I had no idea where the song came from, and just as cell phones were an idea whose time was yet to come, so was the world wide web. I did the best I could over the coming months to scour for information about this mystery song "Verse Chorus Verse." While still living there, I learned this song was an unlisted track on a charity album called No Alternative. I have listened to that song exhaustively in the years since. My other Nirvana memory from my time in Seattle was standing in line at midnight to buy Unplugged in New York the day it was released. I'd lived in Seattle before Nirvana's revolution and was there the night Kurt's unofficial musical eulogy was released.
Years later, long after I flamed out and went broke living on my own in Seattle, it was learned that "Verse Chorus Verse" was actually a song called "Sappy." It wasn't until just a couple years ago when the box set With The Lights Out was released that I actually heard the song called "Verse Chorus Verse." I like both songs, but "Sappy" is the one that has a history with me.
Article comments
1 - Mark Sahm
Well said. It's always unfortunate how some music has to be tied to that part of our lives where you were struggling and lived paycheck to paycheck. But it's redeeming that the thing that shines through is the tunes that got you through it.
Nice start, Josh.
2 - JDHathaway
Thanks, Mark. There is a second verse to the story of this song. "Sappy" (some folks calls it "Verse Chorus Verse," I calls it "Sappy) was one of a handful of songs I tried learning on guitar during that brief college flirtation with the instrument.
3 - Mat Brewster
I have made similar pack up everything I own and move somewhere without any kind of real plan journeys a couple of times in my life. They are always hard, and not always successful but they do create interesting and good stories.
This was a good story, Josh, and a darn good read.
4 - Josh Hathaway
Mine were never successful but I did come back with some stories. I might have even learned a few things, not that I put any of it to good news.
Thanks, Brewster.
5 - El Bicho
good start to the next writing journey
6 - Gordon Hauptfleisch
A few years before your experience I got my oxidated blue Toyota Corolla stranded at 2am in the Arizona desert on my way back to a Phoenix guest dj gig. No power for the radio, but I used the hours of silence between surround-sound rattlesnakes and coyotes to get a playlist together. (Lots of Meat Puppets.)
Inspired start to a great new series.
7 - Josh Hathaway
Thanks, folks, for stopping by.
Gordon, as my "battery" light came on and off intermittently and my display and headlights dimmed, I was forced to turn off my radio and wound up singing (badly) to myself for some sort of noise and to take my mind off things. Fortunately by the time I skidded in to Seattle, the car was working as well as it ever would.
8 - Greg
Nice article, Josh.
9 - Glen Boyd
Sounds like your Seattle experience was kinda like mine in L.A. I arrived the day of the Rodney King riots and left about a week after the Northridge quake.
Nice start to the series.
-Glen