Namesakes #1: Nirvana

I was going to call this feature Gramophone Homophone, but I got all tangled up trying to explain the difference between homophones, homonyms and homographs (even for an English teacher, that's not easy). Plus, Namesakes just seemed easier for my aching fingers to type every week.

Simply put, a Namesake is two (or more) bands that have the same name either in spelling or (very occasionally) in pronunciation, but a very different sound. I'll play you a song by each, you just have to tell me (vote!) which you prefer. I will announce the winner next week.

It's much easier to explain with an example, so we'll start with the obvious one. Here are two bands called Nirvana...

NIRVANA #1

In 1965, Irish musician Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Greek composer Alex Spyropoulos formed the first Nirvana, a bunch of prog-psych-baroque-concept album chin-scratchers who were one splashed with black paint by Salvador Dali during a French TV appearance, though Dali refused to sign their clothes afterwards, so I doubt they made any money on that. They split up after their third album in the early 70s, then started reformed in the mid-80s, just in time to come to a nice out of court settlement with Kurt Cobain when he started using the same band name soon after. Iffypedia suggests "Cobain's record label paid $100,000 to the original Nirvana to permit Cobain's band continued use of the name", which is a rather clumsily worded way of saying that Campbell-Lyons and Spyropoulos made more money out of Kurt than they did out of Salvador.

This is their biggest "hit", reaching #34 in the UK charts in 1968. It might be the first record to use flanging throughout the whole track, or it might not. It's from the album "The Existence of Chance Is Everything and Nothing While the Greatest Achievement Is the Living of Life, and so Say ALL OF US". Marc Bolan bought ten copies. 

NIRVANA #2

Our second Nirvana needs no introduction, so I won't give them one. 

I do sometimes wonder where Nirvana would be today, and how they would be considered, had Kurt Cobain not taken his own life. We might never have had the Foo Fighters, for a start. And what a huge loss that would be to rock music. (You can take that last sentence however you choose to.) 

There are far more obvious Nirvana songs to choose, but I selected Sliver to go up against Rainbow Chaser. Despite Cobain's reputation from grungy angst, this is a simple and sweet tune about not wanting to spend the day eating mashed potato and tough meat at your grandparents' house while your mum and dad are out partying. I love it.

There we go. Two Nirvanas to choose from. But which one will get your vote?