kicked the guy out for being pro-gun? Amazing but not surprising.
After I saw them live, I bought a couple of the live CDS where they
released the live CDs of every concert they did on the entire tour.
I have never listened to a studio recording of them since.
|4.3.08 @ 4:44PM|#
Didn't Eddie Vedder compose and perform the soundtrack for "Into the Wild"? boy that was depresing music. I like Pearl Jam, but Eddie as a solo artist sucks!
Episiarch|4.3.08 @ 4:47PM|#
Say Episiarch, have you ever considered the benefits of
owning your own bridge?
Note the word "supposedly" in my statement. It's there for a
reason.
Pearl Jam sucks monkey balls. Sorry dudes, but true. They are so
crazy overrated it's pathetic. I remember when their second album
was coming out, and my cousins and friends were hyperventilating
like teenage girls at an N'Sync concert. The record store opened at
midnight to sell copies and they actually went, camped out for an
hour or two, and then bought the album that night.
Within one week it was if Pearl Jam never existed for them. They
were so embarrassed that they acted like it was the next Star Wars
movie for such a mediocre band that they were ashamed to even talk
about them.
I laughed and ripped them new ones.
|4.3.08 @ 5:03PM|#
If you like fucking heroin addicts with skinny legs and
droopy tits.
You say it as if there is something wrong with that.
Oh, and I'm with Epi on this. Never understood what was so great
about Pearl Jam. They were the Police of grunge to
me....zzzzzzz....
Ashley|4.3.08 @ 5:21PM|#
(Saturday, 5 May 2007) Love plans to sell Cobain's belongings
That doesn't sounds like her. It seems so classless and desperate. Not whorey and grasping.
|4.3.08 @ 5:59PM|#
Kurt was said to be very private if she was really a good wife then she would never have sold the journals or give the Ok to make the shoes.
|4.3.08 @ 6:16PM|#
Dave W,
Elliot Smith a homicide? Not unless there's a conspiracy of silence
that extends to his roommate of the time, who told me how
super-depressed and suicidal he was when she knew him.
sourpuss|4.3.08 @ 8:24PM|#
main gripe of the courtney haters: she got to play with kurt's dick, and they didn't
Dave W.|4.3.08 @ 8:48PM|#
extends to his roommate of the time
I have to admit that the Elliot Smith one is harder to call.
|4.3.08 @ 10:39PM|#
Highnumber, thanks for your link to the Richard Cheese version of "Rape Me." The ending is especially great.
|4.3.08 @ 10:41PM|#
Oops, my copy of your link is bad.
Those who haven't seen it already, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0wmYJ3yj0c
|4.4.08 @ 12:23AM|#
A&R "idiots" weren't fixated on flannel shirts all that
long, they moved very quickly onto the next "big thing"...and today
you have all the pop/emo/whatever the hell they call it..oh and
hiphop/rap. A&R goes for whatever the kids are listening to.
And it ain't Iced Earth.
Haven't you heard? We are listening to Post-"Goo" Wop Rock now. Try
to keep up, pops.
"Puts on PsiHelmet, gets into hover car and flys away.*
The Wine Commonsewer|4.4.08 @ 1:54AM|#
All I can say is that Kurt shot the wrong Cobain.
I stole that from a friend of mine.
Kolohe|4.4.08 @ 2:38AM|#
And yet I have nothing but contempt for Paris Hilton despite
the fact that she owns being a stupid spoiled whore. I have no idea
how or why I draw the line there.
Because she's Francisco d'Anconia but without any secret
conspiracy. At least Madonna is self made, and Love, well, even
marrying well takes some effort, at least according Jane Austen
novels.
ed|4.4.08 @ 7:54AM|#
Jane Austen novels
Has anyone ever finished one? I tried and failed three times. How
do they turn out?
Are there zombies?
|4.4.08 @ 11:10AM|#
Speaking of the legal battle over the unreleased Nirvana
material, I remember a great bit Dr. David Thorpe wrote for
SomethingAwful.com:
Nirvana - With The Lights Out
After a prolonged legal battle over who has the right to exhume
Kurt Cobain's corpse and make it dance for money, we have finally
been blessed with a box set of rarities which documents Nirvana's
peerless history of shitty outtakes. Let this be a lesson to all
you aspiring musicians: don't die after you become really famous,
or your subhuman harpy of a wife will publish everything you ever
deemed unworthy of release in order to feed her addiction to pills
and attention.
Richard Cheese|4.4.08 @ 2:14PM|#
R ... A ... P ... me!
Rape-rape-rape! Rape-rape, rape-rape-rape! Rape-rape rape me!
Bette Dillinger|4.4.08 @ 4:04PM|#
Well, several people said they saw the documentary "Kurt and
Courtney".....but no one mentioned the interviews with Courtney's
father. The apple does not fall far from the tree. He stated he
"kicked her ass" for turning tricks in his house?!? And her father
says it as if he is talking about the typical bratty behavior of a
teen. Just one piece of evidence these two (Kurt and Courtney)
didn't have any childhood or understanding of interaction with
others.
Also, no one forced Kurt Cobain, who had a strong will when it came
to certain things (like his drummers...lol), to marry Courtney.
Sure, I would wonder what he found attractive about a woman who
viewed Sid and Nancy as role models, but I wasn't there. The point
is he got what he paid for in marrying Courtney (except, of course,
I am not talking about his suicide). She was the lunatic to his
passive hermit offstage.
I have a picture in my mind of a 41 year old Kurt Cobain, after a
charity gig, signing off on these shoes. Courtney paged him 15
times in two hours saying that more money is needed for Frances'
education......and other things. Kurt gloomily agrees just so
Courtney will leave him alone.
|4.4.08 @ 8:07PM|#
courtney didn't even sing her own songs. there have always been rumors about another singer brought in to make it listenable. courntye slags her in a spin article, but even she can't deny it.
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