NIRVANA

For Mom.

The author respectfully acknowledges the following writers and journalists, whose works proved to be an
invaluable resource:
Lorraine Ali, Gina Arnold, Michael Azerrad, Gavin Edwards, Jason Fine, David Fricke, Mikal Gilmore, Joe Gore,
Robert Hilburn, Clark Humphrey, Mark Kemp, Chris Mundy, Christopher Sandford, and Eric Weisbard
Special thanks to Jon Auer, Robert Hilburn, Harvey Kubernik, and Kyra Thompson.
And a very large thank you to Kurt, for the songs, and Nirvana, for the music.

Picture acknowledgements
The publishers would like to thank the following sources for their kind permission to reproduce the pictures in this book:
All Action/Justin Thomas; Corbis-Bettmann/Reuter, UPI; Hulton Getty;
London Features International/Matt Anker, Kristin Callahan, Kevin Mazur, Derek Ridgers; Redferns/Mick Hutson, Max Jones Files;
Retna Pictures/Matt Anker, Charlie Hoselton, Alastair Indge, Niels Van Iperen, Steve Pyke, Ed Sirrs, Stephen Sweet, Chris Taylor, Ian T
Tilton, Alice Wheeler; Rex Features/LGI Photo Agency/Carlos Arthur, John Mantel, SIPA, Today, Kirk Weddle, Jeff Werner; Science
Photo Library/John Burbidge, Adam Hart-Davis, Mehau Kulyk; S.I.N./David Anderson, Richard Beland, Steve Double, Martyn Goodacre,
Jayne Houghton, Alastair Indge, Jana, Tim Owen, Roy Tee, Ian T Tilton.
Every effort has been made to acknowledge correctly and contact the source and/or copyright holder of each picture, and Carlton
Books Limited apologises for any unintentional errors or omissions which will be corrected in future editions of this book.

THIS IS A CARLTON BOOK

@ OMNIBUS PRESS
First published in 1996 by Omnibus Press,
8-9 Frith Street, London W1V 5TZ

Copyright © Carlton Books Limited 1996

This book is sold subject to the condition that

it shall not, by way of trade or
otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or other-
wise circulated without the publisher's prior
consent in any form of cover or binding than
that in which it is published and without a
similar condition including this condition
being imposed upon the subsequent purchaser.

Cataloguing-in-publication data is available

from the British Library

ISBN 0 7119 5809 2

Order no: OP47840

10 39-3 4.26 eto

Printed in Great Britain

“xecutive Editor: Lorraine Dickey

jlvter: Mike Flynn
ivtor: Vicky Harvey
; Norma Martin
icture Research: Emily Hedges
Production: Sarah Schuman =
OMN SPIRIT
THE STORIES BEHIND EVERY NIRVANA SONG

CHUCK CRISAFULLE

@
OMNIBUS PRESS
CONTENTS
6 Introduction
Vy se a gee *

10 Bleach: Ble
/wFloyd The Barbe :/ About,
School / Love Buzz / Paper Cuts / Neg

Swap Meet / Mr. Moustache / ifting / Big Cheese

a

= 4

34 Nevermind:
sme LiikeTeen Spi y
Come
As You Are / Breed /Lithium / Polly / Territel0

Drain You / Lounge Act / Stay Away / On APlain/ mz,

Something
In The Way

oaay
=

Big Long Now / Aneurysm

‘ ,
78 In Utero: Serve the Servants / Scentless Apprentice/
a
Heart Shaped Box / Rape Me / Frances Farmer WillHaveHer
Revenge On Seattle / Dumb / Very Ape / Milk It / Pennyroyal Tea /
Radio Friend!y Unit Shifter / Tourette’s/ All Apologies

104 Unplugged in New York:about aint

/Come As You Are / Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam

(the Vaselines) / The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie) /

Pennyroyal Tea / Dumb / Polly /On APlain / Something

in the

Way / Plateau (Meat Puppets) / Oh Me (See previous) /

Lake of Fire (see previous) / All Apologies /

Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Leadbelly)

122 Afterword Interview with Kurt Cobain

125 Chronology

127 Discography

128 Index
 a>
a
'
|

nlikely form, and from

1 awesome blast of
dread Bnd distortion the American
Puiwest.
aber, EAL, ite1S — these had been the basic, primal

hello, nirvana. ust about every great band’s sound.

was fresh, inspired and inspiring,
Only a handful rock n’ roll records had ever entirely new was the spirit. Never
announced themselves as instant signposts; “force sounded so sweet, and
loudly, cleanly marking pop history into a “before” | pop constructions carried so
and “after.” Sgt. Pepper was one of those, as was ight. The brilliantsimplicity and
NeverMind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols. When ce of Kurt Cobain’s songs made
Nirvana released Nevermind, they issued rock’ but there certai ily was genius
Ww a
. : : ° : 7 v? Ly is me CH
next grand directive. And it pointed the way there - slou hrug, scowl and stumble as it
toward once more making the music swea i Py,
. Cae Ur:
smart, funny, consuming, necessary and h lirvana’s greatest accomplishment was in
humble trio in flannel reclaimed rock |
and re-established its future. un spasm int yrough|
fashion, they kicked assand ope ed minds statement Irpose. Fea a heap of pop-
Nirvana’s oe ralded a revolutior t, culture contradictions sound not only invigorating
separated into its:componen
.

sound was “not a po} beautiful, angst was celebration,

melodies,
sig ee
chi anguished howls thy was communion and a chunk of the
7 aa
underground could simply up and conq lumber business is a shadow of what it once was,
mainstream. Rock n’ roll smelled like 1 the local economy is perennially depressed and fora
and never smelled better. 4 long time the prostitution has been a dimly
Bottom line: in its short histo remembered bit of less-than-glorious civic history.
stopped making thrilling sounds. Bl Life in Aberdeen is simple and hard. Taverns fill up
singing warning shot, Nevermind a poy early in the day and, if one doesn’t drink, there's
and In Utero a rousing mega-rant. not much else to do around town. The local suicide
with Incesticide and Unplugged, ho ) 2 rate is well above the US average. In a town s
original works that, at their finest mo make a geared to basic subsistence, a sensitive soul is a
listener feel fully alive — \ misfit, and it seems pretty clear that Kurt Cob
roll does. Kurt Cobain grew up painfully aware that he did not fit a f
soul, but he was also Cobain was born on February 20, 1967, in
artist, and his small, pov ae just outside of Aberdeen. He was the
doubt continue to shar t-born son of Wendy and Donald. n
years to come. f )-mechanic.) Kurt joyed a contented,
It is unfortunate ar ectacular childhood a but in 1975
that Cobain chose to | nts split up and he was never quite
deeply missed. All we cai at home again. He bounced between
left for us: the songs, the dence with each parent, feeling like
Nirvana’s story begins in the humbl | 1 unwanted strange: ‘ineith er’s house. School was
Aberdeen — a small, gra d promise and interest in
se
ea
the middle of Washin vea - an unremarkable
Aberdeen was once a destination ed student wh tagged a weak one-a “faggot” —
and years ago, when ain waswel aware,
booming and the seaport of Grays Harb 2 early on, that he not oe. te Aaa life of
ae 4 fi
active, the town was h j ;
of profitable whorehouses. But t da he und in rock ll. Hee spent
n’ roll
+o, An
 long to his favorite records. Then - thanks
Buzz Osborne’s compilation tapes -
up decent version of AC/DC's ‘Back in Black’ and Le selic underwent the same punk rock conversion
Zeppelin’s ‘Communication Breakdown’ He began obain had. After that, playing along with
hanging around the rehearsals of a local band, the i wasn't as satisfying. He wanted to be in
Melvins. The group’s spirited leader, Buzz Osborne, -aband.
saw fit to turn young Cobain on to the pleasures of Novoselic’s younger brother, Robert, had
the angriest, most splenetic punk rock he had befriended Kurt. When he brought Kurt to the
A alable. Cobain listened intently and repeatedly family’s hou: : neafternoon, Cobain heard the
to compilation tapes Osborne gave him - full of the unmistakal ids of crude, punk-rock guitar
sounds of Black Flag, Flipper, MDC, the Sex Pistols being ked ou vin an upstairs bedroom. He
and the Butthole Surfers. It was a revelation. In the remembered that sound months later - after he'd
fury, the volume, the do-it-yourself exorcism of used rack recorder to put together
punk, Cobain saw a way out of his unhappiness, and his e of original tunes with a friend
even out of Aberdeen. He saw a place where on on drums and Melvins
he might fit in. He wanted to be in a band. playing bass. Cobain was
One other friend of Buzz Osborne and the that this trio, dubbed Fecal
iy ; : :
Melvins was a lanky fellow named Chris Novoseli and made a | t of getting a
(who would later revert to the spelling of his
as it appeared on his birth certificate
Novoselic.) Chris, the son of Croatian immigran the two of
it
was born on May 16, ee cae 1, Califor
He spent his early childhoo Southern |
moving to Aberdeen with his famil Matter cassette
fourteen. Chris too ‘was a lover of | at told him
along with some Aerosmith and Blac\ . The next time he ran into Kurt,

wiwe
while in hig | em started playing 1 to get a band together.
Fi, ‘ 5 3
 Before the hype: thrashy
guitars and flannel shirts
were a naturally grungy
way of life for early Nirvana.

leach, released in June 1989, was the roar

that only a handful heard. It was a very
respectful handful - at a time when the
indie/alternative rock scene had no muscle in the
market-place, the record exceeded all expectations by
selling 30,000 copies over two years. But the record’s
well-chiseled punk-metal fury hardly heralded the
Niryanamania that was to come. After Bleach, every
Nirvana album would be an event - a grand dispatch to
be scrutinized, analyzed, celebrated and/or vilified. But
the band’s first full-length release enjoyed the comfort
of simply being a very good album from a mostly
unknown band.
The album served as something of a metal exorcism
for Cobain as a song writer. The record is packed with
riffs that owe some debt to all those Black Sabbath and
Black Flag tapes that Buzz Osborne from the Melvins
had turned Cobain on to, and there are only a few hints,
as in ‘About A Girl’, of the pop craftsmanship that
Cobain would soon put to use. Lyrically, the songs on
Bleach reveal what would become an enduring Cobain
trademark - a bent toward meaningful meaninglessness.
Listeners attempting to decipher the message behind
‘Sifting’ — just like listeners later trying to suss out
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ - could understandably be driven
to cries of, “What is he talking about?” But while Cobain
seemed to be mumbling nonsense - what he might not
communicate in cogent narrative was more than clear in
the intensity of delivery.
Some of the songs on Bleach sound like an
understandable testing of the song writing waters for
Cobain - the one-note joke of a song such as ‘Floyd the

bleach
Barber’ almost registers as a Nirvana novelty tune now. characters (‘Mr. Moustache’) or scenarios (‘School’) that
But the strength and confidence of the music on Bleach offered a bit of cover.
tend to disguise the fact that at the time of its creation As a band, Nirvana was just beginning to coalesce
Cobain was a penniless, sometimes homeless drop-out, when recording for Bleach began. Cobain and Novoselic
racked with self-doubts and uncertainties about his had quickly realized that they enjoyed working
future. Actually, a good deal of the record’s driving together. They first began playing together in 1986 (in

yve
energy comes from the way Cobain and the band can a space above Novoselic’s mom’s beauty shop), but
turn dread and hopelessness into exultation. Being a direction, and a solid drummer, were harder to come by.
‘Negative Creep’ is nothing to be thrilled about, but the In early 1987, the two had begun rehearsing with a
way the band bashed out that song’s dumpy feelings drummer named Aaron Burckhard, and it was with him
made it a weird cry of personal triumph and self- that they played their first gigs in Olympia and Tacoma,
loathing at one and the same time. under such names as Skid Row, Ted Ed Fred, Bliss, the
Quite soon, Cobain would be assured enough as a Sellouts, Pen Cap Chew, Throat Oyster and Windowpane.
writer to examine himself even more: closely Finally, with its ironic
and make himself extremely vulnerable in his ce 5 implications in mind,
songs, but on Bleach - admissions to being a
creep notwithstanding - he tended to create

Clean needles: Nirvana's

first album was named
after an anti-AIDS
campaign’s advice to
intravenous drug users.

Post-punk, proto-grunge and decidedly pre-‘Teen

Spirit’: Nirvana’s first album was a dark, cramped Slab

of raging discontents. @)
 hand a copy of the tape over to Sub Pop co-owner
Jonathan Poneman. Poneman also liked what he heard,
and shortly thereafter asked the band if they would be
interested in putting out a single on Sub Pop.
They were, but finding a permanent drummer was a
continuing problem as the band gigged around Olympia,
Tacoma and Seattle. Crover had moved to San Francisco
with the Melvins. A replacement he suggested, Dave
Foster, didn’t work out, and a second round with
Burckhard was unsatisfactory. Finally, Cobain and
Novoselic drafted Bainbridge Island native Chad
Channing to hold down the beat. With Channing,
4 the band returned to Reciprocal on June 11, 1988,
to record the ‘Love Buzz’/‘Big Cheese’ single.
The band continued to play out, to write, and
to rehearse, and in December and January 1989
spent more time at Reciprocal with Endino to record the
rest of the album. Studio time cost the band just over
$600, which Sub Pop was not going to front and which
Cobain, Novoselic and Channing couldn’t cover. But,
anticipating the record’s release and an ensuing club
tour, the trio had decided to take on a second guitarist,
a player named Jason Everman.
Pay to play: Jason
Everman bankrolled Cobain decided to go with Nirvana. (These implications Everman put up the money, and was credited as
Bleach but wasn’t on
were made clearer in the song ‘Paper Cuts.) The name part of the band on the sleeve of Bleach, although he
the record.
stuck, although the band would eventually have to hadn’t played a note on the record.
settle copyright suits with a pair of other Nirvanas. With recording finished, the foursome did begin a
The band’s first demo was recorded with Burckhard West Coast tour in February 1989. The album was still
— a taped radio show for the college station in Olympia untitled at that point, but during a stay in San
— but when Burckhard tired of the number of rehearsals Francisco, the band took note of a strong, ubiquitous
that his bandmates insisted on, they turned to their public health campaign designed to fight the spread of
friend from the Melvins, drummer Dale Crover, and asked AIDS by advising intravenous drug users to clean their
if he would help them record a proper demo. Crover needles thoroughly with bleach. Bleach was being
agreed, and on January 23, 1988, the band spent a day dispensed as part of a clean needle exchange program,
recording at Reciprocal Recordings studio in Seattle and the band even spotted a guy downtown dressed up
with the help of producer Jack Endino (born Michael as a bleach bottle in order to spread the bleach
Giacondino). Of the 10 songs recorded that day, three - message. Having found a way to call up images of
‘Floyd the Barber’, ‘Paper Cuts’ and ‘Downer’ - ended up cleanliness, filth, health and disease in one simple
on Bleach, while another four turned up on Incesticide. word, the band went with it. Bleach, the album, came
Cobain began sending off the demo to the small out that June.
record labels he was aware of - Chicago’s Touch&Go, Speaking of that period to journalist Gina Arnold in
San Francisco’s Alternative Tentacles and Southern a 1992 Option magazine article, Novoselic recalled,

2)
California’s SST. He didn’t send a copy to the budding “We didn’t know anything about Sub Pop. We just loved
mini-label closest to him —- Seattle’s Sub Pop. But playing. It’s just so totally fun. It was the most important
Endino was impressed enough with that day’s work to thing in my life at the time. It was awesome.”
 blew
anything,” ends up sounding more like an apathetic
taunt than a promise of hope.
It is worth remembering that on the most practical
level all Kurt really wanted was a few cool words to
holler. No respectable punk would slave over internal
rhyme schemes and extended conceits, would he? So,

e3)}¢
yr
Cobain counted on the pressures of recording deadlines
for inspiration - scribbling out the final version of
any of what would become the ‘Blew’ on the night before the Bleach sessions, when he
distinguishing features of Nirvana and the band spent the night at Jason Everman’s house
songs were loudly introduced by the in Seattle. An earlier version of the lyrics from one of
first 3-minute blast on Bleach - in a song called ‘Blew. Kurt's notebooks had some additional lines - the song
The tune boasted a molten bass and guitar riff that began as an odd, loveless confrontation set in a garden
carried the weight of the heaviest heavy metal and the — but these don’t shed any light on the specifics of the
darker menace of punk. It was built of exhilarating, song's genesis. Of the lines that were recorded, a telling
almost shocking dynamic shifts - with Cobain’s vocals change was made from the earlier version. Cobain’s
jumping from the lazy snarl of the first verse to the glumly complacent “I would like to lose” had originally
acid-gargle holler of the choruses. And for all the noisy, been the more hopeful “I would like to choose.”
booming, low-end abandon of the track, the melody Some of heavy-bottomed vibe on ‘Blew’ was
was impossibly catchy and the harmonies pop-sweet. accidental. The band had been experimenting with
Finally, setting a potent lyrical prototype, the tune tuning the bass and the guitar down a step for a bigger
sounded impassioned, detached, ironic, post-ironic and sound —- using what's called a “drop D” tuning, wherein
funny all at once, while its precise meaning remained the lowest note on each instrument becomes a D rather
nearly indecipherable upon repeated listenings. than an E. Before recording ‘Blew’, Kurt and Krist had
Cobain shrugged off the possibilities of deep tuned down, but then forgot they'd done so. When they
Krist Novoselic’s
meaning in any of the Bleach tracks, remarking on more tuned down again, they accidentally created the sound basslines did
much to steer
than one occasion that the words were simply cobbled that gives ‘Blew’ its distinctive, threatening rumble. Nirvana’s sound.

together to have something to sing, and that there was

little personal meaning in the lyrics. But, as would
often be the case, he tended to downplay his gift for
deceptively simple insight. It is true that not much gets
said in ‘Blew, but a large part of the song’s power
comes from its ability to suggest several sizeable
themes with just a few simple words. The singer
addresses some confining person, place or thing and
requests the right “to blow,” ww “to lose,” “to breathe” -
each request beginning ever-so-politely with an, “If
you wouldn’t mind.” Cobain’s desultory delivery makes
these lines ring large - he may be singing to Aberdeen,
to his family or to a real or imagined girlfriend. The
specifics don’t seem important - what comes through is
the frustrated ache of someone who wants to escape a
bad day or an ugly situation, but who also realizes that
his half-hearted complaints will do little to bring about
any liberation. The song’s coda, “you could do
 t’s inevitably described by fans as homespun,
gentle-spirited and endearing, but perhaps no
other show in television history has presented as
blindly inane a view of American small-town life as The
Andy Griffith Show, the show that gave life to the
character of Floyd the Barber. The show ran from 1960
to 1968, playing like a tonic to the conservative-
minded masses as the decade tumbled tumultuously
along. As American notions of sex, drugs, war, money,
faith and community were questioned, challenged and
transformed, The Andy Griffith Show offered a view of an
unchanged rural America in which a big event was a trip
to the fishing hole or a slice of a freshly baked pie. This
entirely manufactured vision of the country’s good ol’
days was immensely popular, and for the length of its
run the show was placed among the top ten
programs according to the industry-worshipped
Nielsen ratings.

Cobain was The show was set in Mayberry, North Carolina, but
not charmed, its audience never had to worry about
or accepted,
by small-town being disturbed by prickly questions of
minds.
race relations in the American south -
blacks, Jews, hippies, free-thinkers and
any other unacceptable outsiders never
seemed to make it within the town limits.
The residents were completely white,
polite, undoubtedly Christian
and - it might appear to
uncharmed eyes = mildly
retarded. Town barber Floyd,
portrayed by actor Howard
McNair, was one of Mayberry’s
dimmer bulbs. Along with
Deputy Barney Fife, loveable
town drunk Otis Campbell and a
gas-pumper named Goober, Floyd was
used for brief scenes of ostensible comic
relief, while the main story lines revolved
around Sheriff Andy Taylor (played by
Griffith), his son Opie (the result of some
unexplained procreative act) and Andy's
bulldoggish Aunt Bee.
Kurt Cobain was well-acquainted with American
 Just a little off
the top? Small-
towners were
objects of fear
and loathing in
‘Floyd the Barber’.

small-town life, and in no way did the goings-on in comic-strip parody of The Andy Griffith Show by Drew
Aberdeen match up with anything presented in and Josh Alan Friedman. The strip originally appeared
Mayberry. In Aberdeen, the drunks weren't loveable, the in the artsy, New York-based Raw magazine in 1978.
dim bulbs were likely to be armed and angry rather than In that version of the rural nightmare, Barney and
goofily helpful and the community spirit - far from, Andy jump away from Aunt Bee’s dinner table with
“Have another slice of pie, won’t cha?” - was one of news of the appearance of Mayberry’s first black
embittered hopelessness. No surprise then, that in one visitor. One lynching later, they can sit down to a
of the first songs he wrote for Nirvana, he put his dark relaxing piece of pie.
humor to use in turning the homely fantasy of Mayberry The song was one of ten that Cobain, Novoselic and
into a bloody nightmare. Crover recorded on January 23, 1988, at Jack Endino’s
The song finds poor Kurt in search of a shave, but Reciprocal Studios in Seattle. The recordings were
when he enters Floyd’s shop and the barber commences meant to be used as a demo tape, but ‘Floyd the Barber’
his art, things quickly turn ugly. The singer is tied to received airplay on Seattle radio station KCMU, and in
the barber chair by the semi-spastic Deputy Fife, is fact the version that appears on Bleach is simply a remix
sliced by Opie and Aunt Bee and finally dies at the of the Crover demo. (The band attempted to record the
hands of the Sheriff. Cobain’s understated lyrical song again, with Chad Channing on drums, but
approach served him well here - instead of going for all- remained happier with the Crover version.)
out gore value, the way punk heroes like Flipper or the Ironically, and somewhat chillingly, The Andy
Butthole Surfers might, Cobain sketches out the Griffith Show may have been one of the last things that
murderous scene with just a few incisive phrases. Kurt Cobain saw in this world - it was broadcast on the
It is also possible that Kurt - who had strong station he had his home television tuned to on the day
interests in drawing and painting - may have seen a he took his life.
 mong all the dark, churning riffs and proto
-grunge thunder of Bleach, one song beamed
out as a stunning shot of pop sunlight
(albeit some uncommonly sad pop sunlight) - the hook-
built, Beatle-crafted ‘About a Girl’ The song also stands
out in the Cobain canon as a song with a very specific
genesis and a very real subject.
The girl in question was Cobain’s girlfriend at the
time, Tracy Marander, and the song was written when
she, asked Kurt if he might not have anything to say
about her or their relationship in a song. At one point,
Cobain might have put some sweeter sentiments into
the song, but by the time he wrote ‘About a Girl’, he
and Marander were pulling apart. The result is a small
pop gem, perfectly capturing the rage, hurt and
residual tenderness of a fractured,
failing romance and packing it all into
verses and choruses that are
unstoppably catchy.
Cobain met Marander through his punk
mentor — Buzz Osborne of the Melvins.
Beginning at the end of 1986, Cobain
was spending more and more time in
Olympia. Students at Evergreen College
in Olympia supported a small but fervent
underground music scene, in which the
Melvins were big fish. Marander was a
Melvins acquaintance with dyed-red hair
who was. taken with the blonde, blue-
eyed boy responsible for both the jagged
art-punk on the Fecal Matter cassette
(Fecal Matter were Cobain’s first band)
and the accomplished image of KISS
painted on the side of the Melvin’s gig-
to-gig vehicle, better known as the Mel-
van. Kurt, in turn, was smitten, and was
soon spending weekends at Tracy's apartment
at 114 North Pear Street in Olympia. In September
1987 he left his own apartment on East 2nd
Street in Aberdeen altogether and moved in
with Marander.
The two had some undeniably deep feelings
Sweet melodies
often turned for each other, but it wasn’t too long before the
ferocious at
Nirvana gigs. atmosphere at North Pear Street grew troubled.
 Cobain wasn’t
always in flannel,
wasn’t always
bashing out heavy
riffs, and wasn’t
always listening to
dark, angry punks.
He greatly enjoyed
the pop craftsman-
ship of the
Smithereens, and
used their sound
as an inspiration
when he wrote
‘About a Girl?
Marander was devotedly supportive of Kurt's musical And if you check it out you hear the similarities - the
ambitions and shared some of his tastes in found art simple, repetitive structures that are really cool. That's
and home decoration - the two of them turned the what Kurt got into.”
place into a rather untidy gallery of home-made Marander and Cobain’s on-again/off-again
sculptures and installations. But Cobain’s feelings relationship was tested again after Bleach was released
towards domestic responsibilities — particularly rent- and Nirvana began to tour — Kurt might send her loving
paying — weren't always easy for Marander to put up postcards from the road, but when they were together
with. He sometimes responded to her entreaties to find times were tense.
employment by casually offering to move out and live in Marander finally moved out of the North Pear Street
his car. He summed up the situation with the song's line house in June of 1990, and Cobaih continued to live
“T can't see you every night for free”. there, taking in Dave Grohl as a roommate when the
Musically, the song seems to have grown from some drummer joined the band in September. Later, Cobain
of Cobain’s more mainstream pop influences. “I hear the and Marander had a brief period of reconciliation just
Smithereens’ ‘Blood and Roses’ as a direct precursor to prior to the release of Nevermind.
‘About a Girl’,” says Jon Auer of the Posies, a Seattle In addition to ‘About a Girl’, Marander is responsible
scene contemporary of Nirvana’s, known for their pop for one other prominent piece of the Nirvana story - she
father than “grunge” approach to song writing. “The took the photo that became the cover shot for Bleach.

@)
Posies shared a soundman with Nirvana for a while, so I
know for a fact that Kurt was way into the Smithereens.
school could occasionally put some of his talents to enjoyable
use. By eleventh grade, time at school was spent mainly
at a smokers’ shed in the school grounds. During senior
year, with his class’s graduation looming in the not-to-
fall the festering complaints and settling of distant future, Cobain considered applying himself to a
scores that the songs on Bleach give voice schedule of remedial courses in order to catch up. But
to, ‘School’ is the one that most powerfully with nearly two years of courses to make up in less than
makes its point with the scantiest of lyrics. No story is six months, Cobain called it quits. He wasn’t a part of
told, no indictment read - the meaning is made clear his high school class when it graduated in June of 1985
through the singer's repeated cries of “No recess.” It’s — he had dropped out a few weeks before.
the angry but unsurprised yell of someone who's been Socially, Cobain didn’t fare much better than he did
ripped off, but who expects no less from the powers scholastically. He had sensed early on in his schoolyard
that be - the cry of someone who takes an almost life that it was not going to be easy for him to “get
masochistic satisfaction in the fact that the one little along well with others.” He felt like a misfit, and was
bearable piece of a nearly unbearable situation has frequently treated like one by shifting squads of bullies
been, predictably, snatched away. and jocks. Not that Cobain had very much desire to fit
Although ‘School’ undoubtedly exorcized some in with the prevailing cliques at Aberdeen High. Clearly
lingering high school demons, the song was actually he wanted no part of the jock crowd, but his other
written about Seattle and, to some extent, about Sub options seemed pretty much limited to groups of
Pop. For a while these inspirations were made explicitly hopelessly uninformed nerds and hopelessly disengaged
clear in the song’s working title - ‘The Seattle Scene’ stoners. Cobain drifted through both groups without
Cobain’s complaint was that, having escaped the soul- making any strong connections or friendships.
sapping confines of Aberdeen for the supposed It was at the smokers’ shed where at least one
freedoms of Seattle, he perceived the same kind of important friendship finally did begin to take shape —
cliquishness, snobbery and social politics among the with a punk-rock loving drummer named Dale Crover,
city’s music-scene makers that had made high school who had recently begun playing with the Melvins.
such a nightmare for him. All that work to escape and Melvins rehearsals became the one place where Cobain
here he was, for all intents and purposes, stuck in not only felt accepted, but also saw a social group he
school again. wanted to be a part of. Guitarist Osborne, bassist Matt
By most accounts, actual school-time was never Lukin -— a longtime Cobain acquaintance - and drummer
enjoyable for Kurt. Typical junior high school report Crover responded by taking Cobain under their wing and
card comments tagged him as a “restless, bored and giving him a “punk” education. At Aberdeen High, Kurt
uncooperative” student. At Aberdeen High School, was also aware of one other person who looked like he
Cobain made a half-hearted go of it for 4 while, barely might be somebody worth knowing - a gangly goofball
getting by as he spent his days in class either named Krist Novoselic. But their friendship would not
slumbering or eyeing instructors with murderous begin in earnest until school was just an unpleasant
contempt. His one refuge was in art classes, where he memory to be kicked about in a howling tune.
Life after Aberdeen
wasn’t without its
bummers. Cobain decried
the arty egos and
cliquishness of Seattle's
music scene by comparing
it to one of his least
favorite places: School.
 In the Sub Pop family
with tourmates TAD.
Back row: Everman,
Doyle, Novoselic,
Cobain and Channing.

piled into bargain bins at record stores.

