April 5, 1994: The Death of Kurt Cobain

April 5, 1994: Kurt Cobain's demons catch up with him, and he decides he doesn't want to fight them anymore. His body is not discovered for 3 days.

A big part of my generation mourned him. That part did not include me. And that's as politely as I can put it. He was compared to John Lennon, as the voice of a generation; to Sid Vicious, a symbolic loser; and to Jim Morrison, who was a little of both.

Like several other musical personalities, including Morrison, he was dead at the age of 27.

He had already barely survived a drug overdose a month earlier. On Saturday Night Live, "Weekend Update" anchor Norm Macdonald said, "In other news, Kurt Cobain almost reached Nirvana this week." A couple of weeks after that, they did a cold open with a "We Are the World"-style celebrity song explaining the Whitewater scandal, and David Spade played Cobain, and nobody could understand a word he said, which matched the strangeness of the scandal. Both of these sketches were repeated after Cobain's death, possibly a low point in SNL's history.

Cobain has been called a genius. He wasn't. He wasn't smart enough to grasp the concept that he is the musician, so he is supposed to entertain us, not the other way around.

And Nirvana has been called the most influential music act of the 1990s. Plenty of acts were more influential, including Janet Jackson, Public Enemy, Boyz II Men, En Vogue, and especially Alanis Morissette. By the time Alanis came out with Jagged Little Pill on June 13, 1995, not only was Cobain dead, but Nirvana's grunge aesthetic was buried as well.

Dave Grohl went on to form Foo Fighters, who sound very different. Pearl Jam moved away from that style as well. Novoselic has worked with several bands since, including Sweet 75, Eyes Adrift, Flipper, Giants in the Trees, and Foo Fighters, the band that Grohl formed, switching to guitar. Foo Fighters are now so well-regarded, I saw one person call Nirvana "Foo Fighters Classic."

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April 5, 1994 was a Tuesday. These Major League Baseball games were played:

Football was out of season. There were 11 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Miami Heat, 100-86 at the Miami Arena.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics, 120-94 at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands.

* The Orlando Magic beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 104-97 at the Orlando Arena.

* The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Charlotte Hornets, 105-99 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio. The Cavs only played 5 more games there, including Playoff games, before moving the next season into the building now known as the Rocket Aren.a

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Detroit Pistons, 105-89 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Washington Bullets, 114-88 at the Chicago Stadium. Da Bulls only played 5 more games there, including Playoff games, before moving the next season into the United Center.

* The Los Angeles Clippers beat the Denver Nuggets, 92-91 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the San Antonio Spurs, 106-101 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Sacramento Kings, 88-80 at the ARCO Arena in Sacramento.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Phoenix Suns, 135-113 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Seattle Supersonics beat the Utah Jazz, 86-79 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

And there were 6 games in the NHL:

* The New York Islanders beat the Washington Capitals, 4-3 at the USAir Arena (formerly the Capital Centre) in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland. Benoît Hogue scored the winning goal with 1:26 left in overtime.

* The Quebec Nordiques and the Florida Panthers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The St. Louis Blues beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, 5-1 at the St. Louis Arena. The Blues only played 5 more games there, including 2 Playoff games, before moving the next season, to the building now named the Enterprise Center.

* The Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Dallas Stars, 6-4 at the Reunion Arena in Dallas.

* The San Jose Sharks beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the Detroit Red Wings beat the Vancouver Canucks 8-3 at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver. Dino Ciccarelli scored 4 goals and had 2 assists.