Was there something in the water last week? Were readers just feeling in a recitative mood? Because a fair number of people seemed inspired to cite lyrics on the comments threads beneath our Beastie Boys and Nirvana features. The Beasties thread, in particular, turned into a list of favourite lyrics, but both copyright laws and the level of likely public interest militate against their reproduction here.
On the Nirvana thread, once the quotes from In Bloom and Smells Like Teen Spirit were out of the way, talk turned to what a nice man Krist Novoselic, the band's bassist, evidently was, and to a discussion about whether Nirvana would have faded away had Kurt Cobain not killed himself. "Part of the enigma that is Nirvana is that we only know Cobain as an angst-ridden twentysomething," wrote ChasnDave. "Had he lived, he may have run out of steam or indeed turned his back on music all together. I could never have seen him consciously crafting his music to stadium rock audiences like [Nirvana drummer] Dave Grohl has in his last couple of offerings [with Foo Fighters]."
"I can't imagine that Nirvana would still be making music if Cobain was alive. I think he would be doing solo work similar to Mark Lanegan," suggested CapPunchDrunk. "It would have been interesting to see if Cobain could have carried a more sedate version of the band, or make more 'difficult' music without alienating a core audience. Either it would have tapped into his Beatleish knack for melody and massively crossed over, or would have been more wilfully awkward and caused a sort of Arctic Monkeys-style hardening of a core following, shedding some of the mainstream appeal. He'd probably have enjoyed that," reckoned MarcBurrows.
MegaTarquin, however, professed to feeling upset about the speculation as to how Cobain's work would have evolved: "It's impossible to predict given the guy's primary purpose of upsetting the status quo, suggesting constant reinvention. I like the idea of him going towards REM, and orchestras, and look to Marigold (I think it's the only Nirvana song credited to Dave Grohl), to imagine what a Grohl/Cobain songwriting partnership would have evolved through."
Wild Beasts featured twice last week: in an interview, and a review of their new album. The former provoked AppleFan to complain that the Guardian does not devote enough space to music that is popular in Peckham in south London, such as N-Dubz. The latter saw readers offering their own thoughts – they'd been able to hear the album streaming at theguardian.com/music before our review. "It's a far more subdued affair musically speaking [than their last album]," said lomier. "Definitely not an immediate record but they are just fundamentally not an immediate band. It took me a long time to get into Two Dancers but the rewards that has yielded over time have been truly stunning and this is already going down the same path."
Finally, a tip from our readers. Those who enjoyed Alex von Tunzelmann's survey of eastern bloc spy thrillers had a suggestion from 70s Soviet TV for those who were intrigued. "While it is a mini-series rather than a film, Seventeen Moments of Spring is excellent," said extraordinaryrvanp. "My favourite aspect of it is that it forgoes caricatures and stereotypes which were often prevalent in mainstream Soviet (and American) cinema/television of the time and create fully fleshed-out, multi-faceted characters." Farok was delighted: "I can't believe that someone in Britain saw this series. You've just made my day, brother/sister (delete as appropriate). I watched that series when I was a young child in the Cuba of the late 70s and early 80s." And, yes, it is available on Amazon, with English subtitles for those whose Russian is rusty.
