‘He’ll be elevated to cult status because of the nature of his death…’
I’ve already written thousands of words about my relationship with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain so I won’t rehash them here. Needless to say, however, it would be very difficult for any Nirvana-related documentary to break any new ground with me at this point. By focusing solely on Kurt’s tragic suicide in April of 1994, this new BBC doc does at least offer a fresh spin on the usual rags to riches to grave narrative that dominates most of the others…
Kurt Cobain: Moments That Shook Music offers a brief and fairly shallow document of Nirvana’s rise to fame before settling in for a detailed description of Cobain’s last days and the aftermath of his death. Whilst the former has already been covered at length elsewhere, it is the latter that holds the most interest here. Most Nirvana fans will have heard Courtney Love’s breathtaking reading of his suicide note to stunned fans in the immediate aftermath of his death. More informative is the archive footage of fans, music journalists and fellow band members reacting to the news. While it’s uncomfortable to hear people dismissively deride Cobain as being ‘selfish’ despite the fact that he was clearly suffering intensely, it’s also important to document the contemporary reactions to such a seismic event.
While it’s always nice to see Kurt being interviewed or to hear from his bandmates Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, Moments That Shook Music never really offers anything new. An entertaining if unnecessary addition to the Nirvana canon.