Every Good Band Deserves Drums

Dan Peters will have none of your tomfoolery, Cobain.
Photo: Oh, It’s the 90s …

I talked last time about Dan Peters not joining Nirvana as a positive, but I probably should’ve noted that it was positive for two reasons. Nirvana got the right drummer, no doubt, but so did Mudhoney. This is no small matter. In the alternate universe where Scream doesn’t implode in LA, Nirvana wisely hires Peters. And that either destroys Mudhoney (who were on hiatus in late 1990) or forces them to hire someone not named Dan Peters, and do any of us really want to imagine such a nightmarish hellscape? I think not.

That said, it’s worth revisiting the intersection of Mudhoney and Nirvana in 1990-91. Peters played only one show with Kurt and Krist and it was at the Motor Sports International Garage in Seattle on September 22, 1990. This was their first song.

Nirvana – Pay To Play

Apologies for the shitty audio. This is where I usually point out the historical value of such a document, however flawed. And despite the low fidelity, you can hear why Nirvana wanted Peters in the band. In fact, listening to this recording for the first time, I was struck by its similarity to a song that came out in July 1991, two months before Nevermind was released.

Mudhoney – Let It Slide
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, 1991
Amazon

Dan Peters is gonna take your drum part and you’re gonna like it. This is the first proper track on my favorite Mudhoney album, Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge, and while it might not be an identical twin of “Pay To Play”/”Stay Away,” you can tell they have the same daddy. But, this is how music is supposed to work. Great ideas are meant to be stolen, recycled, and reshaped, and in some cases, given away like free samples.