An Exploration of Sound, Symbolism, and Raw Emotion

By Nicholas Del Buono

Smells Like Teen Spirit:

Cobain/Novoselic/Grohl

It is often debated what the title of this song, Smells Like Teen Spirit, means. Could it be a call to revolution, an inside joke, or a brand of ladies’ deodorant? We may never know. What we do know is that this song has engraved its place in music history. The song was written as a sort of “pop spinoff”. Kurt Cobain took the heavy nature of The Pixies and put it over a rock anthem that would eventually shake the nation. The lyrics have such deep meaning behind them as well. The lyrics strike not only the state of pop culture at the time but also Kurt’s emotions. For example: In the chorus, he screams, “I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are now, entertain us.” In this, he is saying that he hates himself, he finds what he does disgusting, and yet people scream for him to entertain them. There is so much symbolism in this song, talking about all of it would make this review way longer. This song is an artistic masterpiece of writing and a rock anthem musically. The instruments sway back and forth through the song, from a hard rock headbanger to a low-key grunge song. Kurt’s voice rings out throughout all of this, switching from soft, raspy singing, to forceful, yet melodic, screams. This song had not only placed itself in music history, but it defined the genre of grunge that would ravage the 90s with the growth of bands like Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and Stone Temple Pilots. I highly recommend listening to this song, because if not, you are surely missing out on one of the most influential songs of all time, by one of the most influential groups of all time.

In Bloom:

Cobain

In Bloom was a song that Kurt Cobain wrote for a very specific purpose. This purpose can be seen in the contrast of the lyrics as well as the effect on the public. The lyrics of the song tackle the terrors of human’s footprint on nature, but the chorus is quite different. “He is the one who likes all our pretty songs, and he likes to sing along, and he likes to shoot his gun, but he knows not what it means,” is the chorus to the song. Notice how it does not relate to the earlier, this is because it takes on a whole different subject. The chorus talks about people who listen to the song because it is catchy, not listening to the lyrics and understanding the real meaning. He even purposefully made the chorus a catchy melody so people would have this reaction. I highly recommend listening to this song. In writing this, I’m not saying not to sing along. I love this song and sing along to it all of the time. Just know that when, or if, you do listen to this song, or any song for that matter, read and try to comprehend the lyrics, there may be something you’re missing.

Come As You Are:

Cobain

Come as You Are is an amalgamation of symbolism backed by dark, moody music. Addressing the amount of symbolism would make this review way longer than it needs to be, so I urge you to, after you listen to it, go look up the meanings behind the lyrics. One significant theme in the lyrics of the song is the contrast between them. The lyrics bounce back and forth from opposing themes. For example: he asks for you to come “as you are” and “as you were”, but then he asks for you to come “as I want you to be”. This means he first asks for you to come as yourself, unaltered by any agenda, but then he asks for you to come with a personality based on what he wants. He also uses repetitiveness like repeating the word “Memoria” and the phrase “No, I don’t have a gun”. These lyrics are backed by dark music that makes Kurt’s singing sound almost sinister and evil. This is by far one of the best tracks off of the album and I urge you to check it out and not only research but interpret the lyrics.

Breed:

Cobain

Breed is a very repetitive song fueled by a hard punk drive. This song is a sort of sarcastic take on growing up, saying things like “I don’t care if it’s old,” and “I don’t mind, don’t have a mind.” This attitude reflects Kurt Cobain’s childhood. His parents were divorced so his childhood was pretty crazy and hard to handle, but he decided to push aside the trauma in sarcastic notions. The chorus of this song also takes on the perspective of a conversation between two people in a relationship, both of which, have a sarcastic tone. They gently push aside the greater parts of their relationship, saying things like “I don’t even care, we don’t have to breed.” These lyrics are backed by Kurt’s voice transferring from smooth yet gritty vocals to full screams, Kurt’s heavily destroyed guitar, Krist’s heavy bass groove, and Dave’s upbeat drums. This song is one of the heavier, crazier, and undoubtedly messier tracks off of Nevermind, but it is a genuinely great listen.

Lithium:

Cobain

Lithium is one of the slower, more emotional songs off of the album. Lithium is from the perspective of a man who turned to religion because of the death of his girlfriend. This story being told tackles the contrast of religion and depression. The religious themes are shown through references to things such as Sunday Morning (The Sabbath Day), lighting candles, and saying that he has friends in his head, which can be seen as a satire take on prayer. The themes of depression are seen when he says things like he’s so ugly, he’s so lonely, and he cannot wait to die. The contrast of these themes describes the use of religion as a coping mechanism. The character addresses his negative thoughts by surpressing them by his newly forced on beliefs. He turned to religion to find a better life, but all it does is supress and worsen his depression. He rejects to comfront his feelings of hatred, lust, suicide, ect. The chorus sets a heavier tone with Kurt screaming “Yeah, Yeah” showing no clear emotion, not happy nor sad. The second refrain says this twice: “I like it, I’m not gonna crack. I miss you, I’m not gonna crack. I love you, I’m not gonna crack. I killed you, I’m not gonna crack.” This once again shows the coping that the character has to go through. He recalls how much he misses his girlfriend, and yet, he will not let that drive him insane, he will suppress it. The upbeat and yet unsettlingly sad mood of the song, in addition to the emotion portrayed by Kurt’s singing, gives the song it’s true impact. This is one of the most well written songs off of the album and my personal favorite.