He was particularly excited by the music he
his cover tune became an unlikely but effective discovered when he got his hands on an out-of-print
calling card for Nirvana when it became album by the Dutch band Shocking Blue - whose main
the A-side of their first Sub Pop single in claim to fame had been the 1970 chart-topper ‘Venus’
November 1988 - the first in Sub Pop’s “Single of The bassist promptly turned his fledgling band-partner
the Month” releases. on to the newly discovered oddity, and though Kurt
The song became a highlight of the band’s shows, wasn’t as charmed by the band’s subdued psychedelia as
even before the band became Nirvana. In the winter of Krist was, he agreed to work up a version of one of the
1987, Kurt, Krist and drummer Aaron Burckhard were a record’s headiest pop tunes, ‘Love Buzz. When the still-
nameless trio working on a short set’s worth of art-noise nameless trio played its first party gigs, ‘Love Buzz’ was
originals (some of which had survived from the Fecal on the set list, and when, under the moniker
Matter days) and covers of favorites such as Flipper’s Skid Row, the band played its first proper gigs at the
‘Sex Bomb’. Kurt and Krist had complementary musical GESSCO Hall in Olympia and the Community World
tastes —- both had done a fair amount of hanging out to Theater in Tacoma, the song earned the band some of
the over-sized rock of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, its heartiest responses.
and both had undergone the “Melvinization” process of The Jack Endino-recorded demo tape of January
Aberdeen punk godfather Buzz Osborne that led them 1988 (with the Melvins’ Dale Crover on drums) had
toward the Sex Pistols, Flipper and the Butthole Surfers. aroused the interest of Sub Pop’s Jonathan Poneman.
But Krist also had an interest in the occasional But he was even more impressed with the over-the-top
treasures to be found among the older, obscure albums cover of ‘Love Buzz’ he witnessed at several early band

love buzz
 nacle
of its success i
jeekat number 1 American pop charts
nbers in the early
ks such as ‘Hello DarknesseShocking
en’s You’ar d Blossom Lady! but major :success eluded them a
yand pene 7 oe
pulled when Bleach was assembled. _ Nirvana were actually the second band oof the 1980s
ea ‘ ea
= 0 enjoy some qood Frtertie’ vith a sonc
a)
by Shocking Blue -— Banana cover =
a y g om: ' ‘
| of ‘Venus’ went to number|
 inthe company ofa tag-along, da
e 5.
k — whowh seemed
ned utterly
utterly devoted
devoted too+
rec

on the original vinyl Pigothe e ba:

Bleach but wasincluded on theCD
ersion of the
~~
_..... From the
 Home as hell: Cobain
came up with his
screaming indictments
in ‘Paper Cuts’ after
hearing a true, horrific
‘ story of some abused
children imprisoned in

on NN LAAN aa their parents’ house.

wane
The kid had come from a home in Aberdeen where pulling away from the facts of the case, Cobain also
the abusive parents had kept several children constantly wrote some lines about the entrapped subject's
locked in a single room. The windows were painted over relationship with his mother - a relationship that may
with black paint and the only concession to hygiene was have also been partly based on his own conflicted
a pile of newspapers that the kids were expected to use relationship with his mother, Wendy. He describes
as their toilet. Just enough food was thrown into the looking at her with “maternal love,” but is pained that
room to give the children basic sustenance. When this she cannot bear to look him in the eyes.
atrocious situation was discovered by the authorities, The song is also notable in that it makes use of the
_the children were taken away and the parents word that Cobain and Novoselic would finally settle on
‘osecuted. The story understandably created quite a as their band name - and the “nirvana” described in
"stir in Aberdeen. “Paper Cuts’ makes obvious Cobain’s ironic intentions.
- “Paper Cuts’ is written from the point of view of one The subject seems to sing that he has found his
_of those trapped, terrified, confused children. Cobain “nirvana and is in a contented state in a place where
describes the food being pushed through the door, the all needs are met and there are no outside worres. But
a ed windows and the filth in a voice that ranges to any outside observer, the subject has simply gone
eerily gentle sing-song to crazed shriek. But insane ina filthy, one-room prison.
‘Negative Creep’ -
a witty, scathing
autobiography.

in a display of self-loathing = which is what's heard in a

song such as ‘Negative Creep’ Listeners got a fairly
open, darkly humorous self-assessment from the
songwriter — pretty much summed up by the song's title.
hough much of the anger packed into the songs The other point Cobain chose to make in this tune —
on Bleach was aimed at figures of authority or not only does he identify himself as a negative creep, he
control, Cobain never positions himself as a also lets us know he’s “stoned” — was certainly no stretch
righteous rebel or fighter of the good fight. As someone of the songwriter’s imagination. Life in Aberdeen didn’t
who'd grown up racked with self-doubts, he wasn’t offer Cobain a great deal of mental stimulation, and so as
about to take on the persona of a super-confident a teenager he sought out the adventuresome highs and
speaker of punk truths in his songs (the way that Joe numbing comforts of a variety of drugs. By the time
Strummer, Johnny Rotten or even Iggy Pop had). The Cobain wrote ‘Negative Creep’, he was a regular pot
voice Cobain developed in his song writing rarely spoke smoker, had extensive experience with hallucinogens,

negative
from any position of power, unless that power was used had already kicked a Percodan habit and had tried heroin.

creep
 scoff
Musically, the song represents one of the “Sub Pop-
jest” of Nirvana tracks - it’s a true “grunge” track, with
barely a glimmer of that pop craft that Cobain was
coming to be capable of. The song’s dark, churning bass
and guitar riff creates a semi-industrial assault that
never lets up, and Cobain’s vocals are for the most part a
single yelped note of confession. ‘Negative Creep’ gets its
point across effectively, but doesn’t seem quite as deep
as tunes such as ‘School’ or ‘Blew’, in which the tension
YyIe
and release in Cobain’s voice shape some similarly ugly n a few short years, after Nevermind had sold
sentiments. The track sounds like it might be equally at several million copies, Cobain would bristle when
home on a Mudhoney album and, in fact, the band did hearing himself referred to as “the voice of a
get some guff from some in the Seattle scene for using generation.” But at the point when he was writing
the line “Daddy’s little girl ain’t a girl no more,” which songs for Bleach he still had plenty of fresh memories of
was uncomfortably similar to Mudhoney’s “Sweet Young encounters with those who did not consider him to be a
Thing Ain’t Sweet No More.” voice worth hearing at all. ‘Scoff’ is Cobain’s angrily
Cobain sometimes mocked himself for what he saw as concise response to those who might have offered
his limitations as a song wniter - his reliance on the encouragement to him but who “scoffed” instead. As
verse-chorus-verse structure and a handful of ear- wnter Michael Azerrad has pointed out, it’s quite
grabbing tricks. But, when he was feeling more possible that the song was most directly targeted at
charitable toward his talents, he demonstrated a great Cobain’s parents — a kind of final blast of recrimination
deal of pride in his ability to write well-built tunes with before Cobain and the band moved physically,
unstoppable hooks. One of the instrumental hooks of economically and psychologically far from Aberdeen.
_ ‘Negative Creep’ — one of its best “tricks” —- comes from The song is one of Bleach’s more confrontational
the sudden rhythmic stops in the verses, which are filled tracks. The singer is aware of how he is seen by the
by a squirrelly guitar note and a throaty Cobain cry. He targets of the song - as a problem child who’s “not
would use the same kind of stops, guitar notes and cries worth” the trouble he causes. But Cobain, with some
at the end of the chorus of the band’s biggest single, rare un-ironic self-confidence, lets it be known that he
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ doesn't consider himself lazy and insists that his life
story isn’t over, despite the dim expectations others
have for him. His response to the lack
of support he’s received is to demand
his alcohol. Presumably, if his
parents - or parental
figures of some sort -
have already written
him off, they don’t have
much right to withhold
something that does
offer some comfort.

=
Happy and as yet uncom-
plicated: the days
between Bleach and
Nevermind.
 eager bargain-hunters.
While some might view the swap meet as
an indication of small town community values,
Cobain saw instead a sad and ugly spectacle in
which people of little means tried to get by,
selling off their junk to people of similarly
reduced means.
A particularly odd product of the swap meets,
in Cobain’s eyes, was the creation of an underclass
of “professional” swap-meeters, who would travel
from town to town to hawk whatever nearly
worthless goods they had to offer. Those are the
kind of folk he had in mind when creating the
characters who drift from meet to meet and meal
to meal in the song.
The “he” and
a“
“she”
a”
of the song are clearly
distasteful characters to Cobain, but the song
doesn’t come across solely as a snicker at their
expense. The singer seems not to be without some
sympathy for these pathetic souls when describing
their hard lives, especially when he takes time to tell
us that each of them keeps some cherished
possessions close to their hearts - for him it’s
cigarettes, for her it’s photographs, and for both of
them it’s a lump of unrelenting bitterness.
The standard arts and crafts fare of the swap
meet was captured in the song with a reference to
bric-a-brac knocked together out of seashells,
Life in the slow driftwood and burlap.
lane - Nirvana
eats up (with post- This kind of handicraft was used again by the
Bleach drummer
Dan Peters, in cap). hile, in ‘Floyd the Barber’, Cobain band to more humorous effect in their first press
The biggest local
attraction in
gleefully sketched out some biography for Geffen Records, which was released
Aberdeen, swap smalltown characters whose small with Nevermind. In the biography, Cobain is
meets, became
a running joke minds contained murderous impulses, the pair of described as a “sawblade painter” who specializes in
between Cobain
and Novoselic. small-towners he depicted in ‘Swap Meet’ were hardly wildlife and. landscapes, and is said to have met
Cobain turned two
sad vendors into a threat. The song takes a harsh look at a couple of Novoselic at “the Grays Harbor Institute of
the subjects of unremarkable losers - a man and woman who are Northwest Crafts.”
‘Swap Meet.
eking out a gray living as junk-sellers, unable ever to Novoselic is described as the one with the
express the feelings they have for each other. passion for “gluing seashells and driftwood on
The song took its name from a kind of grass- burlap” and, in describing how he developed an
roots entrepreneurship that Cobain witnessed often artistic chemistry with Cobain, is quoted as saying:
in Aberdeen. The swap meet - like the flea market or “T liked what Kurt was doing. I asked him what
yard sale —- was a way for individuals to make a little his thoughts were on a macaroni mobile I was
money by selling cast-offs, knick-knacks, home-made working on. He suggested I glue glitter on it. That
foods, arts and crafts and unwanted miscellany to really made it!”
 Beware furry faces; for
Cobain the symbol of
dumb, swaggering
machismo.

ustache speaker's identity obvious or telling much of a story.

What is clear is that, to Cobain, the moustache was
a symbol of the kind of brain-deadened machismo he’d
r. Moustache isn’t described in the come to hate in schoolmates and townfolks. This hate
song that bears his name - he is either wasn't born merely of principle - Cobain had suffered
speaking the lyrics or is on the several schoolyard beatings at the hands of the jock
receiving end of them. It isn’t clear, or perhaps even element in his school because he was presumed to be a
important, whether Cobain, posing as a typical Mr. “faggot.” At one point he took to answering gay-baiting
Moustache, is sneeringly asking some addle-brained taunts by insisting that he was, in fact, gay - and
hippie types for enlightenment, or whether Cobain is almost hoped that the claim proved true, as it would
sarcastically asking some moustachioed macho man for mean he was truly different from those he despised. But
tips on more manly living. The ripping, metallic riffs and he was not, and eventually simply avoided as best he
the impressionistic punches of lyrics about beef-eating could the Mr. Moustaches of his school.
(“Yes, I eat cow”), constipation (“Poop as hard as Cobain’s vision of Mr. Moustache was made explicit
rock”) and ill will (“I don’t like you anyway”) set the in a cartoon he inked into a notebook at about the same
mood of menace and mistrust without making the time he wrote the song. Mr. Moustache lives in an
anti-facial hair
scream with

‘ rant about notes

child had better
not turn out to be a gir

In ae final
Utecet
ad s pes for
at ‘ok
mna’s a
lyand-- vith
L
sic en qo
aH
per

playeda pivotal
5 gett. *et hao se
JO) f at the S|howbox WW
| or
 Siftin S Yyre3
of such “underground” authors as William Burroughs and
Charles Bukowski (“Bukowski, Beckett, anyone with a
he lyrics for ‘Sifting’ were pulled together as the “‘B” “he joked of his reading tastes). Burroughs’s work,
Bleach sessions were commencing and, with in particular, may have opened Cobain’s mind to the
Cobain tired, stressed and not at the top of his idea that simple words and phrases could become
word-game, were not intended to convey a great deal of fascinating when used unconventionally. Cobain took a
meaning. But, as was usually the case with Cobain, he step towards bending language to suit his own whims
managed to find a few words that carried power beyond with ‘Sifting. Cobain’s politics were
never made explicit in his
their specific references. At its most heated, the song is lyrics — he didn’t write
protest songs. But in
an effective kiss-off to the kind of authority figures who works like ‘Sifting’ he
had been of little use or help to Cobain — teachers and presented himself as an
angry victim of a variety
preachers. In ‘Sifting’, these characters seem to look of authority figures.

deep into the singer's eyes, and then admit that they —~

have nothing to offer him. The emphasis on “eyes” may

have come from some real encounters
_ with these types — if teachers remembered
nothing else about Cobain as a kid, they
tended to remember his blazing blue eyes.
The rest of the song doesn’t offer
much in the way of a coherent message,
but it does demonstrate what would
become a trademark of Cobain’s lyrics -
his sense of playfulness with words. In
school settings Cobain
Was never a_e top
student, but he was a
voracious reader on his
own terms. He had a
simple love for the
sheer pleasure of rhyme
= “Cross says floss” and
“Search for church”
fave a Dr. Seuss quality
in their simplicity. Furthermore, while Cobain was
obviously more concerned with getting a punk band
loff the ground than in indulging in literary
|experiments, he had already become a devoted reader
.
iq
 his song was originally
released as the B-side to
the ‘Love Buzz’ single in
November 1988. It had been
recorded by Jack Endino in the
same June 11, 1988, session that
yielded ‘Love Buzz, a song
called ‘Blandest’ and a second
version of ‘Spank Thru’, which
would later appear on the seminal
Sup Pop 200 collection. While the
song comes across as a kind of standard-
issue anti-authority rant, with Cobain
complaining about being sent to “the
office” by the titular cheese, that cheese
was in fact a real person - Jonathan
Poneman of Sub Pop records.
Workingman’s blues: Even
in the world of punk rock Ohio-born Poneman was working as a disc
records, there was a hier-
jockey and a promoter of local shows in
archy of the workplace.
Cobain wrote ‘Big Cheese’ Seattle when he was introduced, by
as a sneering tribute to
the band’s new “boss,” Soundgarden-guitarist Kim Thayil, to one
Jonathan Poneman of
Sub Pop. Bruce Pavitt, a one-time student at
Evergreen State College in Olympia and self-
made publisher of an underground music
fanzine entitled Sub Pop. The two hit it off, decided to
team their talents behind a small record label Pavitt
had just begun, and were soon putting out such
seminal “Seattle Sound” recordings as Soundgarden’s
1988 ‘Screaming Life’ EP on the Sub Pop record label.
Pavitt and Poneman envisioned a label that would
have an identifiable Northwest look, sound and style -
somewhat akin to the way Berry Gordy had organized
and directed the artists on the Motown label in Detroit,

cheese
or the way that the Stax label had
perfectly captured the mid-60’s
musical vibe of Memphis. The pair
heard a fresh, regional sound in
the jolting mix of punk energy and
metal bombast offered by Seattle
 bands such as Green River (members of which would go was rankled enough - and amused enough - to work out
on to form Pearl Jam and Mudhoney). And the music the mix of gratitude and resentment he felt toward
came with a natural, home-grown look and spirit —- the Poneman in a song.
flannel-shirted, work-booted populism of disaffected, ‘Blandest’ was intended to be the ‘Love Buzz’ B-side,
working class kids. In its grainy, unglamorous band but at the insistence of Endino, the band and Poneman
photos, self-deprecating press releases and in its fierce, agreed to go with the more striking ‘Big Cheese’ instead.

YyIes
guitar-driven music, Sub Pop indeed began to capture After the initial June recording session, the song was
and redefine the image of the Seattle music scene. punched up in a second session, and was mixed in mid-
Poneman was always on the lookout for new, July. But, in true big-cheese fashion, Poneman made it
exciting bands that he could bring into the Sub Pop clear that he wasn’t happy with the vocals, and asked
fold, and rumor of a trio of unschooled, un-pretty kids Cobain to re-record them. The re-recorded version is
from Aberdeen who were capable of pop hooks and what Sub Pop released in November.
metallic roar naturally caught his interest. He loved the “T was expressing all the pressures that I felt from
music they made as soon as he heard it - Jack Endino him at the time because he was being so judgmental
passed a copy of the demo that Kurt and Krist had about what we were recording,” Cobain told Michael
recorded with Dale Crover in January at Reciprocal, and Azerrad in Come As You Are.

Poneman was taken with the power of tracks such as Before recording
with Sub Pop,
‘Floyd the Barber’ and ‘Downer. Poneman and Pavitt Cobain knew the
both had day jobs at Muzak - the music corporation label through its
release of a
responsible for most of the tinkling, neutered versions favorite record -
Soungarden’s 1988
of pop songs played in elevators and grocery stores - ‘Screaming Life’ EP.
Nirvana recorded
and Poneman brought the tape in to play for his partner. with Jack Endino
at Reciprocal
Pavitt wasn’t so enthusiastic, but Poneman stayed Recording because
interested enough to set up a meeting with Cobain and they liked the
sound Soundgarden
“Novoselic at the Cafe Roma coffeehouse on had gotten there.

| Broadway in Seattle. Despite Kurt’s lack of desire

to talk much, and Krist’s drunkenness, Poneman
managed to get them interested in recording a
single for Sub Pop.
Cobain and Novoselic were in fact quite
excited about actually recording their songs and
getting a single out, but Cobain quickly realized
that even in the free-thinking world of
underground music, there were bosses who
needed to be answered to. While the band had been
continuing to explore some noisy, art-punk, Melvins-
ish song structures, the Sub Pop sound that
Poneman and Pavitt wanted to push forward was a
more stream-lined rock n’ roll sound, built on
straight-ahead rhythms and driving guitar. So,
almost immediately, Cobain was taking direction
from a record label, and rather than having his first
single be a weirder, personal favorite like ‘Hairspray
Queen’, he was convinced by Poneman to go with the
catchier - and more marketable - ‘Love Buzz. Cobain
As ‘Downer’ indicates,
getting stoned didn’t stop
Cobain from feeling glum.

tunes to come and more like a track inspired by the mid-

és owner’ was included on Bleach when

80s Chicago sound of Steve Albini’s Big Black. ‘Downer’
also stands out among the Bleach tracks as being the
the album - originally only available song with the longest history.
on vinyl - was re-released on CD after Cobain had become friendly with a classmate in
the wild success of Nevermind. The same track also Aberdeen who also spent a good deal of time at the
turned up as one of the collection of demos, rarities and high school smokers’ shed - Dale Crover. Crover was
B-sides featured on Incesticide. recognized as one of the better drummers in the area,
Lyrically, the song is a fairly typical growled-out and had jammed with most of the guitarists in town,
hunk of Cobain dismay, but musically it’s repetitive, including Krist Novoselic’s brother, Robert. Krist told
jackhammer beat and the leap from softly-spoken verses Buzz Osborne about Crover when Osborne was looking
to yelled choruses sounds less like a presage of Nirvana for a hard-hitting drummer who could play with punk

_ downer
speed, and Crover soon not only
became a Melvin but turned a room
at his parents’ house into the
Melvins’ rehearsal space. One of —
those who began dropping in
regularly to check out the
 aan E ~~
point of hounding the bassist, and freque
that they should try ting a band toc A = u Ps

: . a ; , les
while Novoselic didn’ 1C ularly intere: ed.
2 bl r ae * oe
ig daa
da _ Finally, when Krist made a poi
he t he
epaiage
istening to what
isteni to
thought he heard something worth
g whe
So
_ play bass, brought pursuing and quickly let Cobain know that, yes indeed,
and began ld startmaking somemusic together.

Aa -
Matter. They recorded seven
A ;
songs, which were built mainly
on loud, fast, semi-metallic

fe
ae
*§
at

oe
nevermind
Notes from the underground The amazing thing was, the audience sang along.
Nevermind, like most other ground-shaking rock
albums before it, was both a work of forward vision and
packed into a beautiful clamor — sturdy tradition. Sgt Pepper succeeded as a work of
cutting-edge, artsy ambition, but its music consistently

Nirvana’s masterwork was a

harkened back to the broad entertainment values of the
music hall. Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols
rang out as punk’s most anarchic salvo, but on closer

revolutionary blend of pop, inspection what made the record great, and what has
made it last, was that the Pistols simply wrote great,
unabashed rock n’ roll songs - as much a product of Chuck

punk rage, art and rock n’ roll. Berry as the London scene of 1976. Similarly, while
Nevermind undoubtedly swept up its listeners with an
energy that was daring and fresh, the songs themselves
were simply wonderfully executed lessons in popcraft -
irvana followed up the modest sturm und the same kind of popcraft that worked for such pop
drang of Bleach with the most radical action masters as the Raspberries, the Turtles or Cheap Trick.
a punk-inspired band could take - they Cobain himself would frequently point out that he
created a pop masterpiece, sold millions of records and didn’t consider himself to be the first song writer to
changed the course of rock n’ roll. Not bad for a band pump up punk noise with a heart of pop - he cited the
from Aberdeen. Pixies’s Surfer Rosa as an album that had a particular
Nevermind harnessed all the grungy, punky power influence on his writing for Nevermind; and also paid
the band had aspired to, and were capable of - the due tribute to acts such as Hiisker Di and the Meat
bass parts throbbed, the guitars roared and the drum Puppets. But, to give Cobain his due, never before had
parts rumbled with almost super-human thunder. But such extremes been so brilliantly combined. Never
what immediately jumped out of Nevermind, and before had a band been able to be simultaneously as
resolutely grabbed hold of the listener's head, was the loud and as light, as pop and as punk, as Nirvana. The
songs. These were, beyond the distortion units and humble band from Aberdeen had produced a thoroughly
haggardly screamed vocals, perfectly crafted, compelling work - Nevermind’s sweet screams vented
quintessentially catchy pop-tune constructions. deep alienation at the same time as they offered an
Cobain’s songs satisfied all the guilty pleasures of irresistible invitation. The underground was startled;
hook-filled Top-40 tracks of the 1970s, but what was the mainstream was rapt; and the rules of the rock n’
there for any listener to feel guilty about? These songs roll marketplace changed overnight. Michael Jackson
weren't built-for-market confections. They raged with was out, Nirvana was in.
honest intensity and shined a light into the ugly But before Nirvana could turn the pop world upside
psychic corners of the song writer and the audience. down, there were several changes that took place in

|
 from a Washington D.C. hardcore band called Scream. It seems almost comical now that when Geffen

He was exactly the kind of sharp, musical, tremendously Records first released Nevermind, in September of 1991,
hard-hitting drummer they’d always wanted to work it was with a pressing of less than 50,000 records. A
with — and the chemistry was right. Grohl was in, and month later, the record debuted on the Billboard charts
the Nirvana of Nevermind and beyond was set to roll. at number 144. The band continued to tour non-stop
While Nirvana remained appreciative of the initial and soon radio and MTV had picked up on the album’s
breaks they had received from Bruce Pavitt and single, ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit. By the first week of
Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop, they were growing November, the album was in the Top 40. Weeks later it

frustrated with the fact that the label’s lack of resources cracked the Top 10, and by Christmas of that year
was making it hard for them to get their music to the almost 400,000 copies a week of Nevermind were being
public. Distribution was poor - Bleach was still hard, to sold. Nirvana took Michael Jackson’s place and
find; and the label could offer only minimal support became the owners of the number one album spot on
while the band was on tour. When, in 1990, some of Sub the U.S. pop charts.
Pop’s overly ambitious distribution deals began to Those who bought Nevermind not only gota full dose
fail, the band decided that. - punk. credibility of Nirvana, they also got a good look at five-month-old
notwithstanding - they could shop around for a decent Spencer Elden, the submerged, naked infant swimming
deal from a major label. after a hooked dollar bill on Nevermind’s now famous
Using the Smart Studios demos as a teaser, the band cover. (Despite some record company nervousness, the
and, somewhat inadvertently, Sub Pop had managed to
create a considerable Nirvana buzz among major labels.
Throughout the winter of 1990-91, the scruffy trio were
wined and dined by various A&R men and label honchos.
In April 1991, the band decided to follow the example
of punk-heroes (and Nirvana boosters) Sonic Youth by
signing with Geffen records.
Through May and June 1991, the band worked at
Sound City studios, located just north of Los Angeles in
suburban Van Nuys, California. The band put in a lot of
10- and 12-hour days over six weeks, working again
with Vig. When tracks were finished, they were mixed by
Andy Wallace, who was a hot name at the time thanks to
his work on Slayer’s album Seasons in the Abyss. Though

Unlike the infant on Vig himself helped encourage Cobain to embrace a kind
their album's cover, of subversive pop approach in his writing and in-studio
Nirvana kept their
pants on for the performances, it was Wallace’s mixes that gave the
first Nevermind
publicity photos. tunes a definitive pop sheen.
During those sessions, Cobain became re-acquainted band insisted that Spencer's penis not be airbrushed
with a woman who would come to play a large role in away.) The CD booklet included some randomly selected
his life - Courtney Love. He had met her previously at a lines of Nevermind lyrics cut together into a poem. The
Nirvana show in Portland, and met her again through credits listed the bass player as Chris Novoselic - he
her connections with Dave Grohl - she was a friend of would not reclaim his given name of Krist until 1993’ ;
L7-bassist Jennifer Finch, who was an ex-girlfriend of In Utero, But the band’s guitarist, vocalist and son g
Grohl's. Romance did not blossom immediately, but writer, returned to the spelling of his name as —
Cobain and Love both acknowledged the stirrings of appeared on his birth certificate. The fellow listed a:
some deep feelings between them. Kurdt Kobain on Bleach, was now known as Kurt Cobain
 indulge one of their frequent recreational bents - a
evermind’s phenomenal first single (backed graffiti spree. After marking up some Olympia
with ‘Drain You’) was released just prior to establishments with such incitements as “God is Gay,”
the album, in August 1991. The song was they returned to Cobain’s apartment, where Hanna
the perfect archetype of the Nirvana sound and the marked up a wall with the sentence “Kurt smells like
Cobain song. It had amazing lurches in dynamics, Teen Spirit.” Cobain took it as a compliment, thinking it
moving back and forth between gentle strums and was Hanna’s interesting way of saying he still had the
monstrous thrashing. It also had a remarkably catchy rebellious edge of an angry kid.
melody that sounded both sunny and sad, and it was But Hanna was actually putting some arch humor to
full of lyrics that nobody could make any sense out of. use é “Teen Spirit” was actually the rather insipid,

UDU
AS
While the songs on Nevermind wouldn't offer much niche-marketed brand name of an underarm deodorant
more explicit, easily grasped meaning than those of for young women put out by the Mennen company. It
wasn’t until after Cobain had written, recorded, and
released the song that he realized a trendy anti-
perspirant had provided the title for his tune.
Musically, the song also had a specific moment of
conception:
“We'd been practicing [with Grohl] for about three
months,” Cobain told David Fricke of Rolling Stone

smells
Bleach, Cobain’s lyrics were now one with his voice — his
like —
teen
_ despondency, wrath, rage, disgust and humor all came
' through perfectly clearly, no matter how inscrutable his
;
iactual words were.
As it turned out, while Nevermind’s most popular
j ‘track was a typically murky Cobain exploration of

Spin Le
/ “meaning and meaninglessness, it had come to him by
way of a very specific inspiration - namely, a deodorant.
hile Cobain was living on North Pear Street in
lympia, he had gone out one night with his friend
Kathleen Hanna from the band Bikini Kill, a group that
would become a pivotal force in the punk-feminist “Riot
Grrl” movement of Olympia and Seattle. They decided to
 magazine in a January 1994 interview. Again, while Cobain’s lyrics were terrifically
“We were waiting to sign to DGC, and Dave and I evocative, they didn’t necessarily stand up to a deep
were living in Olympia and Krist was living in Tacoma. reading. But ‘Teen Spirit’ does seem to work as a glum
We were driving up to Tacoma every night for practice, study of what it feels like to be a reluctant part of an ugly
trying to write songs. I was trying to write the group. The high-spirited energy of the music plays
uthiete pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the against the dementedly downcast words, beginning with
Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for Cobain’s encouragement for some would-be revellers to
the first time, I connected with that band so heavily “Load up on guns.” The chorus seems to list what it takes
I should have been in that band — or at least in a Pixies to make for a spinted teen encounter: mulattos, albinos,
cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being a mosquito and Cobain’s libido.
soft and quiet and then loud and hard. One of the lines that did clearly stand out, “Here we
“Teen Spint’ was such a clichéd nff. It was so close are now, entertain us,” had a history as a Cobain entrance
to a Boston riff or ‘Louie Louie. When I came up with the line. “That came from something I used to say every time
guitar part, Krist looked at me and said, ‘That is so I used to walk into a party to break the ice,” Cobain told
ridiculous. I made the band play it for an hour and a Fricke. “A lot of times when you're standing around with
half.” people in a room, it’s really boring and uncomfortable. So
The proximity of the chord changes in ‘Teen Spint’ it was, ‘Well, here we are, entertain us. You invited us
to those of the 1976 Boston hit ‘More Than A Feeling’ here.”
was remarked on frequently when the song was released. Life gradually imitated art in a painful way for
But, as would be the case again and again, knowing Cobain. As Nirvana became more and more popular and
where Cobain might have borrowed from didn’t diminish more fans began to embrace the cynical ‘Teen Spirit’ with
the inspired power of the track. Also much remarked upon energetically earnest teen spint of their own, the song
was the perceived incoherence of the lyrics. The song was became more of a burden for him.
generally heard as an ironic rallying cry for thoroughly At some of Nirvana’s final concerts, the band would
disaffected youth - an interpretation encouraged by the pointedly leave the big hit that the screaming teens
nightmarish high school pep rally depicted in the song’s were clamoring for off their set list.
video. But even fans immediately grabbed by the song
had trouble figuring out what exactly was being said.

