It was twenty years ago today...

In this case Sgt. Pepper did not teach the band how to play... the Seattle grunge scene in the early to mid-90's wasn't really his thing.

This is the 20th anniversary of the release of Nirvana's final studio album, In Utero.

I can't compare it to The Fab Fours masterpiece other than to say, like Sgt. Peppers* before it, it was one among a list of albums that defined a generation, mine in particular. Others, including (to name just a few): Nirvana's Nevermind, Smashing Pumpkin's Siamese Dream and Pearl Jam's Ten... are now going on their second decade after release.

Anniversary's of many of these album releases often conjure up nostalgic memories of  those final fun years in high school... when I had more spares than actual classes and spent the time debating with good friends in the school library (or wherever we were out dodging classes) the merits of each new eagerly awaited release from our favourite bands.

We'd scrounge up whatever little expendable income we had in anticipation of purchasing these albums, and on the day, race home with our new album to record it on tape so we could listen to it on our Walkmans on the walk to school. A nephew of mine recently asked me what a Walkman** was when it came up in conversation between my brother and I. He was horrified to learn that we often only carried 90 minutes of music with us on any given day and that we had to put up with something called "tape hiss".

My Sony Walkman that I purchased way back in
1989! 

Back then, (it sounds crazy now) you had to play the whole album in real time to copy it to tape. And making a mix tape (what you young folk would call a "playlist") was an even longer, difficult and tedious, (yet rewarding) task when you got it just right. Future generations will never know the hardship of selecting and arranging songs to fit on your tape so that you could maximize the available 90 minutes. There were of course 120 minute tapes, but they wore out a lot faster and tended to get chewed up more frequently in the tape player mechanisms.

I often wonder if kids today relish the release of new albums the way previous generations have, but given that they can download whatever songs they want, near instantaneously, I highly doubt it.

On September 16th, I'll be listening to In Utero, banging my head in pent-up teenage angst that was the right, and calling card of my generation. It won't be quite the same without my long hair, but I still have my Doc Martins, some ripped jeans, a worse for wear cheeky t-shirt and my very battered, threadbare jean jacket that I wore back in those days.***

Lads of Nirvana, thanks for the tunes... and Kurt, we still miss you, now more than ever, because the music these days... sucks.

Hey! You kids stay out of my yard, dammit!

All "grunged" up in 1993.

* Frighteningly, Sgt. Peppers was released 46 years ago. It doesn't seem all that long since we were celebrating its twentieth anniversary. 
** To this day I still only own two "portable" music players... my Walkman, and Discman. 
***Up until fairly recently, I still had most of my old Nirvana t-shirts. My girlfriend made me throw them out when I moved in with her because, quote: "They are disgraceful and hobos have clothes in better condition".