{"id":61405,"date":"2013-07-16T22:02:27","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T02:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yellmagazine.com\/?p=61405"},"modified":"2016-08-01T17:26:08","modified_gmt":"2016-08-01T21:26:08","slug":"5-reasons-dave-grohl-eclipses-kurt-cobain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yellmagazine.com\/2013\/07\/16\/5-reasons-dave-grohl-eclipses-kurt-cobain\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Dave Grohl Eclipses Kurt Cobain"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was a teenager when Nirvana <\/strong>broke into the mainstream with \u201cSmells Like Teen Spirit\u201d back in 1991. With an impressionable mind, I happily joined the legions of plaid-shirt\/painter-pants-wearing kids claiming to be depressed and bucking the status quo. <\/p>\n

It was an amazing time: the music industry was turned on its head, kids began expressing existentialist ideas, and we finally had a voice to call our own after being force fed our Baby Boomer parents\u2019 idols since birth. In addition to a voice, we also had a sound, a genre, and a subculture. It was a counter-culture movement not seen since the Vietnam anti-war era of the \u201860s, and it was ours.<\/p>\n

At the forefront of this \u201calternative\u201d scene was Nirvana and Kurt Cobain<\/strong>, along with Dave Grohl<\/strong> and Krist Novoselic<\/strong>. There\u2019s no doubt that Cobain was the hero of the day and it was tragic when he took his own life in 1994, but in doing so he secured his place in rock<\/a><\/span>\u2019s pantheon of greats. His death also catapulted Nirvana\u2019s legacy into the stratosphere, and now nobody can say anything bad about the band or Cobain. Well, I\u2019m here to try.<\/p>\n

Yes, Nirvana was huge prior to 1994. And thanks to Cobain\u2019s death they became legend and bigger than ever after 1994. I don\u2019t think, however, that their success would have continued if Cobain had kept on keeping on. More like they would have slipped into our memories like Guns N\u2019 Roses has.<\/p>\n

While Cobain wrote some great songs (and they still hold up today), Nirvana\u2019s true talent sat behind the kit – Dave Grohl. Besides appearing to be a truly genuine guy, there are many ways that Dave Grohl eclipses Kurt Cobain – here are five.<\/p>\n

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5. Grohl Is A Multi-Instrumentalist<\/h2>\n

How many instruments a band member plays does not gauge his talent, but it is a barometer to how musical he is. I have no doubt that Cobain played more than just the guitar, but when a band\u2019s drummer is a better guitarist than its lead guitarist, it\u2019s likely that you don\u2019t play drums very well. And when said drummer moves on to front his own band as vocalist and lead guitarist, well…<\/p>\n

\"dave<\/a><\/p>\n

Calling Kurt Cobain a great guitarist is like praising mediocrity. I can barely play guitar and can hear the powerchord simplicity of Cobain\u2019s playing. Cobain was, at best, a great melody maker.<\/p>\n

Dave Grohl plays drums, guitar, bass, and piano. That alone doesn\u2019t equate to being more talented than Cobain, but Grohl plays these instruments (at least two of them better than his late bandmate) well enough to record a full album.<\/p>\n

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4. Grohl Would Have Made It Without Nirvana<\/h2>\n

After Cobain\u2019s death, Grohl went on to record a Foo Fighters<\/strong>\u2019 demo. He played all the instruments, and shopped the demo around the old-fashioned way — through cassette trading. With his identity hidden, Grohl attracted major label attention.<\/p>\n

\"dave<\/a><\/p>\n

I feel that Cobain, on the other hand, was in the right band, at the right place, in the right time. In other words, dumb luck.<\/p>\n

Since the success of the Foo Fighters, Grohl has gone on to start or be a part of a number of other projects and to perform with a number of legends.<\/p>\n

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So, we have three more reasons why Dave Grohl eclipses Kurt Cobain after the jump…<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

3. Grohl Diversifies<\/h2>\n

Dave Grohl hasn\u2019t limited himself to operating within the confines of grunge or post-grunge rock. He\u2019s played for bands ranging from classic rock to punk to heavy metal<\/a><\/span> to industrial, and more. And this started while he was still in Nirvana. Between 1992 and 1994 he contributed to projects involving Buzz Osborne, Greg Dulli, Mike Mills, Thurston Moore, Dave Pirner, and Mike Watt. In 1992, Grohl also put out a cassette album, Pocketwatch<\/strong>, under the the pseudonym “Late!” <\/p>\n

By 1995, he had released the Foo Fighters\u2019 debut and was a part of Mike Watt\u2019s band with Eddie Vedder and Pat Smear. And from there, the list goes on and on to include: Tony Iommi, Tenacious D, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Garbage, Juliette and the Licks, Pete Yorn, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, The Prodigy, Them Crooked Vultures (John Paul Jones and Josh Homme), Slash and Duff McKagan<\/a>, Tom Petty, and of course his Probot <\/strong>project that had guest vocals from Lemmy Kilmister<\/a>, Conrad Lant, King Diamond<\/a>, Scott Weinrich, Snake (Voivod), and Max Cavelera.<\/p>\n