Meet The Godfather of Seattle's Northwest Music Scene!!! Many hold Pat O'Day Responsible & To Blame For A Good Part of Seattle's Music Scene & It's Success!!

Just In From Seattle Music History!!! 

O'Day, Pat (b. 1934) -- Godfather of Northwest Rock?

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Pat O'Day -- founding father of Northwest rock 'n' roll or the "Godfather" of the 1960s teendance scene? A vampire or the catalyst? Or all of the above? There are many Northwesterners who would debate these points for days on end, but what is perfectly clear is that when it came to the business of rock music in the Northwest, Pat O'Day was the Chairman of the Board, the Grand Poobah, the Top Dog, the Big Kahuna. New York City had Alan Freed, Boston had Arnie Ginsberg, Los Angeles had Hunter Hancock, and Seattle had O'Day. As Seattle's highest-profile DJ of the 1960s and the region's dominant dance promoter, Pat O'Day ran Northwest rock 'n' roll for nearly a decade.

Radioman of the Year

In 1964 and 1965, the national radio industry acknowledged his power, voting him top Program Director. In 1966, O'Day was voted "Radioman of the Year" and was also honored (along with a select few other iconic radio men) with his own volume of the popular Crusin' LP series that featured his powerhouse patter wedged between compiled period hits. As Seattle's highest-profile DJ of the 1960s and the region's dominant dance promoter, Pat O'Day ran Northwest rock 'n' roll for nearly a decade.

O'Day's name became synonymous with KJR, the station he ran for a decade and built into an empire. To really understand his impact you'd have to consider the power of that station back then -- it was not uncommon for KJR to boast of a 37 percent rating, an unheard of dominance by a radio station. Today that rating would be more than the market share of the top seven local stations (KMPS, KUBE, KVI, KIRO, KBSG, KRWM, and KWJZ) combined! O'Day, KJR's star DJ, was eventually promoted to Program Director and, by 1968, to General Manager. He oversaw the production of each week's Fab-50 play-list -- inclusion on this list was virtually the only way a record could become a hit in this area.

Additionally, O'Day produced or engineered numerous recordings by many of the top bands on the KJR play-list including the Wailers, the Viceroys, the Dynamics, and the Casuals. And if that wasn't enough, he also ran an extensive teendance circuit across the region -- which was the most profitable part of his empire and perhaps the most visible. By 1962, O'Day was making more than $50,000 a year just from throwing dances. By the mid-1960s O'Day and Associates were presenting over 58 separate teen-dances a week throughout the state.

The Rock 'n' Roll Pie

When it came to Northwest rock 'n' roll Pat O'Day had his finger in every pie. And there were more than a few local bands and promoters who wanted some of that pie. In 1967, three local businessmen slapped a $3 million federal anti-trust suit on O'Day charging that he held a monopoly on the Northwest rock 'n' roll scene and suggesting that he had been involved in payola and kickbacks from the bands that KJR aired.

The legal actions took more than three years and included a highly publicized trial at which several local musicians testified (Merrilee Rush told the court that she and O'Day only exchanged Christmas gifts -- a bottle of Jack Daniels for a smoked turkey). Eventually O'Day was exonerated of all charges and given a cleanbill of health by the FBI and other investigators. Still, O'Day's power-base was weakened and he departed KJR, the station he had brought to prominence and dominance, in 1974 to develop his concert business. "The federal investigations cost me about $150,000," O'Day says today. "But I've never been further behind than when I started out because I didn't have anything when I started."

The trial was not the first or the last time O'Day was involved in a financial controversy. Though his reputation was hurt by the charges, he wasn't down for the count. He sold his teen-dance business (just when teen-dances were fading) and formed Concerts West, one of the world's biggest concert promotion firms. O'Day had promoted the Beatle s in 1964, and in 1965 he had local garage rockers, the Wailers, open for the Rolling Stones, and the Northwest's proto-punk cult legends, the Sonics, sharing the bill with the Kinks. By 1968 Concerts West was booking all the U.S. dates for the Jimi Hendrix Experience and O'Day was on the road with Seattle's guitar legend.

O'Day couldn't give up radio though and after selling Concerts West he parlayed his considerable wealth into ownership of a string of stations including KXA, KYYX, and Honolulu's KORL. But by 1982, O'Day was once again the center of controversy when his empire fell on hard times financially and The Seattle Times ran a feature story outlining his woes. By 1983, he was facing bankruptcy, squeezed by a $5 million bank loan. He almost lost everything he had once had. But adversity seems just another everyday challenge for O'Day, and the saga of his long career in the radio industry is always adding new chapters.

