Organized Confusion (partially found Kurt Cobain demo; 1982)

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Kurt and Courtney DVD.jpg

Cover of the DVD that the fragment of audio was first heard.

Status: Partially Found

In December of 1982, Kurt Cobain would make his first demo tape. Using his guitar, his Aunt's bass, and his Mother's pink suitcase with a set of wooden spoons to emulate drums, Cobain would record a series of tracks for a demo he would title Organized Confusion.[1] Recording would take place at his Aunt Mari Earl's house in Burien, Washington, just south of Seattle. He would use her TEAC A-2340 recorder, recording an unknown amount of songs in the process. The sound of the demo was similar to that of Kurt's second band, Fecal Matter, and also early NIRVANA, with distorted guitars, heavy bass, and muffled, low vocals mixed with what was described as "blood curdling screams". Mari Earl said of the demo:

"He was excited about some songs he had written and wanted to use my recording equipment to get them down on tape. I told him he could use my computer drum machine too but he was adamant and said, 'I want to keep my music pure.'"[2]

The tape would go unheard until 1998, when Mari Earl would play it for director Nick Broomfield in his documentary Kurt & Courtney. Mari Earl gave some backstory to the tape, before playing it on the very same TEAC recorder that the demo was reordered on. While the entire song was presumably recorded, it was noted in the documentary that Courtney Love, Cobain's widow, had threatened legal action over the song being included. Thus, only several seconds were played in the actual documentary.[3] While it is often said Mari would later destroy the master tapes in response to this, that claim is unverified, and likely just a rumor.

In September 2016, a now deleted Reddit user posted on /r/Nirvana, claiming he had an MP3 file from his uncle's computer, thinking it could be the demo.[4] It was sent to several users, many claiming it to be legit or a well made fake. The deleted user mentioned releasing two more songs and the beginning instrumental, and sent them to another user of the sub-reddit, who would later make a post claiming the tracks were indeed fake.[5]

Another person by the name of Kris Wood claims to have a copy of the demo, and released two pictures of the tape in 2015 on Twitter,[6] featuring the "Organized Confusion" demo along with unreleased Fecal Matter tracks.[7] He claims it has been confirmed by Mike Ziegler and Charles Cross that the tape is legit,[8] though It should be noted that the tape is dated "August 1984", contradicting the original reported recording date of December 1982. It is currently unknown whether or not he is still in possession of the tape, though he has reportedly attempted to sell it to the Cobain's estate, but turned down their offer.

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Pictures of the Kris Wood Tape

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