New Book: Kurt Cobain's Legacy, 20 Years On, and the Makings of Grunge

Grunge took a fatal blow on April 5, 1994, when Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain died of a self-inflicted gun shot wound at his Lake Washington home. But what are the precise origins of the movement that surrounded him? In new book_ Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain_ (It Books), released for the 20th anniversary of Cobain’s death, author Charles R. Cross—who also penned the definitive Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven—revisits Cobain’s life and times, including how he affected the cultural conversation during and after his life. Tucked in the pages of reflections, anecdotes, and reporting by Cross are also nuggets of music history, like:

The word “Grunge,” as an adjective and not a noun, had been kicked around in rock ’n’ roll for decades before it came to describe a generation. Lester Bangs used it in an October 1972 record review of a metal band in Creem. Before that, it appeared in liner notes to a reissue of a 1957 Johnny Burnette Trio album, where the rockabilly guitar playing was described as “grungy.” Mark Arm of Mudhoney is often credited with coining the term, but he says he heard it from friends in Australia where edgy singer-songwriter Tex Perkins was dubbed “the high priest of grunge.” The first print use of “Grunge” in the Northwest can be traced to a letter to the editor by Mark Arm that appeared in the Seattle fanzine > Desperate Times in 1981. In it, Arm complained about the band Mr. Epp and the Calculations: “Pure grunge! Pure noise! Pure shit!” Arm just so happened to be the lead singer for Mr. Epp.

_Excerpted from Here We Are Now from It Books, and imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. _