Out of Tacoma

The opening chapter sees the radio legend's birth in 1934 as Paul W. Berg, the son of a preacherman. His father for years had a radio ministry on Tacoma's KMO, introducing Pat to the medium. He was raised in Bremerton and from his early youth he had only one dream: to be the afternoon man on KJR. He attended radio school in Tacoma and in September of 1956 landed his first job at a tiny Astoria, Oregon station. There, in between reading Lost Dog Reports and funeral home ads he eventually developed his "Platter Party" concept, which meant broadcasting rock hits from remote teenage sockhops on weekends -- thus turning the previously sterile medium of radio into an "event."

The young radio talent moved to Seattle in 1959 lured by station KAYO and only there did he adopt the O'Day moniker, taking it from the name of a local high school, Odea. By the fall of 1959, he moved to KJR and only then did his dynasty begin.

From Sleepy to O'Day

That November, O'Day virtually turned the local rock 'n' roll scene (sleepy up until that point) upside down. First he hired the Wailers -- then riding high with their national hit, "Tall Cool One" -- to play at what was the first rock 'n' roll dance at the Spanish Castle, an old ballroom just south of Seattle. Before long the Castle emerged as the region's premiere dance hall and O'Day had his hand in almost every show there.

On the radio, O'Day was also shaking up the scene. For if radio is, as has been said, the "theater of the mind," then Pat O'Day was surely the greatest mind-bender to ever grace Northwest radio. Almost single-handedly, he transformed what radio was and helped mold the perceptions of thousands of teenagers into what it could be. Working with a bottomless bag of impromptu tricks and stunts, O'Day -- who was blessed with one of the all-time archetypal radio voices -- proceeded to capture the imagination of Seattle's teenagers by mixing rock 'n' roll hits with a never-ending cast of zany on-air characters including "Granny Peters," "Mr. KJR," and "Wonder Mother." The concept sounds old hat today but back in that day it was innovative, cutting edge, and fun.

O'Day can also fairly claim credit to being one of the first DJs in the nation to experiment with an "Oldies" format. That was partially because back in the late 1950s rock 'n' roll was still so young few stations concerned themselves with yesterday's hits. But O'Day was quick to understand that a classic song will always be a classic and he exploited this programming technique to its fullest.

Local Discs to the Top

But he also established KJR as a station that could -- and did -- make hit records (think: the Ventures' "Walk -- Don't Run" and the Tijuana Brass' "The Lonely Bull"). But perhaps more importantly, O'Day was one of the first DJs in the Northwest to realize the talent of the early local bands. Though O'Day has more than his share of detractors, one thing he cannot be faulted on was his commitment to local music -- no other station in history has played as many local discs as the O'Day-fueled KJR. And not only did he play local records (and book the bands for his teen-dances), he made them hits and increased the interest in Northwest music around the nation to a level that wouldn't again be attained (and surpassed!) until Seattle's Grunge rock movement of the 1990s.

By the late 1960s though, the bands O'Day pushed had already seen their better years and the style of radio he represented didn't go over too well with the freaks and hippies. It wasn't at all uncommon to see bumper-stickers in the U. District then that said "Pat O'Day Is A Shuck." Many freaks found his bombastic, wisecracking style to be the very embodiment of crass commercial radio.

Great offense was taken when it was eventually revealed that it was the "devil" himself, O'Day, who had been the secret financier behind a prominent local concert promoter -- Seattle's version of San Francisco impresario, Bill Graham -- who had been booking concerts at the Eagles Hall, the "hip" alternative to O'Day's teenybopper dance scene. It seemed there was no escaping the guy's presence.

Indeed, that Pat O'Day has more lives than a cat is evidenced by his four decades of involvement in Northwest rock 'n' roll. And now, once again, the man seems to have a few more tricks up his sleeves. Rumors abound about yet another radio scheme in the works for O'Day. Stay tuned ... 

Sources:
Peter Blecha Interviews with Pat O'Day, 1980s-2001; John McCoy, "Pat O'Day and Radio Are Still Best of Friends," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 11, 1983; Peter Blecha, "Pat O'Day: The Godfather of Northwest Rock," The Rocket, June 1987.

Note: Pat O'Day left KJR voluntarily in 1974, a fact misreported in an earlier version of this essay. The essay was corrected on January 28, 2002.

By Peter Blecha, April 03, 2001

                                                                                

With The 3rd Annual MoonFest Approaching August 22 - 24 & Leon Hendrix Breaking From His Current World Tour To Come Home To Seattle To Open The 3 Day Event I

MoonFest 2012 Leon Hendrix & Friends

I Thought That This Might Spark Some Interest From Those Finding Themselves Able To Attend!!!  

