STAY AWAY: ON KURT COBAIN’S GUITAR HERO APPEARANCE

There’s a good chance you’ve already seen this by now, as it’s been making the tear-stained rounds for the past couple days, and I’ve only held off in posting it because I still can’t quite put my finger on why it’s as depressing as it is (can you?).

I don’t have much personal emotional stock in Cobain’s death — as tragic as it was — and the co-opting of dead entertainers for advertising, promotional, and otherwise ‘estate-of’ toe-curling purposes has its own long and storied history.

I suppose it’s just that Cobain himself never got to reach/steadfastly rose above the point of self-parody that makes MJ and EP so ripe for posthumous caricature, and it’s probably got a lot to do with how clearly lovingly the ‘Unplugged’ sessions avatar was created straight down to the last thread of his Jeremiah the Innocent T-shirt (and it seems worth noting here that even Daniel Johnston’s own tortured struggles are now yours to purchase in vinyl toy and fanny-pack form, though at least Johnston has lived to give what stamp of approval he can).

Either way, this is an image-control warning shot for all future performers. Read the fine print before you consent.