Hear Kurt Cobain's Beatles cover
Brett Morgen, the director of new documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, came across this cover of The Beatles‘ And I Love Her amongst the Nirvana frontman’s home recordings.
Morgen told Rolling Stone that “Nobody in Kurt’s life — not his management, wife, bandmates — had ever heard his Beatles thing,” adding, “I found it on a random tape. It’s a Paul song. How’s that for shattering the myth?”
The ‘myth’ the director is referring to is that Cobain hated Paul McCartney, because he’d said exactly that.
The cover of And I Love Her is included in the film’s score. Montage of Heck is released later this month and a soundtrack release is expected at some point this year.
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Did no-one spot the reference in the entire In Bloom (Nevermind version) video?
I’m sure I read ages ago that Kurt listened to early Beatles for a day straight to get him in the mood to write “About A Girl”, so although very rough, this cover is no surprise.
Kurt was most certainly a Beatles fan*, in some cases citing them as his fabourite band. If I recall correctly, there are also tapes of him singing Beatles songs from when he was a child and Meet the Beatles was high on his favourite LP list.
What is clear from the recording is that is was sincere. When you listen to his writing, a pop melody was central – he wrote hummable tunes; you can even whistle Lithium. His Beatles fandom was a core component of this ability.
*Not only a Beatles fan, but also very much inspired by groups who cite them as essential influences – Pixies and Black Sabbath, to name but two.
@CJ Feeney
It would actually be the current owners of the Northern Songs publishing who would have given permission. Paul and Yoko have say how they are used but – along with Ringo and Olivia – they have some control of how the original Beatles recordings are used.
Happy to be corrected!
I think whoever owns the publishing would be seeking to maximise income-that’s the purpose of most music publishers. I think it’s the Beatles and family that apply the brakes in most instances.
Kudos to McCartney and Yoko, who must have cleared this for use in the film. It’s usually a straight “NO!” to using any original Beatles songs in a film (eg. Backbeat).
People think it’s trendy to say they hate him but he’s the most important composer of music in the last 100 years. His influence (obviously assisted by John and George) on all genres is unprecedented!
I guess nobody then actually listened carefully any of Kurts music. I mean seriously, the whole Nirvana sound consisted of Beatles and Black Sabbath esque melodies combined with heavy fuzzing guitars.
McCartney’s music is a guilty pleasure… the world is crowded with people who *say* they hate him.
A friend of mine, picked up the guitar two weeks ago, does a better cover of And I Love Her