 For MoonFest 2014 Tickets Click Here ----->>> http://www.MoonFest2014.com

MoonFest 2012

MoonFest 2012

www.MoonFest2014.com

 Here Is A Slide Show Of Some Of The Pics I Got At The 1st #MoonFest  

This Is A Strange Purple Sun Beam of course beaming off of  The Sun! 

Buy Tickets, Reserve CampGround Spots, Check Out The Line Up at ----->>> www.MoonFest2014.com

Ever Heard Of That Super Band Who Never Made It Out Of The Sixties Alive? Video of Jimi's Grandmother Reviewing A Concert of Her Grandsons

This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!                                                     LONDON -- Miles and Jimi. Jimi and Miles. Fans of the late trumpet and guitar masters have long known that Miles Davis and Jimi Hendrix had been making plans to record together in the year before Hendrix's sudden death in 1970. Less attention has been paid to the bass player they were trying to recruit: Paul McCartney, who was busy with another band at the time.

Mr. Miles Davis & Friends in Renton, Washington at The Greenwood Memorial Home

This tantalizing detail about the super group that never was – jazz standout Tony Williams would have been on drums – is contained in an oft-overlooked telegram that Hendrix sent to McCartney at The Beatles' Apple Records in London on Oct. 21, 1969.

"We are recording and LP together this weekend in NewYork," it says, complete with typographical errors. "How about coming in to play bass stop call Alvan Douglas 212-5812212. Peace Jimi Hendrix Miles Davis Tony Williams."

The telegram has been part of the Hard Rock Cafe memorabilia collection since it was purchased at auction in 1995. Still it has only generated attention in recent months with the successful release of "People, Hell & Angels," expected to be the last CD of Hendrix's studio recordings.

"It's not something you hear about a lot," Hard Rock historian Jeff Nolan said of the telegram, now displayed at the restaurant in Prague. "Major Hendrix connoisseurs are aware of it. It would have been one of the most insane supergroups. These four cats certainly reinvented their instruments and the way they're perceived."

French promoter and Hendrix fanatic Yazid Manou, who has researched the telegram, says it offers a glimpse of what might have been.

"It's amazing because of the names of the people," he said. "Of course that didn't happen, but the telegram brings us something to dream about. This is a document, proof that they had an idea to do an album."

Jimi Hendrix's Last Stop On His E*art*H Tour 1970

The telegram raises more questions than it answers. It advises McCartney to contact producer Alan Douglas (whose first name is misspelled in the cable) if he could make the session. But it's not clear if McCartney was even aware of the unusual, apparently impromptu invitation to rush from his London base to New York for the planned session.

Beatle aide Peter Brown replied on McCartney's behalf, telling Hendrix the following day that McCartney was on vacation and not expected back for another two weeks.

The invitation came at an extremely awkward moment for the Beatles' bassist. It was sent the same day a prominent New York City radio station gave wide exposure to a rumor that McCartney had died in a car crash and been replaced by a lookalike. The bizarre story, supposedly supported by hints on Beatles records and album covers, briefly gained worldwide credibility. Its dark nature apparently prompted the exasperated McCartney to retreat with his family to their farm in Scotland.

It also came at a time when the Beatles were falling apart due to business and artistic conflicts that likely would have been exacerbated by McCartney appearing on a record with Hendrix and Davis. McCartney was also still bound by a songwriting partnership with John Lennon that might have further complicated the release of any McCartney-Hendrix-Davis compositions.

And then there is the question of what the proposed group would have sounded like. Davis was moving away from his jazz roots toward a fusion-based sound. He said in his autobiography that by 1968 he was listening primarily to James Brown, Sly and the Family Stone and, particularly, Hendrix – musicians joined by a love of syncopated funk not found on Beatles tracks.

It is not clear either how McCartney's melodic, subtle bass playing would have made its presence felt in a band that included Hendrix' guitar and Davis' trumpet.

"At first, though, it sounds really weird and off the wall. But on second thought it makes perfect, Hendrix-type sense to chuck in someone who's a great musician but comes from a different tradition," said Hendrix biographer Charles Shaar Murray. "I regret this never actually took place. ... it would have been magnificent."

McCartney is the only one of the four musicians who is still alive. His spokesman, Stuart Bell, said the former Beatle is too busy on his world tour to comb his memory for his thoughts about a telegram sent more than four decades ago.

