Ten from the vaults: the unseen works of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana

Cobain’s Old Age / Low Rider home demo

The Basement Sessions, March 1994

The arrival of Brett Morgen’s Montage of Heck reinvigorated hope among fans that, after ten long years, another tranche of Cobain’s home demos might make it out into the world. So far there’s been mention of a Beatles cover, of various short instrumental pieces, while Morgen has teased that there might be a soundtrack release to accompany the film. The finality of Cobain’s ending makes the last works prepared prior to his demise of particular curiosity.

Two get-togethers took place in the basement of his home in Seattle; one with Eric Erlandson of Hole plus Pat Smear of Nirvana, the other just with Smear. All participants seem clear, that this was just three musicians socializing, passing the time, relieving tension. Cobain relegated himself to drums though he apparently continued to guide the others through songs he wanted to play. The last known Kurt Cobain composition, now referred to as ‘Do Re Mi’, was apparently played and with only one other recording of the song available, a solo acoustic take, seeing what the song became in a fuller trio rendition several months on from that first version is of great interest.

Controlled expectations are the key with all unreleased Cobain material; throughout his career he seemed to have a very firm awareness of what his finest efforts were, of what songs deserved to be on an album, of which songs should be singles – it’s very hard to argue with his decisions about which songs deserved b-side status or were altogether dispensable.

Similarly, he was a fast-moving talent, his musical interests moved on rapidly and it was rare for him to resurrect a song that had been attempted in studio and decisively left behind. When it comes to the final year of his life, however, there is no album against which to compare and with so few songs of recent pedigree attempted in 1993-1994 almost anything practiced at home might have been the beginning of an album the fans never got to hear. That’s where Cobain’s final unreleased recordings leave us; with a legacy of doubt, of wonder, of curiosity…And of constantly renewed hope.

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Nick Soulsby’s book I Found My Friends: the Oral History of Nirvana is out in the U.S. on March 31. The book combines the reminiscences of 210 musicians from 170 of the bands who played with Nirvana from 1987 to 1994 – three quarters of all the bands to ever play with Nirvana, witnesses to two thirds of their shows. Click here for more info.

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