1989: The Most Important Year in GN'R History?

[EvanG]

9 minutes ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Kurt Cobain suicides impacted Niravana more than their musical ability. Nirvana would have been no bigger than STP, AIC, or Soundgarden had Kurt lived. 

Almost every artist gets legendary after their death at a young age... you can say the same thing about Hendrix, Morrison, etc., so of course they became even more popular after his death. But they sold more records than those bands you just mentioned before Cobain died, so you can't take that away from them. Nirvana were headlining huge festivals not even a year after their breakthrough album, that's unthinkable nowadays, and I didn't see STP ever do that... I doubt that they ever headlined a huge festival in the first place.

[The Holographic Universe]

8 minutes ago, EvanG said:

Almost every artist gets legendary after their death at a young age... you can say the same thing about Hendrix, Morrison, etc., so of course they became even more popular after his death. But they sold more records than those bands you just mentioned before Cobain died, so you can't take that away from them. Nirvana were headlining huge festivals not even a year after their breakthrough album, that's unthinkable nowadays, and I didn't see STP ever do that... I doubt that they ever headlined a huge festival in the first place.

Pearl Jam were outselling Nirvana. Pearl Jam actually broke GNRs record for most albums sold in one week with Vs.   Nirvana didn’t outsell GNR

[rocknroll41]

14 minutes ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Pearl Jam were outselling Nirvana. Pearl Jam actually broke GNRs record for most albums sold in one week with Vs.   Nirvana didn’t outsell GNR

I'm pretty sure I read way back when that Nevermind outsold Appetite in the long run, but don't quote me on that.

regardless, no one can deny the fact that the Nevermind album (particularly the songs Teen Spirit and Come As You Are) and the unplugged show all had a massive impact on rock and even pop culture as a whole. As an earlier post said, the fashion industry even changed, let alone mainstream music.

yes, Nirvana and Kurt in particular were mythologized, in a sense, after his death, but to say they were only as big as STP and AiC sounds a bit laughable to me. Im pretty sure they were bigger, and would've continued to remain bigger had Kurt stayed alive.

[Ratam]

2 hours ago, rocknroll41 said:

I'm pretty sure I read way back when that Nevermind outsold Appetite in the long run, but don't quote me on that.

regardless, no one can deny the fact that the Nevermind album (particularly the songs Teen Spirit and Come As You Are) and the unplugged show all had a massive impact on rock and even pop culture as a whole. As an earlier post said, the fashion industry even changed, let alone mainstream music.

yes, Nirvana and Kurt in particular were mythologized, in a sense, after his death, but to say they were only as big as STP and AiC sounds a bit laughable to me. Im pretty sure they were bigger, and would've continued to remain bigger had Kurt stayed alive.

I be very secure Nevermind not outsold AFD.

[RONIN]

it's been mentioned before (even by the band members) that the Chicago '89 sessions were a watershed moment for the future of the band. That was their one final chance to come together and reestablish their bonds. But they blew it and as @Fashionista has mentioned, their demise can probably be traced in large part to that time period. 

The story shifts around a bit given who is telling it but in one version of events, there's a great anecdote about how Izzy kept calling Slash to see if Axl had shown up in Chicago and finally after 2 months, Axl shows up for the last few days remaining. Izzy hears about it and decides to drive from Indiana to Chicago to meet up with the band who are writing UYI. Izzy drives up to where they're staying to find Axl throwing italian food out the window at the fans heckling him from below - Izzy apparently takes one look at the situation and then turns the car around and drives right back to Indiana. 

 

[DieselDaisy]

If you mean when it began to all go tits up?, 1989 is your year.

A causal relationship can be established between Chicago '89 and the horrors of DJ Ashba twenty years' later!!

Edited March 26, 2018 by DieselDaisy

[EvanG]

12 hours ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Pearl Jam were outselling Nirvana. Pearl Jam actually broke GNRs record for most albums sold in one week with Vs.   Nirvana didn’t outsell GNR

So? I don't have the exact numbers, but I never stated otherwise. I only reacted to your comment that Nirvana wouldn't have been bigger than those specific bands you mentioned... Nirvana already sold more than those bands (STP, AIC) before Cobain had killed himself, so your comment that Nirvana wouldn't have been bigger had Cobain not died is, like rocknroll41 said, indeed laughable.

Edited March 26, 2018 by EvanG

[Ratam]

6 hours ago, RONIN said:

it's been mentioned before (even by the band members) that the Chicago '89 sessions were a watershed moment for the future of the band. That was their one final chance to come together and reestablish their bonds. But they blew it and as @Fashionista has mentioned, their demise can probably be traced in large part to that time period. 

The story shifts around a bit given who is telling it but in one version of events, there's a great anecdote about how Izzy kept calling Slash to see if Axl had shown up in Chicago and finally after 2 months, Axl shows up for the last few days remaining. Izzy hears about it and decides to drive from Indiana to Chicago to meet up with the band who are writing UYI. Izzy drives up to where they're staying to find Axl throwing italian food out the window at the fans heckling him from below - Izzy apparently takes one look at the situation and then turns the car around and drives right back to Indiana. 

 

GNR fans always to be hungry🍲

[Carmenjello]

16 hours ago, The Holographic Universe said:

Kurt Cobain suicides impacted Niravana more than their musical ability. Nirvana would have been no bigger than STP, AIC, or Soundgarden had Kurt lived. 

They would have been. And they were when kurt was still alive. Nevermind and especially teen spirit was a mass phenomenon.

[Nice Boy]

On 3/26/2018 at 6:54 AM, DieselDaisy said:

If you mean when it began to all go tits up?, 1989 is your year.

 

 

This is true, and the simplest way to understand the demise of the original band.

Reasons, in a nutshell:

 

After they finish the AFD tour, they return to LA but have money and now live separately in big houses. The 'street gang' bond is lost, and with that the capacity to write material as easily.

 

Axl develops intense diva persona and becomes embroiled in relationship crap

Slash goes into a 3 year nightmarish heroin binge, as he says in his book

Steven begins his descent into speedball fuelled oblivion and can barely play

Izzy pisses on plane, then gets sober and finds it hard to be around the rest of the band

Duff is drunk

 

They don't tour for another 2 years and by that time (1991) the whole dynamic has changed, moving too fast for them to cope with as individuals or a collective. Steven and Izzy drop off, Alan Niven is replaced with Goldstein, it's only another 2 years till the whole thing basically ends.

 

 

[IrishgunnerII]

1989 was an important year in the history of GNR, insofar as it spelled the end of the band as fans at the time knew it. From reading Slash and Duffs autobiographies, it's clear that once they finished the AFD tour in 1988, it was a case of "what now" and having the new found wealth and big houses it was a case of excelleranting their already set in addictions. It was a case of Idle hands caused problems that didn't exist in 1987, or if they did the structure of touring stopped it getting as bad as it did in 1989. Their last show in 1988 was on December 12th in Auckland, New Zealand and their next show as a group was at the Cathouse, Los Angeles on October 13th, 1989.