In his autobiography, Davis said he and Hendrix occasionally jammed together at his apartment in New York City and tried to get into the studio to record but were hampered by financial matters and by their busy schedules. Murray and others maintain that Davis wanted $50,000 up front to attend the session.

The Juilliard-trained trumpeter Davis described Hendrix, who learned his chops backing up the Isley Brothers and others, as a self-taught "natural musician" who could not read music but was able to pick up complicated pieces in the blink of an eye.

Davis says in the book that he and arranger Gil Evans were in Europe planning to record with Hendrix at the time of his death in London.

"What I didn't understand is why nobody told him not to mix alcohol and sleeping pills," Davis wrote.

Hendrix's death dashed their plans to record together, with or without McCartney. Eddie Kramer, the engineer who produced most of Hendrix's music, said there will always be speculation about what might have been.

"I think it would have been phenomenal," Kramer said. "Lord knows where it may have gone; those huge egos in the studio at the same time! I would have loved to have done that one. But it was not to be."                          

Ray Charles often spoke of Seattle, Washington & referred to it as his second home! Charles said: "When i got to Seattle I could see that people were different, they were bettor there, they were much nicer!"

     This Just In From Seattle Music History!!!                                                                                

Charles, Ray

Sex:  Male

Born:  Atlanta, Georgia, United States
23 September 1930

Died:  Beverly Hills, California, United States
10 June 2004

Activity/Profession:  Blues Musician / Singer, Gospel Musician / Singer, Bandleader, Popular Singer, Pianist

(23 Sept. 1930–10 June 2004),

singer, bandleader, and entrepreneur, was born Ray Charles Robinson in Albany, Georgia, the son of Bailey Robinson, a day worker, and Aretha (maiden name unknown). Charles's younger brother and only sibling drowned at age four. By the age of seven Charles had lost his sight to glaucoma and was sent to the State School for the Blind and Deaf in St. Augustine, Florida, where he remained until his mother's death when he was fifteen. It was during his time at the school for the blind, which was segregated by race, that he received formal piano lessons and learned to read braille. After his mother's death, he set out on his own, traveling and working as a musician around Jacksonville, Florida.

Charles's earliest influences as a musician were the jazz and blues pianist Charles Brown and the pianist and singer Nat King Cole. His ability to learn the styles of both musicians allowed him to gain work in clubs where audiences were familiar with their music. Sensing the need to branch out beyond Florida, Charles moved to Seattle, Washington, at the age of eighteen. In Seattle, Charles formed a band, the McSon trio, and made his first recording, his own composition, “Confession Blues,” on the Swing Time label owned by Jack Lauderdale, who encouraged Charles to move to Los Angeles in 1950. In Los Angeles, Charles recorded two more singles for Swing Time before he began to tour nationally with the guitarist Lowell Fulson. Charles eventually became Fulson's musical director. In 1952 Charles signed with the Shaw Agency and began to tour nationally as a solo artist. On the strength of his second single, “Baby Let Me Hold Your Hand,” Charles was signed to a recording contract by Ahmet Ertugen, the founder of Atlantic Records. Charles's first release for the label was “It Should Have Been Me” (1952).

Charles's early recordings with the Atlantic label favored the styles of Charles Brown and Nat Cole—styles that had earned him a minor reputation as a rhythm-and-blues artist. But it was with the single “I've Got a Woman,” backed by “Come Back Baby,” that Charles began to exhibit the innovative style that would become the foundation of soul music. At the core of Charles's innovation was his use of chords and rhythms drawn from black gospel music to write and record music that had distinctly secular themes. “I've Got a Woman,” for example, was based on “Let's Talk about Jesus,” a gospel hit for the Bells of Joy in 1951. Follow-up recordings by Charles, like “A Fool for You” (1955) and “Drown in My Own Tears” (1955), also adhered to Charles's “soul” strategy, but “Hallelujah, I Love Her So” in May of 1956 became his first crossover hit.

Ray Charles crossed musical boundaries and entertained generations of fans. Photographed in 1960. (Library of Congress.)

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As Charles's new style became popular, he began to face criticism from black ministers and gospel audiences. The genius of his burgeoning style was his intuitive understanding that the “Saturday night sinner” and the “Sunday morning saved” were often one and the same. The addition of doo-wop girls called the Raeletts accentuated a feeling of call and response, the verbal interaction common between a black minister and his choir. By the time Charles scored with the gospel-frenzied “What'd I Say,” a top-ten pop single in 1959, he had inspired legions of followers, many of whom, likeSam Cooke and Aretha Franklin, went directly from the black church to the pop charts.

