Chords for A Fan gives Courtney Love a rare Nirvana tape, April 1994

That's why what you're about to see is so poignant.
It is the earliest known video by the group that became Nirvana,
before Cobain's soul had been destroyed by drugs.
Here's Lauren Terry.
I don't really know what to say. _
I feel the same way you guys do.
This was the message Courtney Love recorded for thousands of mourners
gathered in Seattle Sunday to pay tribute to her husband, Kurt Cobain.
When he played guitar and sang, I feel so honored _ to be near him.
Eric Carter was one of the many people deeply affected by Cobain's suicide.
Eric met Cobain [D] in 1988, when the singer-songwriter was first putting together the band
that would ultimately become Nirvana.
I was introduced to Kurt Cobain and Chris Novoselic and Dale Crover,
who were at that time billed as Ted, Ed, Fred.
_ We had a fantastic, quick introduction,
and then just the next day we were off running up to the Tacoma World Theater
to put on this [B] big show.
Eric Carter [Bb] managed an electronics [Dbm] store in [Bbm] Cobain's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington.
[Bb] Cobain asked him to [Abm] videotape one of their first songs,
[Bb] Papercut, after hours in the store.
[A] _ _ [Ab] _ [E] _
_ [Eb] We had a camcorder set on a table.
Our only special effects were the lights and so forth that were already in the [B] store.
I remember at one point we were blowing cigarette smoke across the camcorder
to provide the heavy metal smoke effect. _
_ This is the never-before-seen video that Eric recorded.
Even then, Cobain's unique, rebellious sound was emerging.
He was 21 years old and had no idea of what the future held for him
and the members of [A] his band.
_ _ _ _ _ _ [D] Papercut was later released on Nirvana's first album, Bleach,
on a small, independent Seattle record label.
When Carter heard of Cobain's death and saw the pictures
of Kurt and Courtney's two-year-old daughter, Frances Bean,
Eric was moved to find the video and offer it to the mourning widow.
Wow, what a neat thing to say.
Here's your dad when things were just starting.
And this was before _ anything had an opportunity to lay a hand on him
and change who he was yet.
Who he was was a very troubled young man,
battling drug addiction and depression.
His suicide last week was preceded by an unsuccessful attempt
at taking his life while he and Courtney were in Rome in March.
My best conclusion would be that it was something that he had to do.
If he had no means of letting this out,
if he had no means of expressing himself,
_ I think he would just explode.
To keep it all in all the time, that heavy emotion,
that's almost impossible.
Say [Db] we shall _ [Ab] _
_ [Db] never see you again.
It was late Monday night when Carter encountered Courtney Love
walking with a friend outside the house where Cobain shot himself.
Her grief was evident in her quivering lips.
This letter just explaining why I'd like to give you the tape.
I have kids and as a father I think it would be really cool
if my kids could have something like this [G] tape shows.
What is it?
_ It's just us clowning around, making a video back before everything happened.
Is it translated to Zik already?
No, it's earlier than that.
It's down in Aberdeen.
Were you in the band?
Were you one of the 80,000 of her?
No, no, it's just a friend.
We cleared all the stuff off my Radio Shack store
and did a video.
It was really cool.
It was right after they got out of the _ _ studio to record their first tape.
Well, _ alright, thanks.
Thank you.
You can give it to one of those guys.
[C] [B] Thanks.
_ [Fm] _ _ So for Courtney and little Francis Bean,
the memory of Kurt Cobain will be a little bit fuller
because of the kindness of a stranger.
And _ tragically, a fan who attended the memorial service for Kurt Cobain
also committed suicide a short time later.
This is a phone number that may help young people who are depressed.
It's Boys Town's National Hotline.
1-800-448-3000
That's 1-800-448-3000
More for you on American Journal