Despite the fan’s

appeals, ‘Teen Spirit’
was often omitted from
the band’s final shows.
 “Three fine youngsters from
Seattle” - the video for ‘In
Bloom’ saw the band poking
fun at their sullen image.

engender mass sing-alongs. It

managed to satisfy egghead
ironists and blithe moshers
with the same chorus.
The gun imagery from ‘In
Bloom’ and other Nevermind
songs was no great stretch of

UDU
Aa
imagination for Cobain, who had grown up surrounded by
gun owners in Aberdeen. In fact, Cobain wasn’t aware he
n one of three Nevermind songs to feature guns had used guns so prominently until he started to be
prominently in the lyrics, Cobain painted a questioned about it by interviewers after the release of
thumbnail sketch of a character whose life consists Nevermind. Guns had in fact already played a tragic part
of bad parenting and blissfully stupid rock n’ roll in the Cobain family history. One of Kurt’s great-uncles
escapism. Drawing on visions of some of the rock-loving, had died after shooting himself in the stomach in 1979,
perpetually-stoned losers he'd grown up around in and another family member had killed himself
in a similar
Aberdeen, Cobain describes a guy who's a bit past his fashion five years later.
“teen spirit” prime — he’s now got some kids that he’s In the studio, ‘In Bloom’ gave Dave Grohl a chance to

in bloo
hoping to “sell for food,” which is
no cause for heartache because,
as he tells his companion, “we
can have some more.”
The character lives for the
moments when he’s swept away
by a “pretty song” to which he'll
sing-along. Maybe he'll even get
happy enough to fire off his guns. The happiness isn’t too shine apart from his thunderous drum work — he sang the
deep though - the guy has no conception of what he’s achingly high harmonies that power the choruses.
singing along to, and no self-awareness. In biblical The song took on a life apart from Nevermind when
syntax, he knows not what it means. the band, with director Kevin Kerslake, came up with a
At the time Cobain wrote ‘In Bloom’, the kind of particularly inspired video concept to accompany the
dumb rock fans he had in mind were still a bit of an track. Parodying early rock-on-TV programs such as
oddity at Nirvana shows. But from the start he and the Hullabaloo, the band performed with awkwardly slicked-
band had sometimes been approached by “rocker dudes” back hair and matching suits, achieving a properly-dated,
who liked Nirvana's loud catchy stuff without knowing, or grainy look by being filmed through old-fashioned
caring, at all about what the music was trying to get at Kinescopes. Cobain enjoyed the humorous irony of having
on any level other than one of rockin’ out. But the song the band introduced in the video by a preening host
-
proved to be troublingly prophetic - by the time Nirvana (Doug Llewellyn of TV's The People’s Court) who describes
was at the top of the charts, millions of people were them as, “nice, decent, clean-cut young men.”
coming to Nirvana shows to sing along while knowing not The video shoot also had an effect on Nirvana fashion
_ what it meant. The beauty of ‘In Bloom’ was that while it — Cobain liked the thick horn-rim glasses he wore while
was a sly and satisfying condemnation of this kind of shooting the video so much that he kept them on for
_ fandom, it was also an exciting enough rock tune to several months afterward.
 youa be as vindictive
group when he made his way into the punk
rock world, but

and exclusive
as Nirvana became
thriving entity on the Seattle scene, Cobain
came to see that even “cool” scenes could
as the bunches
a

of
Aberdeen toughs who simply beat up weaker kids. He
;
fter the amazing mix of sharp guitar/drums first railed against this kind of in-crowd small- ;
onslaught and pure pop rush of ‘Teen Spint’ mindedness on Bleach’'s ‘School’
and ‘In Bloom’, Nevermind abruptly shifted As he wrote for Nevermind, it occurred to Cobain
gears to the chilly feel and seemingly sub-aquatic guitar that he was now in enough of a position of power, of
parts of ‘Come As You Are’. The relaxed, almost graceful “coolness,” to be the one welcoming others into his
vibe of the music perfectly matches what was a unique own group. So, ‘Come As You Are’ sings out as an
and radical departure in the message of Cobain’s lyrics. open, somewhat melancholy invitation to misfits
Instead of giving voice to outrage, indignation, disgust everywhere. He also makes a point of assuring those
or self-loathing, the singer had decided to write a song he’s addressing that he shouldn't be seen as a threat -
of acceptance and invitation. in this song, he doesn’t “have a gun.” The song also
Cobain was acutely aware of social dynamics made passing reference to the substance that had
wherein a group sustains itself by making those outside given the first album its title, when invitees are asked
the group objects of scorn and ridicule - he’d grown up to come regardless of being covered in mud or
feeling he was one of those excluded, ridiculed, misfit “soaked in bleach.”

&
kids. But he felt that somewhere out there - in a better This was one of several songs that had not been
place where people listened to better records - there written when Vig met the band to record the Smart
was a group he could fit into. He hoped he’d found that Studios demos. The first time the producer heard it
 European tour when they traveled in very close quarters
On an album full of
psychopaths, infections and
with Sub Pop labelmates, TAD.
pissings, ‘Come As You Are’ As they were getting their young label off the
was an open invitation to
wallow along with the band. ground, co-owners Poneman and Pavitt of Sub Pop were
wise to a truism of promotion - certain types of English
and American bands always did better in their home
countries after they had appeared in the press across
the Atlantic. American acts, from Jimi Hendrix to the
Ramones, had only been able to work up a major buzz
at home after they'd performed across the sea, and the

UDUI
Ad
same had held for acts such as Britain’s Police. Knowing
that some rave reviews in the British press would give
the Seattle scene a major jump start in the American
was shortly before the Nevermind sessions press, Sub Pop invited some British journalists,
began - it had been recorded crudely by the including Everett True of Melody Maker, to check out the
band on a boombox. budding Northwest scene in 1989. The strategy paid off
The video for ‘Come As You Are’ is notable — the desired reviews appeared in the UK, and suddenly
in that it played on Nevermind’s central visual Kurt Cobain and a few other Seattlites were figures of
image - the submerged infant from the international punk renown.
album’s cover. The song also brought the band The British attention made the booking of a
another round of legal hassles (following European tour logical, and, in October 1989, Nirvana
_ those surrounding the use of the name Nirvana). The and TAD set about taking Europe by van. The bands
band Killing Joke sued Nirvana, claiming that the were excited, but good times were occasionally dimmed
central riff from ‘Come As You Are’ copied the central by the lack of elbow room in that van. Considering that
riff from their song ‘Eighties. Unlike the suits Nirvana’s bassist was the 6’7” Novoselic, and that Tad
involving the band’s name, this one didn’t cost them was fronted by the three hundred pound-plus TAD Doyle
much -— Killing Joke lost the case. — it’s not surprising that space in a modest Fiat van was
at a premium. To complicate matters further, the hefty
Doyle began suffering from terrible
gastrointestinal problems, unable to
get through a day without bouts
of vomiting and/or diarrhea. The
medicine he took to try to calm his
perturbed guts was Imodium, which
Cobain soon appropnated as a song
title to go with a_ particularly
powerful riff he’d come up with.
‘Imodium’ was one of the seven songs recorded by
urtling forward like an out-of-control big Butch Vig at the Smart Studios demo sessions in April
rig, ‘Breed’ gives Nevermind its finest 1990. Musically, it was already very close to the form it
moments of sheer, hair-tossing, riff-metal would take on Nevermind, but by the time the band got
, pleasure. The lyrics find Cobain growling about apathy, into its Sound City sessions a year later the anti-
d alienation, and lust gone flaccid, but the song had its diarrhea agent had given way to ‘Breed’, and the lyrics
_ genesis in a prescription drug. It was originally titled had tightened into the song’s minimal statements of
“Imodium’, and was written during Nirvana’s first boredom and dismay.
 balances out the tremendous mood swings of manic
depression, but can also reduce a patient to a state of
fuzzy-headed neutrality. Cobain used the drug in
his song title as a substitute for Karl Marx’s old
credo about religion being the opiate of the
masses. In the era of cartoonishly soothing
televangelists, Cobain felt that religion had more
appropriately become the lithium of the masses.
There is at least a scrap or two of
autobiography behind the writing of

UDUI
‘Lithium’ Cobain’s parents, Don and
Wendy, divorced in 1976 when Kurt
was nine years old, and from that
time on he never had a_ very
stable home life. Though his mother
received legal custody of Kurt, for
the next several years he was
shuttled back and forth between
his parents. As the respective
relationships between mother and
son and father and son grew frayed

& ithium’ is Cobain’s examination of the

effects of organized religion on an
unstable mind. There’s nothing novel in
the idea of a rock band taking on religion in a song -
witness the Damned’s ‘Anti-Pope’ - in fact, the punk
screed against religious hypocrisy has become almost a and difficult, young Cobain looked for other homes to
cliché. What makes ‘Lithium’ so potent is Cobain’s take refuge in. At the beginning of 1985, Kurt was on
decision to work from inside — to sing as the person particularly bad terms with his mother - who was
who's turning to God in order to help save a messed-up remarried and pregnant - and his father, who was
life and soothe a messed-up head. The first-person bitterly disappointed that Kurt had not only failed in
lyrics introduce us to a character who is troubled, very high school, but had also shown no interest in a
_ nearly insane and sustained only by a faith in God, but career in the U.S. Navy.
Cobain’s lyrics - far from being a scathing indictment - Cobain moved in briefly with the family of a
are vaguely sympathetic. The fact that a song about friend called Jesse Reed. The Reeds, though not
God and madness is built on one of the sweetest especially delighted with their son’s choice of
melodies of the whole album makes it doubly effective. | companion, provided Kurt with food and shelter for a
As for the title, the substance lithium is a naturally month, requesting only that their house-guest respect
_ occurring element, which turns up in combination with their religious beliefs - they were both born-again
_ Other substances to form a simple salt. Synthetic Christians. From those few weeks of having an inside
4 lithium has been widely prescribed as a treatment for look at a working-class, fundamentalist Christian
|
q
manic-depressive disorders, though its precise action household, Cobain drew inspiration for the odd

t
on the brain is still not understood. It effectively character who sings ‘Lithium’.
J
j
 ~

c ~

ae
ai
 polly
DUIL
AU
several transformations, sometimes sung starkly as a
mostly acoustic song, sometimes bashed out in electric
obain didn’t often form. Cobain winnowed down his lyrical ideas until he
pluck song ideas finally captured the impressionistic, but nonetheless
wholesale from the harrowing, confessional from the rapist’s point of view,
newspapers he read, but which is what makes ‘Polly’ such a stand out song. It
occasionally a story moved was recorded during sessions for the ‘Blew’ EP, and at
him enough that he the Smart Studios demo sessions. It was the Smart
answered it with a song. version, gently strummed on a beaten up acoustic
Such was the case with the guitar, that the band, and producer Vig, felt fully
true-life child abuse scenario captured the horror of the crime in a frightening and
he had transformed into the movingly understated fashion. That demo track was
troubling ‘Paper Cuts’, and it simply re-mixed for Nevermind to retain its stark power,
was also the case with ‘Polly’. in contrast to the pop luster of the rest of the album.
In 1987, Seattle papers In the mad tumble of Nirvana concerts, ‘Polly’ was
followed the awful story of a frequently a show-stopping moment of chilling quiet.
local crime: a young girl had The song’s subdued intensity was such that when no
been abducted at gunpoint less a song writer than Bob Dylan had the opportunity
by a man named Gerald to see the band perform in New York, it was ‘Polly’ that
Friend after she attended a led him to describe Nirvana as a band with “guts” and
punk-rock show at the to say of Cobain, “the kid has heart.”
Community World Theater in The song came hideously full circle when, in 1991,
Tacoma. She was taken to the trailer Friend a pair of thugs raped a young girl while singing ‘Polly’.
lived in, where he bound her up, raped her Cobain addressed that incident in the liner notes to
repeatedly and tortured her with whips, Incesticide, in which he referred to the two rapists as,
razors and a blowtorch. “two wastes of sperm and eggs.” He went on to say;
She was finally able to escape when he “T have a hard time carrying on knowing there are
took her out in his car to run some errands. plankton like that in our audience. Sorry to be so anally
Friend was subsequently arrested and P.C., but that’s the way I feel.”
convicted, and remains in prison. Interestingly enough the band did not look upon
Cobain wanted to capture the horror of this this brutal incident as a reason to jettison ‘Polly’
;incident in a song, but the very real horror behind the from performances. Instead, Cobain reclaimed the tune,
3 story made it difficult for him to feel completely and continued to include it in concerts - its doubled
=

; comfortable with it. ‘Polly’ was first developed along real-life inspirations making it an even more starkly
_with Bleach-era material, and the song went through affecting work.
 recorded in one hyper-kinetic, over-the-top take.
he most straightforwardly “punk” track on Actually, a “take two” would have been impossible —- as
Nevermind, ‘Territorial Pissings’ takes a swipe, one can hear on Nevermind, Cobain’s voice gives out
with its title, at scenester cliquishness and before the track is over.
displays of rock n’ roll machismo. Lyrically, the three- The song also gave Novoselic his only
chord thrasher charges into slightly different territory, showcase as a Nirvana vocalist. As the tape was
offering up some of Cobain’s fortune cookie-sized takes rolling, he was asked to sing something to
on life in general. The song-offers some truisms on introduce the track. He tore into a hearty, off-key
paranoia and feminine wisdom along with screams chorus from the Youngbloods’ 1967 single ‘Get
begging for an escape into a better future. Together. The song, written by Dino Valente of
One bit of lyric that had some personal resonance Quicksilver Messenger Service, had been a pop hit
for Cobain was the opening line, in which he thought when it was re-released by the Youngbloods on
back to when he was an “alien.” In Michael Azerrad’s the heels of their Elephant Mountain album. It
Come As You Are, Cobain explained to the writer where was also familiar to children of the 1970s,
the extraterrestrial image came from - Cobain when it. was appropriated for use in
constantly fantasized as a child that he was a creature public service __ television _ spots
from another planet. “I wanted to be from another promoting goodwill and neighborliness.
planet really bad,” he explained. “Every night I used to Novoselic’s heightened delivery of the
talk to my real parents and my real family in the skies. I song’s peace-and-love sentiments is
knew that there were thousands of other alien babies clearly meant to be a comic aside, but
dropped off and they were all over and I’d met quite a he later admitted he meant the 1960s
few of them.” Several psychological texts refer to this band no ill will.
fantasy as a very common one among sensitive or highly “Tt just kind of happened. I wanted
intelligent children who find themselves in adverse, to put some kind of corny hippie idealism
non-supportive circumstances. in [‘Territorial Pissings’]. But it really
The lyrics of ‘Territorial Pissings’ didn’t need to wasn't that thought into. I like that
cohere much - what moves the song forward is its Youngbloods song.”
implosive energy. Part of the vibe of the finished track ‘Territorial Pissings’ came to serve an
came from a recording technique that Cobain had used important role in Nirvana concerts. The band
back on the Fecal Matter cassette he recorded at his had long enjoyed the pleasure of smashing
aunt’s house in Aberdeen. Instead of plugging his guitar the hell out of their instruments during
into an amp and miking that to record his part, he shows. Here was the perfect, snarling tune to
plugged the guitar - against the wishes of Butch Vig - facilitate the demolition of guitars and drums
directly into the recording console. The song was at the end of a set. The song was also pulled

territorial
out on occasion as a “screw
you” to television producers
and media types who the
band didn’t like. If the band
felt cheated by a television
program they'd agreed to
appear on, they'd — skip

@ pissin &s
whatever “hit” they'd been
asked to play and serve up a
thoroughly contemptuous
‘Territorial Pissings’.
 UDUI

When I was an alien: a longstanding

Cobain fantasy of extraterrestrial
heritage was part of the inspiration
for Territorial Pissings’
 drain you
homes he shared with
Courtney Love were full of
the baby dolls and medical
models that Cobain had
continued to acquire. He
ended up, after all, titling
an album In Utero, wherein a listener couldn’t travel
far at all before skidding through a pool of one
rom a very early age, Kurt was fascinated by the bodily fluid or another. But it was on Nevermind
images of childhood, especially babies, in that he first incorporated his infatuation with
artwork. Many of the paintings and drawings he babies and body function into a song and,
did as a kid depicted babies or baby-like aliens in surprisingly, ended up with a song that was one of
various oddly juxtaposed surroundings. By the time he'd his most tender and oddly romantic.
Cobain had been through a few serious romances by
the time he was writing for Nevermind, and in “Drain
You’ he tried to capture the heady, two-bodies-
becoming-one buzz that exists at the start of any
passionate love affair. This was done by describing a
pair of babies who are lying next to each other and
becoming intimately acquainted with each other — they
pass food back and forth between their mouths in a
delicious — and nutritious — kiss, and generously “drain”
each other of infection. While most of Cobain’s songs
were made up of abstract phrases brought together by
the power of the singer's mood and the band’s music,
here he expertly follows through with the conceit of the
song. The strange babies perfectly illustrate the feelings
of lovers who want to be so close that they are inside
each other, and also the narcissistic feelings of love for
oneself simply because one is in love.
“I think there are so many other songs that I've
written that are as good, if not better, than ‘Teen
Spirit’,” Cobain told Rolling Stone magazine in 1994.
Two babies: drawn left high school and moved into his first apartment in “Like ‘Drain You. That's definitely as good as ‘Teen |
together during the
recording of Aberdeen, his fascination had grown strong enough, Spirit’. I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing
Nevermind, Kurt and macabre enough, that he decorated the place with it.” He then added a final caveat: “Maybe if it was as big
Cobain and Courtney
Love were married bloodied, plastic baby dolls in tiny nooses. He as ‘Teen Spirit’, I wouldn't like it as much.”
shortly after the
album went to eventually took to buying modeling clay, sculpting his Aside from being a lyrical stand-out on Nevermind,
number one.
own baby figures and baking the forms in his oven. ‘Drain You’ also gave a taste of what the band could pull
Later he became even more fascinated with the off as a trio of players - the song’s pounding,
anatomically accurate models of babies, fetuses and crescendoing instrumental break is a musical highlight
body parts that could be bought from medical catalogs of the album. Cobain was unavoidably thrust into the
and surgical supply shops. spotlight as the “face” and “voice” of Nirvana, but
This obsession with the birth process and the bodily ‘Drain You’ is one of those tracks that makes it clear just :
fluids remained with Cobain - the apartments and how powerful Nirvana was as a band.
 Northwest in the early 1990s. Vail was also the drummer
he loping bass line that Novoselic uses to kick with the band Bikini Kill.
off ‘Lounge Act’ doesn’t sound like it’s heralding The energy and passion that Vail and other “Riot
a piece of cocktail jazz, but the band joked that Grrls” brought to their music and beliefs was a key
the tune’s bouncy feeling had the retro-cheese swing of impetus in getting Cobain to take his own music
some mediocre hotel-lounge covers band. So, what seriously enough to make Nirvana a contender on the
began as a lyricless jam was given a smirking title that Seattle scene. Ironically, it was after Nirvana’s
stuck. But by the time Cobain had completed the lyrics breakthrough that the Seattle/Olympia scene became
to the tune, shortly before it was recorded at the Smart energized to the point that Bikini Kill itself, and other
sessions, the words bore little relation to the title. “Riot Grrl” bands, got their music out on their own
When Kurt left Aberdeen to move in with girlfriend records. (Bikini Kill’s self-titled EP, released in 1992 by
Tracy Marander in Olympia, he was just beginning to Olympia’s Kill Rock Stars label, was one of the
come into his own as a writer, musician, and artist — movement's most powerful missives.)
just beginning to realize that some of the aspects of his On Nevermind, ‘Lounge Act’ ends with a bit of
personality that had made him a put-upon misfit up studio playfulness. The band, unable to come up
until then were actually his ticket to a better world. As with an ending they were completely happy with,
he became increasingly ambitious toward his music, he simply slowed down the tape machine to create a
was faced with a personal dilemma. While Marander was groaning de-crescendo.
exceptionally supportive — personally and financially -
of Cobain’s artistic and musical efforts, his compulsion
and dedication to those efforts made it difficult for him

lounge act
to be a “good boyfriend” by any conventional standards.
Without playing on specifics, Cobain looked back at
the feeling of having loyalties split between love and
art in ‘Lounge Act’. Although the song is not without
sympathy for the person the singer is addressing, it rails
against the smothering security of a relationship that is
closing off a couple from the world at large, which one
half of that couple wishes to explore more fully. The
song also makes oblique reference to
those on the Olympia scene whom Cobain
felt had inspired him and validated his
work. The “friend who makes me feel,”
who shows up in the chorus, is probably
Tobi Vail, a girlfriend of
Cobain’s who was a
pivotal presence in the
“Riot Grrl” movement that
took hold in the
Stay away
Though Cobain frequently
downplayed the importance of his
lyrics, he was, in fact, a lover of the
written word who at times worked
very hard on his own creations.
Wherever he slept, there were sure
to be a few spiral notebooks nearby. (It was Cobain’s

& tay Away’ was the Nevermind track

habit to fill pages with lyrics, poems
thoughts before he went to sleep.) Once he’d found a
and random

with the longest history - its basic basic idea, a simple rhyme or even just a title that he

UDU
Aa
riff had been first used by Cobain felt worthy of pursuing, lyrics would often go through
when he recorded material for his Fecal Matter tape. change after change. Many of the songs. on Nevermind
Cobain hung on to the riff, and developed it into a had at one point contained several different potential
full piece of guitar music that he liked, but he put the verses and/or choruses, and would only take final shape
lyrics through some big changes before he felt he had when recording deadlines forced Cobain to become a
the song he was after. serious editor of his own work.
‘Stay Away’ was originally titled ‘Pay to Play’ That title
made reference to an ugly custom that had begun in the
mid-1980s among rock clubs, when glam-metal bands
were the rage. Rather than booking a band and paying
them a flat fee or a percentage of the door, club owners
began charging bands for time on stage. Usually the
system worked by forcing bands to buy a large block of
tickets to their own show at a set price. It was then the
band’s responsibility to sell the tickets - with the
understanding that they needed to mark up the price if
they wished to make a profit. While the world of club-level
economics had never been without injustices, the pay-to-
play system was particularly heinous in that it valued
marketing and name recognition over any musical value.
As the song's lyrics were transformed, they moved
The misfit was now a away from a direct confrontation of the pay-to-play
superstar. The music
was still righteous, issue, but remained a strong condemnation of a
but post-Nevermind misguided rock n’ roll scene. At a time when Guns n’
fame was a heavy
burden on Cobain. Roses and Motley Criie were ostensibly setting the
standards for what rock music should be, Cobain
screamed that he’d rather be “dead than cool.” His
ragged-voiced “stay away”s are commands to the scene
he wants no part of, advice to the unsuspecting listener
and vows of personal resolve. It’s also quite possible
that his reference to “poison skin” is a dig at what he
saw as one of the most grotesque rock n’ roll success
stories of the day — that of LA’s Poison.
The song, in its original ‘Pay to Play’ form, appeared
ona DGC Rarities album that was released in 1994.
 sing-along pop-cra tyand co af sett
slogan a narcissist puld hope for - I k Rayi i aad : ;
attar than \ you. But f
fo all the e ident : ft and the Bt in se é
severals andouttu
tu . eos
~asong aren m
ee -

3 ooh pune = asong

about tying
song. Cobain begins the song py t
he'll sttart off without any words
we ' aeeaking the plain truth. Benth
Often, when the reality o
lyrics to record kicked in, Cobain wou
_ write and re-write in the stud
other production work to a complete 4
coe with the notes ned accumulated forset

: donequi bytur
yck into some wingtteg couplets. He sin
“cA ed time tobe unclear, and that he n
i ts ved eet make sense. In the bridge se
aware of pe patterned the mus
that he vaguely recalled having
ar ey. Soren lyric was “Somewhere I
(e _ before.” Use of the line ’vant aeote |
stemmed from a
nai
* Ag had come to ie eyeas an aiepurpose

n wering any mundane question.

2 om oa autobio
nd “black
 endless,
isteners who went about
their business after
hearing the twelve listed
tracks of Nevermind without

nameless
turning off the CD player received
a noisy jolt a little over nine
minutes after the end _ of
‘Something in the Way. The band
included a bonus, untitled

AS
DU
thirteenth track on the album.
Bridge, over the Wishkah This track eventually came to be known as ‘Endless,
river, and lived a tramp’s Nameless’ and served as a generic name for the
life there. monumental pastiches of sonic decay that would close
Cobain may have lived many Nirvana concerts.
that life for only a few Things were not going well during the recording
weeks at most, but the of the delicately crafted ‘Lithium’ at one session, and
notion that he had been a Cobain decided to loosen up the proceedings by
homeless drifter before taking a break from his song and cranking up instead
finding sanctuary in the with some thoroughly senseless guitar noise.
punk-rock world became a Novoselic and Grohl dived into the noise-jam with
part of the Nirvana story as relish and, as the band indulged in some cathartic
the band got popular in the improvisation, Vig got it all on tape. The sounds were,
area. In ‘Something In the in fact, so cathartic that Cobain was moved to smash
_ Way’, written shortly before the Nevermind sessions, his guitar up in the studio. This can be heard at the
Cobain paints a moving, though self-admittedly end of the track as a series of bangs that end with
exaggerated view of his life under that bridge. The some high-pitched feedback.
“something” of the title is never made explicit — it might The band decided to mix the song down and find a
be a way of describing personal weaknesses not fully place for it on Nevermind. The decision to hide it was
understood, though it also may well be Aberdeen and Cobain’s. As a young Beatles fan, he’d loved the musical
the no-future existences he saw rooted all around him. mystery that the band created through false starts, trick
The song's delicate mood made it the most difficult endings and acts of manipulating the very media they
one to capture in the studio. Pumped-up band versions were working in — such as the way “Her Majesty’ was
were not capturing the spirit Cobain was after, so suddenly cut off at the end of Abbey Road. CDs had
_ producer Vig asked him to demonstrate on an acoustic been around for a while, but were just then starting
guitar how he thought the song should be played. to be derided as an artistically and aesthetically
Cobain came into the producer's control room and unsatisfying format. Cobain decided to bring a little
began to strum and sing. Vig realized that this was the vinyl-era playfulness into the digital age with ‘Endless,
take that should be recorded and so he quickly set up Nameless’, and it wasn’t long before every self-
_ microphones, shut down the rest of the studio and respecting “alternative” band was hiding a bonus track
: recorded Cobain’s parts while the singer played on the somewhere at the end of their CDs.
’ control-room couch. The rest of the band took their cue When Nevermind was first released, ‘Endless,
from Cobain’s subdued guitar and added their parts Nameless’ turned out to be a little too well hidden. A
later. The cello work of Kirk Canning added some final, technical miscommunication resulted in it being left off
properly somber, tones to the arrangement. the first pressing of the album.
 incesticide
The oddities, rarities and cover tunes of Incesticide

charted the metamorphosis of Nirvana’s sound from brain-

chop punk to bona fide grunge and angst-pop.

drummers. who recorded with Nirvana. (Dave Grohl wins
fairly easily here - the exponential leap in the band’s
irvana’s second release on the DGC label power once he took to the drum throne is astonishing.)
played out as a scruffy, home-grown flipside Incesticide was released in December 1992, and
to Nevermind. While that breakthrough much had happened in the twelve months since
album presented the band’s talents in a work that was Nevermind had flown to the top of the pop charts. After
strikingly polished - some naysayers said overly something of a whirlwind romance - a romance in which
manicured - the bunch of demos, singles and odds and every gesture of mutual affection had been excitedly
sods that made up Incesticide presented the group dissected by the press - Kurt and Courtney Love had
without sweetening. While, for many fans, Nevermind decided to get married. The ceremony took place on
was a compelling, chart-scaling juggernaut that seemed February 24, 1992, on a cliff overlooking Waikiki
to have steamed in from nowhere, Incesticide offered beach. The service was performed by a female non-
the chance for those fans to study up on what path denominational minister and was attended by Dave
these Nirvana fellows had taken on their way to world Grohl and a few Nirvana employees.
domination. Here it was possible to hear Cobain and the August of that year brought the best and worst
band’s growth pre-‘Teen Spint’, - from Gang of Four and of news to Mr. and Mrs. Cobain. On August 18, the
Scratch Acid-echoing art-punk constructions to proto- couple had a daughter - Frances Bean Cobain, named
grunge Sub Pop metalisms and on toward what after actress Frances Farmer and the child’s leqgume-
Nevermind had revealed - music almost revolutionary in like appearance in an early sonogram. But, just
its mix of rock muscle and pop smarts led by the voice prior to Frances’s birth, an article by journalist
of a uniquely talented song writer. Lynn Hirschberg had appeared in Vanity Fair magazine
While perhaps Incesticide did not offer up the in which Courtney Love seemed to indicate that she
hour's worth of sheer, exhilarating listening pleasure and Kurt had been using heroin while she was
that Nevermind did, and didn’t hit with the darkly pregnant. The ensuing storm of negative press and
unified force of Bleach, its highlights - ‘Sliver’, ‘Been A public ill will that the couple encountered was not
Son’, ‘Aneurysm’ — were remarkable, and its curios - only unpleasant, but punishing - the baby was briefly

(=)
Devo covers, early demos - were insightful enough to taken away from them by Los Angeles County
remain engaging through repeat listens. The record also child welfare authorities until the couple proved
gave fans a chance to rate the work of the four different that they could act as responsible parents. It turned
 out that Love had stopped using heroin very early on contain, the music remained magnificent.
in the pregnancy, and the drugs had seemingly had no By the time of Incesticide’s release in December, the
affect on Frances, who was healthy. and normal. The band had become a couple of things that it had never
baby’s father, however, was far from healthy and his even considered back when they were playing shows for
continuing drug use and suicidal tendencies were eight people at the Central Tavern in Seattle.
beginning to wreak serious havoc on his body, his Firstly, they were tabloid fodder. With the Reagan-
family, his band, his friendships and his music. era’s dunder-headed “Just Say No” anti-drug campaigns
By the end of the month, Nirvana - with a freshly still echoing in America, Kurt and Courtney became the
detoxed Cobain - was on tour again and the group country’s favorite hatable, drug-abusing rock n’ roll
headlined that summer's Reading Festival. One year couple. The couple’s spats with Axl Rose backstage at

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before the band had, for all intents and purposes, September's MTV Video Music Awards didn’t do much to
announced itself as a force to be reckoned with. At the shore up their “
“alternative” credibility. To many who
1991 Reading Festival, Nirvana had stormed the stage had first rooted for Nirvana as a small-town band-done-
and delivered a blistering, fiercely triumphant set. At good, they now seemed to be - at least Cobain seemed
the 1992 Festival, the mood was, at first, decidedly less to be - a creature of rock n’ roll excess, capable of as
upbeat. Playing off the continuing rumors and much ego-driven behavior as those rock stars the band
hypotheses about the state of his health, Cobain made had once professed to hate.
his entrance at Reading in a hospital smock and a Secondly, the band had become associated with a
wheelchair. Onceout of his chair on the festival stage, moment of rock fashion that quickly ballooned from
and with the band fired up, Cobain demonstrated what honest local custom to monstrous marketing movement
would be the central tenet of his existence - despite the - that is to say, they were seen as the harbingers of
drugs, the self-loathing, the insecurities and whatever “Grunge.” The word had been around for at least a
other negatives Cobain’s small frame was said to decade - singer Mark Arm of Mudhoney had used it in

Where they came from:

Incesticide documented
the transformation
from the grungesters
of Bleach to the punk-
poppers of Nevermind.

