Big Mouth (Courtney Love) Strikes Again


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Ironically, a huge story about my Beatles, Nirvana, and another video game, Guitar Hero 5, broke this afternoon. In the latest Activision title, the brooding Generation X spokesman, Kurt Cobain, was turned into front man for Bon Jovi, Public Enemy and many others through obnoxious use of technology and rights secured from his estate.

As my man The Thing used to say, “What a revoltin’ development this is.” See the horrendous clip of Kurt Cobain in Guitar Hero 5 on the next page, but first take a look at Nirvana at their peak (above), and remember the real band.

What a nut! I believe that Courtney willingly signed Kurt’s likeness away to Rock Band… Kurt’s just desserts for refusing to stick around to answer these questions or make new albums. Oh the humanity. I hope Krist and Dave, along with their phalanx of managers and lawyers, can leverage their ownership of Nirvana to prevent its misrepresentation, even at the hand of the singer’s estate.

It will be an interesting case, but in the meantime, what a ridiculous and scary prospect. Yes we saw Abraham Lincoln in animatronics at Disneyland, and even nude paintings and photos of Joe DiMaggio have recently come out. But Kurt Cobain rapping as Flavor Flav? Moronic. And I’d be pissed if I were Bon Jovi or Flavor Flav. They should have some control over usage of their music too.

Guitar Hero 5 features a more realistic setting for Johnny Cash

This is just plain poor taste, and of course The Beatles still win the day. There is no way Kurt Cobain rapping or singing Bon Jovi songs could be anywhere near as legit…

Let’s turn now to my friends Krist Novoselic and David Grohl’s comments (from Rolling Stone):

“This is a statement regarding Nirvana, Guitar Hero and the likeness of the late Kurt Cobain.

We want people to know that we are dismayed and very disappointed in the way a facsimile of Kurt is used in the Guitar Hero game. The name and likeness of Kurt Cobain are the sole property of his estate – we have no control whatsoever in that area.

While we were aware of Kurt’s image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn’t know players have the ability to unlock the character. This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in “re-locking” Kurt’s character so that this won’t continue in the future.

It’s hard to watch an image of Kurt pantomiming other artists’ music alongside cartoon characters. Kurt Cobain wrote songs that hold a lot of meaning to people all over the world. We feel he deserves better.”

— Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl

I fully agree the other Nirvana members. This is an effrontery to every rock fan, everyone who supported Nirvana on any level. One thing we can remember about that band is that Kurt Cobain had a pure vision that was not tainted by crap moves like this. Sure he killed himself, but this game is a fate worse than death. It makes him into a clown.

It really reminds me of how Little Bill (Gene Hackman) displayed Ned’s remains outside that guy’s saloon in The Unforgiven.

Beatles Rock Band – classy reinterpretation for future generations and existing fans

Guitar Hero 5 – made for people, and apparently by people, who have no respect for music and its history. That’s a fail, as the computer kids would say.

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