Journals is a collection of writings and drawings done by Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana, from the late 1980s until his death in 1994. It was published in hardcover by Riverhead Books in November 2002, and in paperback by Riverhead Books in November 2003. Its release polarized fans, some of whom felt it constituted an invasion of Cobain's privacy, and others of whom saw it as a unique opportunity to better understand the late musician. Journals opened at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list (non-fiction). Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – c. ... Grunge music (sometimes also referred to as the Seattle Sound) is an independent-rooted music genre that became a commercially successful offshoot of hardcore punk, thrash metal, and alternative rock in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ... Nirvana was an American rock band originating from Aberdeen, Washington. ... The 1980s refers to the period where corey sucks peters and has a not little to look at his little penis of and between 1980 and 1989. ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Riverhead Books is a division of Penguin Group (USA). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The New York Times bestseller list is a weekly chart in The New York Times newspaper that keeps track of the best-selling books of the week. ...

Letters

Journals contains a number of letters, either early drafts or unsent, that Cobain wrote to friends or peers. Included are friendly letters to Dale Crover of the Melvins and Eugene Kelley of the Vaselines, a tender letter to his wife, Courtney Love, a letter thanking The Advocate following his interview with the gay and lesbian magazine in early 1992, and even a letter to Simon Fair Timony, the then-9-year-old stepson of Half Japanese member Jad Fair, asking him to contribute artwork for what would become In Utero. It also includes a letter from Cobain and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic firing then-drummer Dave Foster from the band, and angry letters from Cobain to MTV and Rolling Stone. Dale Crover Dale Crover is a American rock musician. ... The Melvins are an American rock band that usually perform as a trio. ... The Vaselines were an indie rock band from Edinburgh, Scotland. ... Courtney Michelle Love[1] (born July 9, 1964) is an American rock musician and Golden Globe-nominated actress, best-known as lead singer for the now-defunct alternative rock band Hole and for her two-year marriage to Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. ... The Advocate (ISSN 0001-8996) is a US-based LGBT-related biweekly news magazine. ... GAY can mean: Gay, a term referring to homosexual men or women The IATA code for Gaya Airport Category: ... A lesbian is a woman who is romantically and sexually attracted only to other women. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Half Japanese is a seminal punk rock band formed by brothers Jad and David Fair in their Uniontown, Maryland bedroom around 1975 - 1977. ... In Utero is the third and final studio album from the American grunge band Nirvana, released in September 1993 by Geffen Records. ... Krist Anthony Novoselic (born May 16, 1965) is a Croatian-American rock musician best known as the bassist for Nirvana. ... MTV (Music Television) is an American cable television network headquartered in New York City. ... This article is about the magazine. ...

