Bridging generations: Post Malone honors Nirvana’s legacy

Image: NBC/PEACOCK/GETTY IMAGES

I was originally going to write about the ‘SNL’ 50th anniversary special, but before that was the SNL50: The Homecoming Concert, which was held at Radio City Music Hall and featured iconic artists, bands, and acts that have been musical guests throughout the decades that SNL has been on the air on NBC. 

One performance that night celebrating the 50 years of SNL that caught my immediate attention was by Post Malone, Pat Smear, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl, who performed “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. It was the best rendition of that masterpiece without Nirvana’s late lead vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. I felt goosebumps, the hair on my arms stood up, and at times I felt transported back to when I first heard and watched the music video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. I started to subconsciously close my eyes and bop my head to it and think I was in the ’90s because it was that powerful, moving, and convincing for me. I mean, you can even hear the switching of guitar effects when Post Malone steps on his distortion pedal to perform the chorus section which adds to the intensity of it. You can hear everything, it’s awesome! 

This has to be said because I feel it would be an injustice to my generation if I did not point these things out about “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. Hands down, if there was one band, the only one that defined a generation in a nutshell, it was Nirvana. The voice, the lyrics, the bass line, the drum patterns, the guitar riff, and the guitar solo of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” are embedded in my brain. Kurt Cobain will forever be one of the greatest artists of my generation and of all time. For me, that is the greatest song ever made, and it is hard to explain to those who were not around when this masterpiece was unleashed onto the world and changed forever our perception of music and many other things that followed that are hard to put into words because that was an irreplaceable experience that can never be replicated again but that sentiment doubles when it comes with Kurt Cobain. What a music legend.

A quick history lesson: there was a time, in fact, for a good few years, it was Nirvana that led the way, started the change, and made things happen for everyone else in their scene in Seattle. The fabled “Grunge Movement” was real for those who are too young to remember or perhaps have begun to have selective memory as they have grown older, for me, that was one of the best times if not the most exciting period ever in music that I have ever experienced in my young life because everywhere you look, listen and go, there were bands that were awesome, great and nothing like you have ever heard before and the one leading them all was Nirvana. 

Now, back to Post Malone’s performance, it has become my favorite live version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by any living artist with the surviving members of Nirvana. This one beats the one they did with Joan Jett years ago during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Nirvana. On a related note, I still remember in the late 2000s, I still remember when the vocalist for Seether, Shaun Morgan, would cover on a nearly regular basis during their live sets the song “Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana because frankly their lead vocalist eerily sounded like Kurt Cobain. In fact, from time to time you would hear other mainstream bands or artists cover a Nirvana song, but who can say among them that they got to sing with the rest of the band live and in person? Not a lot. A select few can say that, but what makes this different from Post Malone is that he has the approval from the estate of the late Kurt Cobain and his daughter Frances Bean Cobain to perform the classic songs of Nirvana and not only from the remaining members of the band. They have all given him their blessing. It’s no secret that Post Malone has a ton of respect and admiration for Nirvana. 

And you can see why. Post Malone was able to stand out through his approach which is reminiscent of the signature intensity of Kurt Cobain. You could see the looks of approval, smiles, and nods from the rest of Nirvana (Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear) when the camera panned to them at different points during the live number, which is a sign of bigger things to come with Post Malone involved with them for sure. 

It can be a lightning-in-a-bottle scenario when searching for the right frontman to sing songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with the surviving members of Nirvana because it requires more than just knowing the lyrics, guitar chords, and how to sing it, but more importantly, knowing that you have to be in sync with three other iconic music figures is what is more important. After all, there has to be that band cohesiveness, tightness, and of course, chemistry, as you are filling in even temporarily the shoes of someone irreplaceable in Kurt Cobain and you would not want to piss off his bandmates! Haha…. Seriously, these dudes can still kick any Kurt Cobain wannabee’s a**! Haha…. If they wanted to, because they felt these imposters were disrespecting the memory of their lead singer Kurt Cobain by butchering their most famous song. That is probably one reason why, so few have performed it with them because it is sacred ground for them, and one does not need a lot of imagination to know why that is.

What that song means, what the band means and what the legacy of Nirvana is all about, all the fans know. Maybe, the current generation should know also.

Indeed, it is not often you will hear and see “Smells Like Teen Spirit” performed live unless the occasion demands it, when the timing is right and most of all, when a deserving person comes along, because Kurt Cobain was one of a kind, a once in a generation talent and someone in his mold that we have not seen since, and will never see again at this point. But to have someone like Post Malone who is well aware of walking behind the monolithic shadow cast by the late Kurt Cobain in the music industry and still perform as comfortably as he did that night with the rest of the remaining members of Nirvana was something else. It was eye-opening to see someone in this day and age, even come halfway close to the presence of Kurt Cobain. 

That fateful night, Post Malone honored Kurt Cobain and the rest of Nirvana. He was not trying to sound like Kurt Cobain, but he brought to life the masterpiece the way he saw fit, adding his flare, nuances, and vocal style that was a mix of a mid-level vocal range, vibrato vocals, and his almost guttural way of singing that is complementary with the rest of Nirvana because Kurt Cobain had a punk style and that rough, raw and husky quality in singing is spot-on with Post Malone.

I can see the chances of the surviving members of Nirvana touring with Post Malone because if ever there was a test run to determine if Post Malone was a suitable fit for the rest of Nirvana, then that sure was it. 

I think Kurt Cobain would have been proud of them.