Kurt Cobain was well known for his diverse taste in music and championing obscure punk bands while professing ABBA fandom. When he was 19 he made this mixtape, ‘Montage Of Heck’, and it shows his taste was pretty far-out before he was world famous. From George Michael to Frank Zappa and Cher to Van Halen, it flies all over place. It’s been around on various fan sites as a bootleg for years, but it’s only recently resurfaced to the internet ‘at large’.
Kurt Cobain’s “Montage Of Heck” from SpaceEcho on Vimeo.
The tape was posted by SpaceEcho on Vimeo who writes in the comments that Cobain “gave it to him personally ;)” and says it’s from 1986, the year before Nirvana formed. Dangerous Minds pulled out all the songs Cobain cut up to make an unholy, fried mess of a mixtape. It’s full of odd sound effects, clips from children’s shows, Daniel Johnston screaming and excerpts from an eclectic mix of artists.
All the best mixtapes have themes, and if ‘Montage Of Heck’ had to have one – apart from being challenging and experimental – it would be love. Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love’, Queen’s ‘Get Down, Make Love’, Dean Martin’s ‘Everybody Loves Somebody’, ‘Love Buzz’ by Shocking Blue.. The list goes on. There’s also a lean towards good story-telling and characters – ‘The Candy Man’, ‘Gypsies, Tramps And Thieves’ – and a track about gender – ‘Are You A Boy Or A Girl’ by The Barbarians – which was something that interested Cobain. Appalachian folk, funk, 80s pop, gnarly guitars, Queen’s histrionics and historic spoken world (Jimi Hendrix talking about Bob Dylan’s grandmother at Monterey), it’s got everything. Listen to a playlist of the tracks in full below.