Much of Charles's early success was rooted in his ability to master many musical genres, most notably jazz, rhythm and blues, and soul. After Charles and his band made a successful appearance at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, Atlantic capitalized on his growing popularity with the recording The Genius of Ray Charles (1959), which included the pop standards “Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying,” “Come Rain or Shine,” “It Had to Be You,” and the big-band romp “Let the Good Times Roll.” The album was the last that Charles recorded for the label, though there were subsequent releases of previously recorded music. In November 1959 Charles signed with ABC-Paramount, which offered a larger advance on future royalties, a higher rate of royalties, and ownership of his own master recordings. Charles had mixed success with his first two singles for ABC-Paramount, but with the third release he achieved his biggest hit-ever.

Hoagy Carmichael's “Georgia on My Mind” (1960) was an old ballad that sentimentally recalls the American South. Charles infused the song with his unique soulful style and in the process made it one of his signature tunes. The song went to number three on the pop charts and earned Charles the first two of twelve Grammy Awards from the National Academy for the Recording Arts and Sciences. The following year Charles achieved his first number-one pop song and another Grammy with Percy Mayfield's “Hit the Road Jack.”

The success of “Georgia on My Mind” signaled a new direction in Charles's recording career. Always fascinated by country-and-western musicians, Charles finally recorded a full-fledged country song, Hank Snow's “I'm Moving On,” toward the end of his tenure at Atlantic. This was followed by Charles's groundbreaking Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in April 1962. Though ABC-Paramount was fearful that Charles would lose his core fan base, Charles scored his second number-one pop single with “I Can't Stop Loving You.” Despite the label's initial concerns, the song also topped the R&B charts for sixteen weeks. So successful wasModern Sounds in Country and Western Music that Charles released a follow-up in late 1962.Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 2 included versions of Hank Williams's “Your Cheating Heart” and the popular standby “You Are My Sunshine.”

When Charles released Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul in 1963, it was clear that he had so successfully integrated so many genres into his repertoire that it was no longer possible to label his music simply jazz, soul, or country and western. Ray Charles was becoming widely known as a song stylist, as evidenced by the success of his renditions of tracks like “That Lucky Old Sun” and “Ol’ Man River,” both from Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul, and the singles “Without Love (There Is Nothing)” and “Busted,” a top-five single on both the pop and R&B charts. In 1964 Charles was arrested for drug possession in Boston. He received a five-year suspended sentence, kicked his twenty-year heroin addiction, and miraculously continued his music career unabated. Although taste in popular music changed during the 1960s, with the appearance of Motown and British groups like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, Charles continued to make quality recordings in his own style. He even covered “Yesterday” and “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles on his recordings Listen (1967) and A Portrait of Ray (1968). Charles also began to record themes for Hollywood films, the best known being “The Cincinnati Kid” (1965) and “In the Heat of the Night,” the latter from the 1967 film starringSidney Poitier. The film's soundtrack was arranged by Charles's old friend Quincy Jones, whom he had met when he moved to Seattle in 1948. Charles's “Here We Go Again,” released in 1967, was his last major crossover recording until the late 1980s.

Although Charles largely remained on the periphery of the civil rights movement as a recording artist, preferring to provide financial assistance privately, he did offer his political vision on A Message from the People (1972). This album includes versions of Stevie Wonder's “Heaven Help Us All,” James Weldon Johnson's “Lift Every Voice and Sing” (often referred to as the “Negro National Anthem”), and Dick Holler's “Abraham, Martin and John.” The recording also features a stirring version of “America the Beautiful” that was re-released as a single in 1976 to coincide with the U.S. bicentennial celebration. Charles also earned a Grammy Award in 1975 for his rendition of Wonder's politically charged “Living for the City.”

Charles recorded regularly with little fanfare throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, though he was feted with awards and acknowledgements. In 1981 he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Boulevard “Walk of Fame.” He was among the first inductees into the Rock Hall of Fame in 1986, and in 1979 the state of Georgia declared his version of “Georgia on My Mind” the official state song. Charles released his autobiography Brother Ray, written with David Ritz, in 1978. He had a bit of a renaissance in the mid-1980s, making popular recordings with the country artists Willie Nelson (“Seven Spanish Angels”), George Jones (“We Didn't See a Thing”), and Hank Williams Jr. (“Two Old Cats like Us”). In 1989 he teamed again with Quincy Jones to record “I'll Be Good to You,” with Chaka Khan. The song reached number one on the R&B charts. Charles earned his twelfth Grammy Award in 1993 for “A Song for You.” Popular cameos on Sesame Street and commercial endorsements for Pepsi Cola kept his music and image firmly embedded in the minds of generations of Americans.