Ba iN @
aie
Neb
- —
 print in 1980 as a put-down of his own band at the time mainstream, Kurt Cobain’s conflicted nature and ever-
(Mr. Epp and the Calculations). The word had also been fragile sensibility meant that maintaining that attack at
kicked around in Sub Pop press releases of the late that level would be impossible. He would not happily or
1980s, again as an almost ironically back-handed willingly be crowned King of Grunge.
compliment. But, post-Nevermind, suddenly the word In December 1992, just in time to remind
had a capital “G.” The sound was laid claim to by every listeners that Nirvana had been a band before.it was
guitarist with a distortion unit-and the look went from a cultural phenomenon, Incesticide was released.
being one born of working-class necessity to one that Culled from demos, EPs, compilation tracks and BBC
was instantly purchasable at the mall. Copycat haircuts, recordings, the record was a one-disc lesson in
clothing and recording contracts had come in the wake Nirvana history. But perhaps even more striking than
of Beatlemania, but that band had been slightly better the music on Incesticide were the liner notes that
equipped, or at least more willing, to work on two levels Cobain penned for the album. Taking it upon himself
— giving itself up as happy product to screaming to do some score settling, he enumerated the rewards
teenyboppers, while offering deeper satisfaction and and burdens of being the main guy in. the world’s
craftier sounds to those who wished to hear them. While biggest band, and did so with alternating flashes of
Nevermind was an ingenious sneak-attack on the wry humor and unrestrained rage.
Cobain addressed Nirvana On the plus side, Cobain found
fans directly in the liner
notes of Incesticide, settling reward in, among other things,
some scores and making tracking down the first Raincoats
some harsh observations.
album, receiving artwork from
Daniel Johnston, being asked to
produce a Melvins record and
touring with groups such as Sonic
Youth, Shonen Knife, the Breeders,
the Jesus Lizard and Hole. Cobain
railed against those who had
painted Courtney Love as some sort
of “Dragon Lady” and those who had
assumed he was dumb enough to be tricked
into marriage. He asked Nirvana fans who
were racist, homophobic or misogynist to
simply stop being Nirvana fans - “Leave us
the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and
don’t buy. our records.” He also condemned
the two rapists who had misappropriated his
song ‘Polly’ while committing their crime.
The liner notes were a grand statement - a
sort of textbook act of rock star-ism, but one
couldn’t accuse Cobain of using the notes to
puff up the importance of Nirvana’s music.
At one point he stated, “I’ll be the first to
admit that we’re the 90’s version of Cheap
Trick or the Knack but the last to admit that
it hasn’t been rewarding.”
 ive’ was originally released in

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September 1990 as the B-side to
Nirvana’s final : single for
Sub Po nal Popreleas as a split single = © nd of the future:
‘Dive’ was the only
with the Fluid. In some ways - sonically at least - this Butch Vig-produced
track on Incesticide.
t. ng perfectly wraps up the band’s relationship with its .

abel. Though just about everyone in Seattle and said, ‘Fuck what everybody else thinks, we're going to
eventually come to hate the term “grunge,” when do what we want... We're paying homage to all the bands
as.
~ it was first being bandied about it referred to the sound we loved as kids, and we haven't denied the punk-rock
of tunes like ‘Dive’ - thick, dirty guitar, menacing bass, energy that inspired us as teenagers.”
>
n-handed drums and vocals of indeterminate agony. The fat, mid-tempo beat and heavy rockin’ guitar riff
und that had been developed, for the most of ‘Dive’ illustrate exactly what Cobain was talking about.
lly by its earli ractitioners — the Thematically, the song also straddles classic rock and
et > = °
:principle of grunge was | result of less-than- punk rock — it’s a come-on sung b' meone who wants
dazzling instrumental prowess and cheap equipment to be left alone. | a
‘Dive’ was first recorded with Jason Everman as a part
of the band, when Nirvana re srded a radio performance
at Evergreen State Colleg Olympia. (This session
ee Everman’s onlyrecor d work with the band ever
_ released — a cover of Kiss’s“. Love Me’, which later
appeared on a tribute alb called Hard to Believe,
released by C/Z, a Seattle indie label.) The version of
_ been if Nirva d pursued its artier tendencies toward ‘Dive’ that appears on Incesticide was recorded when the
+ °

b psycho-noise. So,"post-Bleach and conscious that he was band - Kurt, Krist and Chad Channing - first worked with
__wniting for a band recording for a label with a fairly producer Butch Vig. They recorded a 10-song demo at his
{
_ specific sound, Cobain come up with ‘Dive’. The song Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in Apnl 1990. Much
represents nicely what was perhaps coolest about grunge of what was recorded that day (‘Breed’, ‘Lithium’, ‘Stay
at first - it was music delivered with punk intensity, but Away’) would only spring fully to life when the band re-
also unafraid to scream its love and allegiance to connected with Vig for the Nevermind sessions. But,
classic, heavy metal roc roll As Cobain explained to owing Sub Pop some material, they picked off their
the Chicago Tribunein a 1991 article: “demo” version of ‘Dive’ for use as a single.
“Around 1985, Mai hardcore scene seemed It's interesting, when listening to ‘Dive’, to keep in
exhausted to us... It was boring, so we just started mind that it’s the only Vig-produced track on Incesticide.
accepting the fact that we liked the music that we grew up The sound of the song points grungily backward to Sub
on: Alice Cooper, the MC 5, Kiss. It was almost taboo to Pop, but the production already hints at the sonic size
admit something like that in ‘85, but we grew our hair long the band would assume shortly on Nevermind.
 Sliver
song writer. In just a few words set against an
exhilarating mix of grinding guitar and sunny, sing-
along melody, Cobain captured - and made alistener re-
experience - all the night-terrors of an unhappy
childhood. With a simple pleading chorus (“Grandma
take me home”) sung in first a deadened, exhausted
voice and then screamed, Cobain brought it all back -
the feelings of being small, powerless and at the mercy
of people who don’t understand what you want. Even
those with the happiest of childhoods might
id-1990 was a curious time for remember times when the world, and the people
Nirvana. They considered Bleach to be around them, seemed all wrong.
a personal - if not commercial - Unfortunately for Cobain, this song - though
success, touring had given them a worldwide reputation not autobiographical —- required little imagination.
as a band to watch and a music industry buzz was His parents’ divorce and the shuttling between
growing louder by the week. But when Kurt and Krist relatives he had endured as a result were the key
decided to let Chad Channing go, the old drummer
problems resumed. Who would be that all-important
drum-bashing third of the Nirvana triad? The answer, for
one B-side and one tremendously pivotal Seattle show
at the Motor Sports International venue, was Dan
Peters, who had come from the temporarily defunct
Mudhoney, and would go on to the Screaming Trees and
back to Mudhoney after his few days with Nirvana.
Peters’s brief stint happened to coincide with the
band’s need to record an A-side for its final Sub Pop
single, but, while it’s Peters’s drumming that powers
‘Sliver’, it’s Tad Doyle’s drums that are being played. In
July of 1990, Tad was working in the studio with Jack
Endino. It was during these sessions that Cobain, with
Endino’s cooperation, decided to employ some guerrilla
recording tactics. The plan was that when Tad took a
dinner break, Nirvana would dash into the studio and
use the downtime to bash out the fundamentals of their
track on Tad’s equipment. Doyle was not at all happy
with the idea, but finally acquiesced when Endino
assured him that he would allow none of Nirvana’s
customary instrument-bashing while they were in the
studio. So, on July 11, 1990, while Tad supped, Nirvana
bashed out most of ‘Sliver’ in a little over an hour.
The song seems a more delicate thing than its
recording background might indicate, because the

(<0)
frightening child’s-eye tale it relates is so resonant.
Here, truly, was the first track in which Cobain
demonstrated his full, astonishing talents as a
 events that turned his relatively happy early childhood My mom would take me to school and I wouldn’t even
into one of insecurity and despondency. look kids in the eye. I knew everyone knew that I only
“Up until I was nine I felt I could become a rock had one parent. That isn’t probably a big deal in a big
star or astronaut or the president,” Cobain told Robert town, but it is in a small town... I was a seriously
Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times in a 1993 interview. “I depressed kid. Every night at one point I’d go to bed
had total freedom and a lot of love and support from my bawling my head off. I used to try to make my head
- family - at least on my Mom’s side. [After the divorce] I explode by holding my breath, thinking if I blew up my
was embarrassed and became really detached and quiet. head, they'd be sorry.”

Not a happy family: Cobain

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set some panicky childhood
fe elings to abrilliant pop
tunewith‘Sliver’.
A triumph of low self-
esteem: Cobain’s lyrics,
like those in ‘Stain’,
often came from the
veiwpoint of a defeated,
unhinged soul.
 stain | living. In the song, he cops the plea to being one who
doesn’t fuck, read, sleep or leave the house, because

3P19
Ul
arly on as a song writer, Cobain he is. saddled with “bad luck.”
was playing ee opposites - ‘Stain’was recorded in ummer of 1989 as part
: O22 loud and soft, of the band’s ‘Blew’ EP and released on Tupelo records.
harmony and dissonance, pop feel and punk Sub Pop was most adept at putting out singles and EPs
feel were all put to effective use in Nirvana’s - the band had had to push a bit to get Bruce Pavitt
music. Lyrically, his songs also usually played and Jonathan Poneman to agree to Bleach being a full
on one of two points of view - either he album - so it was quite natural for the band to follow
was gazing at something with a up its full-length release with something shorter on
: ‘contemptuous eye, or gazing at the Sub Pop-related Tupelo imprint. There was no bad
w himself with a contemptuous eye. blood with Jack Endino, but the band decided to try a
‘Stain’ falls quite solidly into the new room and a new personality and so recorded the
EP at Seattle’s Music Source studios with producer
Steve Fisk. Music Source was a
just a squarely rocking riff, a Nirvana - a clean, 24-track studio - and Fisk was
ice. oad verse about how recognized as an important figure in the Olympia
le the singer is and an and eastern Washington usic scenes. He had
ly gentle chorus in which said spent several years worki t-Velvetone studio in
nger claims to be the titular Ellensburg, WA, where he ad recorded or worked
blotch. Basically, ‘Stain’ rips with Beat Happening, cit uble, Screaming Trees,
along as a minor addenda to Soundgarden and several hardcore bands, as well
;‘Negative Creep’. as putting together his own sonic collage albums
Cobain had his own apartment, first of electronic weirdness tossed together with bits of
in Aberdeen and then in Olympia, his television shows and movie dialogue.
housekeeping and hygiene were legendarily Fisk had initially been unimpressed with an
lax. The living spaces became sprawling early Nirvana club performance he witnessed - he
monuments of filth, random personal effects was particularly bothered by Jason Everman’s hair-
and Cobain’s favored oven-baked clay-covered tossing, macho-metal mannerisms. But after Bruce
baby dolls. In Olympia, e and the band began to Pavitt made a point of sending a copy of Bleach Fisk's
develop a reputation ae music scene, Cobain was way, the producer realized there was solid talent to
seen as a Naa “monk” figure - a man work with in the group and gladly took on the project.
without customary guy-in-a-band desires, who was In addition to ‘Stain’, Fisk recorded ‘Even In His
content to sit at home in the mess of his own making Youth’, an electric version of ‘Polly’ and ‘Been A Son’.
"when not out pursuing band business. ‘Stain’ was When the ‘Blew’ EP was released, it paired ‘Blew’ and
“written asa response to those Olympians who, in mainly ‘Love Buzz’ from Bleach with the Fisk recordings of
- friendly fashion, poked fun at Cobain’s manner of ‘Stain’ and ‘Been a Son’.
been
was given a reverse-angle view in ‘Been A Son’, in which
a put-upon daughter's worth goes so unnoticed that she
might as well have died at birth if she wasn’t going to
be born with a penis.
The song evokes situations such as those in China,
where female fetuses are routinely aborted because
daughters are thought to be of no value. As he came of

a Son |
age, Cobain became aware of the less murderous but no
less devastating attitudes toward womanhood and
femininity that existed all around him in Aberdeen. In a
1992 Option magazine interview with Gina Arnold, he
spoke of his earliest feelings of crossing gender lines in
his hometown.
“I was a life-guard, and I taught pre-school kids
how to swim, and I worked at the YMCA and did day
long with ‘Sliver’, ‘Been A Son’ stands as one care, and I babysat during my teenage years. Which was
of the earliest indications that Cobain was all kind of a strange thing in Aberdeen, because mostly
someone capable of deeply affecting song males don’t babysit that much, and sometimes when I
writing and masterly popcraft. While Cobain had kept was sitting and the lady’s date would come over, he'd
some of his poppier influences to himself in Nirvana's have this weird reaction when he saw me - like it wasn’t
earliest days, once Bleach was done and the band began right or something.”
to be asked about favorite records in interviews, Cobain The song was originally recorded for, and released
made no secret of his love of the Beatles and John on, the ‘Blew’ EP, but the version that appears on
Lennon’s songs in particular - though it has been Incesticide comes from a radio session that the band -
suggested by some that musically, Cobain’s sense of with Dave Grohl having replaced Chad Channing - taped
composition was a lot closer to Paul McCartney's. In for British disc-jockey Mark Goodier while they were in
‘Been a Son’, one is basically hearing those childhood London during a European tour at the end of 1991.
Beatles records blooming into something new through
Cobain — the song seems to have sprung from some
Cobain paid
indeterminate spot between Rubber Soul and Revolver. tribute to the
brainy proponents
The song also represents one of the earliest and of de-evolution
on Incesticide.
most concise statements from Cobain on the issues of
sex and gender - issues that he would continue to speak
out on. The burly, mill-town machismo of Aberdeen had
worked as a kind of vaccine on Cobain - throughout his
career he would be sickened by displays of high-
testosterone masculinity (vicious moshing, for example)
and always seemed to take enjoyment from shocking
interviewers, acquaintances and the world at large with
displays of cross-gender dressing and behavior. Here
was a male rock star who could be seen in lingerie and
nighties, who frequently wore dresses to interviews not
for glam value, camp value or comic value, but because
he said simply that they were comfortable garments and
he had a right to wear them. His anti-macho philosophy
 turnaround Live, the band was an electro-avant-garde force to be
reckoned with. While the band’s second album, 1979's
» n October 1990, Nirvana, with spanking-new Duty Now For the Future, contained some of their
drummer Dave Grohl, made a second trip to Britain strongest material, and their third album, 1980's

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ae a series of “shows. They also arranged for a _ Freedom of Choice, garnered then a pop hit with
n with equa radio figure WhipI the band reco output gradually began
=
Ee
‘John 5
roe, e him during their first to take a slow side toward inconsequence.
= tour, which had featured Chad Channing on The early work remained massively influential,
ums. The tour was in support of the ‘Sliver’ /‘Dive’ however, and one youngster duly influenced was
it for the Peel session the band decided to play Cobain. For a kid who sometimes claimed to be gay
rove rin effect paying tribute to musical heroes they just to try to separate himself from the dim bullies
felt were particularly undersung. Among those heroes, he saw around him, Devo represented an amazing rock
pecially for Cobain, werelthose ‘Are We Not Men?’ spud- roll alternative - here were five guys who were
‘ Akron, Ohio, freven . proudly smart, emphatically geeky, not the least
gan as much an art project as a band. ea bit macho and playing music that not only rocked in its
y students Mark rsbaugh and Jerry own twitchy way, but also managed with those
Casale had an interest in and music to explore twitches to enrage typical rocker/ er dudes.
the dehumanizing, de-personalizing effects of As Devo-man Jerry Casale told Trouser Press in an
| &
. technology, and w achrecrusted a brother to join early band interview:
| them, and drumm n * Myers se secured, the “All we're doing is rting the facts... De-
courageously odd was_ born.Geren playing in evolution is basically an nded joke that was as
of Akron and Cleveland, Devo valid an explanation of anything as the Bible is, a
mythology : for people t in. We're just
attacking ideas that people have that they’re at the
props to enliven center of the Universe... If there’s anything
such tunes as important about history, it’s that stupidity wins.”
‘Mechanical Man’, It’s not hard to imagine a lot of appeal there
‘Mongoloid’ and for the young Cobain. Years later, the Devo song he
‘Jocko Homo’ and the band decided to do for Peel had little
Triumphant shows at trouble fitting thematically into the Nirvana
New York's CBGBs songbook. In ‘Turnaround’, the singer is an enraged
furthered the Devo observer of humankind, who spends the song
buzz, and after the commanding the listeners to step outside
release of their Brian themselves and apply some much needed critical self-
Eno-produced 1978 evaluation, at which point said listeners will
debut album Q: Are We undoubtedly realize what dreadful failures they are. The
Not Men? A: We Are song was originally released by Devo as one of
Devo, and a_ pivotal their singles for the Stiff label and was a ae of the
appearance on Saturday Night band’s 1978 ‘Be Stiff’ EP.
The gentle, playful sound
of the Vaselines - Eugene
Kelly and Frances McKee
— was a great inspiration
to Kurt Cobain.
 molly ’s lips
An earlier version of ‘Molly's Lips’, recorded with
Chad Channing, was the source of some friction
between Nirvana and Sub Pop as band and label parted

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ways’at the beginning of 1991. Nirvana owed the label
his song was also recorded at the October 1990 one more single. Sub Pop’s Pavitt and Poneman were
ws or was
oa quick to point hoping
foran originaltune ra than an obscure cover
n interviews, he did not consider himself a Cobain felt that that particular version of ‘Molly’s
_ the first or the best at crafting music that pumped pop Lips’ wasn’t very good, so neither wanted to release it.
ith rock power. The Beatles were an influence he But Cobain wasn’t about to give up one of the new
imed. Another influence that was equally songs he was bringing to Butch Vig for the Nevermind
port nt to him, although much less well-known to sessions. Sub Pop needed to stick to a release schedule,
; the lic at aces was the Vaselines, a band from however, and so ‘Molly's Lips’ it was, backed with ‘Candy’
peeburgh, Scotland. — ea by the Fluid.
elines were one of those rare bands who The Vaselines reunited to play a concert with
combine thoroughly accomplished song Nirvana when the 1990 European tour brought
/an amazingly am ish approach to Cobain and company to Edinburgh. In the liner notes
instrumental technique ands rk. (The first time to Incesticide, Cobain listed this s as one of the
_ were ever togeth ina studio, they recorded their most rewarding moments of Nirvana's life in the
&
slytilted | minds behind the previous year.
Bifaselines belonged to tely voicedFr
Frances McKee
and grufferpage EEu Kelly, later ai
Eugenius. The “t
- their entire catalogue was

ated, market-driven and joyless,

music brimming with
childlike excitement.
‘Molly's Lips’ lane s an interesting companion
; piece to ‘Sliver’. The ee again coming from a
—child’s point of view, and. the youngster has been
meemsed that he'll be tak nywhere as along as he

=
stays clean and as long a keeps planting those wet
kisses on Molly's ips. I oth the less rocked-out
Vaselines ee the Nirvana version, the
bounce of the tune and sweetness of the melody
On Incesticide, the biggest
make it sound like the child/singer is oblivious to how band in rock was in a
position to pay tribute
reepy all those kisses are starting to seem, but the to some undersung heros.
‘istener gets the point.
 his song was the second Vaselines cover to be
included on Incesticide, and was the third track
drawn from the October 1990 session for John
Peel. The song takes one of the hoariest of romantic
conceits — that all seems sunny when a lover is present
and rainy when they're gone - and turns it into a bubbly
bit of winsomeness. Given Cobain’s usual lyrical
territory, it’s rather striking that he could visit the
Vaselines material completely without irony — he sounds
about as happy as he ever would while singing
‘Son of a Gun’.
While Cobain couldn’t help but see the world in
darker terms when writing his own songs, the happiness
and innocence celebrated in the Vaselines’s music
resonated deeply with him. He discovered the Vaselines
through a label created by one of Olympia’s most
prominent scenesters, Calvin Johnson. Johnson played
with Beat Happening and established the K label in the
early 1980s in order to put out compilation tapes of his
favorite bands. In the mid-80s, K began to put out
some very influential vinyl, both through the K imprint
and through the International Pop Underground series
of 45s. These records made unsung bands from around
the globe - from the Melvins to Shonen Knife -
available in the United States.
It was Johnson’s K releases of the Vaselines material
that made such an impression on Cobain - enough of an
impression that Cobain duplicated the label's crude
crayon-drawn “K” insignia as a tattoo on his arm.
“T really like the K label a lot and I admire what
Cobain was no sentimentalist,
Calvin is doing,” he told Option magazine just prior to but he found the childish
innocence of the Vaselines
Nevermind's release. “They've exposed me to so much music to be deeply affecting.
good music, like the Vaselines, who are my favorite
band ever. The Vaselines reminded me of how much I
really value innocence and children and my youth - of
how precious that whole world is. I like to watch little
kids. I think they're great.”
 hen Cobain started writing this song,
based on the 1987 abduction and rape
of a Tacoma concert-goer, he was not
entirely certain what vibe the music should have in
order to match the peculiar slant of lyrics delivered
from the unnamed rapist’s point of view. Uptempo,
electric versions of the song never felt quite right and it
wasn’t until the band’s Smart demo sessions with Butch
Vig that the song came fully and affectingly to life in
its subdued, nearly acoustic, form.

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An electric version of ‘Polly’ had been partly
recorded, and scuttled, during the ‘Blew’ EP sessions
with Steve Fisk. Once the band had hit upon the
preferred way of delivering the song at Smart studios,
electric versions became something of a joke, hence the
tongue in cheek ‘New Wave’ added to the song's title.
The Incesticide version of ‘Polly’ came from the same
1991 BBC session for Mark Goodier that also yielded
‘Been A Son’. Aside from the speedy tempo and heavier
guitars, lyrically the song is virtually identical to the
version that appears on Nevermind.

(new
ave)
polly
 Pop craftsman and punk
defiler - the punk side
of Cobain won out on
songs like ‘Beeswax’.

musician and one-time Cobain neighbor Stim Moon. It

effectively launched the Kill Rock Stars label, which
would continue to put out the work of Bikini Kill)
featuring Cobain’s ex-girlfriend Tobi Vailand his friend,
Kathleen Hanna.
In early Nirvana days, Cobain could frequently be
aving made the jump from Sub Pop to David spotted in a Scratch Acid t-shirt and ‘Beeswax’, perhaps
Geffen’s DGC label in April 1991, Cobain and more than. any other tune, reflects the influence that
the band undoubtedly felt that their punk group had on him. The song's off-kilter rhythms and
credentials were somewhat in question. One way of hard, sloppy guitar back up an especially ragged-
shoring up their underground status while Nevermind throated Cobain as he lets loose an incensed stream of
started to come together was to make an old, ugly lysergic non-sequiturs.
screamer like ‘Beeswax’ available. The song was first Discovering his early punk influences, such as
released in August 1991 as part of the Kill Rock Stars Scratch Acid and Big Black, was a major revelation.
label compilation. The song dated back to the Dale Cobain once explained, “The intensity, the aggression,

(0)
Crover-drummed/Jack | Endino-produced Reciprocal the hatred. You could hear a lead singer just scream at
sessions of January 1988. The compilation, which also the top of his lungs. I felt that way. I wanted to die. I
featured the Melvins and Bikini Kill, was assembled by wanted to kill. I wanted to smash things.”
 wrong with the world, and also an angered insistence
that the singer, at all costs, wishes not to fit in with
every or any crowd that might have him. Cobain
he ‘Downer’ featured on Incesticide is the same explained the snarling, sneering misfit tone of early
track that was included on Bleach when that compositions such as ‘Downer by making reference to his
album was re-issued by Sub Pop on CD in Apnl troubled early teens.
1992. (‘Big Cheese’ was also included as a bonus.) The “T started getting in trouble, vandalizing, rebelling,”
song was recorded when the band cut its first official he told the Los Angeles Times. “I was never a bad kid... I
studio demo with Jack Endino at Reciprocal studios in was just disgusted, and at that age, I couldn't figure out
Seattle on January 23, 1988. The band had just let go of why. The school counselor would tell me, Try to fit in with

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drummers Dave Foster and Aaron Burckhard and had people, dress the way they do, attend the dances, get into
recruited former and future Melvins drummer Dale Crover sports. That was always the big thing - get into sports
to do the recording with them. The song was one and your life is perfect.”
of Cobain’s earliest efforts
and first appeared on_ his
pre-Nirvana, pre-Novoselic Fecal
Matter cassette.
The song is basically an
angry denouncement of what's

Down and in - ironically,

Cobain’s self-loathing and
contempt of crowds saw
him connecting with a
huge audience.
 mexican seafood
Producer Endino, in a 1992 interview with the
Rocket, Seattle’s alternative weekly newspaper,
explained how the birth of the “grunge” sound followed
his under-two-minute listing of physical his work on early sessions such as the one at Reciprocal
discomfitures was a staple of early Nirvana set with Nirvana.
lists and was recorded at the Reciprocal session , I had a pretty good notion of how to record a
with Dale Crover and Jack Endino. It was first released grungy, sloppy guitar, because that’s the kind of guitar
in November 1989 as a track on C/Z records Tenyaki I played myself. I realized early on that I had a
Asthma, Vol. 1., which also included tracks from L7, terrible guitar sound and how was I going to record it?
which featured future Dave Grohl-girlfriend and Then I ended up recording about a hundred bands
Courtney Love-pal Jennifer Finch on bass, and Babes in that had equally terrible guitar sounds, and a new
Toyland, who were fronted by ex-Love bandmate aesthetic was born. What sounded horrible back then
Kat Bjelland. is now standard.”
As short and quick. as it is, ‘Mexican Seafood’ is an
interesting study in the split musical personality that
turned up in Cobain’s early song writing. The song's
verses are built along a charging, grinding pre
guitar rhythm and feature punk-worthy :
lyrics that presage In Utero’s fascination a
with the various seepages that the F
human body is capable of - here Cobain
wails about infections, piss and itchy
flakes. But the chorus is built on a
few shining chords that, though they
back a lyrical complaint about pain
during urination, are pop-beautiful.
Adding to the split delivery is an
unmistakably “Big Rock” break
toward the end of the song, in which
Cobain reels off one of his few
recorded moments of standard rock n’
roll boogie-guitar. The title isn’t
directly related to the tune’s
complaints, but certainly
does conjure-up images
of either intestinal distress
Or, more demeaningly and

@)
probably more to _ the
point, an ugly, regretted . ‘It only hurts when 1 ../
____ Cobain’s tweaky fascination
sexual encounter. with body fluids first turned up
on the decidedly unappetizing
‘Mexican Seafood’. a
Ce
 Roses and Motley Crile. (Metal fans were equally
contemptuous of young punks like Nirvana.) Nevermind
would go a long way toward erasing boundaries of taste
- by the mid-90s, definitions of what was punk, grunge,
metal or simply rock were pretty interchangeable and
useless. But in 1987 there was some very real tension
between warring tastes - those perceived to be punk
might well be jumped and beaten if spotted around a
“rock” club, and the same could happen to a longhaired
rocker spotted by punks.

