The guitar that Kurt Cobain appeared with in the music video for “Smells like Teen Spirit” is going up for auction. At a three-day “Music Icons” auction in May, the blue 1964 Fender Mustang is expected to go for as high as $800,000.

“Out of all the guitars in the world, the Fender Mustang is my favorite. They’re cheap and totally inefficient, and they sound like crap and are very small.”

I don’t know if I would call the situation ironic, but it is amusing when you consider the indifference with which Kurt Cobain approached the electric guitar; in his playing and choice of instrument. He was not an objectively good guitarist but never pretended to be either. His playing was angry, simple, and raw, with no air of pretentiousness whatsoever. He never made much effort to improve his technical capacity; he eschewed solos (apart from simple melodic lines or frenetic bends) and would often record with out-of-tune guitars. I think he valued musical authenticity above everything else, and he didn’t need anything special to do that.

“I’ve never considered musical equipment very sacred.”

Kurt used cheap, low-quality instruments throughout much of his career (including in the studio) even after he had the means to acquire better equipment.

Here are some of Kurt’s guitars

Harmony Stella 12 -String

For “Something in The Way,” Kurt used this 12 string that he paid only $30 for. The instrument was out of tune for the recording and had just five strings. This same guitar was used for all acoustic parts on Nevermind.

Fender Stratocasters

Kurt used Stratocasters extensively, but he actually favored the models from Japan. One of these instruments was his famous “Vandalism” Strat.

Kurt with the vandalism Strat

Fender Mustangs (A LOT of them)

Kurt had a funny way of showing his love for the Fender Mustang. He played tons of them over the years of differing quality, origin, and colour. However, he smashed more Mustangs than Pete Townshend did Gibson SGs.

The Blue Fender Mustang in question

Martin D-18E

This is the guitar that Kurt used for Nirvana’s legendary unplugged performance on MTV. It became the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction when it went for over $6 million in 2020. This acoustic is one of the nicer guitars that Kurt ever owned. The man who didn’t care about guitars coughed up $5,000 for the rare instrument in 1992. Even by today’s standards, that is a lot of money for a guitar.

With the Martin D-18E

If there is one thing you can take away from Kurt Cobain’s guitar history, let it be that equipment is secondary to the musician who is using it. The ideas and the personality is all in the hands. The guitar is just there to capture it.

There aren’t many bands that genuinely mean it when they call it quits. They can hate each other at the moment, but given time, the need to create music or the need for a paycheque takes over. “Farewell Tour” is possibly the two most disingenuous words in the musical industry.

When Led Zeppelin called it a career in 1980, following the death of drummer John Bonham, they meant it. Outside of a few one-off performances, including a pitiful showing at Live Aid in 1985 and The O2 Arena in 2007, Led Zeppelin has stuck to their word. Page & Plant was a thing for a while but calling that “Led Zeppelin” is like calling Derek Trucks and Warren Hayes “The Allman Brothers.”Earlier today, I read that Jimmy Page is working on new material with several projects. He offered no details other than indicating he is staying busy these days, and it has to do with music.

An excellent excuse for my thoughts on Jimmy Page.

There will be no new music, and there will undoubtedly be no Led Zeppelin reunion. For one reason or another, the band’s remaining members have let that opportunity slip away. They are well into their seventies now, and today’s reunion will hail compared to what it could have been even just ten years ago. The biggest problem is Jimmy himself because I don’t think he has anything left in the tank.

Before you call me a hater

There are three truths about the three guitarists who began their careers in the Yardbirds. Jeff Beck was the best guitarist, Eric Clapton was the biggest star, but Jimmy was the best musician by a wide margin. As a guitarist, he is legendary. Iconic riffs, solos, and arrangements that we still celebrate today. As a writer, in a hard-rock context, he is without

equal because he had a willingness to experiment that his blues contemporaries never did. In my mind, Jimmy Page peaked in 1975 with the release of “Physical Graffiti.” With his guitar playing, production techniques, and songwriting,

Jimmy Page with his Gibson EDS-1275 double neck.

Jimmy had redefined what a four-piece rock act achieve. Led Zeppelin was at their best because Jimmy was at his best.Unfortunately, Jimmy began to decline sharply shortly after. He developed a severe heroin addiction that was especially evident in live performances. While still a principal songwriter, in my opinion, the songs following “Physical Graffiti” are just not the same. Compare Jimmy’s guitar playing in 1971 to a performance in 1979. His dexterity, improvisation, and confidence in playing lead guitar fell off a cliff. Instead of bringing a song new energy in a live performance, he struggled to keep up. Page was rail thin at this point, and it’s a wonder how he held a guitar as heavy as the Les Paul. In the studio, his playing didn’t have the same sense of purpose. On the album “Presence” in 1976, it feels like Page is filling space with his guitar rather than driving the song in a particular direction. The songs themselves are just not as good, period. Without Jimmy, at 100% Led Zeppelin would never reach their creative peak again.

So while on the surface, Led Zeppelin disbanded in 1980 because of the death of John Bonham, I think it had a lot more to do with where Jimmy was musically than anything else.

He would get sober shortly after the breakup, but I believe his creative stores were depleted at that point. Page has not aged well as a guitarist. Eric Clapton, no stranger to drug abuse, is as smooth with his hands as ever. Jeff Beck, while he may hate playing live, has not lost an ounce of his technique or dexterity. Unfortunately, I don’t believe that Led Zeppelin will ever reunite, nor do I think Jimmy Page will release new music. He went as high as one can musically, but he seems to have left all of his steam (as a guitarist and musician) in Led Zeppelin’s heyday.