Lists

Like many music fans, Cobain often made lists of his favorite bands and albums, several of which are included in Journals. His lists were generally eclectic and included artists of many genres, from indie and alternative rock (the Vaselines, Pixies, the Breeders, Sonic Youth, R.E.M., PJ Harvey, Jane's Addiction) to protopunk, punk rock and hardcore (The Stooges, the Velvet Underground, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Slits, Black Flag, Bad Brains, Flipper) to hip-hop (Public Enemy, N.W.A.) to blues (Leadbelly). On his "Top 50" albums list, offerings from such obscure artists as The Shaggs, Tales of Terror, The Marine Girls, Swans, Rites of Spring and The Frogs coexist with albums by The Beatles, David Bowie, and Aerosmith. The 1973 Stooges record Raw Power is listed at #1 on all of Cobain's "favorite album" lists. Indie rock is a subgenre of rock music often used to refer to bands that are on small independent record labels or that arent on labels at all. ... Alternative rock (also called alternative music or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... The Vaselines were an indie rock band from Edinburgh, Scotland. ... The Pixies[1] are an American alternative rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1985. ... The Breeders are an American rock band, formed in 1977 as a folk rock duo featuring twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal of Dayton, Ohio which played country covers at truck stops and bars and dissipated in the early 80s, only to be revived as a side project in... Sonic Youth is a seminal American alternative rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ... R.E.M. is an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in early 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and vocalist Michael Stipe. ... PJ Harvey in concert. ... Janes Addiction was an American rock band featuring Perry Farrell (vocalist), Dave Navarro (guitarist), Eric Avery (bassist), and Stephen Perkins (percussionist). ... Protopunk is a term used to describe a number of performers who were important precursors of punk rock, or who have been cited by early punk rockers as influential. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... It has been suggested that hardcore music be merged into this article or section. ... The Stooges are an American rock band that was first active from about 1967 to 1974, and then reformed in 2003. ... The Velvet Underground and Nico (from left to right: John Cale, Nico, Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, and Maureen Tucker) The Velvet Underground (Affectionately known as The Velvets, or V.U. for short) was an American rock and roll band of the late 1960s. ... The Sex Pistols in 1977. ... The Clash were an English punk rock band who were active from 1976 to 1986. ... The Slits are an all female punk rock band. ... Black Flag was a hardcore punk band formed in 1976 in southern California, largely as the brainchild of Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes. ... Bad Brains are an American all-black hardcore punk band, originally formed in Washington, D.C. in 1979. ... Flipper is an influential punk/noise band from San Francisco, California, formed in 1979, continuing on in often erratic fashion until the mid-1990s, then reuniting in 2005. ... Hip hop music is a style of music which came into existence in the United States during the mid-1970s, and became a large part of modern pop culture during the 1980s. ... Public Enemy, also known as PE, is a seminal hip hop group from Long Island, New York, known for their politically charged lyrics, criticism of the media, and active interest in the concerns of the African American community. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants and has its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. ... Leadbelly, also known as Lead Belly (born Huddie William Ledbetter; January 20, 1889 (although this is debatable) - December 6, 1949), was an American folk and blues musician, notable for his clear and forceful singing, his virtuosity on the twelve string guitar, and the rich songbook of folk standards he introduced. ... The Shaggs on the cover of their only official album, Philosophy of the World (1969) The Shaggs was an American all-woman band. ... Swans can refer to: Swan, the bird. ... Rites of Spring was an punk band from Washington, D.C. in the mid-1980s known for their energetic, cathartic live performances. ... The Frogs are an American rock music band founded in 1980, in Milwaukee. ... The Beatles were an English rock band from Liverpool whose members were John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. ... David Bowie (IPA: []) (born David Robert Jones on 8 January 1947) is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger and audio engineer. ... Aerosmith is a prominent American rock band, regarded by some as Americas Greatest Rock and Roll Band. [1][2] Although they are known as the bad boys from Boston[3], none of the bands members are actually from that city. ... 1973 (MCMLXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday. ... Raw Power is a 1973 album by hard rock band The Stooges, fronted by future icon Iggy Pop. ...

Nirvana-related writings

Contained in Journals is an assortment of directly Nirvana-related material, including embryonic lyric drafts, early album tracklists, and even a set of unused liner notes Cobain had apparently written for In Utero in 1993. The lyric sheets are especially revealing, showing that some songs, including the band's biggest hit "Smells Like Teen Spirit", underwent major revisions before being recorded for release, while others, such as "Come as You Are", were changed very little, at least from the drafts included. The tracklists are also of interest, revealing, for example, that Cobain had intended to release "girl" and "boy" sides of Nirvana's breakthrough album Nevermind, with songs such as "In Bloom" and "Lithium" on the girl side, and songs like "Sliver" and "Polly" on the boy side. Lyrics are the words in songs. ... Liner notes are the booklets which come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or any sound recording container. ... Smells Like Teen Spirit is a song by American rock band Nirvana, and the opening track and lead single from the bands 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind. ... Come as You Are is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. ... Nevermind is the seminal second studio album from the American rock band Nirvana. ... In Bloom is a song by the grunge band Nirvana. ... Lithium is a song by the grunge band Nirvana. ... Sliver is a song by the band Nirvana. ... Polly is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. ...

