Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Goldberg on Cobain vs. Vedder

 


Mitch Perry recently reviewed Danny Goldberg's Bumping Into Geniuses, a memoire of Goldberg's time in and comments on the recording industry, for The Political Whore.  Contained therein, Goldberg provides us with another window into the Nirvana/Pearl Jam rivalry and Cobain's comment that Pearl Jam was "pioneering a corporate, alternative, cock-rock fusion."



 

Goldberg ended up being introduced to Nirvana by mutual friends Sonic Youth.   He spends 55 pages in the paperback version of Bumping Into Geniuses writing about his experience with the band and Cobain, which he calls the most important relationship of his professional career.

 

He revisits those halcyon days of grunge that was 1991, and includes a reference to a cutting remark Cobain once made about Pearl Jam.  It reminded me of that time when, for those who cared, you either had to be in the Nirvana or PJ camp.  Kind of like the Beatles or the Stones in the 60’s, if you were around then.

Being a Nirvana partisan, I remember reading about how Cobain was upset in 1993, when Vsoutsold In Utero, and Eddie Vedder made the cover of Time.

In his book, Goldberg recounts how he thought a Cobain caustic remark about Vedder was “unfortunate.”  I asked him why he wrote that.

Goldberg said Cobain regretted making the remark, and that he and Eddie Vedder became good friends before Cobain died. “And they really were from the same planet artistically and spiritually and culturally, but you know, sometimes when somebody who’s similar to you can be a threat emotionally. There was competition but there was more collegiality.”