Polly:

Cobain

Polly is a softer song that takes on a devastating topic, rape. Nirvana, and especially Kurt Cobain, haveily supported the anti-rape movement. The song takes on the perspective of a rapist who kidnaps a girl named Polly. He keeps her locked up like a caged bird, hence the metaphors to birds like “clip her wings” and “Polly wants a cracker”. He tortures her and keeps her hungry for the sole reason to keep her weak and vulnerable. This songs is based on a true occurrence. The actions of the narrator in this song is based off of the real actions of a man named Gerald Friend. The song is based on what he actually did to a girl. Kurt hated when people became trash. He hated seeing people become lower than human and commit things such as rape. The mood of the song is calmer and sadder with mostly just an acoustic guitar. Like most slower Nirvana songs, it bounces from chord to chord in an almost disturbing manor. The song, although being very sad, is a great song over all. They remade the song on their album “Incesticide” and called it “Polly (New Wave Version)”. This version of the song had a faster beat to it. It turned this slow acoustic song into a faster electric song like Smells Like Teen Spirit and Breed. Both versions are great overall and I highly recommend listening to both.

Territorial Pissings:

Cobain/Grohl/Novoselic/Powers

Territorial Pissings is a heavy and powerful song with a message that stands out a little better. First, I think I should address that weird name it has. Territorial Pissings refers to animals in the wild marking their territory with their urine. The song starts off with Krist Novoselic discordantly sings some of Chet Power’s song “Get Together”. The lyrics describe the mistreatment of women and Native Americans in society. They also describe the big “macho men” of our society who are so filled with pride and raging masculinity that they see other people of different race and gender inferior to them. The connections to Native Americans can be seen in lyrics like, “When I was an alien, cultures werent options,” showing how not only the Native Americans, but all races seen as outsiders and minorities, can be shunned of their cultures. He talks about women in lyrics like, “Never met a wise man. If so, its a woman.” Kurt Cobain was a dedicated feminist, so he is saying how much more intelligent women are compared to most men, especially those “macho men” referred to earlier. Now, the significance of the title of the track, as well as that weird intro, are more clear. The track’s title is making fun of big and proud men who look down on others because of how he is relating a wild animal marking their territory with their urine, to those men marking their whole personality with their masculinity, pride, and sexuality. The opening of Krist singing “Get Together” serves 2 meanings. It shows how the band wanted there to be acceptance of people. They didn’t want prejudice, they saw that the country has grown massively since and that people in the 1990s shouldn’t be treating others like they did 50 years ago. The second meaning is the contrast where a song about hate is started off with a verse about loving one another. The heavy drive of the song, energetic feel, and tone of Kurt’s voice (mostly angry/fearful screams) truly bring the song together. The contrast of the tone and the meaning makes this song one of my favorite songs off of the album. An emotional meaning hidden behind a heavy, but equally as emotional, grunge tune? What a Kurt Cobain classic!

Drain You:

Cobain

Drain You is a more casual rock song of theirs with instrumentation similar to that of Smells Like Teen Spirit. The thing that stands out about this song is that it is a love song. The song talks about a very innocent form of love. It descries the two lovers as babies to stress their innocence. The song also takes on an innocent feel for how it describes kissing. It seems that in this couple’s relationship, kissing is the most they’re daring enough to do. The song pictures kissing in disgusting metaphors, like kissing is a despicable thing to do, with lyrics like, “I travel through a tube and end up in your affection.” He then says lyrics like, “You taught me everything without a poison apple” to show how their relationship lacks sexual relations. The song is an all-time Nirvana classic. With heavy inspiration from Kurt’s relationship at the time, this was not only a drastic, but a somewhat personal take on love. The upbeat instrumentation, pleasing melodies and harmonies, and the very strange solo, make listening to this song a very enjoyable experience.

Lounge Act:

Cobain

Lounge Act is a jumpy, upbeat song that is just Kurt describing his relationship with his girlfriend at the time, Tobi Vali. Kurt goes through the song constantly referencing their relationship’s bad pieces. For example, one constant theme is how, in his relationship, Kurt couldnt speak out for himself and was always either suppressed or put on by Tobi. He spent his relationship with her just complying to her taste. He also references the things they have been through, like doing drugs and writing hits. He even references to the interview that said he smelled like Tobi’s deodorant, Teen Spirit. There aint much more to say on the song. I enjoy the melody very much, as well as the jumpy, energetic instrumentation, including a ripping bass solo for an intro. I highly suggest giving this song a listen, its not one of the best off of the album, but its a great song overall.

