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Searching For Kurt Cobain II :)

Nirvana induction into the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame earlier this year had created a flood of Nirvana signed memorabilia on the market. Unfortunately most of the items offers were fakes.

Back in August this year a seller on an EBay was offering a signed LP with Kurt Cobain autograph and doodle. Here is a picture of the LP that was offer for sale.

Here is his description on the auction:

The artwork and autograph(s) were obtained on the 24th of October, 1991 in San Diego and Tijuana. I first met Kurt in 1989 in El Cajon, CA when I first interviewed him for my fanzine SONIC BEAT, while I can't say that Kurt and I were "friends" we certainly got along and for a handful of years I saw NIRVANA a number of times and met up with Kurt before shows in that crappy van, 24 OCT was the last time I talked to Kurt, it was raining.

I have attempted to provide the best photos my crap camera will allow. We (friends and I NOT Kurt) had been record shopping that day, Kurt took a fancy to the album pictured and doodled, signed, GOOFED on that album cover COMPLETELY ignoring the NIRVANA singles my GF (at the time) had brought in retrospective NOTHING would have been signed if it wasn't for her.

A 2nd signed LP by Kurt Cobain with doodle was offer by the same seller a month later after he sold the 1st LP.

Here is a picture of the 2^nd LP:

Seller claimed that he was involved in fanzine called Sonic Beat and he claimed to have interviewed Kurt Cobain back in 1989. I did see his post dated April 5, 2014 about interviewing Kurt Cobain on a forum called sdmetal.org but did not see or read the actual interview.

I could not figure out what the doodle was all about. I had never seen any doodle that was related to Kurt Cobain in both LP.

Besides the autograph itself, the provenance is the most important to me. His provenance has to checks out. Here was my Check List:

1) There is no way Kurt Cobain would have refused to sign his GF Nirvana singles which she had brought as described in his auction description. Secondly I don't think that they would be buying a Desiderata and Paul Mauriat LP at the record store if they were into grunge and rock. That is my opinion.

2) Conveniently he had 3 colors marker pens available for Kurt to write and doodle.
Black, Green and Red!!!! Hmm..........

3) I did ask him whether he had any pictures of Kurt Cobain from the interview. But he had none and I find it tough to believe that he was with Kurt all alone with his GF on an exclusive interview for Sonic Beat and he has no pictures to show.

4) I did not like the autographs and writing itself on both the LP right from the get go. The "Kurdt Kobain" on the Paul Mauriat LP has some characteristic but it is not authentic. It does not have the smooth flow of an authentic Kurt Cobain autograph. As for the other writing and signature, I did not like it at all. I have study extensively on Kurt Cobain signatures and his writing using His Journal for references.

I did not like it when the 1^st LP was offer for sale in August. Then the 2nd LP appears on eBay in September and he ended the auction early. One is rare!! Two is unbelievable. There were too many red flags.

Last week with the help of a forum member, we were able to find where the seller found his inspiration for his Kurt Cobain autographs and doodles.

Here is a Kurt Cobain Art :

Here is Kurt Cobain drawing of Kiss on his van:

Here is the shark from Kurt Cobain Journal and Flipper Tee Shirt:

Here are the word "me" that can be found in Kurt Cobain Journal and Dairy.

Compare the above to the 1st LP Desiderata and you can see where he got his ideas for his doodle.

Here is the Kurt Cobain high school art that he copied for the 2nd LP:

And the autograph "Kurdt Kobain" were copied from these authentic examples:

It did not help the cause when we found out that the seller who was running a fanzine for Sonic Beat back in the days is now a huge Taylor Swift fan now. :) And seller claimed that he has a broken guitar from Kurt Cobain. :) Well that is for another day.

I was able to get in touch with the buyer of the 2nd LP and he was lucky enough to get his money back. The 1st LP buyer was not so lucky. It is a lesson learned to always do your due diligent homework especially when buying Nirvana signed memorabilia. If in doubt, just post it on the forum. There are quite a few people here who is always happy to help with their honest opinions.

:) :)

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