I've wanted to post about this ever since I first heard 'Let It Die' but life always got in the way. Also, I thought it best to let the debate go on for a little while about whether Dave Grohl is confronting his emotions about the tragic death of his Nirvana bandmate.
So now, I am finally here to put the issue to bed. Yes, the song is about Kurt Cobain. Yeah I know he said it isn't, but why should we listen the artist who actually wrote the song? Especially when he has also said things like this. All one has to do is read the lyrics and listen to the melancholly tone which abruptly becomes emotionally flooded with rage and it all makes perfect sense that this song is the product of a man coming to grips with the death of a friend at his own hands, right?
Or...................maybe the song is about US Olympic Skiing Champion Bill Johnson. A simple man with a blushing bride, but all preceding tragedy and failure. Right again! The song is in fact a tribute to Bill Johnson! I have no idea, btw, if Dave Grohl has a clue who Bill Johnson is. But it doesn't matter. If it works, it works. And the song is both ambiguous and emotionally authentic enough to be the song about whatever is a source of intense grief for the listener.
So if listening to it helps one come to grips with their grief about the loss of Kurt Cobain than that is what it is; and it is also many other things, all of them related to healing from intense grief.....and it is perfect.
2 comments:
It is very easy to assume Kurt Cobain references in Dave Grohl's song writing. Dave will be forever linked to Kurt, whether he likes it or not. One of my favorite elements of this song is the ease with which many of us can relate to this song based on our own experiences in life, even if we did know Kurt personally. I argue that Dave didn't even need to know Kurt to write this song.
Perhaps it is clear to those who are familiar with the author of the song and his relationship with Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, that this song is about them. After all, there seems to be a Kurt and Courtney reference in most songs that Dave writes. I am not inferring that Dave is the second coming of Leo Tolstoy, but I am also not going to short change his songwriting talent by just assuming that everything he writes is about Kurt Cobain.
Instead, it is even more important to view this song from the eyes of an individual who do not even know who Dave, Kurt, and Courtney are.
Is Dave talking about his divorce? Is he speaking to his ex-wife in anger? Did he marry a girl with a "heart of gold" and is he now telling her, "I see your face in another light"?
"In too deep and out of time"... is it too late to fix the marriage?
"Why'd you have to go and let it die?" Is he merely accusing his ex-wife of letting their relationship disolve?
This song is a relationship song. It could be about a divorce. It could just as easily be a guy talking about a girlfriend that he was really into at one point of his life. It could also be someone speaking to a good friend that went down an opposite path.
Put the music and lyrics in front of someone who is not familiar with Dave, Kurt, and Courtney and see what they say. As much as the words are important, it is just as important to listen to the tone of the song and the levels of his voice as the volume of the song rises and falls. Is he trying to rationalize his feelings, only to build up such an intense anger that he needs to scream at the top of his lungs and create a heavier form of music?
In the end, I still want to think that this song is partially directed toward Courtney Love. The beautiful sarcasm of Dave sarcastically screaming to Courtney-- "Did you ever think of me? You're so considerate! Did you ever think of me? Oh, so considerate!"-- is just too fun to think about for me to totally dismiss this concept. However, this song is about, and means so much more than Dave holding a 15 year grudge.
I know the things that I think about when Dave yells, "Why'd you have to go and let it die???" And I'm sure glad they did...
Mike, always appreciate your point of view on this particular topic (and all of the subtopics that go with it LOL!). One thing that is very powerful about this song in the line "did you ever think of me" is one that goes along with the agony that surviving friends/relatives feel, and fact that they'll have to overcome their anger at the sense that what a person does when they take their life hurts the survivor. "Did you think of my pain, and about what you are going to put me through when you end your suffering?"
As for Courtney, does she ever think of "me" or anyone besides herself for that matter? She is a toxic swamp with an incredible voice, and nothing but a waste of God given talent.
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