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It’s hard to imagine him accepting the cheer, but happy birthday Kurt Cobain.
The Nirvana front man would’ve been 50 on Feb. 20. Instead, of course, he and the music scene he shaped are long gone, but fondly remembered.
Cobain was born Feb. 20, 1967, at Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen, Washington. He spent two-thirds of his too-brief life in the struggling timber community before heading to Seattle to win his fame.
Cobain’s relationship with his birthplace had been strained. He once notably called the old logging town on the Washington Coast “Twin Peaks without the excitement.” For decades after his rise to fame, Aberdeen and its environs declined to make a to-do about their most famous son.
In 2014, though, the city celebrated Cobain’s life on what would have been his 47th birthday with an official “Kurt Cobain Day.” A Cobain statue was unveiled at the Aberdeen Museum of History
Cobain was found dead on April 8, 1994, at his home in Seattle. His suicide – and yes, it was a suicide – shook music fans around the world and marked a turning point in the “Seattle scene.”
Perhaps unfortunately, Cobain’s legacy tends to be remembered on the anniversary of his death, not his birth. Here’s how Seattle P-I music critic Gene Stout put it a decade ago.
“He’s certainly a rock icon, but aside from Elvis Presley, very few deceased musicians inspire birthday celebrations or big acknowledgments,” Stout said.
“The anniversary of Cobain’s death is what always draws the most attention, and considering the dark, troubled nature of his life and music, that should come as no surprise. Further, the impact of his death was far greater than his birth.”
Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.
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