I read today that the
Nirvana "Best of" compilation featuring the last unreleased track (which
Courtney Love once referred to as "a rock and roll holy grail"),
"You Know You're Right" is due out at the end of the month.
Having read its predictable track-listing and looked at the rather uninspired art ("Nirvana" in silver writing on a black background), I can only say that this is nothing more than a cheap money-making stunt to squeeze a few more bucks out of Kurt Kobain's legacy. The kids who are too young to have been around the first time will likely pick it up to get all the singles, and the completist geeks like myself who want the unreleased song will buy it despite ourselves.
This makes me wish Napster was still around, or that Limewire worked with my router (anyone out there who's gotten it to work with a Linksys router please message me --I would be eternally grateful). I don't want to be strongarmed into buying a collection of songs I already own because of the one song I don't have.
I much rather prefer the original box set idea that would have contained a number of odds and ends besides the singles. As I don't own all of Nirvana's b-sides, that wouldn't have been such a bad deal. At the very least it would have come with a nifty book and extensive liner notes. I'd be surprised if the Courtney Love/Jim Barber-sponsored package has anything in the way of any interesting information, even information I already know.
So does this mean that Dave Grohl and Christ Noveselic lost the war over Nirvana's back catalog? It sure looks like it.