Pilgrimage

We found ourselves near Aberdeen, Washington, the childhood home of Kurt Cobain, so I couldn't miss the opportunity to see some Cobain-related sites, including the bridge where he claimed he slept when he was homeless for a while after his parents kicked him out. This provided some of the inspiration for the song "Something in the Way", from the Nevermind album, which starts out with the lyrics "Underneath the bridge..." A sign and some graffiti assured me that I was in the right place.

Kurt described Aberdeen as "like Twin Peaks but without the excitement". The town doesn't give the casual visitor much reason to stay beyond the connection with Nirvana. We also saw his childhood home, about 2 blocks from the bridge.

According to a biography of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana bassist Kris Novoselic doubts that Kurt ever actually slept underneath the bridge when he was homeless - he hung around under the bridge and smoked pot, but he usually crashed on friends' couches, or snuck into his mom's basement to sleep.