Kurt Cobain's Newly Discovered Sound Collage Mixtape Will Melt Your Brain
It's been widely established that Kurt Cobain had an extremely wide range of musical influences, and nowhere is this more apparent than on 'Montage Of Heck' -a newly unearthed sound collage mixtape he recorded years before reaching international stardom with Nirvana. The trippy aural montage pulls together songs and sound effects from literally everyone you can imagine, and even a few you can't. Cher, Led Zep, William Shatner, the Jackson 5, and even clips from The Flintstones are represented. Hold on to your hats, because it's about to get weird.
The work is thought to have been assembled around 1988 on a 4-track cassette tape recorder. Seemingly drawn from his personal music collection, it's an impressive achievement for a guy in a pre-digital age. There are apparently two versions of the tape, an abbreviated 8-minute mono version, and the full length 36-minute stereo version that you can hear above. Listen, if you dare...
Thanks to United Mutilations for providing a mostly complete list of songs and sound effects used in this truly unique piece.
“The Men In My Little Girl’s Life” by Mike Douglas
“The Sounds of Silence” by Simon & Garfunkel
“Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” by The Beatles
“A Day In The Life” by The Beatles
“Eruption” by Van Halen
“Hot Pants” by James Brown
“Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” by Cher
“Go Away Little Girl” by Donny Osmond
“Rocky Mountain High” by John Denver
“Everybody Loves Somebody” by Dean Martin
“The Candy Man” by Sammy Davis, Jr.
“In A Gadda Da Vida” by Iron Butterfly
“Wild Thing” by William Shatner
“Taxman” by The Beatles
“I Think I Love You” by The Partridge Family
“Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl?” by The Barbarians
“Queen Of The Reich” by Queensryche
“Last Caress/Green Hell” covered by Metallica
“Whole Lotta Love” by Led Zeppelin
“Get Down, Make Love” by Queen
“ABC” by The Jackson Five
“I Want Your Sex” by George Michael
“Run to the Hills” by Iron Maiden
“Eye Of The Chicken” by Butthole Surfers
“Dance of the Cobra” by Butthole Surfers
“The Shah Sleeps in Lee Harvey’s Grave” by Butthole Surfers
“New Age” by The Velvet Underground
“Love Buzz” by Shocking Blue
Orchestral music from 200 Motels by Frank Zappa
“Help I’m A Rock” / “It Can’t Happen Here” by Frank Zappa
“Call Any Vegetable” by Frank Zappa
“The Day We Fall In Love” by The Monkees
“Sweet Leaf” by Black Sabbath (intro)
Theme from The Andy Griffith Show
Mike Love (of The Beach Boys) talking about “Transcendental Meditation”
Excerpts of Jimi Hendrix speaking at the Monterey Pop Festival
Excerpts of Paul Stanley from KISS’ Alive!
Excerpts of Daniel Johnston screaming about Satan
Excerpts from sound effects records
Various children’s records (Curious George, Sesame Street, The Flintstones, Star Wars).