Can the album that changed everything change it again? Bigger Than the Sound looks back. By James Montgomery Kurt Cobain Photo: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images Here’s an abbreviated list of everything that’s happened in my life in the 20 years since Nirvana ‘s Nevermind was released : graduated middle school, started wearing thrift-store corduroys, got my learner’s permit, lost my virginity, got my driver’s license, got in several accidents, named All-County keeper in the Central Florida High School Lacrosse League (two times), graduated high school, started smoking clove cigarettes, had an ill-fated long-distance relationship and an even iller-fated run in a community-college film program, moved out to attend “real college,” spent six years doing anything but , slept on a futon in Burbank, attempted to use a 9/11 to reconnect with my ex-girlfriend, experienced shame from that attempt, moved to New York City, had dark times (aside from the Red Sox ’04 and ’07 World Series wins), met a girl, fell in love, got engaged in Reykjavik, got married in Dublin, recently discovered small black hairs growing on my earlobes. Of course, reading back over all that, none of it makes me feel nearly as old as the fact that, on Saturday, Nevermind will officially turn 20. Because as a kid who was alive and kicking during that era when all of a sudden “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was everywhere and Nirvana were the biggest thing in the world (or at least the suburbs), I can tell you that it seemed impossible that this music would ever age; mostly because everything about it seemed so of the moment, so important, so young. That was, in part, due to everything Kurt Cobain was (unwillingly) on his way to becoming: an outsider icon, a generational symbol, maybe even a musical messiah. Like I wrote a few years back, on the 15th anniversary of Cobain’s death , he represented truth and the honor that came with never compromising. He had made it on his terms, and he was going to lift us all up with him. That’s the kind of stuff you believe in when you’re too young to know better. Mostly, it was because Nevermind ripped up the mainstream and instantaneously made everything else out there seem pass
