Danny Goldberg And Pramila Jayapal Talk Nirvana

I asked my old friend and colleague, Danny Goldberg, who donated the Nirvana gold record we're giving away, to write a few lines about our contest. And he did:

To have been one of the managers of Nirvana when Nevermind was released was one of the highlights of my career and I treasure the gold record plaques I got for it. It was the album that includes the songs "Smells Like Teen Spirit," "Come As You Are," and "In Bloom" and it changed the course of rock and roll and established Kurt Cobain, (who wrote the songs, played lead guitar and sang them), as one of the great geniuses in the history of American music. I can't imagine a better use for this memento of the international success of Nevermind than to help Pramila Jayapal in her re-election campaign. Her district includes most of Seattle and she embodies the unambiguous progressive idealism that I associate with Nirvana. The fact that Donald Trump just singled her out for an insult in a tweet underlines her effectiveness.

That Pramila is a relentless advocate for humane immigration policies and is leading the Congressional Progressive Caucus towards Medicare-for-All, the new and improved version of which she wrote, and towards dealing effectively and urgently with the Climate Crisis, are reasons she deserves all of our support. Just last week, she was taking on House leadership in the battle over prescription drug prices.

Howie told me today that he asked the world's foremost appraiser of rock'n'roll memorabilia the value of the Nevermind gold award. We were both surprised when he said it was well into the thousands of dollars. I suppose that makes sense because the record quickly went platinum and eventually diamond so that ended the manufacture of gold record awards. This one is very collectible. Blue America is going to randomly select one winner from among the people who contribute to Pramila's reelection campaign here or by clicking on the ActBlue thermometer on the right. This contest ends on Saturday evening so don't let this opportunity pass you by. Someone just suggested that I tell Howie to take down the thermometer because it has so few contributors and that it's harder to get people to contribute when the number is small. But in this case, a small number of contributors means a lot better chance to win a random drawing than if there were thousands of people entering.

Yesterday Pramila sent a note to her supporters talking about what Nirvana meant to her as a fan of Nirvana's music. "I always felt their music reflected passion, skill and creativity; and that the band members genuinely loved music. That is why I’m so honored and thrilled that former Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg has allowed us to give away a gold Nevermind record to one lucky donor to my campaign."

Pramila continued, "Kurt Cobain’s voice was raw, desperate, and sometimes heartbreaking always drawing you in and making you want to listen. But his and Nirvana’s power went beyond their music. They stood up for women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community at a time when it wasn’t easy to do so-- going so far as to call out racism, sexism, and queerphobia in the liner notes of one of their albums. Every day, I try to do the same in Congress-- to call out injustice and fight for bold, progressive change."