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This tension delighted Cobain early on in the band’s
career. He described one of their earliest gigs, a house
party, as a kind of ail VS. aeeck-rocker showdown
(one in which the band avoided a pummelling by acting
louder and crazier than their “enemies”).
“These rednecks didn’t like us at all. They were
scared of us. We were really drunk, so we started making
Rock bottom —- Novoselic
honed his craft on spectacles of ourselves, playing off the bad vibes we
Sabbath and Led Zep ©
before a punk conversion. were giving the rednecks...Chris jumped through a
window and then we played Flippers ‘Sex Bomb’ for
about an hour. Our girlfriends were hanging on us
as also taken from first Reciprocal and grabbing our legs and doing a mock-lesbian
> of early club scene. That started freaking out the rednecks...That
shows. The Cobain song was written when both was the idea of punk rock in the nef - to abuse
had undergone — punk-rock your audience. What better audience to have than a
Oo embrace and replicate redneck audience?”
them so..excited. Both “Punk rock kind of galvani ple in Aberdeen,”
inal, Leeds-born, leftward- Novoselic explained in an ear oe “Tt brought us
Gang of Four as a major together and we got our own little scene after a while.
ly music. With its droopy signature Everybody realized — all the bei realized - that
bass lin zat and cleanly chiseled chunks of rednecks weren't just dicks, they were total dicks. And
s clear that ‘Hairspray Queen’, was punk rock had this cool political, personal message. You
the result ofa period of Gang of Four immersion. Cobain know what I mean? It was a lot more cerebral than just
twists the Gang’s sound,by delivering the vocals in a stupid cock rock.”
strangled voice that is more reminiscent of Scratch

hairspray
Acid’s David Yow than it i. ng of Four’s Jon King.
Lyrically, Cobain set a his allegiances
punkward, basically using the song to announce that he
is an enemy of the creature ofthe title. That creature’s
name was actually ahandy way of describing the dim-
witted, hair-conscious. -metal rockers of the mid-

queen
to-late 1980s whom Nirvana despised. While Cobain and
Novoselic had an unabashed love of classic rock, they
had some particularly strong feelings of ill will toward
what heavy metal had become in the age of Guns n’ @)
 aero zeppelin
again if it was reworked and revitalized with fierce
intensity, as opposed to simply being reheated and
restaged for the sake of posturing like a rock star. The
etween recording with Dale Crover at that Melvins had begun as a jam band playing Led Zeppelin
first Reciprocal session and finding Chad and Black Sabbath covers to the
Channing as a permanent-for-a-while red-eyed delight of stoners in
bandmember, Cobain and Novoselic ran an advert in Aberdeen and Bellingham, and
Seattle’s Rocket that read as Osborne made the jump toward
follows: “Heavy, light punk rock creating his own wildly innovative
band: Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, dirge-metal without forsaking what
Black. Sabbath, © Black Flag, he loved best about the old rock n’
Scratch Acid, Butthole roll. With this song, Cobain and
Surfers. Seeks drummer.” Novoselic were attempting to make
That. list — of influences the same jump.
demonstrates the mix of
old-time rock grandiosity
and jagged new-punk rage
the band was trying to mix
up in its early days. Cobain
took on the issue of
making that mix as a
lyrical theme in_ this
song, recorded at the
Reciprocal sessions.
‘Aero Zeppelin’ was a
standard tune in early club
appearances, sometimes
showing up on set lists
along with a bona fide
cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Immigrant Song’ While the
song's deadly earnest riffing doesn’t give any indication
From the beginning, of the Cobain pop hooks and melodies that would come
Nirvana played even its
simplest riffs with wild
shortly, the lyrics are a fairly insightful examination of
punk abandon. the relationship between young fans and rock heroes
past their prime.
‘Aero Zeppelin’ represents a lesson Cobain and
a

4) Novoselic picked up from mentor Buzz Osborne of the

Melvins - that old-school rock could be made fresh
 “Buzz was the punk rock guru of Aberdeen,” discount it. I tried to turn people on to it, but they'd be
Novoselic said in a 1992 interview. “He’s the guy who _ like...one guy I know, I remember, he goes, ‘Ah that
spread the good news around town but to only the most — punk rock stuff, all it is is “Want to fuck my Mom! Want
deserving, because a lot of people in Aberdeen would to fuck my Mom!” And thenI listened to Generic Flipper
s
and it was a revelation. It was art. It was valid.
It was beautiful. ‘Cause I gave things validity
like ‘Is it as good as Physical Graffiti?’ And it was
suddenly, like ‘Sure it is — if not better.”

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Walk this way - Nirvana

took their early rock n’ roll
influences and twisted them
into something entirely new.
 his track was recorded by Jack Endino, originally
for inclusion on Bleach, and it’s another of the
band’s explorations into the super slow, super
big sound of the Melvins. Buzz Osborne had led the
Melvins from being a premier cover band to one of the
Northwest's fastest hardcore bands, but ended up
settling in to become one of the slowest bands that
anybody had ever heard. Funereal rhythms, tectonically
slow guitar riffs, and vocals of alternately whispered
fears and harshly screamed rage - that was the basic
formula for Melvins tunes such as those that appeared
on the highly influential
1987 album Gluey Porch
Treatments. And that is
principally the formula
Cobain and Novoselic
followed in grinding out
‘Big Long Now, (whose
quite inscrutable lyrics
seem to be centered on
post-coital unease).
In a 1992 interview,
Cobain recalled an early,
formative Melvins show:
“They started playing
punk rock and had a free
concert right behind
Thriftways supermarket,
where Buzz worked, and
they plugged into the city
power supply and played punk rock for about
50 redneck kids. When I saw them play, it just
blew me away. I was instantly a punk _ rocker.
I abandoned all my friends, because they didn’t
like any of the music. Then I asked Buzz to make
me that compilation of punk-rock songs and got
a spike haircut.”
“Yeah, I infected Kurt and Krist,” Osborne bragged
to Lorraine Ali in a 1993 Option interview. And. despite
the decidedly non-Melvins-ish turn Nirvana’s music took
on Nevermind, Osborne remained proud of his punk Melvins drummer Dale Crover concurred. “Some people
inheritors. “The reason Nevermind sold a lot is because said Bleach was such a better record than Nevermind. I
it’s a good record,” he said. don’t agree. I think Nevermind makes Bleach sound like
Reciprocal-era Nirvana bandmate and current a shit record.”
 ncesticide closed out with
the BBC sessionfor Mark
a tune recorded during
Goodier at the end of
1991. Though a slight song by Nirvana standards,
‘Aneurysm’ is interesting in that it shows the band at
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play. Cobain is bending a few simple lyrics around to
make fun of pop conventions and drug-use rituals
(“shoot the shit”, “beat me out of me”). The song is
also one of Nirvana’s only songs to make use of a
sudden, major style shift - a minute in and the tune
jumps from Bleach-like riffing to highly-glossed,
harmony sweetened “Big Pop.” Lastly, the song is
interesting as an early, especially i. clue that Dave
Grohl's phenomenal drumming was g to make the
band a heavy contender in the mainstream rock world.
2

A slightly more pumped up version of ‘Aneurysm’

was recorded in January 19 y Nirvana-soundman
Craig Montgomery and appear s part of a joint B-side
with ‘Drain You’ and ‘Even His Youth’ when DGC
released a ‘Teen Spirit’ C single in 1991. The
Montgomery version of ‘Aneurysm’, with the Incesticide
versions of ‘Turnaround’, ‘Son of a Gun’ and ‘Molly's
Lips’, along with ‘D-7’ and ‘Even In His Youth’, made up
a 1991 EP titled ‘Hormoaning’.
This was released in Australia and
Japan as a promotional EP in
conjunction with Nirvana’s tour
there in early 1992.

Clinical humor - from the

start. Cobain’s lyrics

2
explored the shadowy
realms of; drugs, Le disease,
ae
depression and insanity.
 widely imitated and appropriated, not least of all by
early Nirvana. Following the demise of Big Black, Albini
had assembled Rapeman, which featured the rhythm
ith their second major-label effort, section from another of Nirvana’s punk idols, Scratch
Cobain and Nirvana created a great, raw, Acid. While continuing to perform and record for
self-lacerating rip of an album. They himself, Albini had become best known as a producer
also a created an album that didn’t have any trouble (though, for reasons of principle, he has always taken ‘
selling - upon its release in September 1993, it debuted the credit “recorded by” rather than “produced by”).
on the pop charts at number one. But it wasn’t an Albini had worked on records by such underground —
entirely easy or pleasant undertaking. Nevermind had notables as the Pixies, Helmet, the Jesus Lizard
hit the pop world as a wonderfully invigorating surprise and P.J. Harvey.
ue
e
from an unknown Seattle band. The making of In Utero 3 Starting at the end of February, the band and Albini
took place under a media microscope, and the album set to work — without interference from management or —
was turned into an ugly, distorted tabloid record company - and stayed true to a punk-rock ethos
scandal before a note of music had even been heard and recording pace. The band was recorded playing live —
by the public. as a group, with only vocals and occasional guitar parts —
“We've been wanting to record a really raw album added as overdubs. There was no reliance on studio —
for almost a year now, and it looks like we are finally trickery ~ Albini achieved his starkly vibrant trademark —
ready to do it,” Cobain told Robert Hilburn of the Los sound entirely through mike placement and recording mi
Angeles Times in a September 1992 interview. In levels. Within two weeks the album was recorded and 4
February 1993, the band headed to Pachyderm Studios mixed and everyone seemed happy. a
outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, to work with “Dealing with the members of Nirvana was entirely 3
producer Steve Albini. pleasant for me,” Albini said at the time of the
Cobain always counted on a creative rapport with a album’s release. “I have no hard feelings whatsoever —
producer to fully realize the band’s sound. He’d been about the process of making the record, and I would
happy to have Jack Endino there as the band recorded consider Dave Grohl a personal friend. The modus ‘
Bleach and Butch Vig for Nevermind (though he did of making this record was pretty honorable. I was “3
subsequently make some disparaging remarks about working with a great three-piece rock band, and they 4
each producer). With Albini, Cobain was excited at the banged out some of the best music they're capable
a
prospect of working with someone who would not only of over a two-week period. The stupid stuff tt

understand the nuanced clamor Kurt was looking for, started happening after the band and I parted e_
;
but who was, in fact, a respected musical influence. company in February.” ;
Albini had been a pivotal figure in the early 1980s “Stupid stuff” was a fitting term for what ensued
Chicago scene, when he fronted Big Black. Their when Geffen execs and Nirvana management couldn't
are ate : ; “
abrasive, industrial-strength, discontented sound was disguise their disappointment with the tracks the band
oe

;
OF
S *

In uter
the
tewt
ne
an
|—

abe

Sain
Ae
As

ertc
Pe —
 In the raw - with In Utero,
Nirvana created a great, back-
to-basics album, but it wasn’t
easy getting there.

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"had turned in. Suddenly, the biggest band of the 1990s and large enjoying their uncomfortable position, the
__was being told that their music wasn’t good enough to band began to reconsider. “People aside from myself
be released. Things got stupider when some major and the band managed to turn the making of In Utero
_ media outlets got wind of that disappointment and into a very ugly bit of emotional warfare,” Albini said.
_ turned it into a pop melodrama, pitting Albini, Geffen “And the standard of journalism brought to bear on this
and Nirvana against each other in a three-way war of Nirvana project was shoddy and embarrassing.”
words and spin management. Nirvana at first were Finally, when angry self-confidence gave way to
_ adamant about releasing the record exactly as they had exhaustion and resignation, the band made some
"recorded it, but under unrelenting pressure from the concessions toward giving the album a “friendlier”
record company, and conscious that the press was by sound. Producer Scott Litt, well-known for his work with

Nirvana answered the polish of Nevermind with a fierce,

‘ragingshot of prime punk. In Utero showcased a great

band playing at its Furious best, and a sharp song writer

his most agitated.

eh!
Fs
*

cat
va
+

7
REM, re-mixed ‘Heart-Shaped Box’, and ‘All Apologies’, title of In Utero was I Hate Myself and Want to Die. How
and all the tracks were re-mastered to bring out bass literally did he mean that?
parts and accentuate the vocals. Albini was decidedly “As literal as a joke can be,” he told David Fricke
unhappy with the released version of the record. of Rolling Stone. “Nothing more than a joke. And that
“Somebody was frightened that this excellent record had a bit to do with why we decided to take it off.
might not be perfect,” he said. “So they chose to master We knew people wouldn't get it; they'd take it too
it into a mundane record.” Cobain began making nasty seriously. It was totally satirical, making fun of
comments about the quality of Albini’s original work. ourselves. I’m thought of as this pissy, complaining,
Amid all the bad blood and ill will, In Utero was released freaked-out schizophrenic who wants to kill himself
on September 21, 1993, and debuted at number one all the time. ‘He isn’t satisfied with anything’ And I
on the pop charts. thought it was a funny title. I wanted it to be atitle
The songs on In Utero mostly came from a period of of the album for a long time. But I knew the majonty of
writing that Cobain undertook in
the spring of 1992, when the
band had long stretches of
inactivity. Cobain was living in a
Hollywood apartment on North
Spaulding Street with new wife
and mother-to-be Courtney Love.
This was, ironically, one of
Cobain’s periods of heaviest drug
use, but - confounding all the
junkie stereotypes —- it was also a
time in which he remained
capable of producing some of his
finest work. However, like the
creation of the album itself, the
creation of the songs was not
without crisis. When the Cobains
returned home from Nirvana's
tour of Europe in July, they
discovered that burst pipes in
a bathroom had _ destroyed
precious notebooks that were
full of poems and song ideas
that Kurt had been working on.
Soon afterward, the couple
moved to a house in the
Hollywood Hills and Cobain
simply started over with a fresh
pile of notebooks.
In true punk fashion, Cobain
wanted to follow up the multi-
platinum success of Nevermind
with a sick joke - the working
the people wouldn't understand it.” the band’s own expense — Cobain wanted to mock his own
With Albini, the band recorded a track with that pop-formulae by calling the album Verse Chorus Verse. The
title that ended up in a rather improbable spot - as band also recorded a song with that title, which ended up
the opening track on the first album celebrating on the 1993 compilation album No Alternative. Cobain
MTV's charmingly nightmarish pre-teen pop-critics finally returned to his fascination with babies, embryos
Beavis and Butt-head (The Beavis and Butt-head and female reproductive organs with In Utero. He followed
Experience). Cobain enjoyed that irony. “Yeah, you know, through on that title with the artwork he helped design

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019
there were a lot of Beavises and Butt-heads back there for the record. The front picture was one of his favorite
[in Aberdeen]. The only difference is they weren't as “visible woman” anatomical models, the back was a
clever as the guys on TV.” pastiche of uterine and fetal medical models accented
A second working title was also a joke, but more at with orchids and umbilical cords.

The Cobain-designed artwork of In Utero - a

winged humanoid with visible internal organs -
made it to the concert stage in mannequin form.
 The big, dumb, music industry
question surrounding the
release of In Utero was - “Can
these guys give us another
‘Teen Spirit’?” Cobain took the
question head on in the first i
line of the first song when he
groaned that teenage angst ’
had paid off well for him, <
followed with the confession ‘
that since the pay-off, he has i
simply grown bored and old. "
Clearly, this album would not
be a work of “teen spirit”,
which in point of fact, had been a spirit greatly —
misunderstood to begin with. Some considered the x
or all the fuss and bother about the making of In lyric petulant or grossly cynical, but mostly it wasa ah

Utero - the nervous whispers that the band had product of Cobain’s darker sense of humor. Nevermind th
created an album of hideous, unlistenable noise had been attacked by some “old” Nirvana fans as —
— the records kicks off with an energizing, satisfying being a crass marketing move - a punk sell-out. What q
blast. Far from sounding like some outré-punk better, more unsettling response could Cobain offer “on
experiment, ‘Serve the Servants’ is one of the most rock than to simply cop the plea? ‘a
n’ roll tracks Nirvana ever recorded. Straddling a slow, Cobain also worked in a gibe at “self-appointed
steady riff that would do Neil Young’s Crazy Horse judges” — basically all those people who felt free to
proud, Cobain, sounding thoughtful and archly take pot-shots at him and the band without ever
restrained, offers some keen reflections on his band’s considering what it might be like to put themselves
rise to pop dominance. on the line in any way. Though Cobain grew weary of
As Nirvana-mania had kicked into high gear, the media spotlight and feigned disinterest in what
Cobain had been the most reluctant of superstars, was said about him, he was in actuality nearly —
deeply bothered by the way his songs immediately obsessed with following coverage of himself. Instead
lost all shadings of meaning as they became mass- of being the blasé punk, Cobain was still, at heart, B
market product. In the band’s downtime during early the small-town kid who couldn’t believe his name was —
1992, when most of In Utero’s songs were written, in the big-city papers. \
Cobain and Courtney Love were occasionally amused by “I'd try to get Kurt to stop reading stuff —
the absurdity of Nirvana as an object of pop culture - about himself,” Courtney Love told Rolling Stone in a 9
Kurt at times pranced around their apartment to high- 1994 interview. “I wouldn’t buy him magazines —
volume playbacks of neo-chanteuse Tori Amos’s anymore. But he’d sneak off and
overwrought cover version of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit? But buy them. He got addicted. Every gibe,
that August's Vanity Fair, in which Love was depicted so every caricature, every reference. This was someone ~
unfavorably, proved that media attention could not only who couldn't deal with being
turn nasty, but also bring about horrible personal paraphrased wrongly. So to be the cultural reference a
difficulties. The article brought out some self-admitted for every fucking thing there was...and this was “3

(a)
homicidal impulses in Cobain, but in ‘Serve the Servants’ someone who had been pretty much unnoticed most
he affected a more ironically detached view of the critics, of his life. He wanted to be popular, very much aa
the fans and himself. people pleaser.” a=
 To protest the press treatment Love had received, anymore.” As the verse might indicate, Cobain’s
Cobain used some witch-hunt imagery (as he would relationship hadn’t been as much troubled as it was
also in ‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On non-existent. He had lived with his father’s new
Seattle’). A line in the first verse refers to the family after his parents’ divorce and had felt
medieval practice of public dunkings, by which a miserably out of place. Once he moved out, father and
woman suspected of witchcraft would be tested. son became, for all intents and purposes, strangers.
Because witches were said to be made of wood, it was Don did follow news of his son’s career and, after

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believed that they would float at the surface of the seven years of estrangement, initiated contact with
water - a non-witch would simply sink. It was, much Kurt by showing up at a benefit that the band played
like the ordeal of being put on trial by the modern in Seattle. The two had a short, cordial conversation
__ media, a serious no-win situation. and.Don met Courtney and Frances Bean. Don never
In the most personal lines of the song, Cobain saw his son again.
, sings of a painful childhood in which he wanted a In a 1994 interview, David Fricke asked Kurt
father, “but instead I had a dad.” These lines are Cobain if the “father” lines in ‘Serve the Servants’
followed by a direct address to Kurt’s father, Don reflected some worry that Kurt himself might not be
Cobain, in which the song says “I don’t hate you cut out for fatherhood.
“No, I'm not worried about that at
all,” Cobain said. “My father and I
The young Cobain family in happier ©
times. Kurt's reconciliation with his! are completely different people. I
father would be made through the
lyrics of ‘Serve the Servants’. know I’m capable of showing a lot
more affection than my dad was... I
would never allow [Courtney and
myself] to be in a situation where
there are bad vibes between us in
front of [Frances]. That kind of stuff
can screw up a kid, but the reason
those things happen is that the
parents are not very bright.”
While the song expressed
scorn for those Cobain felt had
been judging him, he also played
down the whole notion that
those judges would be attracted
to some mystique about him in
the first place. “The legendary
divorce is such a bore,” he sighed
in the chorus, obviously tired of
having his childhood plumbed
for deep meaning.
 devoted one. Writers Katherine
Dunn, Susan Faludi and William S.
Burroughs all received “Special
Thanks” in the In Utero credits, and
‘Scentless Apprentice’ took its
theme from the 1986 novel
Perfume, by the German writer
Patrick Siskind.
The novel, set in eighteenth-
century France, tells the peculiar

; story of a bastard infant who

Sant
5”
unk
wa
B
is born with two startling characteristics - he has an
amazingly developed sense of smell, which he uses to
s story after story of Kurt Cobain’s travails assess the world around him, plus he gives off
with heroin were kicked around in the press, absolutely no odor of any kind from his own body. He is
an unfortunate image began to take shape - thought to be devil-spawn by the nurses who reluctantly
that he was a disengaged, unfeeling, dumb junkie who care for him at his orphanage but is eventually
ee
happened to be able to write some songs and play apprenticed to a master perfume maker. His natural
guitar. It all made for good tabloid copy and stand-up abilities make him an extraordinary talent in the field of
comic material, but it was not accurate. Cobain was fragrances, but his darker impulses begin to emerge.
undoubtedly a tormented soul and quite a few of those While the smells of most humans and human activities y

torments were self-inflicted, but his worth as an artist, disgust him, occasionally he will find a woman whose
thinker and musician was much broader than the scent is so beguiling that he feels compelled to kill her
“Sunkie-with-guitar” stereotype allowed. - to own her scent as it were. He is eventually put on
Cobain was not a voracious reader, but he was a trial for his crimes but, in a rather phantasmagorical
closing sequence, manages to manipulate a rabid mob ~
into having an orgy rather than an execution.
Cobain hadn't intended to turn his reading of the
novel into a song, but a need for strong lyrics arose
under some musically surprising circumstances — for the
first time, the band collaborated from square one in
writing a song. The piece started with a basic guitar riff
that Dave Grohl had come up with. Cobain didn’t think
the riff sounded all that promising - in fact he felt it
Literary debts: ‘Scentless
Apprentice’ was drawn was a little too reminiscent of the Sub Pop-era grunge
from a novel. William
S. Burroughs received sound the band wanted to distance itself from. But as
‘Special Thanks’ on
In Utero for being a Kurt, Krist and Dave jammed around the riff, it turned
cherished inspiration into something more impressive. Kurt came up with a
to Cobain.
guitar line of ascending notes that pulled against the —
basic riff, Krist arranged a second section the song
could move to, and a fierce, group-penned composition
was born. It was the one In Utero track on which all j
three band members received a song writing credit.
The sound was fierce enough, in fact, that Cobain —
reached back to the disturbing tale of Perfume for his j
 019
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Not just a big beatkeeper,

Dave Grohl received
partial song writing credit
for ‘Scentless Apprentice’
and composed an In Utero
B-side as well.

lyrics. His vocals, snarled out like a supremely pissed-off could come up with potent music when those

W.C. Fields, basically sketch out the ideas of Siiskind’s connections were working.
story. His desperately screamed “Go away’s” are The ‘Scentless Apprentice’ guitar riff wasn’t Dave
particularly chilling and, in light of the book, seem to Grohl’s only song writing contribution during the In
cut two ways - it’s either what the singer/apprentice Utero sessions. A Grohl-penned and sung _ tune,
hears from those who hate him, or it’s what the ‘Marigold’, was recorded and used as a B-side for the
singer/apprentice screams at those he hates. The angry ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ single. Much of the song wniting
strength of ‘Scentless Apprentice’ demonstrates how Grohl was doing during this period later turned up as
_ well-connected the trio could be, and how quickly they material on the 1995 debut Foo Fighters album.
heart-shaped box
coolly restrained vocal style of the song’s verses, Krist
came up with the demonic loping bass line that powers
urt Cobain and Courtney Love began to the chorus (one of Cobain’s favorite bits of Krist-work),
take a serious interest in each other while and the whole band gave the tune the dynamic shape it
Nirvana was in Los Angeles in May and needed. ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ became a keeper.
June 1991, working on their sessions for Nevermind. Cobain told several interviewers that the song was
Dave Grohl served as something of a go-between for the inspired by seeing documentaries and news features on
two at first — he knew Courtney through mutual friend terminally ill children. The song’s alternate moments of
Jennifer Finch of L7. In order to make her romantic gentle sadness and angry sarcasm may be emotionally
intentions clear to Kurt, Courtney passed a gift to true to those real-life situations. But Cobain also
him by way of Dave: a small heart-shaped box seemed to be taking a look at his relationship with
filled with trinkets and a tiny doll. Heart-shaped Courtney. Much as he described the symbiotic
boxes subsequently became collectables around the connection between the two babies in ‘Drain You’,
Cobain-Love household - there were shelves of them Cobain’s connection to his wife isn’t illuminated with
at the Hollywood homes the couple shared through standard romantic couplets - instead there’s talk of
most of 1992. cancer, umbilical cords and “meat-eating orchids.”
Much of the song writing for In Utero was done in (Cobain said he liked orchids because they reminded
these apartments during Nirvana’s long stretches of him of vaginas. There are orchids scattered among the
down-time during that year. Their first apartment, on medical models of embryos and uteruses in the artwork
North Spaulding Street, had a large walk-in closet that Cobain designed for the back of In Utero.) The song’s
often served as a song writing sanctuary for Kurt, and most piercing line of lyric showed again some of
that’s where ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ was written. In fact, if Cobain’s very self-aware, self-deprecating humor: “I got
Cobain hadn't immediately been so fond of what he was a new complaint.”
playing, the track may have ended up being a song for Cobain spoke of his relationship with Love in
Courtney Love's band, Hole. “The only time I asked him a November 1993 interview with Gavin Edwards in
for a riff for one of my songs, he was in the closet,” she Details magazine.
told Rolling Stone in a 1994 interview. “We had this “Everyone thinks of me as this sad little spineless
huge closet, and I heard him working on ‘Heart-Shaped puppy who needs to be taken care of. It sickens
Box’. He did that in five minutes. Knock, knock, knock. me. When I first met Courtney, I thought of her as
‘What?’ ‘Do you need that riff?” “Fuck you!’ Slam. He was this totally independent, self-serving person and I
trying to be so sneaky. I could hear that one from really respected her for that - that’s why I fell in —
-
downstairs.” love with her. Since we've been married, I've —
Kurt continued to work on the song, but found that found that she’s a bit. more insecure. I’m glad - it’s :
a
er
when he introduced it to the band, it strayed away from nice to know she isn’t going to take off one day. I
the delicate vibe he was after and turned into a big, didn’t- think’. ‘I'd: ‘ever. have” a. best-- friends= alain
noisy jam. Shortly before the In Utero sessions, Cobain alone a mate.”
was ready to give up on what would become the album’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ was one of the two tracks that
signature tune, but let the band have one last crack at were re-mixed by long-time REM producer Scott Litt
it, Suddenly, it came together. Cobain discovered the after the band finished work with Steve Albini, It was
 with Litt, in May 1993 and at Bad Animals Studios in legislatures. To make his point, he used a line of ‘Heart-
Seattle, that Cobain added some acoustic guitar and the Shaped Box’ to show the folly of turning words and
dreamy-to-razor-sharp harmonies that helped make the lyrics into criminal acts.
song a standout. The song took on yet another form “One of the lines is ‘Broken hymen of your
when it became the basis for a wondrously heady video highness: In that song, the word ‘hymen’ is used as a
directed by Anton Corbijn. metaphor. In the context of these censorship bills, if
:

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In the June 1995 issue of Musician, Krist Novoselic you were to discuss the hymen as a normal, natural part
spoke out against pending music censorship bills of the female anatomy with a teenager, you would
that were working their way through a number of state technically be breaking the law.”

