Kurt Cobain: Meaning

Kurt Cobain was American musician and artist. Explore interesting quotes on meaning.
Kurt Cobain: 316   quotes 690   likes

“Just because you're paranoid, does not mean they're not out to get you.”

Kurt Cobain

Song lyrics, Nevermind (1991)
Variant: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
Source: This quote is generally attributed to Joseph Heller from his novel Catch-22, although it appears to be from the film version only (screenplay by Buck Henry.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AParanoia Territorial Pissings.

“If you're really a mean person you're going to come back as a fly and eat poop.”

Kurt Cobain

As quoted in Monk Magazine (1992-10).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print

Personality , Flying

“Words suck. I mean, every thing has been said. I can't remember the last real interesting conversation I've had in a long time. Words aren't as important as the energy derived from music, especially live.”

Kurt Cobain book Journals

Source: Journals

Music , Time

“Punk is musical freedom. It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. In Webster’s terms, ‘nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s pretty close to my definition of Punk Rock.”

Kurt Cobain
Pain , World , Music , Freedom

“Punk rock should mean freedom, liking and excepting anything that you like. Playing whatever you want. As sloppy as you want. As long as it's good and it has passion.”

Kurt Cobain
Freedom , Passion

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

Kurt Cobain

Song lyrics, Nevermind (1991)

Singing

“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 [them]. 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.”

Kurt Cobain

Date unknown, but appears on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!.
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

People , Art , Music , Way

“It’s sad to think what the state of rock and roll will be twenty years from now. It just seems like when rock and roll is dead the whole world’s gonna explode. It’s already so rehashed and so plagariazed that it’s barely alive now. It’s disgusting. I mean, kids don’t even really care about rock and roll as much as they used to, as the other generations have. It’s already turned into nothing but a fashion statement and an identity for kids to use as a tool for them to fuck and have a social life. And at that point I really can’t see music being of any importance to a teenager, really.”

Kurt Cobain

to Michael Azerrad in an interview from 1992 or 1993, in Kurt Cobain: About a Son
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

Dead , Music , Thinking , World

“They're claiming that [the grunge bands] finally put Seattle on the map, but, like, what map? …I mean, we had Jimi Hendrix. Heck, what more do we want?”

Kurt Cobain

From an interview with Marc Coiteux on Musique Plus, 1991-09-21, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

“I mean it seems like there are only two options for songwriters [sic] personalities either theyre [sic] sad, tragic visionaries like morrissey or michael stipe or robert smith or theres [sic] the goofy, nutty white boy, Hey lets party and forget everything people like Van Halen or all that other Heavy metal crap.”

Kurt Cobain book Journals

Source: Journals (2002), p. 44

People , Sadness , Boy , Personality