Off Topic Kurt Cobain's 'Unplugged' guitar

Don't know if anyone else was interested, but we've watched with a mixture of amazement and boredom the auction of rock memorabilia (though given some of the lots that word should be considered cautiously) that took place on Friday and Saturday in Beverley Hills.

The undoubted highlight was the sale of the Martin guitar that Kurt Cobain used in the legendary (and that word is used correctly in this context) 'Unplugged' session. It was eventually bought for just over $6m (including buyer's commission) by an Australian called Peter Freedman who owns the group that includes RODE microphones.

While watching I was so worried that it was going to go to someone who would just lock it away as an investment, but Freedman has said that he plans to display the guitar in a worldwide tour, with proceeds going to benefit performing arts.

This is very much in keeping with his philosophy, and it's really worth reading up on him. It's reassuring to know that not all the relatively new hugely wealthy individuals are concerned solely about themselves and the acquisition of even greater wealth.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...m-cobain-guitar-purchase-20200621-p554qb.html

(remember the $ referred to in the article are Ozzie)

A great man, who I had never heard of before, and I wish him well.

 

Brilliant topic for a thread. Although at $6m for a guitar, I best hide my acoustic and electric guitars away in embarrassment. You never forget having your first guitar as a young child, although sadly back then, there weren't the teachers available to give you encouragement, and the only tutor I did have moved to pastures new.

Although back in them days, it was Kumbaya, My Lord. Everything Is Beautiful. Last but not least Puff The Magic Dragon....quiet alwaysright, I can hear you laughing at the back. The hippy era.

Obviously that's all dragged back from the memory of the young kid that I was at the time, as best as I could remember. Did I get anywhere with it....of course not, sadly I left it to gather dust - although bit of personal story where that acoustic went to.

That's not to say music wasn't my natural passion, from being able to understand it and playing perspective, but for what ever reasons, I moved on without it at the time

Anyway adulthood comes along, and it was time to revisit it again. I was luckier this time round, I became good friends with a guy that really knew all his stuff, spent all his life where music became his life, work and pleasure. And he instantly recognised in me, the ability that had been lost, in time.

More to continue...

 

As you know, brb, and as I think others also know or have realised, music is of fundamental importance in my life.

It was with some sadness that I had to get rid of my guitars, one being a very early Fylde (serial no. 309). But I was at best a very average guitarist, and when arthritis in my fingers meant that I couldn't get close to my own very mediocre standard it was definitely time for someone else to enjoy it.

And as we're on music, I can heartily recommend Phoebe Bridgers new album Punisher. And also, perhaps amazingly if you'd forgotten about him, most of Dion's output (yes, he of The Wanderer) since 2005 or so. He's 80 now, and still writing and playing to an incredibly high standard.

 

In reference of Phoebe Bridgers, I found the lyrics notable on this one...

I went with you up to
The place you grew up in
We spent a week in the cold
Just long enough to
"Walden" it with you
Any longer, it would have got old
Singing "Ace of Spades" when Lemmy died
But nothing's changed, L.A.'s all right
Sleeping in my bed again, and getting in my head
And then walk around the reservoir

You, you must have been looking for me
Sending smoke signals
Pelicans circling
Burning trash out on the beach

One of your eyes is
Always half-shut
Something happened when you were a kid
I didn't know you then
And I'll never understand
Why it feels like I did
"How Soon Is Now" in an '80s sedan
You slept inside of it because your dad
Lived in a campground in the back of a van
You said that song will creep you out until you're dead

And you must have been looking for me
Sending smoke signals
Pelicans circling
Burning trash out on the beach

I want to live at
The Holiday Inn
Where somebody else makes the bed
We'll watch TV while
The lights on the street
Put all the stars to death
It's been on my mind since Bowie died
Just checking out to hide from life
And all of our problems, I'm gonna solve 'em
With you riding shot-gun, speeding, 'cause **** the cops

And you, you must have been looking for me
Sending smoke signals
Pelicans circling
Burning trash out on the beach

I buried a hatchet
It's coming up lavender
The future's unwritten
The past is a corridor
I'm at the exit looking back through the hall
You are anonymous
I am a concrete wall

 

I'm glad there are others who like good music.

 

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Not bad for the first track off your first album is it?!

 

It's very good

I was well impressed with her vocals and the lyrics. I did a random search of her stuff, and that's the one that caught my attention the most. As I do with most songs, they get 10 seconds of my time, for that to be her first track is pretty astounding.

If they get my attention, I then explore the lyrics, instrumental and general history if any, of previous artists.

I can't sing, so it requires a lot of compensation on my part, so my focus generally tends to be, can I make the instrumental interesting enough. It's a bit like taking the song, creep by radiohead, with varous styles of playing it, such as down to seventh, and applying what I call a more harmonic tone. I ain't going to be playing to an audience, so it gives me the freedom to do what I want with it - oh last thing, I use electric for this, not acoustic.

This will give you an idea by what I mean, skip straight to 5.45, if you want to go direct, but I don't barr the F (although I am good with my barres), because then you can use an index hammer on...

Or alternatively see below, for the Max Bygraves version

Note, lyrics contain swearing...

 

Nice to have a different topic on this board and something I think a lot of people have a voice or opinion on.

I myself had a very short musical career. Aged 13 I performed as part of one of the acts at my school's annual summer concert. Participants were always students playing to a crowd of family members. My forte was bass guitar at the time. Not talented enough for an actual guitar but I could keep rhythm and in about a year I learnt a few songs. The act I was part of performed the Status Quo hit Rockin' all over the world.

About a month before the concert was due to take place, I broke my leg and had the pin fitted (hence the name Peg Leg comes from) and had to play sat down. Getting up onto the 6 foot high stage whilst on crutches was particularly difficult.

Anyways must profess to having not picked up my bass for a couple of years now. It's one of those things that I enjoy doing but bass is bit of a lonely instrument at times when not jamming with others.

 

Get practising son.

There's an even better version on an album British Blues Quintet Live In Glasgow but that isn't available on a public stream, so you'll have to find it on your own streaming platform. It's worth the search though.