Stay Away:

Cobain

Stay Away is a forceful, fast-paced song that basically encompasses most of the topics covered throughout the rest of the songs, things Kurt Cobain hates. The meaning of this song is not just about what he hates though, theres something else. Every verse is ended in “I don’t know why”. This tells us that Kurt has this deep hatred for certain things, but he doesn’t know why he hates them so much. He talks about people who conform and copy others, people who strive to be “cool”, the simplicity of pop music, love, fashion, people who take advantage of others, people who speak their opinion no matter how terrible it may be, etc. The chorus is very simple. In the chorus, he screams “Stay Away” over and over again. This is to give the message that all of the people who he talked about in the verses should stay away from him because of how much he hates them. The song doesn’t have much else to it. It is backed with heavy driven, and clearly hate filled, instruments. The instruments themselves are very prominent in this song, having sharper tones that stand  out a lot. I can describe this song by two phrases, “A fun song to listen to” and “An anthem of Kurt Cobain’s disgust.”

On A Plain:

Cobain

On A Plain is another grunge rock song with a heavy beat, similar to songs like Lounge Act and Bloom. This song is written about writing a song. He starts off with saying how he starts writing a song, with no words and some drugs. The song goes back in forth on topics to write about. One topic can be seen in this lyric: “Love myself better than you. I know its wrong. What should I do?” This is the most repeated theme of the song. It shows that he would sing about how much he loves himself, but he can’t because its frowned upon in society. He also says he can write about thing like his childhood or standing out in society. In the bridge of the song, he says, “What the hell am I tryin’ to say?” He says this because when he writes a song, he doesn’t exactly know what its all about, he has no idea what to write. But in the end, he says that he is “On a Plain” and that he can’t complain. The phrase “On a Plain” refers to him being in a higher state. It means that he is in such a high point of his life, that no one would care what he writes about so he shouldn’t complain about things such as writer’s block. The song has a casual rock feel to it similar to Smells Like Teen Spirit. This works well with the theme about people not caring about the lyrics (similar to In Bloom) because of how “poppy” Smells Like Teen Spirit is. Overall, this is a great track and a must listen from Nirvana’s catalogue. 

Something In The Way:

Cobain

Something In The Way is a slow, moody song and a great way to close the album (not considering the hidden track Endless, Nameless). The lyrics of the song speak for themselves, theyre about living under a bridge. The song talks about Kurt Cobain being homeless, living under a bridge, and capturing animals as pets because that is the only company he has down there. He also references things like doing drugs and being forced to catch and eat fish (he was a vegetarian at the time so he uses the excuse that fish can’t feel pain). The phrase “Something In The Way” is present in the title and repeated in the chorus of the song. It was taken from some graffiti that Kurt Cobain saw when he was young. He was the graffiti underneath the Young Street Bridge, a place he used to hang out. The concept of being under this bridge is what pushed the writing of this song. The song has a very ominous tone with nothing much to it, but even with nothing much to it, it still is one of the best songs off of the album. It shows that Kurt Cobain could write a song that is full of stuff like Drain You or About A Girl (off of their first album “Bleach”) as well as very minimalist songs like this song, Polly, and And I Love Her (a slower and ominous cover of the song by the same name originally written by The Beatles. This song can be found on Kurt’s solo album “Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings”). 

Overall Take On The Album:

This album has paved its way into rock and roll and pop music history. This album is not only one of the greatest of its time, but of all time. The album coalesces the emotions, views, and thoughts of the strange, drug addicted, depressed mind of Kurt Cobain. It shows the art of what ones mind can come up with when filled with hate and negativity. Kurt hated himself and society and wound up working those topics into his writing. For those who do not know, Kurt Cobain took his own life in 1994. We never got to experience more masterpiece beyond their 4 albums Bleach, Nevermind, Incesticide, and In Utero. Studying this album, which was released 3 years prior to his death, can show us what went through his mind through those tough years of his life. The powerful rock drive, the emotion put into the lyrics and vocals, the blaring of Kurt Cobain’s guitar on their heavy, grunge songs, the gentle cry of his acoustic guitar on their slower songs, the gritty basslines provided bt Krist Novoselic, and the slamming rhythms of Dave Grohl’s drumming make not only this album, but the entire band shine. After dedicating about a month to writing about this album, selling away so much time just to study the lyrics and melodies of each individual song, and analyzing the impact as well as the true meaning of the songs, I can say, without a doubt, that is album is a masterpiece and one of the greatest musical albums and pieces of literature of all time.