Ray Charles was married twice and had nine children, but his music always took precedence over all other activities. He died of liver disease on 10 June 2004 and was buried in Inglewood Cemetery, Inglewood, California. Throughout his career Charles maintained an intense touring schedule, not simply for the economic benefit but also to bring various styles of black music to audiences that may have otherwise remained unfamiliar with them. Charles's influence on American popular music has perhaps been rivaled only by figures like Duke Ellington, B. B.King, and James Brown, all of whom toured well into their sixties and seventies, each holding up the banner for the particular brand of popular music he is best known for. Charles's remarkable ability to draw from many styles of popular music made it possible for him to cross—and thereby diminish—musical, racial, political, and geographical barriers.

Further Reading

• Charles, Ray, with David Ritz. Brother Ray (1978).
• Lydon, Michael. Ray Charles: Man and Music (1998)
• Wexler, Jerry, and David Ritz. Rhythm and Blues: A Life in American Music (1993).

Seattle police re-examine Cobain! This is an updated version of this post and now it include the 7 minute+ video interview of A Seattle Police Detective! Judge for yourself! I just ask you to pay attention to his body language & watch his eyes!

This Just In Again From Seattle Music History!!! 

1. Posted by Ryan Menges at 10:33 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014

So a few key things left out from this pigs video scripted interview you will find below- but first just watch his body language and watch his eyes! Also let me add that what you are reading is my comment that I left after I READ WHATS BELOW AND WATCHED THE VIDEO! Now back to some real facts! The police report states that the shotgun was fired by kurts big toe, so some one please tell how someone with 10 times the lethal amount of heroin as you heard this fine SPD pig say over and over as well as say that they had never ever in Seattle City History saw someone with a heroin level in their bloodstream as kurt had this tragic day! how did kurt inject all this heroin then grab and load his shotgun as this pig states then turn the shotgun around to be able to insert his big toe in the trigger area and maintain a secure grip on the shotgun and manage to pull the trigger with his toe? If anyone can answer me that then maybe you'll be able to tell me thee answer to my next question then! lets say all this is an accurate report! the cop said thee amount of dope was so enormous that maybe he could of lived for a total of only two minutes- so riddle me this jokers! HOW DID KURT INJECT HIMSELF, LOAD HIS 20 GAUGE SHOTGUN, TURN IT AROUND, INSERT HIS BIG TOE SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER, SHOOT HIMSELF AT POINT BLANK RANGE IN TE F***ing FACE THEN PUT HIS SOX AND converse tennis SHOES BACK ON TIE THEM, THEN GRAB THE SHOTGUN AND HOLD ON TIGHT TO IT LEAVING IT REST OVER HIS OTHER ARM? let me add that and im no gun or forensic expert but usually with a shotgun there is a kick and with it turned around and fire with by a toe it doesn't make scientific sense that it would just be in his one hand (which he could have opted to pull the trigger with mind you) and resting over the top of his other arm! WAS IT A CUSTOM MADE BIG LEFT TOE'd TRIGGER FRIENDLY SHOTGUN MADE FOR PEOPLE WITH 10 TIMES THE LETHAL DOSE OF HEROIN IN THEIR SYSTEM with a Smith & Wesson attachment that was made to put your sox back on and ties you converse tennis shoes with?

I added this picture not the evil media, wanted to back up what I said about the shoes and sox! Now when the quotation mark appears below, this is the Seattle Police Detective's Words!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  “I was requested to look at the case because I’m a cold case detective because it is 20 years later and it’s a high media case,” said Detective Mike Ciesynski, who had the four rolls of film developed and conducted interviews. “And there were always these conspiracy theorists out there, and so I was asked to look at the case and review it.”

Police said in 1994 that the case was clearly a suicide. Ciesynski said that is still the case after reviewing evidence.

After KIRO 7 first reported the re-investigation Thursday morning, the Seattle police public affairs unit took issue with semantics, saying the case was not technically “reopened” -- despite the new interviews and processing of film that had not previously been developed.

The final investigation report has not yet been completed, Ciesynski said.

He also said images of Cobain dead at the scene will not be released.

“What are people going to gain from seeing pictures of Kurt Cobain laying on the ground with his hair blown back, with blood coming out of his nose and trauma to his eyes from a penetrating shotgun wound. How’s that going to benefit anybody?

“It wasn’t going to change my decision that this was a suicide, and actually I’m the one that makes the decision finally: do we go forward or not? Morally I would not be able to justify that. Legally I can’t justify doing that.”