It was through L7’s Jennifer

Finch, foreground, that Kurt
Cobain met Courtney Love
during the making of
Nevermind. The first heart-
shaped box was exchanged
shortly thereafter.
 .
E =vo So
— ux [J 2 ioe
family -
Courtney,
Kurt and
Frances Bean.
‘
:
rape me In Cobain tradition,
singer packs a punch that is
both powerful and ambiguous
with the song's key line “I’m
not the only one.” The singer
may be telling us he’s not the
the

6 only one getting hurt by a harsh spotlight - he’s got a

013
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ape Me’ was one Cobain tune that shifted family too. But perhaps he wonders why he’s the one
—
thematic focus between the time it was of the three Nirvana members to be singled out for
written and the time it was recorded. special attention. Or, he may simply be announcing
_ When the band was in Los Angeles in June 1991, in a to his nemeses that there are other “stars” who
e rest period during the mixing sessions of Nevermind, deserve equal torment.
‘ Cobain picked up an acoustic guitar and began toying The song brought a couple of controversies upon
; with the chords of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ and the the band. They were forbidden from playing it in their
theme of ‘Polly. He came up with ‘Rape Me’. In some performance at the September 1992 MTV Video Music
; ways the song was indeed intended as “Polly’s” response Awards. The band complied, playing instead a version of
to the man brutalizing her - it’s also a promise to him ‘Lithium’, but not before Cobain drove some MTV
that vengeance will some day be hers. flunkies close to apoplexy by strumming the opening
“Basically, I was trying to write a song that bars of ‘Rape Me’. The song was also thought to be the
; supported women and dealt with the issue of rape,” real reason why the huge K-Mart and Wal-Mart chains of
| Cobain told Rolling Stone. “Over the last few years, discount stores refused to stock In Utero. (The
f people have had such a hard time understanding administrators from each company at first said they
: what our message is, what we're trying to convey, hadn't ordered the number-one record in the country
that I just decided to be as bold as possible. How because there was little consumer interest.) The album
‘
b:hard should I stamp this point? How big should I make
—
became acceptable to the retailers when a special
tl
ee the letters? It’s not a pretty image. But a woman printing of the album’s artwork was arranged and ‘Rape
; who is being raped, who is infuriated with the Me’ was listed, in rather ingenious disguise, as ‘Waif Me’.
situation...it’s like ‘Go ahead, rape me, just
: go for it, because you're going to get it. I’m
Something shocking — the
a firm believer in karma, and that motherfucker is going re band couldn't play ‘Rape
Me’ at the 1992 MTV
_to get what he deserves, eventually...So rape me, do it, Video Awards, but
managed to raise a few
. get it over with. Because you're going
eyebrows backstage.
B.to get it worse’.”
< By the time it was recorded during the In Utero
. sessions, the song had become more self-reflexive and
. the rape had become figurative. Cobain doesn’t seem to
5 be singing for any “Polly” - he’s singing as Cobain. Tired
;. and hurt from the struggle to maintain integrity and
i privacy, the singer gives himself up - resignedly
‘ offering himself to the smiling fans and hungry media
who have ceased thinking of the object of their
' attentions as anything human. Cobain makes it clear
i he’s singing for himself - and the band - in the song's
re second section, where he takes an “inside source” to
| task for spreading falsehoods.
i

iy
francis
Come and Get It, Flowing Gold,
Among the Living, and
Son of Fury.
Unfortunately, the pace of her
work took its toll on her and she

farmer will
was further broken by _ the
dehumanizing Hollywood _ star
machine. She began to drink heavily
mo nd, after several drunk-and-
disorderly arrests, was committed -
by her mother - to a mental

h QF =:
institution. Rather than help her,

h ave institution depressed and

revenge on
very likely driven insane by the
conditions under which she was
forced to live. Upon her release, she
did battle with her alcoholism and
addiction to pain killers and
sedatives, which she’d picked up as

Seattle
a “patient.” She could not resume
her career, and many in the press
continued to gloat that her sorry
state was just punishment for her
heretical political beliefs. Her~
mother, along with a string of
unsympathetic judges, continued to find reasons to
have her re-committed to a series of institutions and
or the artists, actors and musicians of Seattle, mental hospitals. She later claimed that she had been
the story of Frances Farmer's life has remained a raped almost every night she was confined.
disturbing cautionary tale of the crushing, Legend has it that Farmer was lobotomized during
authoritarian forces a free-thinking artistic mind can one of her final hospital stays, but in 1958 she became
come up against. Born in 1914, Farmer was a drama active in show business again, with parts in a movie
student at the University of Washington in Seattle, and (The Party Crashers), a play and a long-running soap
in the mid-1930s gained some local fame as one of the opera on alocal television station in Indianapolis. She
theater scene’s budding stars. The future looked bright died in 1970, and her autobiography, Will There Ever Be —
for Farmer, with the New York stage and Hollywood films A Morning? was published in 1972.
beckoning. But controversy that would hound her the The specter of a beautiful, fragile woman driven to
rest of her life began when, as a college student, she degradation and an untimely death by a hateful society
wrote an anti-religious essay for a leftist magazine and couldn’t help but have appeal to Cobain, who —
won a trip to Moscow. She survived the bad press that empathized strongly with Farmer's story. In his song, —
the incident provoked, eventually making it to New Cobain doesn’t retell that story, so much as take on her —
York. She did well in some Broadway productions and voice to mock the witch-hunters who had undone her. }
went on to success in Hollywood. Between 1936 and He also predicts a kind of Frances-led apocalypse, in 4
1942, Farmer appeared or starred in 14 films, including which the actress will return as flames to “burn all the — a*
liars”. For Farmer, all the things that were supposed to word titles.
bring her happiness - career, fame, money - brought Cobain wasn’t the first Seattle musician to
destruction instead. When Cobain reflects on his so- pay tribute to Farmer. During the 1970s and 1980s,
called success, he winds up concluding that he misses several punk shows were held on the University
the simple comfort of being sad. of Washington campus in the Group Theatre —- which
For all the supposed “punkiness” that In Utero was had been named after the New York theater company
supposed to spit at its listeners, the lengthy title that Farmer was a part of. In the last month of his

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‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle’ life, Cobain attempted to contact William Arnold, the
stands out as decisively anti-punk. Cobain was bothered author of what’s considered the definitive biography of
by the growing tendency among “alternative” and neo- Farmer. Arnold intended to respond, but Cobain was
punk bands to give their songs ostensibly ironic, one- dead before the writer had a chance.

Beautiful, talented,
delicate, and crushed by
an unsympathetic world.
The plight of actress
Frances Farmer was an
intensely moving story
to Cobain.
Young, stupid, and in
love - Cobain twisted
some clichés of romance
in his own love song of
sorts, ‘Dumb’.
Sf Fs
 dumb show hosted by Johnson on Olympia’s KAOS.
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Cobain was impressed enough with what the
7 Vaselines could do with lovey-dovey sentiments on a
=

‘ his sweet Beatle-inflected song gives the lie to song like ‘Son of a Gun’ that he covered it. He creates
>
;
“1 the supposed storm that swirled around the the same kind of love-among-the-pastel-colors feel in
making of In Utero. This gentle, soothingly the middle section of ‘Dumb’, but the sweet sentiments
melodic whisper of a song was recorded with supposed take on an edge when one realizes that Cobain is
; sonic-madman Albini at the recording console, and plaintively singing about inhaling glue with the object
made it on to the album without any extra of his affections so that the couple can enjoy a
post-production sweetening. Albini also common hangover.
apparently allowed his ogreish personality to ‘Dumb’ seems a good example of something Cobain
recede long enough to record a cello - Kera told Gavin Edwards just as the record was being
Schaley’s mournful lines add to the track's released: that he did not - as had been rumored — wish
delicate atmosphere. to drive fans of Nevermind away from the band with In
Cobain wrote the song in the summer of Utero. “Let's face it, we already sold out two and a half
1990, when, particularly inspired by the years ago. There’s no sense in trying to redeem yourself
anti-testosterone pop of the Raincoats by putting out an abrasive album and pretending you're
and the Vaselines, he began to follow a punk rocker.”
through on some of his own poppier
instincts. ‘Sliver’ was one result, and a In Utero had been
said to be unlistenable
basic version of ‘Dumb’ was another. In — but ‘Dumb’ was one
of the sweetest things
April of that year, Cobain had finally become Cobain had ever written.

satisfied with ‘Polly’ during the Smart demo

sessions — he brought the song to life by
singing it softly and strumming it on an
acoustic guitar. It was while toying with the
‘Polly’ chords that Cobain discovered the
‘Dumb’ melody. For a lyrical theme, he decided
to step into pop territory as well - this is simply a song
~ about being happy. Of course, because it’s a Cobain
"song, happiness has shadows - the singer can’t decide
if he has found contentment or simply lacks
_ intelligence. Cobain first debuted the song for the
_ person who had been responsible for his discovery of
_ the Vaselines - Calvin Johnson of K Records. In the
' autumn of 1990, Cobain played the song for a radio
Not part of America’s
team — Cobain took
another shot at mass
machismo with ‘Very Ape’.
Moustache’ - the song is basically an impassioned
denunciation of machismo.
‘Very Ape’ is, however, a little more nuanced than
hough it has power and a distinctive snarl, ‘Very ‘Mr. Moustache’. While the Bleach tune had been written
Ape’ was something of a throwaway tune on In partly as a rip at the beefy thugs Cobain had dealt with
Utero and probably represents what the people in Aberdeen, by the time Cobain wrote the In Utero
at Geffen were afraid of when they first heard the In tunes, he had become accustomed to a different type of
Utero tracks. While a quick collaborative effort worked brute, an odd creature of the rock n’ roll world - the
to the band’s benefit on ‘Scentless Apprentice’, a quick macho poseur. The character in ‘Very Ape’ is acting big
Cobain effort here yielded one of the album's slimmer and tough and hoping no one discovers that he is
efforts. Cobain had the music in mind before he had entirely naive - he’s trying to prove his masculinity
lyrics and so for a while ‘Very Ape’ had the working title through hipness.
‘Perky New Wave Number’ By the time it was recorded, it That character is, however, a little fuzzy around the
sounded more like a heavy-metal tune. In some ways, edges. Cobain’s use of the first-person in ‘Mr.
the tune’s simple lyrics are a follow up on Bleach’s ‘Mr. Moustache’, or ‘Lithium’, was pretty clearly him singing

very ape
in character. But throughout ‘Very Ape’ -
especially when the singer takes pride in being
“the king of illiterature” — it’s not entirely clear
where Kurt leaves off and where the ‘Very Ape’
character begins.
 In the superlative Nirvana biography Come As
You Are Cobain told Michael Azerrad that
‘Milk It’ provided a hint of things to come.
Cobain pointed out that he was working to
get past what he saw as a Nirvana song-
writing formula, and that future music might
sound closer to ‘Milk It’ than to some of In Utero’s

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his is another track that mainstream fans of catchier tracks.
Nevermind probably expected when they “T definitely don’t want to write more songs like
e heard from Geffen execs that In Utero ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ and ‘Rape Me’. That kind of classic rock
_was abrasively unlistenable. Loud, noisy, ugly, and -roll verse-chorus-verse mid-tempo pop song is
-unpleasant — ‘Milk It’ is all that and more. It’s also a getting real boring. I want to do-more new wave, avant-
D.
bracing, thoroughly invigorating tune. And it even garde stuff with a lot of dynamics - stops and breaks
oh
has some melody. and maybe even some samples of weird noises and
Though he presented himself as an iconoclast, things — not samples of instruments. I want to turn into
Cobain had always allowed his song writing to be the Butthole Surfers basically.”
shaped for the marketplace. Much of his original pre-
Sub Pop work with Nirvana was a little too arty and
Love among the parasites - disease and
noisy for the label, so the band streamlined its sound
dysfunction blossomed in the ostensibly
and became purveyors of grunge. Signing with Geffen romantic lyrics of ‘Milk It’

. had in many ways freed Cobain to pursue his pop

: impulses but, in fact, some of the lightest, poppiest
song ideas that he had wanted to develop for Nevermind
were rejected by people at the record company - they
could sell loud guitars to the public, but knew there
i wasn’t much of a market for Vaselines-style whimsy.
By the time he was crafting music for In Utero,
Cobain thought he and the band had finally been
musically liberated. He was a song writer with millions
oTope
_ of records sold, after all, and had earned the right to
: freely follow his muse. As the ensuing stink over In
: Utero proved, Cobain wasn’t as free as he thought. But
. ‘Milk It’ points in the direction that he may have taken
_ the band if Nirvana had continued to record.
The power of the song lies in the formidable, razor-
sharp arrangement. Lyrically, ‘Milk It’ was another
§ quickie job for Cobain - it is. basically ‘Drain You’
‘ycome to full fruition. Throughout In Utero - from its
songs to its artwork - Cobain took his fascination
‘ with disease and anatomy to artistic extremes, and with
‘Milk It’ he wrote a love song that expresses its
devotion scatologically. Milk, shit, viruses and parasites
all become shrieked terms of endearment. The song
“also contains the terribly prophetic line “Look on the
iebright side is suicide.”
i.
pennyroyal tea
It’s like ‘OK - I have this riff. I'll play it quiet, without
a distortion box, while I’m singing the verse,
and now let’s turn on the distortion box and hit
his is the In Utero song with the longest history. the drums harder.”
It was written, and first recorded, when Kurt Given all the medical references in In Utero, and
Cobain and Dave Grohl were living together in the anatomical artwork that bedecked the cover, the
Olympia during the winter of 1990. Cobain had moved title and lyrics of ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ are particularly
into Tracy Marander’s house on North Pear Street as appropriate. Pennyroyal is a flowering mint plant
their relationship became more serious, but when they that has long been used in European and American
split up, she was the one to leave. In October of that folk medicines. The plant’s oil can be used as an
year Dave Grohl became Nirvana’s drummer, and at first effective mosquito repellent, but also turns up in
lived with Krist and Shelli Novoselic, but soon moved in herbal remedies of questionable efficacy. Pennyroyal
to share Cobain’s house. By several accounts, the tea is believed to work as an abortifacient, but its
combined sloppiness of Grohl and Cobain worked to turn record of success is shaky —- chemical agents in the tea |
that residence into a breath-takingly filthy mess — but may possibly cause uterine contractions, but only
occasionally enough clutter was cleared so that the two when it is consumed in nearly lethal quantities.
could set up a four-track recorder and work on material. That was an appealing contradiction to Cobain, who had
‘Pennyroyal Tea’ was the very quick, inspired result of been ‘exposed to - and developed a contempt for -
one of these four-track sessions. Cobain didn’t think the the herbalism, homeopathy and varied hippie-folkie
song was strong enough for Nevermind, and left it alternative medicines of the sandal-wearing, New-Age
undeveloped. When it was revived for In Utero it segment of Olympia’s bohemian population.
became a standout track. At the time Cobain wrote ‘Pennyroyal Tea’, he
Though the song sounds like it is another in the line was in the process of a break-up with Tobi Vail, and
of Cobain’s soft-loud-soft, verse-chorus-verse pop had become disillusioned with Sub Pop, the
constructions, it was one of the first of his songs to Olympia scene and his own prospects of finding|
establish that formula. Perhaps that’s why Cobain didn’t artistic fulfillment. The song is basically sung by
seemed entirely thrilled with the song by the time In someone who is hoping for a complete purge of his
Utero was released - he had become disenchanted with problems - in effect, he wants to abort himself (or, in”
his own song writing process. the case of the third verse’s reference to laxatives -
“I guess I start with the verse and then go into excrete himself). A reference to “cherry-flavored
the chorus,” he said in a 1994 interview. “But antacids” has some personal resonance - Cobain :
I'm getting so tired of that formula. And it is formula. was troubled throughout most of his life by a
And there’s not much you can do with it. We’ve mostly untreatable stomach disorder that had him
mastered that - for our band. We're all growing pretty in chronic pain. The lyrics are also notable for an
tired of it. It is a dynamic style. But I’m only using unusual musical reference. If Cobain’s pennyroyal-
two of the dynamics. There’s a lot more I could be induced “self-abortion” is successful, he says he hopes »
using. Krist, Dave and I have been working on for an _ after-life befitting that of Canada’s
“.
this formula - this thing of going from quiet to loud - transcendental, world-weary poet, novelist and song
.

for so long that it’s literally becoming boring for us. writer, Leonard Cohen. Sealtan

in
 UI
013

Anemic royalty - despite

internal friction, Nirvana
was still capable of
greatness on In Utero, as
evidenced by standout
tracks such as
‘Pennyroyal Tea’.
Radio friendly unit
shifters — for all the
stress, strain and craziness
surrounding them, Nirvana
had both a number one
album and an artistic
triumph with In Utero.
 radio
necessarily want that, but I’ve finally admitted that
we're in the entertainment business.”
Still, he got a dig in at Nevermind and “Nirvana-
mania” with the title of this track, which appropriates

friendly
the crass, reductionist, bottom-line thinking of a record
company marketing department. The song is another of
In Utero’s “scary” tracks — there’s nothing radio-friendly
VS aE

about it. Against an insistent bass riff, a bashing drum

rhythm and piles of guitar noise, Cobain asks “What is
wrong with me?” and offers a few cleverly turned

unit
phrases and random thoughts on the price of success.
Cobain elaborated on being such a tremendously
successful “unit shifter” in another 1993 interview,
explaining that selling millions of records and bringing
on a pop trend could still leave an empty feeling.

shifter
“Sometimes you wonder if anything has
changed. Just because everyone starts wearing
flannel shirts doesn’t mean they think about the
world any differently. If we had changed things,
you'd hear a lot better music on the radio, wouldn't
you? I can’t deal with all that...the future of grunge
in America and all that. All I can do is worry about
our band...and keep from becoming another rock n’
fter Nevermind’s release, Cobain’s opinion roll cartoon.”
of the record tended to flip-flop.
Cobain hated the notion
As the album grew from an of being a mass-marketed
“voice of a generation.”
unexpected hit to a major pop-culture
signpost, Cobain grew less and_ less
comfortable with the music and attempted to
distance himself from it. He would
sometimes shrug off the sonic quality of
Nevermind, saying that to him it didn’t
sound any better than a Motley Criie
record, or that the bunch of songs
werent any more important than
anything Cheap Trick had ever put
together. But eventually he came to
feel that it wasn’t necessarily
shameful to create something that
was so popular.
Just before In Utero’s release, he told
Details magazine, “I always hated when
bands like Poison would say, ‘We just want to
give these hard-working blue-collar people
100)
an escape for a couple of hours’ We don’t
 019
UI
Uncontrollable urges -
arrangements for tracks
such as ‘Tourette’s’ were
quickly hammered
together in the studio.

,——

re
GOT
oe
a

tourette’s
& simple, fierce, over-the-top punk workout. The song
takes its title from a neurological disorder named after
n Utero was made very quickly. Cobain said shortly the French physician who first diagnosed it. With
after the sessions. “All the basic tracks were Tourette’s syndrome, an afflicted person is prone to
done within a week. And I did 80 percent of involuntary tics and uncontrollable verbalization, which
.
the vocals in one day, in about seven hours. I just often takes the form of either shouted obscenities or
__ happened to be on a roll. It was a good day for me, and repetition of what is being spoken to the person.
ri I just kept going.” “Cufk,” “Tish,” and “Sips” were the only three words
‘Tourette’s’ was one of the final, and fastest- listed on In Utero’s lyric sheet for this one, though
x
assembled, songs on In Utero, and was recorded when Cobain seems to be screaming words a little more
*
s Cobain could afford to blow his throat out with some excretory in nature. Some listeners felt this track was
«

_ manic shrieking. The song basically filled the space that pure filler, but there was certainly some dark humor in
‘Territorial Pissings’ took on Nevermind. It begins with a Cobain’s suggestion that he - the idolized, platinum-
brief Novoselic vocal appearance (intoning “Moderate selling “prophet of grunge” — might simply be someone
Rock” in his best oily FM DJ voice) and then kicks into a whose bad brain made him yelp dirty words.

\”
 Some felt he was an unfit
father, but Cobain spoke
openly of the deep and
powerful love he had for
daughter Frances Bean.

(102
 all apologies Cobain sat for an August 1993 Los Angeles Times interview

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wearing one of his favorite thrift store dresses: “Wearing a
dress shows I can be as feminine as I want. I’m
n Utero’s final track, and the second of the two re- heterosexual...big deal. But if I was a homosexual, it
mixed by Scott Litt, is a tender and gracefully wouldn't matter either... I respect people who promote
melodic statement of humility from Cobain. It was the way that they feel sexually.”
written at Cobain and Love’s Hollywood apartment on Aside from provoking some gender discussion and
North Spaulding, in the spring of 1992 - a time when making the mea culpas of the title, ‘All Apologies’ stood
Cobain was not getting along well with his band mates, out as one final uplifting example of what was possibly
: his record company, his management or his public. In Cobain’s greatest talents — he could write beautiful songs.
_ Utero opened with the angry, cynical self-defense of ‘Serve “I don’t want to see ‘Cobain is God’ spray-painted
_ the Servants’ but closed with the acutely self-aware ‘All on the wall,” Cobain said upon In Utero’s release. “My
_ Apologies’ Cobain lets the listener know he sees himself ego is already inflated way past the exploding stage. I
in as harsh a light as anyone else does, and recognizes his feel embarrassed saying this, but I’d like to be
limitations. The songs ends with the cryptic affirmation recognized more as a song writer. I don’t pay attention
“All in all is all we are.” Nirvana debuted it at the 1992 to polls and charts, but I thumb through them once
Reading Festival, with a dedication from Kurt to Courtney in a while and see, like, Eddie Vedder is nominated
The wave goodbye
and 12-day-old Frances Bean. number-one song writer in some magazine, and I’m - the band didn’t
know it, but
The lyrics include some witty plays on words, as well not even listed.” In Utero would
be their final
as a revised version of one of Cobain’s favorite graffitos. studio album.
He had once delighted in spraying “God is Gay” on the
walls of various establishments around
Aberdeen. Now, in a sweet, resigned
voice, he sang “Everyone is gay.” Not
a bold statement from someone who
could mix milk and shit in a love
- song perhaps, but still a fairly brave
line from a major rock figure
ts speaking to a mass audience. He took
~ another ground-breaking, gender-
twisting step for a straight rock n’
4 roller shortly after In Utero’s release,
__ when he granted an_ extensive
interview for and appeared on the
_ cover of the February 1993 Advocate,
a magazine whose readership was
mostly gay men. The subject of
_. gender roles and sexual
_ preference came up again when
unplugged
in new york
With amps powered down and acoustic guitars in hand,

Nirvana delivered a performance that let the power and

beauty of Cobain’s songs shine through in Surprising ways.

with loud, charged records and instrument-smashing
concerts — a band whose success some attributed to the
crafty use of volume knobs and distortion pedals -
n Utero was a de facto live album - it presented Nirvana offered something of a shock when they played
Nirvana in raw, loud, un-sweetened form - and a set softly: underneath all that grunge, all that
was a moving document of a great band flexing its distortion and all that teen spirit - there had always
formidable musical muscles. That record was followed been wonderful songs.
up with a bona fide live album, recorded when Nirvana Following the release of In Utero in September,
decided to take part in MTV's Unplugged series. Nirvana prepared for a major tour of the US and Europe
Unplugged had started as a fairly novel idea — bands — what would be its final tour. As the band had in the
could turn down their amps, put away their effects units past, it made a point of lining up opening bands that
and let their song writing shine. By the time Nirvana the band members particularly appreciated and wanted
recorded their session, on November 18, 1993, the to promote - the Meat Puppets, the Breeders, the
series had become somewhat tired and overdone - Boredoms, Half Japanese, Come, Shonen Knife and
rather than offering a revealing glimpse of musicians the Butthole Surfers would all share bills with Nirvana
working in an intimate setting, it was more often a throughout the band’s 45-date swing through the ~
precious, somewhat self-congratulatory run-through of US. During some intensive rehearsals prior to the tour,
i

hits played quietly. Surprisingly, Nirvana’s set did Nirvana also made a line-up change - for the first
i

manage to restore the power of revelation to the series. time since the departure of Jason Everman, they became
Alternately ragged and brilliant, the acoustic versions of a foursome again. The added member was guitarist
Cobain tunes, along with some well-chosen covers, Pat Smear (née Ruthensmear) of the infamous LA punk :—
seemed to loom larger the more quietly they were band the Germs.
played. For a band whose reputation had been built “For the longest time, we had looked for a
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second guitar player in Nirvana,” Dave Grohl told was nothing calculated about his addition to the line-
Chris Mundy in a 1995 Rolling Stone interview. up. Shortly after joining the band, he told Joe Gore in
“We thought it would be great to get Steve Turner Guitar Player, “It’s all very natural, honest and true to
from Mudhoney, or Buzz [Osborne] from the Melvins what they're really about. I’ve rehearsed with them, I've
or Eugene [Kelly] from Eugenius. We were rehearsing watched them write songs, and there’s nothing
one day, and Kurt came in and said ‘Pat Smear from contrived about anything they do.”
the Germs is going to be our second guitar player: Though Cobain, Novoselic and Grohl were very
Krist and I had never met him, and I just aware of the Germs’ legacy, Smear wasn’t very familiar
imagined this bloated, tattooed, bitter old mess. with Nirvana’s work. Still, Smear’s mix of raw feel, solid
And he came to rehearsal and it was so chops and spirited persona turned out to be a great fit
incredibly refreshing that it made everything in the band. “I'd heard their album maybe once. But
instantly great.” everything felt really natural right away, because what
The Germs, fronted by the self-destructive Darby they do is very similar to what I’ve always done.”
Crash, turned out to be a remarkably influential band in With Smear on board, the band brought along one
punk and hard-core circles but they were little-heard other musician on tour - cellist Lori Goldston of
during their brief existence. They were one of the Seattle’s Black Cat Orchestra re-created the somber lines
wildest and most innovative groups in a punk scene that Kera Schaley had added to ‘Dumb’ and ‘All
that flourished in LA during the late 1970s, which also Apologies’ on In Utero. The tour kicked off on October
included the likes of Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and X. 18, with a headlining set at the Arizona State Fair
The band’s recorded legacy centers on their one studio in Phoenix. As the band worked its way eastward
album, 1979’s GI on the Slash label, which was and through the Midwest, the shows were generally
produced by Joan Jett. Songs like ‘Lexicon Devil’ and energized and exciting. Nirvana demonstrated their
‘Manimal’ are vital precursors to much of what the rock talent on stages decorated with creepy trees and
underground would produce in the 1980s. The Germs winged mannequins that were similar to the
achieved their greatest degree of notoriety when their translucent woman on the cover of In Utero. They
exhilaratingly shambolic performances became the played raucous, generous sets and Cobain finally
centerpiece of Penelope Spheeris’s punk documentary seemed to enjoy - or at least tolerate - engaging the
The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization. But by the crowd in the band’s performance.
time of the film’s release, in 1980, Crash was dead of a Mid-tour, on November 18, while the band was in
heroin overdose. New York City, Nirvana taped its Unplugged concert at
Smear went on to record a pair of solo albums for Sony Studios. On a small stage bedecked with candles
SST, and became part of a duo called Death Folk. He and a forest of orchids (Kurt’s favorite flower), Kurt,
supported himself largely through extra work in films Krist and Pat hunched on stools and strummed acoustic
and television. (He appeared in Prince’s ‘Raspberry guitars while Dave Grohl tapped at his drums with
Beret’ video!) At the time he was summoned for brushes. The mood was hushed, and there was little
an audition with Nirvana, he was working behind interaction with the appreciative crowd, but the
the counter at the SST Superstore on the Sunset performance wasn’t without a few flashes of
Strip in Hollywood. Cobain’s famously cutting, self-deprecating humor i
a
Some cynical observers saw the recruitment of (“I guarantee you I'll screw this song up,” he muttered a
Smear as another Nirvana attempt at resuscitating their before a David Bowie cover song). Even so, watching
punk credibility, given the debacle that their Cobain make music in so humble a setting made him a
involvement with Steve Albini had turned into. But the warmer, more inviting figure than many would have
move was largely pragmatic - Cobain benefited greatly suspected after the tales of star fits and junkie-dom
in live performances when he had a second guitar that continued to circulate.
backing him up. And Smear himself certainly felt there Nirvana’s Unplugged session succeeded in that it :
 was an enlightening behind-the-hype view of a very agreed to spend time in a Los Angeles-area
capable, talented band. That the archangels of grunge rehabilitation center, and headed to LA on March 30 -
could play music of such stunning subtlety was a after purchasing a shotgun and dropping it off at his
surprising treat for fans, and the subdued readings of Lake Washington home. He spent a day at the Exodus
what had been high-volume missives proved to be a Treatment Center, but on April 1 ran away from the
minor epiphany —- it turned out that Nirvana’s secret grounds and made his way to the airport, where he
weapon all along had not been its rage, its attack or its caught a flight back to Seattle.
volume — but its songs. Love hired private detectives to track Cobain down,
The Unplugged performance was recorded with the and his mother, Wendy O’Connor, filed a missing person
expectation that it would be an interesting sidelight to report with the Seattle police. But Cobain would not
the long, strong career of a world-class rock band. But, be ‘found until it was too late to help him. On
sadly, it became something closer to a eulogy when it Tuesday, April 5, in a room above the garage of his
was released in October 1994. Lake Washington home, Kurt Cobain wrote a long
Kurt Cobain never stopped growing as an artist, but suicide note, gave himself an injection of heroin, and
he also never figured out a way to make peace with his then ended his life with a shotgun blast to the head.
personal demons. By the time Nirvana left for a He was 27 years old. Joo soon gone - a
troubled Cobain saw
European tour in February 1994, Cobain was in suicide as his only
escape route.
decent spirits and had apparently got his heroin
addiction under control, but his health was in
an ever-fragile state. There were a few powerful
performances in Europe, but on March 1 in
Munich, Cobain lost his voice halfway through a
show and was advised by doctors there that he
was suffering from exhaustion and needed
several weeks of rest. Remaining concert dates
were postponed, and Cobain and Courtney Love

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settled into a hotel room in Rome. On the
morning of March 4, Love found Kurt in a
coma — he'd written her a suicide note
and proceeded to wash down 50
sedatives with champagne. He was
rushed to a hospital and was revived
after five hours of treatment.
Back in Seattle, Cobain’s behavior
became increasingly erratic, and he
again resumed a heavy heroin habit. At
the end of March, Love arranged for an
“intervention” - an orchestrated
confrontation with Cobain in which
several of those who loved him and
worked closely with him (including
Novoselic, Grohl, management and
record company people and some
close friends) encouraged him to get
some professional help. Cobain

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ao
 The gentle, mournful rendition of ‘About A
Girl’ that follows is right on the mark.
In fact, although the ostensible
purpose of Unplugged was for musicians
to reinterpret their songs in an
acoustic mode, this version sounds like
a reinvention - it sounds more genuine
than the original. Whereas ‘About A Girl’
was the one Bleach track to hint
at Cobain’s budding pop-sense, here
the song shines as a fully realized pop
lament. While the Bleach version's
we - *
electric power gave the tune the lope
of a Smithereens tune, here the
song’s Beatle-esque heart is exposed for
id 3 J
all to see - the song could easily be a
Help-era out-take.
Given the elevated status the Unplugged
The pop appeal of
‘About A Girl’ - when album took on after Cobain’s death, ‘About
all around was grunge
- had shown Cobain’s A Girl’ makes for a great opening track -
more likely influences, it’s a reminder that Cobain the song writer
such as pop songsmith
Michael Stipe of REM. was a fine craftsman even back in the
unabashedly grungy days. And it’s also
a reminder that no matter what
the prevailing trends around him
were, and independent of the advice of
labels and management, Cobain’s music
led him to take chances.
“Even to have put ‘About A Girl’
on Bleach, was a risk,” Cobain told David
Fricke shortly after the Unplugged
session. “I was heavily into pop, I really
liked REM, and I was into all kinds of old
‘60s stuff. But there was a lot of pressure
he Unplugged sessions kick off with some within that social scene, the underground -
warm applause, to which Cobain responded like the kind of thing you get
with a rather formal “Good Evening”. Then he in high school. And, to put a jangly REM-
announces this song from Bleach by saying, “This is type of pop song on a grunge record, in that
off our first record. Most people don’t own it”. scene, was risky.”

about a girl chin

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tain
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 In its tougher, album form, ‘Come
: O} : as As You Are’, had sounded like
an invitation, but also a challenge.
Cobain was, in effect, throwing down
the gauntlet and announcing that
he would not judge those he
was addressing if they would
simply present themselves without
affectation. In its Unplugged version,
the song seems to become a much
more open, friendlier invitation,
and perhaps even a request of a favor - two years
of celebrityhood and its attendant scrutiny has
irvana played several songs from Nevermind, given Cobain no choice but to “come as he is” and
but avoided reinterpreting any of the major he’s wondering if his audience might be willing to
grunge anthems from that album ' (‘Teen join him. In the midst of all the craziness going
Spirit’, ‘In Bloom’, ‘Lithium’, etc.). Instead, they on in Nirvana’s world, Cobain’s heartfelt delivery of the
focused on songs that had already had a gentler song’s sentiments becomes tender, even touching.
dynamic in album form, and ‘Come As You Are’ - whose Because the Unplugged album was_ released
odd, watery sound had made it stand apart on months after Cobain’s death, it had the eerie effect
Nevermind to begin with - was a choice that benefited of presenting a performer who was singing to his
greatly from an acoustic presentation. (Acoustic — but fans from beyond the grave. In that light, ‘Come As
amplified. Since its creation, Unplugged has been a You Are’ was a particularly difficult track to listen to -
misnomer, as every act appearing has, in fact, plugged it was hard not to get a creepy feeling from
in to electric amplification. That being the case, Cobain hearing an impassioned Cobain sing out - as if he
used a chorus effect pedal to recreate that same odd, were trying to convince himself - “I swear to you I

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watery guitar sound from the album.) don’t have a gun.”

