WASHINGTON — Rolling Stone has uncovered a pair of rarities from Kurt Cobain, the mainstay of Nirvana, who took his own life in 1994.
The first, a solo acoustic cover of The Beatles’ “And I Love Her,” comes courtesy of Brett Morgen, director of “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,” the documentary that premieres in theaters on Friday and on HBO May 4.
Morgen tells Rolling Stone he found it on “a random tape” out of thousands of hours he listened to in making the film — it was clearly done in an informal setting, and there’s no other indication of where or when it’s from.
It’s a brooding take on the classic, and Cobain’s voice takes about a verse to warm up to it, but the wait is worth it. And even though Cobain had a deeper appreciation of pop music than a cursory glance at his catalog would tend to indicate, this pick is surprising — he reportedly once said, “I like the Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney,” the author of “And I Love Her.”
And while there’s no video available, Rolling Stone also found the audio of the last song Nirvana played at their last concert, on March 1, 1994, in Munich, Germany — a very rough version of “Heart-Shaped Box” that Cobain’s voice is barely up to. They canceled the rest of the shows on their tour after this night; Cobain died the next month.