The morning of April 8, 1994, Veca Electric employee Gary Smith went to Cobain’s home at 171 Lake Washington Blvd. East to do electrical work.

“I noticed something on the floor and I thought it was a mannequin,” Smith told KIRO 7 at the time. “So I looked a little closer and geez, that’s a person. I looked a little closer and I could see blood, and an ear and a weapon laying on his chest.”

The medical examiner determined Cobain had killed himself three days earlier – only days after he had left a rehab facility.

Police said before he shot himself, Cobain had a lethal dose of heroin. The syringes and the heroin kit Cobain used were kept in the Seattle police evidence unit and were part of the re-investigation, along with the previously undeveloped film.

Smith, the electrician, found a suspected suicide note on some planting soil in the greenhouse.

“I only read the bottom lines,” Smith told KIRO 7 in 1994. "(The) bottom two lines said, ‘I love you, I love you’ to someone.”

On March 18, 1994 – less than a month before Cobain was found dead – Seattle police were called to the Lake Washington home after Kurt “locked himself in a room,” and said he was going to kill himself, according to a police report. Police were also told he “had a gun in the room.”

But Cobain told police he was not suicidal and didn’t want to kill himself. However, police said after the 1994 investigation that his death was clearly a suicide.

Someone at Smith’s electrician company tipped then-KXRX radio deejay Marty Riemer, who was the first to announce the musician's death, which the medical examiner determined was a suicide.

More than 7,000 mourners packed Seattle Center two days later for a public memorial, where a recording was played of Courtney Love reading Cobain's suicide note. She also attended the memorial  and gave some of his clothes to fans.

Last year, a Seattle Police Department spokeswoman said the department gets at least one request per week, mostly through Twitter, to reopen the investigation.

The public affairs unit keeps the basic incident report on file because of the number of requests, and police have said no other Seattle police case has received similar attention in two decades.

Ciesynski said having the film developed last month will hopefully benefit everyone. KIRO 7 asked if the case was closed.

“Hopefully,” Ciesynski said. “I’m sure until the 25th anniversary comes up.”

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• Posted by AndreasGaramonde at 4:57 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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Asinine. No other word to describe this. The thought that Mike Ciesynski is paid to investigate a loser's suicide twenty years after the fact using taxpayer money is an unconscionable insult. Does the Seattle Police Department have nothing else to do with time and money? The rationalization that this is a "high media case" has about much relevance as my favorite color. I am sickened by this.

• Posted by Wenatchee at 5:50 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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I was expecting other comments to be a boo-hoo fest commiserating the loss of Kurt Cobain. I totally agree with first comment by Andreas Garamonde. Kurt Cobain's music was horrid, his lifestyle glorified everything that we don't want our society to be involved in. The only way for him to achieve any lasting immortality is to have his death reexamined every 20 years. What is the purpose? And really...who cares if it was not a suicide?

• Posted by pankinbayday at 5:55 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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I have lost respect for both of you. You've now got people all over the world believing the case has been "re-opened" when you know perfectly well that's not true.
The case was reviewed in preparation for the anniversary. There is no new news!
So you got the hits, but now we all know that you will play fast and loose with the truth. Guess which station I'm not going to go to when I want to know whether there is actual real news or how big of a deal something really is?
Not you.
Totes UNreliable -- Casey and Clancy.

• Posted by GoddessFourWinds at 6:04 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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@AndreasGaramonde The city of Seattle has made, does and will always make money off the name Kurt Cobain. It can always afford to have one man investigate his death.

• Posted by ShaneSiegfried at 6:06 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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Both of you are amazing. Clearly, everyone is entitled to their opinion. But clearly you are missing the point here.

There were many issues with the way the investigation and crime scene was handled, not to mention the weird facts about the case:

1.) the "suicide note" wasn't in his handwriting.

2.) there were no fingerprints on the shotgun that killed him.

I, for one, want to see the people responsible for this MURDER given their justice.

What if this were your child and someone killed them, but made it look like a suicide? Wouldnt you want to dig deeper into this and get some answers? Well that is what the public wants. Justice. Answers.

If both of you were more educated on the situation at hand, then the comments you posted would have never happened.

So, stop being idiots and making dumbass statements.

• Posted by GoddessFourWinds at 6:19 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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@Wenatchee "...who cares if it was not a suicide?"

So it's perfectly okay with you that a murderer is walking around free in society?

And you criticize Kurt's lifestyle?

I'd rather live among heroin addicts than people who think it's okay for murderers to roam free.

