Kurt Cobain at 50

Ohh, Glass Onion is a good choice. I can see Cobain ripping the shit out of that one. Helter Skelter, too, and it would beat the shit out of Aerosmith's version.

 

Love the story about "Rape Me" and the MTV Video Music Awards.

Nirvana had wanted to play "Rape Me" during its performance at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards. While MTV initially told the band they could play any song they wanted, the network later insisted that the group play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" instead. Hours before the show, Nirvana refused to play. However, due to concerns that the network could boycott other artists on the group's label if the group refused to play the show, Nirvana ultimately settled on performing its then-latest single "Lithium". At the start of the performance, Cobain started playing and singing "Rape Me" instead; he said he did so "just to give [MTV] a little heart palpitation". Panicked, MTV was moments away from switching from the live performance to a commercial when the band stopped playing "Rape Me" and started playing "Lithium".[3

 

"And here's another clue for you assholes: The Walrus is Dave Grohl."

As both Lennon and McCartney crack up on stage.

 

That's one of my favorite Beatles songs and I love Dave Grohl... but my god, Jeff Lynne ruins anything he touches.

 

I guess I don't see that much direct lineage from Plastic Ono to Nirvana, other than being part of the same rock-based pop music stream.
I guess one could look at some of the noisier, discordant elements that Lennon tried with Plastic Ono, but that is more Lennon's trying tap into already existing elements of avant noise in pop rock as already attempted by people like John Cale and the Velvet Underground. That thread runs through music without owing much to the Plastic Ono Band as an influence.
I say that as a fan of Lennon's Plastic Ono Band phase, and I'm not saying a Lennon-Nirvana collaboration would not have interested me.

 

I posted it mainly for Grohl's intro, which I thought fit the discussion.

 

It did, and I enjoyed it... right up until Lynne opened his mouth. And at some point he turned into Zach Galifinakis.

 

Never been a huge fan of Lynne, but I will be watching when Tom Petty (supposedly) inducts ELO in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

 

I do like some ELO songs, but Hey Bulldog certainly would have sounded better there without his vocals.

 

Lennon's POB phase was a continuation and outgrowth of the early stripped-down protozoic alt-rock songs he began on the White Album (themselves an evolution of earlier experiments on Revolver), mainly the aforementioned "Glass Onion" and "Happiness Is A Warm Gun."

Cale, the Velvets and Blonde on Blonde Dylan had trod that territory too but Lennon was doing it as the putative leader of the biggest rock group in the world.

A decade after Plastic Ono Band and a decade before Nirvana, Bruce Springsteen hit many of the same themes on "Nebraska" -- similarly stripped-down but a little more rockabilly influenced.

 

I liked Come As You Are, but I think Michael Bolton could have done an awesome cover of it.