Re-discovering Nirvana

Yesterday, I was looking through Spotify for something to listen to and decided to stop on Nirvana. As I posted to Twitter, I was excited to discover Nirvana's Live and Loud set is now available as an album. When I was a kid, some friends recorded it from MTV onto a VHS and we watched it to death.

Listening to the album again brought back lots of memories. Then re-listening to Unplugged brought back even more.

I remember the Christmas when I got Unplugged on tape and a Sony Walkman. I spent the entire day listening to it on repeat.

I remember a few Christmases earlier when my older brother got Nevermind on CD and I giggled because there was a naked baby on the cover.

When I was about 8, I got Live! Tonight! Sold Out! on VHS. I spent endless hours playing that tape, stood in front of the telly with my guitar. Pausing and studying Cobain's finger placement, counting the frets. I learned most of what I could play this way through the years.

It shaped how I played guitar. Looking back, it shaped my musical ear.

This was my first music education.

It's been so long since I've played guitar properly. That part of me went into hibernation about 15 years ago when, during a house party, someone completely trashed all the settings on my amp and pedal that I'd spent years and years tweaking and organically setting things up how I liked it.

In the space of an evening, it killed my enjoyment of playing electric guitar because I had to go all the way back to square one. Even to the point where I lent my guitar to my old boss for his kid to learn.

It's been even longer since I listened to any Nirvana albums.

Listening again has sparked that bit of something that kept me playing songs over and over again until I got it nailed.

Now I just need to get my guitar back and dig out my amp and pedal from the attic...