A gentle invitation -
‘Come As You Are’ and
many other Unplugged
tracks picked up fresh
nuance in their
subdued form.
jesus doesn’t want
me for a sunbeam
heroes. If the bands were still around and up to the
task, they might be asked to open a show for Nirvana.
Otherwise, they would be lauded with kind words from
obain’s love of, and promotion of, Scottish Cobain and a conspicuous appearance on one of his
band the Vaselines had remained undimmed t-shirts. Greg Sage and the Wipers, the Raincoats and
since he had first discovered their music Daniel Johnston were a few of those who benefited from
through Calvin Johnson’s K Records while living in Cobain’s desire to share the attention he received, and
Olympia. Notwithstanding the band’s slim output, the Vaselines may have received the best plugs of all.
Cobain continued to talk them up in interviews, and Two Vaselines covers were on Incesticide, this one made
made a point of staying in contact with half the it to Unplugged and it was partly Cobain’s unflagging
Vaseline brain trust - Eugene Kelly. Kelly had gone on to support of the band that got Sub Pop to collect and re-
form Eugenius, a band that rocked harder and more issue the band’s entire catalogue on a CD in 1992 (The
straightforwardly than the Vaselines, and for which he Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History).
continued to write some masterfully poppy songs. This haunting song, written by Eugene Kelly and
Eugenius recorded two albums, and it was their Vaseline-partner Frances McKee, is written in the
recording and touring plans that quickly took Eugene shape and style of an old hymn, and captures the wised-
Kelly out of the running when he was briefly considered up, semi-bitter sentiments of someone who expects he
as Nirvana’s second guitarist. has no place in heaven. The song gave Nirvana a
Throughout Nirvana’s career, Cobain took the chance to stretch a bit, musically - Dave Grohl played
opportunity to reflect some of his limelight toward a bass while Krist Novoselic contributed some
few of rock n’ roll’s most eccentric and under-sung melancholic accordion lines.
Cobain had great faith f
in music but little
respect for the excesses
of organized religion.
He echoed a dim view
of the notion of heaven
in this Vaselines cover.
 he inclusion of a David Bowie tune on the
Unplugged set list was perhaps the performance’s
biggest surprise - it seemed somewhat out of
character for a band that had just made a point
of releasing a pointedly punked-out, resolutely
un-commercial album to be covering a song by
one of rock n’ roll’s most self-consciously arty,
commercially successful superstars. But it
brought Cobain full circle back to one of his
earliest rock n’ roll passions.
Though Cobain had hated
everything that the glam-metal scene of |
the mid-1980s had produced, he had an
abiding love for the original glam and
glitter-rock of the 1970s. Roxy Music,
David Bowie and T-Rex remained as, if
not song writing influences, listening
pleasures. When Cobain, Novoselic
and original drummer Aaron
Burckhard made one of their first-ever
public appearances, playing a gig at
the GESSCO Hall in Olympia back in
1987, they didn’t take the stage in pointed the way toward his next
punk guise - Cobain was inafloral identity - Ziggy Stardust, alien-born
shirt, platform shoes and some rock n’ roll frontman. With the

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liberally applied eye makeup. He sang showmanship and grand production of
in a faux-British accent that reminded most in the later Bowie works, some fans may have forgotten that
audience not of Johnny Rotten, but of David Bowie. his earliest work had a guitar-strumming, Dylanesque
‘The Man Who Sold The World’ was the title track of feel to it. Cobain and Nirvana recaptured that spirit, and
one of Bowie's earliest albums, released in 1970. reminded the audience that before Mr. Bowie settled
(Before he recorded as David Bowie, he had put out a into years of bland superstardom, he was a smart, crafty
Cobain surprised many
few mod-era novelties under his given name - David song writer. Cobain sounds quite pleased to be able to fans by turning back to
=
a? his early glam influences
Jones.) That album had Bowie's sexually ambiguous, pull that off. “I didn’t screw it up, did I?” he asks with with a David Bowie cover
during Nirvana's
stylishly flamboyant persona coming into its own, and some genuine wonder at the songs end. Unplugged performance.

the man who

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Be
Sold the world ee
pennyroyal seemed to tie in with something Krist Novoselic said in
a taped message that was played for the thousands of
mourning fans who gathered in Seattle at the Flag
Pavilion the Sunday after Cobain’s suicide:
"We remember Kurt for what he was: caring,
generous and sweet. Let’s keep his music with us;
well always have it, forever.
Kurt had an ethic toward his

he loose feel of Nirvana’s set is clear as they get fans that was rooted in the
ready to play this song from the then just-
released In Utero. Band members aren’t sure
what song to play next - they're simply following
Cobain’s lead. Unplugged’s most affecting moment came
when Cobain decided to do a solo performance of
‘Pennyroyal Tea’ — it’s just him strumming a guitar
and singing while the audience, and the rest of
Nirvana, listens in. This must have been the way Dave
Grohl first heard it as Cobain wrote the song on a four-
track recorder in the Olympia apartment they shared
back in 1990.
Here was a perfect opportunity to
hear how much of the power of
Nirvana’s music began in Cobain’s
head. This song, whose successful
arrangement on Jn Utero depended on
wild dynamic shifts and a pummelling
drum beat, hardly seems smaller when
strummed softly on an acoustic guitar
- the conclusion being that the type of
guitar didn’t really matter because the
most amazing instrument in Nirvana
was Cobain’s voice.
He doesn’t, however, want to be
coddled for his successful solo turn. As
the song comes to a quiet end, a band member is moved
to say, “That sounded good.” Cobain’s quick, less-than-
gracious response: “Shut up.”
The song’s reference to “anaemic royalty” later
punk-rock way of thinking: no band is special, no
player royalty. If you’ve got a guitar anda lot of soul,
just bang something out and mean it. You're the
superstar, plugged into tones and rhythms that
are uniquely human; music. Heck, use your guitar
as a drum; just catch a groove and let it flow out of
your heart. That’s the level that Kurt spoke to us on, in
our hearts. And that’s where he and the music will
always be, forever.” & umb’ was a natural choice from In
Utero for the Unplugged set - it
hardly changed at all from record to
live performance. Lori Goldston’s cello adds the
intriguingly somber counterpoint to Cobain’s gentle
assessment of his chances for happiness, while
Novoselic’s fluid bass lines keep the dreamy song
moving forward. Of particular note on this performance,
as well as on ‘Polly’ and several others, is Dave Grohl's
clear, sweet background vocals - his abilities as a
vocalist, and song writer, would become clear when he
released the Foo Fighters debut album in 1995.

Putting on a show - by
the time of the 1993 In
Utero tour, Nirvana had
come a long way from the
sloppy house parties of
just a few years before.

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 a

Despite a brutal misappropriation,

‘Polly’ remained one of Nirvana's
most affecting songs - a
beautifully rendered glimpse
of a moment of horror.

polly
he had realized that the problem was not with the song
but with the approach. When he turned the amps off
and simply strummed the song on acoustic guitar —
while singing coolly restrained vocals - the song's
strengths became apparent. After the release of
Nevermind, ‘Polly’ had been used as something of an
“unplugged” moment in Nirvana concerts - the song
that allowed for a break in the din and a few moments
of more sublime listening.
Here, ‘Polly’ was largely unchanged from _ its

& olly’ had been a breakthrough song

Nevermind version, but its inclusion in the set says
something about Cobain’s commitment to his work. In
for Cobain - a song so powerful that the Incesticide liner notes, he had railed against a pair
it required a major shift in band of rapists who had committed their crime while singing
strategy. And it was, in fact, the song this song. Other bands had had songs taken hideously
that had first taught Nirvana the power of being out of context before and often responded by retiring
“unplugged.” Cobain’s unhappiness with the fast, the song from performance. But instead of having that

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electric version of the song - what came to be known as
‘(New Wave) Polly’ - led him to get away from Nirvana
business as usual. At the Smart Studios demo sessions
incident ruin the song for Cobain, he took it as a
challenge to reclaim it. As performed here, ‘Polly’ was
again one of Nirvana’s most powerful works.
 toward making any lingering debate on the slick sound
of Nevermind somewhat pointless. Here the song was
a Plain’ was without any double-tracked vocals, without any
perhaps Cobain’s compressed guitar, without any radio-friendly
greatest triumph sweetening, and yet it still jumped out as a thoroughly
of accidental song writing - it was engaging piece of prime pop. In the wake of Nevermind,
largely a song about not having Nirvana had sometimes had to answer to charges of
anything to say in a song. But the lyrics that selling out, and were expected to mutter punk oaths
Cobain had put together from notebook about how the “record company made us do it.” But at
poems and_ last-minute improvisations this point they were free to let their Beatles-roots show
during the final day of Nevermind sessions had held without apology, and ‘On A Plain’ sounded as catchy and
together and become meaningful in their own obtuse uplifting as it ever had.
way. And the band clearly enjoyed playing the song Cobain made one notable, but not all that
enough that it remained a part of their set during the In significant, change in the song's lyrics. In the second
Utero tour and at the Unplugged performance. verse, instead of opening with “My mother died” as he

Something
In its subdued form, ‘On A Plain’ went a long way had on the record, he substituted “My brother died.”

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in the way which point Vig simply recorded him right there and
succeeded in capturing the album’s moodiest piece. The
ttaining the chilly vibe of ‘Something in the vibe was easily and effectively recreated for Unplugged,
Way’ had been one of the most difficult with the band’s exceptionally light touch, Lon
problems of the Nevermind session. It didn’t Goldston’s gliding cello lines and Cobain’s delicate vocal
come together until an exasperated Cobain collapsed on approach coming together to again paint a picture of

a couch in the recording control room and strummed an the life Cobain had lived beneath the North Aberdeen

acoustic guitar to show Butch Vig what he wanted - at bridge a few years before and a world away.
 Nirvana on all three covers, while brother Cris
played guitar on two songs, bass on one, and
contributed some backup vocals.
In a 1995 interview with Mark Kemp for Option
magazine, Curt Kirkwood tried to express his
gratitude to Cobain. “At that fucking point in my
life, for Kurt Cobain to come from out of
nowhere...I mean, I had no fucking association with the
guy, none whatsoever, until - boom! - there he was.
he Meat Puppets (from Phoenix, Arizona) are When you've been dogged all your life, and all of a
one of the longest-lived and most musically sudden some little champion comes through for you...
accomplished of the early 1980s indie bands. I don't know what to say.”
The band, which includes brothers Curt and Cris This first Puppets cover is a dusty, country-tinged
Kirkwood and drummer Derek Bostrom, began asa lark song about a place. That place - the plateau — is one of
in 1982 when the trio decided to mix up hardcore punk natural beauty that has been defiled by human actions.
raucousness, honky-tonk song writing and decidedly Specifics are hard to pin down because, in typical Meat
amateurish musical abilities on their self-titled debut Puppets fashion, what comes through in the song are
album. The band might have been alittle-heard, quickly free-floating bits of dream logic and nightmarish
forgotten joke, but they followed their debut up with a imagery. Still, the saddened, somewhat forbidding, tone
couple of post-punk masterpieces: 1983’s Meat Puppets of the song indicates that humans have not acquitted
II and 1985's Up On The Sun. On those records, it themselves well where the plateau is concerned.
became clear to many that the Meat Puppets were a Explaining his world view to Kemp, Curt Kirkwood said,
serious, double-edged threat - their post-hippie, avant- “Tm not discounting humanity because I feel like we're
jazz chops were routinely astonishing, and they were scum; it’s not a derogatory thing. To meit’s just fucking
capable of writing remarkably original compositions, full reality.” “We're just a little channel for the horrors of
of hummable melodies, moving choruses and lysergically the world,” added Cris.
bent lyrical visions.
The band survived into the 1990s, releasing records
that usually had many moments of brilliance but had no
chance of breaking out into mainstream success. On the
strength of their careening, improvisational live shows,
they continued to convert unsuspecting concert-goers
into die-hard fans, yet were still beloved by a few and
unknown to millions. That changed when Cobain began
to wear their t-shirts and talk them up in Nirvana
interviews. Suddenly, hordes of Nevermind fans were
discovering the heady pleasures of Meat Puppets albums
such as Huevos and Monsters. The Meat Puppets profile
rose even higher when, at Cobain’s insistence, they were
offered the opening slot on the first part of the autumn
1993 In Utero tour. Since that portion of the tour
coincided with the plans for the Unplugged recording,
the Meat Puppets were welcomed along to Sony Studios,
where Nirvana did three Puppets cover tunes. In
116
addition, Curt Kirkwood played guitar along with
oh me
Clearly the vocals didn’t get in the way of
Cobain’s appreciation, and one can hear more
easily the power and craft of the Kirkwoods’
song writing in Cobain’s much sharper vocal
deliveries of these early songs. Cobain
occasionally had trouble taking pleasure in
his own work — or, more accurately, in the
reactions to his own work. But on Unplugged,
particularly on the Meat Puppet covers, one can hear
he Meat Puppets had recorded nine albums by the that Cobain still found joy in getting inside a song
time they were teamed up with Nirvana on the and bringing it to life. During a 1994 interview with
road in 1993. But the album that had remained a David Fricke for Rolling Stone, Courtney Love spoke of
significant personal favorite for Cobain was their second, Kurt’s faith in making music: “He never really put
titled appropriately enough, Meat Puppets II. On their that down. That was the one area that he wouldn't
debut, the band had begun recording at hardcore speeds, touch like that. I got to sit and listen to this
with plenty of attendant noise. On the second album, man serenade me. He told me the Meat Puppets second
they slowed things down considerably and allowed for record was great. I couldn't stand it. Then he played it
less clutter - thus revealing some formidable song to me - in his voice, his cadence, his timing. And I
wniting talent. Even on that more melodic album though, realized he was right.”
one of the things that made the Meat Puppets hard to ‘Oh Me’ is built on a starkly beautiful melody, and
listen to, for some, was the vocals of the Kirkwood seems to be a tender, though somewhat foggy,
brothers — drifting, lazily off-key, full of hit-and-miss celebration of new fatherhood. “Our lives were so fucked
harmonies — they were very much an acquired taste. up,” Curt Kirkwood recalled of the year that Meat
Puppets II was written and recorded. “We were into all
kinds of weird shit. We were so young. A lot of stuff on
that album has to do with having kids.”

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Arizona's redoubtable
Meat Puppets got some
international spotlight
when Kurt Cobain became
their “little champion.”
lake of fire
Kirkwood provides some devilishly slinky lead guitar, and
Cobain clearly relishes digging into the lyrics — he adds
some extra grit and twang to his bemused vocals. When
& ake of Fire’ is probably the most Meat the song ends, Cobain keeps the twang on for a “Thank
Puppet-ish of the three Meat Puppets songs you kindly,” and makes a point of introducing the Meat
covered here. With a bouncy, country feel, Puppets to the crowd. Interestingly enough, around the
the song lays out the Kirkwoods’ vision of Hell. Curt time the Meat Puppets helped to record Nirvana’s cover
of this song for Unplugged, they were about to release
their own cover - a new Meat Puppets version of ‘Lake of
A goofy sense of humor
sometimes masked the Fire’ turned up on 1994’s excellent Joo High to Die.
formidable song writing
talents and instrumental In the 1995 interview with Mark Kemp, Curt
prowess of the Meat Puppets.
Kirkwood clearly still had some conflicted feelings about
having been “discovered” by Cobain and, consequently,
Nirvana fans. The Meat Puppets had been paying their
punk/underground dues longer than almost any other
band, and Kirkwood seemed to find it troubling that
after all their hard work, the commercial success of the
Meat Puppets was due to a simple nod of approval from
Cobain. “They chose to have us come along with them,
but I wrote those songs. I don’t know why things
happen. I have thought a lot about it - why? why? -
but I don’t know.”
But getting the break from Cobain and Nirvana
obviously meant a lot to Kirkwood and his band, and
it was a cruel twist for them to lose their “little
champion” so soon after getting to know him. Curt
Kirkwood worked out some of his feelings toward Cobain
with a song on the Meat Puppets’ 1995 album No Joke.
Borrowing a piece of lyric from ‘About A Girl’, the song
was Called ‘For Free’.
“It's just a fucking disclaimer, basically,”—
Kirkwood said at the time of the album’s release.
“The title says it all. ...I didn’t take Cobain to be some
kind of huge icon. To me he was just a person I worked
with. That's a rarity for me, because one of my icons is -
work. And when you spend time working with
somebody like him - well, that shit’s fucking cool, man.—
It’s totally real.”
Apologies regretfully
accepted —- Nirvana fans
gathered during a Seattle
memorial service for
Cobain, April 10, 1994.

In that note, Cobain ended with a line of lyric from

Neil Young’s 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps: “It’s better to
ith its final, soothing mantra changing burn out than to fade away.” Young had never met
from the recorded version’s “All in all” to Cobain, but was an admirer of his talents, and was moved
“All alone is all we are,” perhaps no song to dedicate an album to him - 1994’s Sleeps With Angels.
- following Cobain’s death - took on as poignant a cast He talked about Cobain with Eric Weisbard in a September
as this one did. The song began to sound like an 1995 Spin interview:
extension of the suicide note he had left, in which he had “T really could hear his music. There's. not that many

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addressed Nirvana’s fans directly: absolutely real performers. In that sense, he was a gem.
“IT haven't felt the excitement of listening to as He was bothered by the fact that he would end up
well as creating music, along with really writing following schedules, have to go on when he didn't
something, for two years now. I feel guilty beyond words feel like it, and be faking, and that would be very hard for
about these things...Sometimes I feel as if I should him because of his commitment. The paradox of music is
have punched a time clock before I walk out on stage. that it’s really meant to be played when you feel like
I've tried everything within my power to appreciate playing it. It’s not meant to be played like a job. The
it, and I do. God, believe me, I do. But it’s not enough. purest essence of music is an expression, it should be
I appreciate the fact that I and we have affected done like a painter. You don’t paint when the audience
and entertained a lot of people. I must be one of comes in and pays their quarter. I don’t think he did a
those narcissists who only appreciate things when good job of dealing with it. But it’s understandable,
they're alone. I’m too sensitive...” considering how real he was.”

all apologies.
 where did you
Sleep last night
“discovered” in the unlikeliest of places - the Louisiana
State Penitentiary. In 1933, folk archivist John Lomax
was traveling throughout the southern United States,
irvana closed out its Unplugged performance making simple recordings of “found” music — work
with a song by a writer Cobain referred to as songs, back-porch blues, murder ballads and assorted
“
my favorite performer...our favorite folk tales. They had discovered that one of the richest
performer” — Huddie Ledbetter, the seminal folk artist sources of this kind of music was behind prison bars -
more often referred to as Leadbelly. prisoners who had little else to do but sing their songs
Ledbetter was a remarkable talent who was to pass the time. In Louisiana, Lomax recognized a
The tunes of Huddie singular talent when he recorded several of Ledbetter’s
Pee 2
Ledbetter, aka Leadbelly,
- original songs. He went to the Louisiana governor and
had a lasting influence
on Cobain’s writing.
Furs interceded on Ledbetter’s behalf - the singer, who was
in on a charge of attempted murder, was pardoned after
he proved his worth by writing a song especially
for the governor.
In the late 1930s, Ledbetter became a huge hit in
the nightclubs of New York City and was one of the
few black artists of the day who enjoyed
widespread popularity with white
audiences. An assault charge put a crimp
in his career and sent him back to prison in
1939. But in 1940 he was thrilling crowds
again, and _ working alongside such
notable folk and blues singers as Woody
Guthrie, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
Leadbelly was at the peak of his abilities
and popularity throughout most of the
1940s, penning such crowd-pleasing
hits as ‘Good Night, Irene’, ‘Rock Island
Line’ and ‘In the Evening When the Sun
Goes Down’, while winning over working
men and intelligentsia alike with his
intensely funny, sharply observant political
protest songs. Ledbetter had the foresight,
or luck, to sit for a multitude of recording
120
j
sessions. When he died of Lou Gehrig’s
 Dave Grohl would come out from
behind the drums after Nirvana’s
demise and show offa variety of
musical talents as the leader of
the Foo Fighters.

disease in 1949, he left behind a treasure trove guitar, then-Screaming Trees-member Mark Pickerel on
of recorded material. drums and Lanegan belting out the bloody tale of
Cobain got heavily into Leadbelly when he got hold jealous suspicions. Cobain sang lead when the same
of a copy of the two-volume set Leadbelly’s Last bunch of musicians recorded a second Leadbelly tune,
Sessions while living in Olympia in 1988. Leadbelly’s called ‘Ain’t It a Shame’, but that track wasn’t used on

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ability to combine simple words with just the right Lanegan’s album and was never released as a single.
unexpected melodic turns and rhythms provided a Cobain made an inspired choice in returning to
lesson Cobain quickly took to heart and mastered in his ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’ as an Unplugged
own compositions. And Leadbelly remained an closer. The band was tight, the ominous cello lines
inspiration for him throughout Cobain’s life - one he are a beautiful touch and when Cobain’s voice rockets
was eager to share with kindred spirits. When Cobain raggedly into an upper register, as he growls out the
got to meet William S. Burroughs in late 1993 at final verses, it raises goosebumps and freezes the blood.
Burroughs’s home in Lawrence, Kansas, the gift the song Cobain was capable of great music on a regular basis,
writer gave to the author was a Leadbelly biography. but in those few moments he worked magic.
Cobain’s first experience with ‘Where Did You “His version is the definitive version - it
Sleep Last Night’ - known alternately as ‘In the Pines’ - blows mine away,” Lanegan told Jason Fine in an
came about when he helped out his good friend Mark August 1996, Rolling Stone interview. “One of the
Lanegan of the Screaming Trees. (The singer was coolest things that ever came from hanging with Kurt
recording his first solo album, The Winding Sheet, for was just sitting in his shed and_ hearing
Sub Pop in 1990.) Lanegan and Cobain tried to write him play acoustic guitar and singing. To me it sounded
some original songs together, but when no great like what I imagined it would be like if
work seemed forthcoming they decided to record a I was sitting in the room with Skip James
couple of Leadbelly tunes. ‘Where Did You Sleep or Lightnin’ Hopkins. It was so soulful and real,
Last Night’ was recorded with Krist on bass, Kurt on it gave me chills.”

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 afterword
an interview with kurt cobain
After having heard much about Cobain’s reputation as a
smack-addled cipher ... |was very pleasantly surprised

to find that he was warm, forthcoming, insightful...

interviewee. When our communications came to an end,
I considered it a privilege to have made his
never got to meet Kurt Cobain, but I did have the acquaintance and wanted to make sure that the Cobain
opportunity to interview him, through a series of I had spoken with came through clearly in my piece.
trans-Atlantic phone calls and faxes. In the Unfortunately, before that piece had even been written,
months before his death, Kurt had been designing a Kurt over-dosed on champagne and Rohypnol while the
guitar with the Fender Company (what came to be band was in Rome. This was, at first, described as an
known as the ‘Jag-stang’ guitar - a custom-built Fender accident, but eventually it was revealed that it had
Jaguar, Fender Mustang hybrid). Kurt enjoyed his been a calculated suicide attempt.
dealings with the company and had consequently A month later, Cobain, having escaped from a
agreed that he would, at some point, grant an interview rehabilitation facility in Los Angeles, made his way back
for Fender's Frontline magazine. When Ifirst contacted to Seattle. On April 5, 1994, he barricaded himself in a
him to do that piece - in February 1994 - Nirvana was room above his garage, put a shotgun to his head, and
in Europe on what would be their final tour. Kurt was, ended his life. After Cobain’s death, the Frontline piece
somewhat understandably, less than eager to submit to was re-edited, and what ran were excerpts from the
interviews at the time, but it was made clear to him following interview, along with a short memorial. Here
that the idea of the piece was not to prod him about is the full transcript of what was almost certainly one of
any of the sensational rumors that were circulating Cobain’s final interviews.
about the band but to just let him speak frankly about
his music. He graciously consented. Q Nirvana has become a “Big Rock Story”, but the
e
After having heard much about Cobain’s reputation @ music still seems to be the most important part of |
as a smack-addled cipher, egocentric brat and/or prickly that story. Your music offers the simple, powerful rock n’ —
press-hater, I was very pleasantly surprised to find that roll thrill that so many other bands seem to have a hard
(122 “
he was a warm, forthcoming, insightful and very funny time delivering. How proud are you of Nirvana’s work? “a
 DIO
The music remains with
us, but Kurt Cobain,
and Nirvana, will be
deeply missed.

