Sidetracked

Nirvana’s “Nevermind” album is best known for catapulting grunge music and becoming a battle cry – albeit a mopey one –for Generation X.

But the 1991 record is also known for its great cover art, featuring a baby in a pool, swimming after a floating dollar bill. While songs like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lithium” reflected the views of disenfranchised youth, the cover’s ambivalent art (was it some kind of a statement or just visually interesting?) was a great marketing tool. Meanwhile, the image of that baby became synonymous with the 90s and — some would say – rock and roll’s last stand.  

Well, today that baby is a 17-year-old kid, who embodies much of the disenchanted feeling that went into the grunge movement. As reported in a recent NPR piece, Spencer Elden hates school, tests authority and pines for the 90s. That’s him to the left in a photo taken by NPR reporter Chana Joffe-Walt at his Los Angeles home.

These days, Elden told NPR, his peers concentrate on “playing Rock Band on Xbox. Like, that’s not a real band! That’s the difference between the ’90s and kids nowadays; kids in the ’90s would actually go out and make a [real] band!”

I don’t exactly share his love of the 90s, which brings to mind a recession that rendered me chronically unemployed, the-end-of-humanity-is-near shows like “Jerry Springer” and the Spice Girls. And, to be honest, I think Rock Band is kind of cool.

I mean, really — not everyone can be Kurt Cobain, kid.  

Still, I can always appreciate a little cynicism. I guess that’s what journalism does for you.

And while Elden doesn’t remember much of the early 90s, he does appreciate his role in the culture. Millions of people, after all, have seen his naked infant image.

“Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis,” he told NPR. “So that’s kinda cool.”

I’m not so sure I’d want THAT kind of exposure. But, hey — who wouldn’t want to be spoofed by Bart Simpson?

Posted on July 25th, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: Music