Although Nirvana’s career lasted only 7 years, they became one of the internationally successful groups and Kurt Cobain became a grunge and the musician with the most influence in alternative music.
Kurt Cobain was an icon in the world of Rock and he also had a broad taste in music. Although he had a short career, he talked about multiple musicians who influenced him and the ones that he liked and most of them were underrated artists.
He even declared his love for a group in 1992 and stated that they were so good that it made him cry. So, who are they?
The band Kurt Cobain said was so good that it made him cry
Cobain had already declared his love for multiple artists but there was only one that made him shed tears. During an interview with Melody Maker in 1992, Kurt was listing his favorite from the time and he even mentioned “Burning Farm”, released by the Japanese Punk group ‘Shonen Knife’ in 1983.
“Eventually, after a week of listening to it every day, I just started crying. I just couldn’t believe that three people from a totally different culture could write songs as good as those. Because I’d never heard any other Japanese music or artist whoever came up with anything good.”Kurt Cobain said.
He added, “Everything about them is just so fucking endearing. I’m sure that I was twice as nervous to meet them as they were to meet us.”
Shonen Knife is a very popular punk rock band in Japan. It was formed in the early 1980s. Curt became a big fan of the group after listening to it for a week. He became a huge fan of the group and even asked them to join with them on a tour in 1991. When I finally got to see them live, I was transformed into a hysterical nine-year-old girl at a Beatles concert,” Kurt said.
In 1993 Shonen Knife did Nirvana’s opening act again while they were touring in the United States. During an interview with MTV, Nirvana recalled the experience he had with the trio.
“They went into their first song and everyone seemed sort of baffled. (But) next couple of songs, they won the audience by the end of the night. Every show people were almost in tears”, said Dave Grohl.
Kurt added, “I was emotional the whole time. I’ve cried every night.” In a video that was made during their tour, we can see Shonen Knife and Nirvana getting along together.
In the video, Kurt also explains how he first got into Shonen’s Knife music.“When you guys put out the ‘Burning Farm’ EP on the cassette, my friend Calvin sold me that tape. He worked at K Records. I heard it and I fell in love with it. It’s taken a long time for people to hear you guys. I’m glad we finally gonna go on tour with you,” said Kurt Cobain.
Shonen Knife didn’t know Nirvana
Interestingly, Shonen Knife had no idea who Nirvana was and they had never heard their music until the trio was invited to go on a tour with them.
During an interview with the Rolling Stones in 2005, Naoko Yamano, the vocalist of the group recalled the moment when they went to a record store and bought their albums to know them.
“When Nirvana asked us to open, I didn’t know what Nirvana was. So I went to a record store, and I bought their CD. And when I saw their photograph, I thought they might be scary persons. Because their hairstyles and their clothes were very grunge.”
“But once the tour had started, I noticed that all the members were nice, good persons. Because this was our first experience of a long tour, the drummer Dave (Grohl) helped us with setting up the drum kit,” Yamano said.