NIRVANA KURT COBAIN STAGE USED AND SMASHED GUITAR JAN. 18, 1991 OLYMPIA, WA.
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Item Description
"Why do I do it?" Kurt asked in a confrontational manner. "Why not? It feels good. Somebody already cut down a nice old tree to make that fucking guitar. Smash it! We only ever do it if the feeling's right." -From Nirvana: The Chosen Rejects by Kurt St. Thomas (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004)
Things must have felt right the night of Jan. 18, 1991 in Olympia, WA. Area scenesters convened for ceremony ascending the stairs to the top floor of the Evergreen State College Library building paying $4 at the door into Library 4300 where a small makeshift stage had been erected for a one off "No More Wars" anti-Gulf War benefit concert headlined by local up and comers Nirvana. The band had made waves in the underground with their first full length LP Bleach and the follow-up single Sliver. It was the band's first gig of 1991, the beginning of a consequential year in the annals of American music, this night the start of the looming sea change. They would head to the studio in May to record Nevermind, Sept. 10 saw the release of the first single Smells Like Teen Spirit and by the end of September it was starting to make waves in the underground. A slow burn at first, it initially debuted at #144 on the Billboard 200 hurdled forward by record shops in the Northwest selling out of copies. MTV began running the video for SLTS during the daytime hours helping the album lurch to number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 as the band began a European tour. The European tour was vastly oversold as was the Australian tour that followed. The song became omnipresent on radio and TV. As the year concluded, Geffen was shipping hundreds of thousands of copies of Nevermind all over the world. A little less than a year to the day of the Jan. 18, 1991 concert, where this guitar was brutalized, Nevermind toppled Michael Jackson's Dangerous taking the number 1 spot on the Billboard Top 40 on Jan. 11, 1992. An unprecedented meteoric rise from nowhere to everywhere, they were the biggest band and force in pop culture worldwide. By the end of 1991 the band had a full crew including gear techs, a sound engineer, and a lighting designer but back at the beginning at this Jan 18, 1991 gig when Kurt wrecked this red Memphis Stratocaster they had none of it- Dave Grohl played on a borrowed drum set, the band helped load in their gear and they played to less than 500 attendees.
The Guitar: Left-handed Memphis Stratocaster replica produced in Japan at the Matsumoku factory in red with remnants of original electronics and white pickguard. Played and destroyed beyond repair by Kurt Cobain during a Nirvana concert at Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA on Jan. 18, 1991. This guitar was a sacrificial lamb used by Cobain for the gig's conclusion; the live debut of Endless Nameless, the now infamous song that would be the hidden final track on the band's second album Nevermind released in Sept. of 1991. The song became the band's go to instrument destruction noise banger that was frequently used as the closing song at shows for the remainder of their career. The live debut of the song saw Cobain unleashing his fury on the Memphis Stratocaster in a legendary moment of rock and roll violence. For most of the show Cobain plays his white Fender Stratocaster with K records sticker. Picking up this Memphis Stratocaster before launching into the final jam, he utilized a hammer to smash the instrument breaking the headstock clean off, gnarling the frets, shredding the pickguard, ejecting the pickups and leaving his mark on every surface.
During the post destruction melee, concert attendee Chris Brady, bassist in Pond who was later signed to SubPop records, was able to escape with the guitar tucked under his coat. Returning to his home in Portland, OR he gifted the guitar to friend and fellow Nirvana fan Janel Jarosz, owner of Ooze Records and singer/guitarist in Portland local band Trailer Queen. Brady presented it as the final gift during a surprise birthday party for Jarosz at her record shop not long after the show and well before the release of Nevermind and the band's meteoric rise. Jarosz used the guitar as part of a record store window display that was entered in a national contest sponsored by MTV and won, receiving a backstage experience at a Nirvana show in Seattle, WA. The guitar remained at the record store over the years and was eventually secured to the celling helping to avoid theft after two break ins. When the shop closed she took the relic home and has been its caretaker since.
Condition: What remains of the guitar is in stable structural condition. It sits on a stand with ease and could easily be mounted in a framed display. Some of the pickguard pieces and five remaining saddles in the bridge assembly move freely but remain securely hinged at screw points. Strictly speaking it grades Fair but it's truly perfect. Included with the guitar are letters of provenance from both Brady and Jarosz. As a bonus the winning bidder will also receive two signed and numbered double exposure chromogenic prints by photographer Johny Baltimore. An 8x10" print featuring Cobain using the guitar at the show and a 20x24" showing Cobain, hammer in hand, attacking the instrument. The sale is for the guitar, letters and photographs but does not convey any lawful ownership of the copyright of the images. Video footage of the concert is widely available on YouTube where you can watch Cobain destroy this guitar. Additionally, the HBO documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck features a clip of the destruction of this guitar.
A note from Hake's Director of Americana Scott Mussell: Many of the guitars smashed by Cobain have changed hands from their original procurers and are unlikely to be sold in the near future making this a fleeting opportunity to obtain a truly unique museum quality piece of music history. That this guitar is coming from the hands of the folks who secured it, at a pre-fame concert, and subsequently protected it for the last 33 years is even more tantalizing. Nirvana and Kurt Cobain hold a special place in the canon of rock 'n' roll and American music history having changed everything and represent the pinnacle of a generation with a secure and ever-growing legacy of greatness in line with top names in rock history. Illustrated by the fact that Cobain-used guitars have set the top two records for most expensive guitars ever sold with his Fender Mustang used in the Smells Like Teen Spirit video at $4.55 million and his Martin D-18E used at the MTV Unplugged concert at $6 million. The present guitar is something of a hometown special. Cobain spent much of his creative life in Olympia, WA residing there in some way from 1987-1991. Between 1989-1991he lived in an apartment at 114 Pear St. NE and during that period he wrote about 75% of his total lifetime output. While hailing from Aberdeen, WA and forever being associated with Seattle, WA not to mention important time spent in Tacoma, WA- for all intents and purposes Olympia was as instrumental as any city in molding Cobain. This guitar reflects the violent beauty of rock 'n' roll. Cobain channeled his feelings in the moment while also harkening the spirit of Hendrix, Simonon and Townsend in destroying this piece that is to me the single coolest thing Hake's has handled in our 57 years of operation and ranks among the most moving artifacts I have had the privilege of handling. Everywhere I've been with it people are moved, reactions ranging from joyous smiles to stoic reflection, this piece has an energy unlike anything. It's an honor to bring this to market and I greatly hope that the next owner shares it with the world at large.
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