KC It's interesting, because while there’s a things that tracks like ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ and
eo
e certain selfish gratification in having any ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ on In Utero make clear is that you're
number of people buy your records and come to see certainly a gifted song writer. You may have a tough job
you play, none of that holds a candle to simply hearing sometimes, but has the writing process continued to be
a song that I’ve written played by a band. I’m not pleasurable and satisfying for you?
talking about radio or MTV. I just really like playing
these songs with a good drummer and bass player. I think it becomes less pleasurable and
Next to my wife and daughter, there’s nothing that KC- satisfying when I think of it in terms of
brings me more pleasure. being part of my “job.” Writing is the one part that
I’m extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished is not a job, it’s expression. Photo shoots,
together. Having said that, however, I don’t know how interviews...that’s the real job part.
long we can continue as Nirvana without a radical shift
in direction. I have lots of ideas and musical ambitions You're a very passionate performer. Do you find
eo
that have nothing to do with this mass conception of Q: yourself re-experiencing the tenderness and the
“grunge” that has been force-fed to the record-buying rage in your songs when you perform them?
public for the past few years. Whether I will be able to
do everything I want to do as part of Nirvana remains to That’s tough because the real core of any
be seen. To be fair, I also know that both Krist and Dave KC: tenderness or rage is tapped the very
have musical ideas that may not work within the second that a song is written. In a sense, I’m only re-
context of Nirvana. We’re all tired of being labeled. You creating the purity of that particular emotion every time
can’t imagine how stifling it is. I play that particular song. While it gets easier to
summon those emotions with experience, it’s a sort of
You've made it clear that you're not particularly dishonesty in that you can never recapture the emotion
eo
Q: comfortable being a “Rock Star”, but one of the of a song completely each time you play it. Real

a,

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“performing” implies a sort of acting that I’ve always that’s going too far. Let’s just say that having Pat to
tried to avoid. hold down the rhythm allows me to concentrate on
the performance as a whole. I think it’s improved
It must be a very odd feeling for Nirvana to be our live show 100%.
eo
Q: performing in sports arenas these days. How do
you get along with the crowds you're attracting now? On In Utero, and in concert, you play some of
@
Q: the most powerful “anti-solos” ever hacked out
Much better than I used to. When we first of a guitar. What comes to mind for you when it’s time
KC: started to get successful, I was extremely for the guitar to cut loose?
judgmental of the people in the audience. I held each of
them to a sort of punk-rock ethos. It upset me that KC Less than you could ever imagine.
eS
we were attracting and entertaining the very people eo

that a lot of my music was a reaction against. I've

since become much better at accepting people for who Krist and Dave do a great job of helping to
e
they are. Regardless of who they were before they came Q: bring your songs to life. How would you
to the show, I get a few hours to try and subvert the describe the role of each player, including yourself, in
way they view the world. It’s not that I’m trying to the Nirvana sound?

dictate, it’s just that I am afforded a certain platform

on which I can express my views. At the very least, I KC While I can do a lot by switching channels
e
always get the last word. © on my amp, it’s Dave who really brings the
physicality to the dynamics in our songs. Krist is great
There’s a great deal of craft in your songs, but at keeping everything going along at some kind of an
oe
Q: you also seem to enjoy the thrill of simply even keel. I’m just the folk-singer in the middle.
cranking up an electric guitar. Is playing guitar a
pleasure for you, or do you battle with the instrument? Aside from interviews, what are the biggest
e
Q e drags for you these days?
KC The battle is the pleasure. I’m the anti-
eo
@ guitar hero - I can barely play the thing Being apart from my family for months at a
myself. I’m the first to admit that I’m no virtuoso. I KC- time. Having people feed me fine French
can’t play like Segovia. The flip side of that is that meals when all I want is macaroni and cheese. Being
Segovia could probably never have played like me. seen as unapproachable when I used to just be called
shy. Did I mention interviews?
With Pat Smear playing guitar in the touring
e
Q: line-up, has your approach to the instrument Nevermind changed your life in a big way, but
eo
changed much? Is it easier to enjoy playing live with an Q: having Courtney and Frances Bean around must
extra pair of guitar-hands helping you out? help you keep things in perspective. How much do you s

enjoy being a family man?

KC Pat has worked out great from day one. In
&

K
@ addition to being one of my closest friends, X's more important than anything else in q
eo
Pat has found a niche in our music that compliments @ the world. Playing music is what I do - my|
what was already there, without forcing any major family is what I am. When everyone's forgotten about—
changes. While I don’t see myself ever becoming Mick Nirvana and I’m on some revival tour opening for the
Jagger, having Pat on stage has freed me to spend Temptations and the Four Tops, Frances Bean will still
more time concentrating on my connection with the be my daughter and Courtney will still be my wife. That
audience. I’ve become more of a showman - well, maybe means more than anything to me. *
 “i 1965
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May 16 Krist Antho before deciding to recruit a ae
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‘ girlfriend Shelli in theirTeacoma apartment.
begin rehearsing. They perforn
ss, Ted Ed Fred, PenCap Chew, Throat Oyster
efore settlingon Ni
ic and iia oly2< inane -March The band playsgigs tl
~ ona radio show for KAOS, the station at Evergreen ria and the i -
State College in Olympia, Washington. Among songs \
| the band play are ‘Love Buzz’, ‘Floyd the Barber’, _ sia
tsarStudiosin Wisconsin, —
‘Mexican Seafood’, ‘Hairspray Queen’ and ‘Downer. ee ateanon recorded Baie 2
are ‘In Bloom.
19 BB of ‘Polly’ that would end up onAe rtid
January 23 With drummer Dale Crover, Nirvana work _ May The band undertakes its second major US me
through 10 songs at Reciprocal Studios in Sea At the end of the tour, Kurt and Krist fire Chad
Producer Jack Endino records and mixes the Channing. Dale Crover fillsin for a seven-date ~
Three tracks from this session, ‘Paper Cuts’, ‘Floyd West Coast tour.
the Barber’ and ‘Downer’, will appear on Bleach. July 11 The band records ‘Sliver’ with producer 32
February Endino passes a tape of the demos to Endino. Mudhoney’s Dan Peters playsspinesr
Jonathan Poneman of Sub Pop records. Poneman the track. yh}
loves the songs, though many he plays the tape for, © September 22 Nirvana, with Peters on Praek
including Sub Pop co--owner e Pavitt, are not as headlines a major show at the tespans © ap ’
impressed. He pursues the band, and gets them International and Garage in Seattle. DaveCl
interested in doing a single for Sub Pop. in the audience. et ty |
Spring The band rehearses and performs with Dale October After a quick audition, DaveGoh none (125)

a
’ into Nirvana. The new line-up takes off for a brief bars of the song before the band breaks into
ye tour of Britain. ‘Lithium’, Backstage, the Cobains and Axl Rose
December 1 Sub Pop releases the ‘Sliver’/‘Dive’ single. exchange unpleasant words, and Kurt and Axl
Nirvana is using its Smart sessions demos to engage in a shoving match.
ag } , generate major label interest. September 11 Nirvana plays a Seattle benefit for the
oes ig , Washington Music Industry Coalition, an anti-
) 1991 censorship group. &
4 April 30 Nirvana formally signs on with Geffen Records. | December 15 Incesticide is released.
o e May-June Nirvana temporarily relocates to Los Angeles = Py

v.
bad % and records the tracks for Nevermind at Sound City i 93 Ate
diosin Van Nuys, California, with Butch Vig ary Nirvana, ate L lay two large stadium shows
ucin¢ ese sessions, a relationship Sao Paolo and Rio neiro, Brazil.
aes begins b 2 ain and Courtney Love. “ February The band has recording sessions for In Utero
June Nirvana s for Dinosaur Jr. Nest Coast t at Pachyderm Studios inMinnesotawith producer
‘ a
7 5 7 as * __Steve lbini. — Ps
» ; y: OSS Te on byaame in theSeattle
« ¢ ¢ tset < ading Fe: WF Gre : ide home in the city itse
ren eS * Fest
tat mati yn.
Marc battles over Frances Be
nend, with theNate against Kurt rtand
Cou
being rendered not legally valid.
9 Nirvana plays a benefit at the
San Fra :
: Its first pressing -
Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy.
. By Christmas, the album is ) for the Tresnjevka Women’s
Group,a
; ve > organization assisting rape victms in the war-

ae it’ is th May fers a heroin overdose in .

- and ost ae
program’s “Skul her of theWeek.”
November 2 sets outon met to eae17 Newsweek m runs an arti
December Nirvana tours briefly with Pe versy’ hie er
Red HotChilli
ie Pep) ‘ om
= = ah submitted to Geff grea
subsequent press focuses on the o
1992 conflict of opinion between Ni
January 11 Ne : r One recor
Billboard album charts.
January | 24 Nirvana urs Califo Australia, New —
Zealand, Japana iN ?
; February 24 Kurt Cot ourtney Love ;
in Hawaii.
May Cobain checks into Exodus, a fila rehabilitation
rogram in Los “e for treatment of his heroin ah
( the following
addiction. He le program be year as an og
treatment is finished. aa a ys its final US shows, at the
June The band tours Ireland, Northern Ir — Seattlseh
P a Scandinavia, France and Spain. Ps February as na begins a European tour.
ree August Vanity Fair publishes an article insi ‘ Te e band gives what will be its final
L A is that Courtney Love is an unfit, heroi icted *° formance at Terminal Einz, Munich.
oe mother-to-be. March 4 Cobain overdoses in Rome on a combination of
ni _ August 18 Frances Bean Cobain is in Los Angeles. champagne and Rohypnol. Nirvana management at
iv r Kurt Cobain is de-toxing at th hospital. Child - first claim that this is an accident. Later it is clear
Aras welfare authorities ee ains’ custodyof that it was a suicide attempt.
of) their child. The case is mst until March, 1993. March 30 Cobain spends two days at the Exodus
August 30 Making a joke fi (accurate) rumors of his rehabilitation center in Los Angeles.
ill health, Kurt is brought to the stage of the April 1 Cobain scales a wall to escape Exodus, and flies
Reading Festi ada hospital smock and wheelchair. to Seattle.
Nirvana’ extn set is ecstatically received. April 5 In a room over the garage of his Seattle home
Septem ana plays the MTV Video Music at 171 Lake Washington Blvd. E., Kurt Cobain writes
Awards. The band wishes to play ‘Rape Me’ but are a suicide note, gives himself a heroin injection and
asked not to by MTV staff. Cobain plays the opening then ends his life with a shotgun blast to the head.
 discography Records, Communion 23
Uk sirgles and eps ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’/‘Even In His Youth’/‘Aneurysm’ September 9, 1991,
“Blew December, 1989, Tupelo EP8/CDB DGCCD 5
‘Blew’/‘Love Buzz /‘Been A Son’/Stain’ ‘Come As You Are’/‘School’ (Live) /‘Drain You’ (live) March, 1992, DGCS 7
‘Sliver’/‘Dive’ January, 1991, Tupelo, TUP 25 ‘Lithium’/‘Been A Son’ (Live) /‘Curmudgeon’ July 20, 1992, DGCSD 9
‘Sliver’ /‘Dive'/‘About AGirl’ (Live) April, 1991, Tupelo EP25/CD25 ‘Oh, The Guilt’/ b/w ‘Puss’ (by the Jesus Lizard) February, 1993, Touch&Go TG83
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’/‘Drain You’ August, 1991, DGC5
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’/‘Even In His Youth’/‘Aneurysm’ September 9, 1991,
DGCCD 5
albums
Bleach June 1989, Sub Pop SP 34 ‘Blew’; ‘Floyd the Barber; ‘About A Girl’;
‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’/‘Even In His Youth’/‘Aneurysm’/‘Drain You’ ‘School’; ‘Love Buzz’; ‘Paper Cuts’; ‘Negative Creep’; ‘Scoff; ‘Swap Meet’; ‘Mr.
November, 1991, DGCTD 5 Moustache’; ‘Sifting. Re-issued in April 1992, Geffen GEF 24433 Additional
“Come As You Are’/‘Endless, Nameless’ March 1, 1992, DGC 7 tracks: ‘Big Cheese’; ‘Downer.
‘Come As You Are’/‘Endless, Nameless‘/‘School' (Live) March, 1992, DGCTD 7 Nevermind September 1991, Geffen DGC 24425 ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’; ‘In
‘Come As You Are’/ ‘School’ (Live) /‘Drain You’(live) March, 1992, DGCS 7 Bloom’; ‘Come As You Are’; ‘Breed’; ‘Lithium’; ‘Polly’; Territorial Pissings’; ‘Drain
‘Lithium’/‘Curmudgeon’ July 9, 1992, DGCS 9
You’; ‘Lounge Act’; ‘Stay Away’; ‘On a Plain’; ‘Something In the Way’; ‘Endless,
‘Lithium’/‘Been A Son’ (Live)/‘Curmudgeon’ July 20, 1992, DGCSD 9
Nameless’
‘In Bloom’/‘Polly’ (Live) November, 1992, Geffen GFS 34
Incesticide December 14 1992, Geffen GEF 24504 ‘Dive’ ‘Sliver’; ‘Stain’: ‘Been A
‘In Bloom’/‘Sliver (Live) /‘Polly’ (Live) November 1992, Geffen GFSTD 34
Son’; Turnaround’; ‘Molly's Lips’; ‘Son of a Gun’; ‘(New Wave) Polly’; ‘Beeswax’;
‘Oh, The Guilt’/ b/w ‘Puss’ (by the Jesus Lizard) February, 1993, Touch&Go
‘Downer; ‘Mexican Seafood’; ‘Hairspray Queen’; ‘Aero Zeppelin’; ‘Big Long Now;
1683
‘Aneurysm’.
‘Heart-Shaped Box’/’Marigold’ (written and sung by Dave Grohl) August,
In Utero September 13, 1993, Geffen GEF 24536 ‘Serve the Servants’; ‘Scentless
1993, Geffen GFS 54
Apprentice’; ‘Heart-Shaped Box’; ‘Rape Me’; ‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her
‘Heart-Shaped Box’/’Milk It’/’Marigold’ (written and sung by Dave Grohl)
Revenge On Seattle’; ‘Dumb’; ‘Very Ape’; ‘Milk It’; ‘Pennyroyal Tea’; Radio Friendly
September, 1993, Geffen GFSTD 54
Unit Shifter’; Tourette's’; ‘All Apologies’; ‘Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow
‘All Apologies’/‘Rape Me’ December 1993, Geffen GFS 66
Through the Strip’
Unplugged in New York October 1994, Geffen GEF 24727
albums ‘About A Girl’; ‘Come As You Are’; Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam’; ‘The
Bleach August 1989, Tupelo TUP LP 6/MC 6/ CD 6 ‘Blew; ‘Floyd the Barber’; Man Who Sold the World’; ‘Pennyroyal Tea’; ‘Dumb’; ‘Polly’; ‘On a Plain’;
‘About A Girl’; ‘School’; ‘Love Buzz’; ‘Paper Cuts’; ‘Negative Creep’; ‘Scoff; ‘Swap ‘Something In the Way’; Plateau’; ‘Oh Me’; ‘Lake of Fire’; All Apologies’; ‘Where
Meet’; ‘Mr. Moustache’; ‘Sifting’ Re-issued in April 1992, Geffen GEF 24433 Did You Sleep Last Night’
Additional tracks: ‘Big Cheese’; ‘Downer. From the Muddy Banks of Wishkah October 8, 1996 Geffen
Nevermind September 1991, Geffen DGC 24425 ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’; ‘In 16 tracks from live performances 1989-1994.
: i Bloom’; ‘Come As You Are’; ‘Breed’; ‘Lithium’; ‘Polly’; Territorial Pissings’;
: “Drain You’; ‘Lounge Act’; ‘Stay Away’; ‘On a Plain’; ‘Something In the Way’;
‘Endless, Nameless”
compilations
_ Incesticide December 14 1992, Geffen GEF 24504 ‘Dive’; ‘Sliver’; ‘Stain’; ‘Been A and related recordings
Son’; ‘Turnaround’; ‘Molly's Lips’; ‘Son of a Gun’; ‘(New Wave) Polly’; ‘Beeswax’; ‘Spank Thru’ Sub Pop 200, compilation
. ‘Downer; ‘Mexican Seafood’; ‘Hairspray Queen’; ‘Aero Zeppelin’; ‘Big Long Now; December, 1988, Sub Pop SP25

‘Aneurysm’. ‘Bikini Twilight’ by the Go Team (Calvin Johnson and Tobi Vail, featuring Kurt
In Utero September 13, 1993, Geffen GEF 24536 Cobain) July 1989, K Records

‘Serve the Servants’; ‘Scentless Apprentice’; ‘Heart-Shaped Box’; ‘Rape Me’; ‘Mexican Seafood’ Teriyaki Asthma, Vol. 1, compilation
‘Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle’; ‘Dumb’; ‘Very Ape’; ‘Milk It’; November, 1989, C/Z Records, (2037

“Pennyroyal Tea’; ‘Radio Friendly Unit Shifter; Tourette's’; ‘All Apologies’; ‘Gallons ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’ (featuring Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic)

of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip’ The Winding Sheet, Mark Lanegan (Screaming Trees) solo album May 1990, Sub
Pop, SP61
Unplugged in New York October 1994, Geffen GEF 24727
_ ‘About A Girl’; ‘Come As You Are’; Jesus Doesn't Want Me For A Sunbeam’; ‘The ‘Do You Love Me’ (w/Jason Everman in line-up) Hard To Believe, Kiss tribute
album August 1990, C/Z Records, (Z024
_ Man Who Sold the World’; ‘Pennyroyal Tea’; ‘Dumb’; ‘Polly’; ‘On a Plain’;
Something In the Way’; ‘Plateau’; ‘Oh Me’; ‘Lake of Fire’; ‘All Apologies’; ‘Where ‘Here She Comes Now Heaven and Hell Vol. 1, Velvet Underground tribute
album June 1991, Communion Records, Communion 20
id You Sleep Last Night’.
‘Beeswax’ Kill Rock Stars, compilation August 21, 1991, Kill Rock Stars, KRS
the Muddy Banks of Wishkah October 8, 1996 Geffen
201
16 tracks from live performances 1989-1994.
‘Bureaucratic Desire for Revenge’ EP by Earth (featuring Kurt Cobain) October
1991, Sub Pop, SP 123
‘Return of the Rat’ Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers, tribute album June
. singles and eps 20, 1992, Tim Kerr Records, T/K 917010 TRIB 2
‘Love Buzz’/‘Big Cheese’ November 1988, Sub Pop SP 23 ‘The Priest, They Called Him’ by William S. Burroughs, featuring Kurt Cobain
“Blew December, 1989, Tupelo EP8/CDB July 1993, Tim Kerr Records, T/K 9210044/92CD044
Bevnoe Buzz /‘Been A Son’/‘Stain’ ‘I Hate Myself and Want to Die’ The Beavis and Butt-head Experience,
/‘Dive’ September 1990, Sub Pop SP 73 compilation 1993, Geffen, GEFD 24613
_ ‘Molly's Lips’/‘Candy’ (by the Fluid) April 1991, Sub Pop Singles Club number 27 ‘Houdini’The Melvins, produced by Kurt Cobain 1993, Atlantic
_ ‘Here She Comes Now (Nirvana cover of Velvet Underground song)/‘Venus in ‘Verse Chorus Verse’No Alternative, compilation 1993, Arista
_ Furs’ (Melvins cover of Velvet Underground song) June 1991, Communion ‘Pay to Play’ DGC Rarities Vol. 1, compilation 1994, Geffen
index
drugs 23, 24-5, 56-7, 80 M R
Dumb 93, 113 McKee, Frances 66, 67 Radio Friendly Unit Shifter 100
Dylan, Bob 45 Man Who Sold the World, The Raincoats, The 58
111 Rape Me 89
m Marander, Tracy 16-17, 50, 96 Raw 15
Edwards, Gavin 86, 93 Meat Puppets, Jhe 116, 117, 117, Reed, Jesse 43, 54
Elden, Spencer 36 118 religion 43
Endino, Jack 12, 15, 20, 21, 31, Melody Maker 41 Riot Grrl 50
60, 63, 71, 72, 78 Melvins, The 9, 10, 12, 16, 18, Rolling Stone 37-8, 48, 80-1,
Endless, Nameless 55 32-3, 58, 70, 76 82, 117
Even in His Youth 63 Mexican Seafood 72 Rose, Axl 57
A education 18; and Even in His Everman, Jason 12, 12, 13, 35, Milk It 95
Aberdeen (Washington State) 8, Youth 63; and Fecal Matter 9, 59, 63, 104 Mr. Moustache 27-8 S
9, 15, 18, 22-3, 25, 26, 48, 50, 16, 33, 46, 51; and Floyd the Molly's Lips 67 Scentless Apprentice 84-5
Barber 12, 14-15; and Frances F
54-5 Montgomery, Craig 77 School 18-19
About a Girl 16-17, 108 Bean Cobain 56-7, 102; and Farmer, Frances 56 Moon, Stim 70 Scoff 25
Aero Zeppelin 74-5 Francis Farmer Will Have Her Fecal Matter 9, 16, 33, 46, 51 Mothersbaugh, Mark 65 Scratch Acid 78
Albini, Steve 28, 32, 78, 79, 81, Revenge on Seattle 90-1; and Finch, Jennifer 86, 87 Mudhoney 35, 58, 60 Seattle 18, 25, 30-1, 39, 41, 45,
86, 93 Hairspray Queen 73; and Heart- Fisk, Steve 63, 69 musical influences 9, 34, 64, 65, 57,03
albums: Bleach 10-33; In Utero Shaped Box 86-7; and In Bloom Floyd the Barber 12, 14-15, 31 '
67, 68, 74, 120-1 Serve The Servants 82-3
28, 48, 78-103; Incesticide 56- 39; and In Utero 78-81; and Foster, Dave 12, 71 Shocking Blue 20, 21, 21
65; Nevermind 34-55; Incesticide 58; interview 122-4; Fradenburg, Mary 33 N Sifting 29
Unplugged in New York 104-121 and Jesse Reed 43, 54; and Francis Farmer Will Have Her Negative Creep 24-5 Sliver 60-1, 65
All Apologies 103, 119 Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Revenge on Seattle 90-1 (New Wave) Polly 69 Smear, Pat 104, 105, 106
Andy Griffith Show, The 14 Sunbeam 110; and Krist Fricke, David 37, 80, 83, Nirvana: 10, 16, 20, 25, 36, 39, Smells Like Teen Spirit 37-8, 48
Aneurysm 77 Novoselic 9, 11, 18, 26, 33, 54, 108, 117 57, 74, 75, 97-9, 103, 105, 112- Something in the Way 54-5, 115
Arm, Mark 58 96, 112; and Lake of Fire 118; Friend, Gerald 45 13; and Bleach 10-12; develop- Son of a Gun 68
Amold, Gina 12, 64 literary influences 84; and ment 11-12, 34-5; and Devo 65; Soundgarden 31
Auer, Jon 17 Lithium 43; and Lounge Act 50; G first demo 12; and DGC Records Stain 63
Azerrad, Michael 25, 31, 46, 95 and Love Buzz 20-1; marriage Geffen Records 26, 36, 78-9 56, 70; fame 57-8; formation 8-9, Stay Away 51
56; and the Melvins 32-3, 76; Goldsten, Lori 106 33; and Geffen Records 36; and Sub Pop 12, 20-1, 25, 30-1, 35,
B and Mexican Seafood 72; and Goodier, Mark 64, 69, 77 ‘Grunge’ 57-8; and In Utero 78- 41, 58, 59, 60, 63, 67, 110
Beatles, The 34, 64 Milk It 95; and Mr. Moustache Gordy, Berry 30 81; and Incesticide 56-8; and Suskind, Patrick 84
van Beek, Cor 21 27-8; and Molly's Lips 67; Grohl, Dave 17, 35, 35-6, 56, 64, Killing Joke 41; name 11-12; and Swap Meet 26
Been a Son 63, 64 musical influences 9, 34, 64, 65, 78, 84, 85, 86, 96, 106, 110, 113, Nevermind 35-6; and Sub Pop 12,
Big Black 28, 32 67, 68, 74, 120; and Negative 121 30-1, 36, 41, 59, 60, 63, 67; lt
Big Cheese 12 Creep 24-5; and Nevermind 35- ‘Grunge’ 57-8 tours 41, 57, 64, 65, 104, 106-7; Tacoma 38, 45
Big Long Now 76 6, 48; and (New Wave) Polly 69; and Unplugged in New York Tad 20, 41, 60
Bikini Kill 37, 50, 70 and Oh Me 117; and Ona Plain H 104-7 Territorial Pissings 46
Black Sabbath 10, 20 52, 115; and Paper Cuts 22; and Hairspray Queen 73 Novoselic, Krist (Chris): 13, 73; Texas 28
Black Flag 10 Pennyroyal Tea 96, 112; and Hanna, Kathleen 37, 70 and Aero Zeppelin 74-5; and Thayil, Kim 30
Bleach 10-33 Plateau 116; and Polly 45, 114; Heart-Shaped Box 86-7 Blew 13; and Buzz Osbome 9, Tourette's 101
Blew 13, 63 and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter Hilburn, Robert 78 74; and Chad Channing 12, 35, tours 41, 57, 64, 65
Bowie, David 111 100; and Rape Me 89; religion Hirschberg, Lynn 56 60; and Hairspray Queen 73; and True, Everitt 41
Breed 41 43; and Robert Novoselic 9; and Hokanson, Greg 9 Heart-Shaped Box 87; and Jesus Tumaround 65
Burckhard, Aaron 11, 12, 20, 71 Scentless Apprentice 84-5; and Hole 86 Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam
Burroughs, William 29, 84 School 18-19; and Scoff 25; and 110; and Kurt Cobain 9, 11 18, U
Butthole Surfers, The 33 Seattle 18; and Serve The I 26, 33, 54, 96, 112; and Lounge Unplugged in New York 104-121
Servants 82-3; and Sifting 29; In Bloom 39 Act 50; and Love Buzz 20-1;
C and Sliver 60-1; and Smells Like In Utero 28, 48, 78-103 and Nevermind 35-6; and V
Canning, Kirk 55 Teen Spirit 37-8; and Something Incesticide 56-65 Nirvana 12; and Swap Meet 26; Vail, Tobi 50, 70
Casale, Jerry 65 in the Way 54-5, 115; and Son and Territorial Pissings 46; Valente, Dino 46
Channing, Chad 12, 15, 21, 59, of a Gun 68; as songwriter 10- J tours 41 Vanity Fair 56
60, 64, 67, 74 11; and Stain 63; and Stay Away Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Novoselic, Robert 9, 32 Vaselines, The 66, 67, 68, 93,
Chicago Tribune 59 51; suicide 107, 119; and Swap Sunbeam 110 Novoselic, Shelli 96 110
Cobain, Frances Bean 56-7, 102 Meet 26; and Territorial Pissings Johnson, Calvin 68, 93, 110 Veres, Mariska 21
Cobain, Kurt: 14, 17, 24, 28, 29, 46; and The Man Who Sold the Johnston, Daniel 58 Very Ape 94
32, 44, 50-1, 52-3, 61, 62, 70, 71, World 111 and Tourette's 101; Oh Me 117 Vig, Butch 35, 40-1, 45, 46, 59,
83, 88, 100, 110, 111; and About and Tracy Marander 16-17, 50, K Olympia 16, 37, 50, 59, 63 67, 69, 78
a Girl 16-17, 108; and Aero 96; and Unplugged in New York Kelly, Eugene 66, 67 Ona Plain 52, 115
Zeppelin 74-5; and All Apologies 104-7; and the Vaselines 66, 67, Kerslake, Kevin 39 Option 64 W
103, 119; and Aneurysm 77; and 68, 93, 110; and Where Did You Killing Joke 41 Osborme, Buzz: 9, 10, 16, 18, 20, van der Wal, Klassje 21
Been a Son 64; and Big Cheese Sleep Last Night 120-1; and Very Kirkwood, Curt 116, 117, 118 32, 35, 74, 76 Weisbard, Eric 119
31; and Big Long Now 76; and Ape 94 Where Did You Sleep Last Night
Bleach 10-12; and Blew 13; and Come As You Are 40-1, 46, 109 L P 120-1 g
Breed 41; and Buzz Osbome 9, Corbijn, Anton 87 Lake of Fire 178 Paper Cuts 12, 22-3 de Wilde, Fred 27
Crover, Dale 9, 12, 15, 18, 22, 31,
2
74, 76; and Chad Channing 12, Led Zeppelin 9, 20 Pavitt, Bruce 30, 36, 41, 59, 63
3
35, 60; and Come As You Are 32-3, 35, 54, 71, 72, 74, 76 Ledbetter, Huddie 120, 120-1 Peel, John 65, 67, 68 Yi
40-1, 109; and Courtney Love 36, van Leeuwen, Robbie 27 Pennyroyal Tea 96, 112 Young, Neil 119
56, 58, 80, 82-3, 86; and Dale D Lithium 43 Peters, Dan 35, 60 Youngbloods 46
Crover 18, 22, 31, 32-3, 54; and Devo 65 Litt, Scott 79-80, 86, 103 Pixies, The 34
Devo 65; and Dive 59; and DGC Records 56, 70 Lounge Act 50 Plateau 116
Downer 12, 31, 32-3, 71; and Dive 59, 65 Love, Courtney 36, 56-7, 58, 80, Polly 45, 63, 114
Drain You 48; drugs 23, 24-5, Downer 12, 31, 32-3, 71 82-3, 86, 107, 117 Poneman, Jonathan 12, 20-1,30,
56-7, 80; and Dumb 93; early Doyle, Tad 41 Love Buzz 12, 20-1, 63 30-1, 36, 41, 59, 63
life 8-9, 18, 25, 39, 43, 60-1, 83; Drain You 48 Lukin, Matt 18 Posies, The 17
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This is a Carlton Book