Drawings

Journals contains a number of Cobain's rough sketches and drawings, some of which are light and humorous, such as his drawing of "Eddie", the Iron Maiden mascot, his sketch of the band as choirboys on a hypothetical Nirvana album cover, and his drawing of "Elvis Cooper", in which Elvis Presley and Alice Cooper are combined into a single entity, but many of which are darker or more violent. Included in the latter are his drawings of a sniper shooting Nazis from a rooftop (with swastikas drawn backwards), his drawing of a gun-toting football player hanging from a noose, and a sketch of his own emaciated body (see: The "Forbidden Page"), as well as a comic strip called "Mr. Moustache", in which an unborn child kicks through its mother's stomach to kill its macho father. Journals also contains a number of drawings of images which would later become a familiar part of Nirvana lore, such as Dante's Vestibule of Hell (which appeared on a Nirvana T-shirt), a skinny man on a cross (which appeared in the "Heart-Shaped Box" music video), and male seahorses "giving birth" (which appeared on the cover of the "All Apologies"/ "Rape Me" single). Sketches of a lion 1980 pen and china ink on paper by Frans Koppelaar A sketch is a rapidly executed freehand drawing that is not intended as a finished work, often consisting of a multitude of overlapping lines. ... Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band from east London. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Elvis Aron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), often known simply as Elvis and also called The King of Rock n Roll or simply The King, was an American singer, musician and actor. ... Alice Cooper (born Vincent Damon Furnier, February 4, 1948), is a rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans four decades. ... Arkansas Army National Guard soldiers practice sniper marksmanship at their firing range near Baghdad, Iraq on February 15, 2005. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... A right-facing Swastika in a decorative Hindu form The swastika (from Sanskrit ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing () or left-facing () forms. ... A gun is a common name given to an object that fires high-velocity projectiles. ... United States simply as football, is a competitive team sport that is both fast-paced and strategic. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... Dante in a fresco series of famous men by Andrea del Castagno, ca. ... T-Shirt A T-shirt (or tee shirt) is a shirt with short or long sleeves, a round neck, put on over the head, without pockets. ... Heart-Shaped Box is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. ... A music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music, most commonly a song. ... Species See text for species. ... All Apologies is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. ... Rape Me is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. ... A collection of various CD singles In music, a single is a short recording of one or more separate tracks. ...

The "Forbidden Page"

The Forbidden Page.

According to an article written by Tim Appelo in the Seattle Weekly in 2002, journalists were banned from printing page 204 of Journals (hardcover) in articles or reviews, ostensibly because of its dark content. The page features a drawing of Cobain's face, torn from a comic book, shouting a refrain from the chorus of his most popular song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit": "With the lights out, it's less dangerous / Here we are now, entertain us!" Under the drawing is a sketch by Cobain of the rest of his body until his hips, its skeletal frame contrasting sharply with the furious-looking comic book image. Above the drawing-collage are six lines cut-and-pasted from an Alicia Ostriker poem called "A Young Woman, A Tree". The six lines, which begin the poem, describe a girl who passes a blooming tree, and envies its beauty; it has been suggested that by juxtaposing these lines with his emaciated self-portrait, Cobain was making a comment on his own loss of creativity and his personal image being in contrast to his public one. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 441 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (522 × 709 pixel, file size: 147 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) banned page of kurt cobain journals fair use: helps the user understand why it was so controversial This image is from a comic strip, or from... Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 441 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (522 × 709 pixel, file size: 147 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) banned page of kurt cobain journals fair use: helps the user understand why it was so controversial This image is from a comic strip, or from... Seattle Weekly is the third most popular newspaper in Seattle, Washington, United States, with a circulation of over 100,000. ... A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... A collage composed of magazine articles and pictures Collage (From the French: , to stick) is regarded as a work of visual arts made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ... Windows keys for cut and pasting: Control + x (cut), Control + c (copy), Control + v (paste) In human-computer interaction, cut and paste or copy and paste is a user interface paradigm for transferring text, data, files or objects from a source to a destination. ... Alicia Ostriker is an American poet and scholar born in 1937, and is considered a prominent voice in Jewish feminist poetry. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Self Portrait is a 1970 double album by Bob Dylan. ...

Trivia

• Though the material in Journals is undated, it is arranged in an approximation of chronological order, starting with a letter Cobain wrote to Dale Crover in 1988, and ending with a rant about an interview between Sylvester Stallone and Larry King that he wrote perhaps during his final trip to Rome in 1994 (the notepaper is labelled "Hotel Excelsior - Roma").
• The "Mr. Moustache" comic strip was first published in Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography, Come as You Are.
• Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett was asked to contribute to the book with a comment on Cobain and apparently replied back: "Please don't do this to me after I kill myself". It was not used.

Nickname: Motto: SPQR: Senatus Populusque Romanus Location of the city of Rome (yellow) within the Province of Rome (red) and region of Lazio (grey) Coordinates: Region Lazio Province Province of Rome Founded 21 April 753 BC Government  - Mayor Walter Veltroni Area  - City 1,285 km²  (580 sq mi)  - Urban 5... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Eels (also sometimes eels or EELS, depending on the album) is an American rock band formed by singer/songwriter Mark Oliver Everett, better known as Mr. ... Mark Oliver Everett (born April 10, 1963, in Virginia) is the lead singer, guitarist and keyboardist of the pop band Eels. ...

External links

• Kurt Cobain's Last No. 1 Hit An article about Journals written by Tim Appelo in the Seattle Times in 2002.