9 Comments

So funny ! They were big In New Zealand. Me and my friends couldnt afford the merch or the shirts , we just copied the tapes from the wealthier kids who had them or listened to it on the radio.

When he died we had a big sad party. I was 16. Big influnce..

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Jan 6·edited Jan 6Liked by Aaron Gilbreath

I never got to see them live but, of course (due to my age and love of all things innovative in rock and roll) was heavily into Nirvana and was prolly the first of my friends to locate and secure Bleach after their first album broke so big. I have also noticed a whole lot of Nirvana shirts around Texas the past few years, moreso really than other bands shirts.

I have also spoken occasionally with folks wearing t-shirts of other great bands and albums, particularly lately it seems, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Like you, when I ask, about 10% actually know anything about the subject of the shirt they are wearing.

I'll add that out of all the great concert t-shirts and music/band/musical instrument t-shirts I've owned over the past 50 years, that my Fender Custom Shop Guitar T shirts get the most positive comments over the past five years. On occasion, I've met some guitarists who live nearby and seen their bands or met some new folks to one day play with. Almost every time I wear it, even around my small rural suburban area, somebody says "Cool shirt, man.". It's my old man rizz.

I'm like Aaron. I will talk to a stranger about music. I'm not shy.

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Jan 6·edited Jan 6Liked by Aaron Gilbreath

And of course, thank you for the great article. Your writing always improves my intellect and you can sure turn a phrase! Edit: If that is your daughter and bride, then indeed, as ELP once sang, you're a lucky man!

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Jan 6Liked by Aaron Gilbreath

Thanks for doing what I keep telling myself I'm going to start doing. Every time I see somebody 20+ years younger than me wearing a Nirvana shirt, I want to go up to them and say, "Ooh, Nirvana! What's your favorite album of theirs? Mine's Incesticide." (And it's not really; I just figure that would be the most jarring thing to say. I liked Bleach best back in the day.)

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Jan 6·edited Jan 6Liked by Aaron Gilbreath

"This mother was wearing a Nirvana T-shirt from the brief December 1991 tour they did with Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I said, “Great shirt. That was a killer tour.”

Not sure how the rest of the tour went, but I caught the Salem Armory date, and it ripped. Flea was sick and they still tore the house down.

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Jan 6Liked by Aaron Gilbreath

Funny how these things ascend beyond a band or moment and into popular culture. And of course, the other T shirt of that was Pearl Jams stickman (which I was never a fan of myself)

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The Def Leppard shirt craze is even more confusing. The world is posers.

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Also !! Crazyness…. I was in south africa last year and saw 2 russian 4 or 5 year olds running round the hotel… in .. yes… Nirvana shirts… But Kurt would not care about this stuff at all.

He was all about inclusivity…

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I was shopping for clothes the other day and I noticed that the clothing sites offer T shirts from a number of number of great bands and musicians, but nothing after the 90s.

Nirvana certainly, but also Janis Joplin, the Stones, Jimi Hendrix. I also wondered if the kids who buy them even know who they were.

It’s weird how culture works. It’s also strange to me that it seems like nothing in recent history resonates like the older music.

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