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Nevermind the Anniversary

Eyewear is jumping ahead a bit.  On the 24th, Saturday, it'll be the 20 year anniversary, as we all know, of Nevermind, universally regarded (now) as the single most important popular music album of the 1990s, a true generational watershed moment.  I still remember the first time I heard it, in 1991, at an October house party, in Montreal.  It was on in the background.  I was drinking a beer, talking to a guy in an untucked flannel lumberjack-style shirt, and we both stopped and said - hey, this is f***ing good.  Soon, I had bought the CD, and was playing it all day.  I was lifting weights then, at my Verdun apartment, and used to keep it on in the background; and it became the soundtrack to my personal life, for a while.  Sure, the rest of the story gets a little boring, soon enough - the loser club death, the wasted genius.  But Cobain and Co. created a few tracks the aural equivalent of The Beatles.  Truly great stuff, that belonged only to us - people then in their 20s.  Of course, that makes me 45, which sort of sucks, but it was good to have our own sound, not the 60s.  I should add, I still think Pixies and Smashing Pumpkins come close to Nirvana at times.  But name another album where each of the 12 songs is a classic.  Don't bother.

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