Pink Floyd has reunited to release new material for the first time in 28 years. The song is called “Hey Hey Rise Up,” and it’s a display of solidarity with the people of Ukraine. All proceeds from the single will go towards humanitarian efforts.

There is just one problem…

No Roger Waters

Therefore this is not Pink Floyd.

With all due respect to David Gilmour and Nick Mason, the two of them teaming up to release material does not qualify as Pink Floyd. The two men were critical pieces of the original lineup, and the sounds they created helped define progressive rock. With “Dark Side Of The Moon,” their efforts helped expand our idea of what rock music could be. On “The Wall,” they brought to life a story about loneliness, isolation, and human nature.

But…

The story almost always began with Roger Waters. There aren’t many tracks during Waters’s tenure with the group (between 1965 and 1985) where he didn’t write the entire song or the majority of it himself.

Roger Waters

The atmospheric, spacey guitar -work of David Gilmour, along with his usual role of lead vocals, is perhaps the most enduring or visible aspect of Pink Floyd in a live context. Who could argue after hearing his solos on tracks such as “Time,” “Comfortably Numb,” and “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”? However, Gilmour’s talents were more often used to bring Waters’ stories to life rather than tell his own.

David Gilmour

The songwriting process was a more collaborative one in the early days of the band, but as time wore on, Rogers took the wheel. For “The Wall,” released in 1979, he wrote all but four of twenty-six songs entirely by himself.

So while I am happy to see David Gilmour and Nick Mason making music again, it’s not right in my eyes to call the partnership Pink Floyd. The closest you will get to see the band today is by catching Roger Waters on what may be his last performance in Vancouver this September.

Griffin

On Saturday, I had a day where I was more cognizant than usual about the unfortunate prospect of approaching my mid-twenties.

Then I unlocked some memories.

For much of my life, time spent in the car was where I got my music. On the way to school, sports practices, and road trips. How many great songs did I hear for the first time on the radio while I sat in the back of the car?

Too many to count.

The internet wasn’t as accessible in those days. Even as the first smartphones became more common towards the end of the 2000s, kids didn’t get them nearly as young as today. I didn’t have Spotify evaluating my preferences and introducing me to new content. Music, in general, wasn’t as easy to get a hold of. I had to get to the bus stop on time to catch Much Music Countdown at 3:30, or I had to be going somewhere.

Before it was Virgin, 94.5 was the Beat! It was my favourite station in Vancouver.

Most times, it was the latter.It came down to my listening skills and a little luck. The best-case scenario was when the radio jockey would either announce the song before it played or tell you what it was after the fact. I considered myself very lucky when they did this because it meant some extra work on my part when they didn’t. I would have to try and recall some of the lyrics to search them on the iTunes store and find the song again. If I couldn’t remember anything, that meant I was shit out of luck until the next time I heard it on the radio.

Building my musical library was somewhat arduous, not to mention expensive. I remember iTunes charging $1.29 for a single song at one point. When your allowance was $5, that works out to barely four new songs a week! I had to choose carefully. The thought process was something along the lines of

“Which song will it suck the least to not hear again for a week until I get paid?”

If I really liked five songs, I had to give one of them up.

The only free songs I could get were at Starbucks, when they would give out those little coupons you could redeem on the iTunes store. Does anyone else remember that?

Remember these?

They usually sucked, but I took them anyway because you never know!

Do you remember the “old days” of listenership?

When I’m an old man, maybe I’ll remind people that I had to work hard to listen to music in my day!

Griffin

Saturday night marked the end of an era as Genesis performed their final concert at the O2 arena in London. The show took place across three sets, including an acoustic section and the encore, covering the band’s catalog from the early days as progressive, art-rock pioneers to the mega pop machine of the 1980s.

I watched a few bits of the performance online, and I would describe it sad, but in more than just the usual context of a band deciding to hang it up. While the instrumentation and visuals of the concert seemed to be quite strong, it is clear that Phil Collins was in a great deal of pain. He hasn’t been able to play the drums for years due to nerve damage in his hands and a spinal injury that has forced him to perform sitting down since 2017. The

The original lineup of Genesis; circa 1973. L to R: Keyboardist Tony Banks, Phil Collins (back then just the drummer), Peter Gabriel (lead singer), Steve Hackett (guitarist), and Mike Rutherford (bass)

singer has also struggled with alcoholism, a drop-foot, and type-2 diabetes. His physical condition and his willingness to perform despite it stood out to me more than any other  aspect of the performance. His voice was also more laboured, and it’s clear that a big sound from the rhythm section was needed to compensate for it. I found Collins physical condition really upsetting but moving as well.

After listening to what little pieces of the concert I could, the first thing I did was watch a few Genesis performances from better times. Give these a try because Genesis is a band that deserves to be remembered for its peak, not the final rally that we saw on Saturday.

Firth Of Fifth – 1973 

A classical piano intro, then a flute solo, then a guitar solo mimicking that flute solo note for note? “Firth Of Fifth” makes it easy to see how Genesis were every bit the prog-rock pioneers that Rush, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Uriah Heep were. Personally, I think Steve Hacketts guitar work make the song.

  Land Of Confusion – 1986 

Invisible Touch -1987

It blows my my mind that this is the same band that was performing ” Firth of Fifth” a decade earlier and to an entirely different fan base.

Saturday may have marked the end of Genesis, but the legacy on modern music isn’t going anywhere.