http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soiffolOj5k
For many among my generation, Nirvana’s legacy is both a musical benchmark and iconic symbol of youth revolt in art, but the much-discussed zeitgeist of the hair-metal-killing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” official video never fully resonated with me on a visceral level… until watching their first live unveiling of the song tonight. Join me for this timelessly exhilarating 1991 performance above.
They say that I have no hits and that I’m difficult to work with, and they say that like it’s a bad thing.
Those two made too much sense.
In many ways, I’m not surprised that Kate Bush isn’t too eager to record an album of new songs, as this video offers some seriously indisputable evidence that her ’80s peak might be impossible to top — particularly in terms of capturing the zeitgeist. I mean, what might the modern version of this clip be? Kiefer Sutherland playing a cloud-based media pirate? See, even that’s way too realistic.
Looks like Almost Famous writer/director Cameron Crowe, shown above during his stint as the youngest-ever Rolling Stone contributor, was a little less William Miller and a bit more Mitch Kramer.
See also: Crowe and Elton John.
This earliest known live review of The Smiths, originally published in a fanzine called City Fun, is noteworthy for a number of reasons — some intriguing and others a bit unsettling. To wit, this priceless bit about the band’s 23-year-old frontman: “If the boy’s head is anything to go by, The Smiths are going to be B-I-G.”
If artifacts like this are your thing, I highly suggest you swing by the place where I uncovered this scan: Manchester District Music Archive.
