There is no shortage of information floating around the interweb on Kurt Cobain, so why all the fuss about Montage of Heck, the Brett Morgen documentary that debuted on HBO Monday evening?

Well the director had unprecedented access to Cobain’s home movies, private journals and recordings, and perhaps, most importantly, the support of Courtney Love and daughter Frances Cobain. With that in mind, let’s see what revelations emerged from Monday’s showing, courtesy of Rolling Stone:

He tried to commit suicide after being taunted in high school

“I wasn’t going out of this world without actually knowing what it was like to get laid,” Cobain says in recorded audio. After he attempted to have sex with [a developmentally challenged] girl, his classmates began insulting and shaming him…

Cobain would later lay down on train tracks with the intention of ending his life, but the locomotive traveled on a different railway.

Nirvana was almost called “The Reaganites”

Other potential handles: “Elvis Cooper,” “Boy in Heat,” “The Mandibles,” “Window Pain,” “Fecal Matter” (which blessed one of their early demos), “Erectum,” “Bliss” and “Nagging Rash.” Finally, we see a full page dominated by a written-out announcement: “Our final name is…Nirvana.”

His slacker image was a myth

“He didn’t want to just be in a bar band and play music that way. He wanted to be a success,” says ex-girlfriend Tracy Marander. Throughout the film, Morgen shows various notes Cobain wrote outlining the technical and logistical steps needed for his band to get off the ground…

Kurt’s mother confronted him about his heroin use

She decided to confront him about his addiction, and — having educated herself on the effects of heroin and shooting up — asked him “if he was at the stage where he was addicted to also the needle prick. And he burst into tears. He was just…ashamed.”

Whilst it isn’t breaking new ground to show that Cobain was a tortured soul, the film at least helps viewers to understand where some of the band’s more poignant music may have stemmed from.

It also paints a very unflattering picture of fame-hungry Courtney Love, which is perhaps the least surprising part of the entire documentary.

[source:rollingstone]