Kim Gordon recalls impact of ‘Nevermind’

Kim Gordon: “Every kid wanted to be Kurt Cobain for a while.” Image by P.B. Rage. Creative Commons

25 years on from the release of Nirvana’s groundbreaking album, alt-rock icon Kim Gordon discusses the factors behind it’s success

Tomorrow (24 September) it will be a quarter of a century, that’s right, since the release of Nirvana’s ballpark and goalpost exploding second album, and alt-rock icon and Sonic Youth member Kim Gordon has recalled the album’s impact.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Gordon said: “The mainstream seemed so impenetrable. We had a tape of [Nevermind] before it was released. I remember talking to the Geffen Records A&R person, Mark Kates, about it. And we gave a copy of that and a Dinosaur Jr. album to Neil [Young] while we were on tour with him [in 1991]….we gave it to his stage manager. I don’t know if [Neil] ever listened to them.”

Continuing by talking about Lollapalooza laying the foundations for the success of Nevermind: “It just set the stage for Nirvana, they solidified that idea. So there were other bands from Seattle…you know, people get lumped in. There was Bush and bands that had this big sound. Every kid wanted to be Kurt Cobain for a while.”

Nevermind was the second album to be released by Nirvana. Made famous initially for knocking Michael Jackson’s Dangerous off the top-spot on the US Billboard 200 chart, it has since gone on to sell more than 24 million copies worldwide.

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