• Posted by WoofaGooba at 6:35 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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Oh look, it's the usual parade of idiotic comments.

• Posted by WoofaGooba at 6:37 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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BTW ShaneSiegfried, prove what you say. And I don't mean the usual nonsense of conspiracy theorists. I mean PROVE WHAT YOU CLAIM.

• Posted by ShaneSiegfried at 6:48 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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Use your "Google-fu" and youll find all the things ive posted.

I've been following this since the late 90's and have done a lot of research and still continue to do so. It's very intriguing to me.

There are many other unanswered questions as well, but i want people to do the research on their own. That way they can understand what I already know.

• Posted by WoofaGooba at 6:53 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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I said not the usual conspiracy theorists crap. Apparently you don't get it.

• Posted by ShaneSiegfried at 7:04 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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what are you looking for? For me to write an unabridged dictionary on this? that is something i am not going to do.

there are the facts, then there are the conspiracies. the facts are things i actually point out. the conspiracies are the things i research further.

its very similar to cryptozoology. lots of conspiracy theories on them, but a lot are facts.

if you want to ask me questions and approach this in a more appropriate manner, then i would be happy to oblige. but if you want to go about this like a stupid middle school kid, then go somewhere else.

• Posted by DRQAngel5 at 7:13 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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For those who are asking who cares. You do otherwise you wouldn't have clicked on this story and then taken the time to post a comment for those of us who do care a lot if this was a murder or suicide.

• Posted by ghostfire32 at 8:59 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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Smells Like Teen Spirit

• Posted by SeattleAmyJ at 9:35 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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The City of Seattle owns a great deal of problems; dispelling conspiracy theories from a 20 year old death is not one of them. I'd like the SPD to solve the murder of Greggette Guy or explain why there's a lack of arrests in the Danny Vega murder. Everybody knows who killed Kurt.

• Posted by RyanMenges at 10:33 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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so a few key things left out from this pigs scripted interview! but first just watch his body language and watch his eyes! now back to some real facts! the police report states that the shotgun was fired by kurts big toe, so some one please tell how someone with 10 times the lethal amount of heroin as you heard this fine SPD pig say over and over as well as say that they had never ever in Seattle City History saw someone with a heroin level in their bloodstream as kurt had this tragic day! how did kurt inject all this heroin then grab and load his shotgun as this pig states then turn the shotgun around to be able to insert his big toe in the trigger area and maintain a secure grip on the shotgun and manage to pull the trigger with his toe? If anyone can answer me that then maybe you'll be able to tell me thee answer to my next question then! lets say all this is an accurate report! the cop said thee amount of dope was so enormous that maybe he could of lived for a total of only two minutes- so riddle me this jokers! HOW DID KURT INJECT HIMSELF, LOAD HIS 20 GAUGE SHOTGUN, TURN IT AROUND, INSERT HIS BIG TOE SQUEEZE THE TRIGGER, SHOOT HIMSELF AT POINT BLANK RANGE IN TE F***ing FACE THEN PUT HIS SOX AND converse tennis SHOES BACK ON TIE THEM, THEN GRAB THE SHOTGUN AND HOLD ON TIGHT TO IT LEAVING IT REST OVER HIS OTHER ARM? let me add that and im no gun or forensic expert but usually with a shotgun there is a kick and with it turned around and fire with by a toe it doesnt make scientific sense that it would just be in his one hand (which he could have opted to pull the trigger with mind you) and resting over the top of his other arm! WAS IT A CUSTOM MADE BIG LEFT TOE'd TRIGGER FRIENDLYT SHOTGUN MADE FOR PEOPLE WITH 10 TIMES THE LETHAL DOSE OF HEROIN IN THEIR SYSTEM with a smith & wessin attachment that was made to put your sox back on and ties you converse tennis shoes with?

• Posted by RyanMenges at 10:51 p.m. Mar. 20, 2014
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and all you blind faces posting these comments why dont you come out of witness protection and quit hiding behind your mouse you rats and be who you are and what you believe and let it be known how you feel? Instead you'd rather believe these damn cops and damn media and then hate on and chastise the people that truly do give a SH*T and cares about what happened to Kurt! thee only people that could have produced all of this to happen to kurt is THE BIG 6 MEDIA CONGLOMERATE and if you do not know who or what they are google it u F***ING SORRY SACK OF SH*TS! HERES A CLUE THE BIG 6 MEDIA CONGLOMERATE OWNS THE MEDIA, THE PIGS, YOU & YOUR THOUGHTS, YOUR DISEASES, YOUR SINS, AND YOUR SOUL AND GOOGLE!

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