Thursday 7 April 2011

Nirvana Logo:Symbol of Grunge


We all must have at least listened to the famous song “Smells likes teen Spirit” which has been rated among top 100 greatest rock songs of all time by Rolling Stones and some must be even die hard fans of Kurt cobain/Nirvana Grunges but little may be known about the famous (or say “I think that its famous”) Nirvana Smiley-the one with the tongue out (a $3 sticker).

The Smiley has always been the perfect feelgood symbol of all times & dates back its origin to the era of 60’s when the first smiley face was adopted from a kids TV channel with a comic touch.When I see a smiley two pictures pop up-one the Forest Gump- Tom Hanks's mud-spattered T-shirt second the nirvana smiley logo of the official Nirvana Nevermind T-Shirt (you can buy one in $18).

So What was the Nirvana smiley which became a fad of such sort-Within a perfect circle, there is the simplest, most childlike depiction of a face: two vertical eyes made with cross and a large, upturned semi-circular mouth with tongue outside. Why he created it is known better to kurt himself as there are many theories behind it.

One of the most apt theory is that it is a picture of Axl rose Kurt Cobain drew during nevermind sessions and was used on the invitation for the never mind release party. The band mates just liked the smiley and started using it. Another story is that there was a popular place called 'The Acid House' which Kurt visited and they used a smiley as it's logo, that's where Nirvana got their idea for the modified smiley but the former explanation seems to be more justified than the latter because of numerous heated disputes that happened between Axl rose (lead vocalist of Gun’s N Roses) & Kurt Cobain after cobain declined twice to do the opening act for Gun’s N roses.

Some of the incidents which support it are like-At the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards Cobain's wife Courtney Love, jokingly asked Rose to be the godfather to their daughter, to which Axl replied "Why don't you shut your bitch up?" Kurt then allegedly turned to Courtney, and jokingly said "Shut up, bitch!" prompting an angry Rose to challenge Cobain to a fight, shout at him and call him a homosexual. Cobain later mocked the situation by saying "I couldn't help but laugh because I've never been in that kind of situation since the sixth grade."

Another comment which Cobain made was that one thing he likes about Gun’s N roses is that "They totally fuck things up and then they sit back and look at what they fucked up and then try to figure out how they can fix it, whereas we fuck things up and just dwell on it and make it even worse."

The incidents clearly point that the bands didn’t like each other & it was kurt’s stab to Axl as the smiley was like a mockery of Axl rose, something like the phrase in his suicide note "Better to burn out than fade away"

Though kurt didn’t live to see the craze of the logo or the famous Nirvana Smiley he drew, still after so many years the smiley smells like teen spirit on the Official Nirvana Tees & has become cult tattoo youngsters love to have.

9 comments:

  1. glad i was around for this band---I heard someone refer to them as classic rock the other day....I almost fell down.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I recently read a biography of Kurt Cobain. It made me very sad for him. A lost soul right from the start in so many ways - and so much talent.

    Thanks for Rewinding at the Fibro.

    ReplyDelete
  3. @todd carr..hehe i can understand how shocking it is when people ruin the whole thing (grunge rock) by saying it a classic

    ReplyDelete
  4. @ Fibro..still kurt is living in the hearts of nirvana lovers ..a true rocker of all time

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nirvana was one of my first true loves, but their influence lives on in our culture, even in little ways like through the smiley logo. Nice post. Visiting you via Weekend Rewind. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. i have never heard nirvana... i wud hate anyone who was a junkie and kills himself...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Purple momentum, I'd hate anyone who would judge a band just because the lead singer was a junkie who killed himself.

    ReplyDelete
  8. seattle logo is also a smiley face. i think it's reffered to that..

    ReplyDelete
  9. I thought the x's for the smiley face was kind of mocking Kurt's death... huh...

    ReplyDelete