Back in the tail end of 1995, The Beatles had begun releasing their "Anthology" collections; 3 double disc volumes that featured many unreleased demos, studio sessions, live recordings, and more. And while it was beyond cool to hear all of that new stuff, the real highlight of the entire project were the 2 brand new songs.
John Lennon has, sadly, been gone since 1980, but the surviving Beatles were gifted by his widow Yoko Ono two long-lost demos, "Free As A Bird" and "Real Love." I could be mistaken, but I don't think a reunion like this has ever happened before or since.
If you're not a stranger to this blog, then you already know how much I love Nirvana. I've written several blog posts about them over the years. (And will link them again at the end of this article!) When the self-titled greatest hits collection NIRVANA hit stores 10 years after Kurt's death, it featured a never-before-heard finished track, "You Know You're Right." I can't even begin to express the mix of emotions I felt when I first heard that song.
You have to remember that the core time period of Nirvana-mania was very, very short lived. Nevermind came out on September 24th, 1991 and completely changed popular music, practically overnight. About a year later, to satiate demand for more Nirvana, the collection Incesticide dropped on December 14th, 1992, with their proper follow-up In Utero landing on September 21st, 1993. I attended the live taping of the Unplugged show in New York on Thanksgiving weekend of 93. And by April of 94, a mere 5 months later, Kurt Cobain was gone forever. All of Nirvana was only roughly about 3 years. (People also forget that the entirety of The Beatles was only about a 7 year stretch.)
The reason I bring this all up is because after the release of "You Know You're Right," I was afraid that was the last we'd ever hear of Nirvana. Sure, a box set of rarities called "With The Lights Out" was released, but I'd honestly already heard every rare track in that set on various bootlegs I'd collected over the years. After a 10 year gap, "You Know You're Right" immediately made me realize everything that was missing from music since Kurt died, and then it bummed me about because I knew that was it.
Then last month, my friend Padraig Reynolds pointed me over to a You Tube user named TheBeginningOfMusic. He's a sound engineer, and he took it upon himself to take rare acoustic tracks from various Nirvana releases, and add Dave Grohl's drum stems from other Nirvana songs. The first one I heard was "Opinion," which to the best of my knowledge was a song that Kurt only played once on a radio show. I've never heard or seen a mention it of it elsewhere in their career. And sure enough, on this version, when Dave's drums kick in, and the distortion pedal hits for the chorus, it feels like magic. I'm hearing new Nirvana again.
I couldn't believe it.
This wasn't like the surviving Beatles reuniting to finish John Lennon's tracks. This was something in the hands of a fan; an extremely talented fan who decided to take matters in their own hands while honing their own engineering skills. He reunited Nirvana... just because!
I skimmed around to see if there was anything nearly as strong as that feeling "Opinion" gave me. Sure enough, another acoustic demo from "With The Lights Out" that I loved was Do Re Mi. Now, we can only imagine what direction Nirvana would've gone in had Kurt survived. I think the Unplugged show was a clear indication of what Kurt wanted to do, and his love of R.E.M. is well documented. Hell, at the time of his death, he had studio time booked with Michael Stipe! But even with all that in mind, I couldn't imagine what a band version of Do Re Mi would sound like. And now that we have it, I can't hear it any other way.
I've put together a little playlist; a mix if you will of "Lost Nirvana." A lot of the other tracks are from the "Montage Of Heck" documentary, which I still have mixed feelings about. As a fellow musician, I listen to the album that was released and I cringe at the private demos because I know Kurt probably wouldn't have wanted such raw ideas to go out into the world without proper development. Then again, this die-hard fan was able to find some cool snippets and add Dave's drums to them. Who would've thought "The Yodel Song" could be cool if it just had a band backing it?!
Here's the track listing, which includes an unrelated "band" version of something called "Burn The Rain." That one's OK. It has a weird guitar solo that doesn't sound like anything Nirvana would've done, but I included it anyways because it fits with the rest of the random tracks. Oh, and I closed it with "You Know You're Right," because that song still gives me chills.
LOST NIRVANA:
1. Opinion
2. Do Re Mi
3. Clean Up Before She Comes
4. Desire
5. Burn My Britches
6. Poison's Gone
7. The Yodel Song
8. What More Can I Say
9. Burn The Rain
10. You Know You're Right
Here's the Playlist on You Tube:
I never thought I'd hear any new Nirvana material, and then someone online surprised me by taking matters in their own hands, and I consider it a beautiful gift.
Who knows?
Maybe there are other surprises waiting for us in the near future.
Fin!
