#Smashing #Success #Auction #WorthPoint
In the 1990s, grunge bands were all the rage, sometimes literally, and no one rocked it more than Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Small shows on college campuses were the norm when the band began. The band tried out new songs at these shows, connected with fans, and let it all hang out. A famous piece from those wild early days recently went under the hammer at Hake’s Auction, and the result was a six-figure sale for an iconic piece of rock and roll history.
At Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Cobain and the band played a show in January 1991 that ended with him smashing a reproduction copy of a Memphis Stratocaster made in Japan by Matsumoku. The guitar was left behind in the melee of crowd-surfing fans, but one sharp-eyed musician, Chris Brady, spotted it and snuck it out of the venue under his coat. He later gave it to a friend, Janel Jarosz, another Seattle-area Nirvana fan, as a birthday gift.
The guitar wasn’t particularly expensive or rare, being a reproduction of a real Stratocaster. However, the fact that Cobain played it on stage at a concert where some of his new music from an upcoming album debuted makes it a meaningful collector’s item. In 1991, the band was about to release their Nevermind album, and they performed the future hit, “Endless Nameless,” on stage that night, using that guitar before destroying it. A video of the concert shows Cobain picking up a hammer from the stage and pounding the guitar’s neck and body. Even though its condition makes it unplayable (or perhaps because of it), the guitar sold for $157,772.71 in fast-paced bidding.
Hake’s director of Americana, Scott Mussell, said, “Cobain channeled his feelings in the moment while also harkening the spirit of Hendrix, Simonon, and Townsend in destroying this piece that is, to me, the single coolest thing Hake’s has handled in our 57 years of operation and ranks among the most moving artifacts I have had the privilege of handling.”
Brenda Kelley Kim lives in the Boston area. She is the author of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep End of Everywhere and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly News/Essex Media Group. When not writing or walking her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard sales, flea markets, and badminton.
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