"Beeswax," Kill Rock Stars compilation (1991)What in the world is Cobain raving about on the juvenile and perverse "Beeswax"? They released a demo entitled Illiteracy Will Prevail, but the band didn’t last long because the Melvins’ members soon focused on touring for their own debut EP. Here’s what we know about that historic night. For reasons that remain a mystery, they periodically dusted it off onstage over the next four years. "Plateau," MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)The least essential of Nirvana's three Meat Puppets covers, partly due to Cris Kirkwood's shaky harmony vocals. No quiet-loud structure here: The band sails through one of their most laid-back performances, with Kera Schaley's melancholy cello adding to the ambiance. First called “Hitchhiker” and then “Cracker” before “Polly,” this harrowing song dates back to the Bleach era, though its minor-key folk melody was even more of a grunge outlier than “About a Girl.” It’s “ripped from the headlines” subject matter slots alongside “Paper Cuts”: Cobain took as inspiration the local story of a 14-year-old girl abducted after a punk-rock show at knifepoint by the serial rapist and kidnapper Gerald Friend. "If You Must," With the Lights Out (2004) Cobain accidentally channels Bob Dylan on this dissonant waltz from their … "Aneurysm," Incesticide (1992)The lyrics have been scrutinized to death by hardcore fans seeking thematic breadcrumbs about Cobain's drug addiction ("Come on over, shoot the shit" / "She keeps it pumping straight to my heart"), but it's widely accepted that "Aneurysm" reflects back on the nervous jitters he experienced with his then-ex-girlfriend Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail. It features more guitar overdubs, vocal takes, and studio wizardry in one song than can be found on any other Nirvana album, yet it still delivers a direct blow to the heart. 5. "White Lace and Strange," With the Lights Out (2004)As a guitarist, Cobain was never a master technician. But the fidelity is so gross that it couldn't possibly be anything but their least essential recording. "Opinion," With the Lights Out (2004)Our frontman sneers and snarls over a hotly mic'ed acoustic guitar strum, railing against the media's lazy writing ("It's a year's subscription of bad puns") and seemingly constant negativity ("They have an affect on our heartbeat's tock"). "Old Age," With the Lights Out (2004)So much backstory, so little song. Originally known as “Perky New Wave Number,” the crunchy, squiggly “Very Ape” is as close as Nirvana ever got, while also dishing out slapdash broadsides at masculinity and ignorance. No clue. Every Nirvana song ranked in order of greatness. Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown really did meet up in a Florida motel in 1964. The song is exquisite and grotesque, claustrophobic and free, its four minutes vacillating between feeling comforted and being filled with ominous dread: Novoselic’s stomach-churning bass, Grohl’s heart-bursting toms, and that lacerating guitar line from Cobain that snakes through the song as spellbinding as a torso-length scar. It’s impossible to listen and not think that it’s Cobain encountering the self that “died alone / A long long time ago.”. For as muddy and hasty as the songwriting can get, a 21-year-old Cobain allowed sweetness, sensitivity, and sincerity to peek through Bleach’s murkiness. "Been a Son," Incesticide (1992)R.E.M. "Won't you believe it — it's just my luck / No recess!" Most of those recordings saw the light of day during Cobain's lifetime, with tracks popping up on Bleach and Incesticide. And rightly so. "Verse Chorus Verse," With the Lights Out (2004)The semi-ironic title "Verse Chorus Verse" clearly meant a lot to Cobain — he used it as a placeholder title on different occasions. Plenty of female artists have approached the topic of sexual assault (NPR compiled a formidable #MeToo list), but it’s almost unprecedented for a man — no matter his feminist bona fides — to make it into a palatable pop subject. But Nirvana perfected their first pop classic on MTV Unplugged, dropping the distortion and focusing on the hooks. Novoselic's bouncy, Tina Weymouth-ish bassline is a particular highlight. The group advocated for women and the queer community, and the scene itself was a safe space for people of all stripes. I may add in B-Sides in the far future, but for now it's just songs from Bleach, Nevemind and In Utero (plus the covers from MTV Unplugged). 47. "Do You Love Me?," Hard to Believe: A Kiss Cover Compilation (1990)Guitarist Jason Everman makes one of his two recorded Nirvana appearances on this Kiss cover, not that you can tell: It's a demo-worthy afterthought stuffed to the brim with Cobain's wild wails. The highlight comes around halfway through with a nifty hard-rock guitar breakdown. 41. 54. In no uncertain terms, toxic masculinity and what fathers pass down to their sons over generations is incredibly fucked. Chaos, degradation, rot, unbridled rage, hate — it’s a revolting sound that Nirvana brought to bear on millions of Middle American homes. If you’re into your older sister’s Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin records, Nirvana could open you up to Bikini Kill and Daniel Johnston. In this case, the executive's instincts were spot-on. Cobain often explained away “I hate Myself and Want to Die” in interviews, and after his death, hot-takers took it as a portent. He was also capable of ... this: "She had a moist vagina / I particularly enjoyed the circumstance / I've been sucking walls of her anus / Anilingus." It’s a common theme of the teen years: looking at all the adults around you and knowing the truth that “I’m not like them / But I can pretend.” Rage gets masked just to fit into society, and Cobain puts a Beatles-sweet haze over that state on “Dumb,” a song that dates to before the band signed with a major. Trapped in Friend’s mobile home, the girl was raped and tortured with implements like a blowtorch before finally escaping. Recorded in 1988 for the band’s first studio demo tape — with a weirdly rubbery bass line from Novoselic, Cobain’s choppy, slashed guitar chords reminiscent of the Minutemen, and a line in the chorus about a “disco goddess” — “Hairspray Queen” could, in an alternate universe, have been Nirvana’s funkiest moment. "Heartbreaker," With the Lights Out (2004)During Nirvana's first concert, a March 1987 house party, someone yelled out for this early Led Zeppelin anthem. Stare into the abyss of Nevermind long enough, and after ten minutes of silence after the album ends, you’ll encounter the glorious perdition that is “Endless, Nameless,” a noise jam that’s the bitter fruit of a prolonged “Lithium” recording session. “Lead Belly is one of the most important things in my life.” In 1989, that fandom led him to jam some Lead Belly songs with Screaming Trees front man Mark Lanegan, Novoselic on bass, and the Trees’ Mark Pickerel on drums. With Jack Endino at Reciprocal Recording, with Butch Vig at Smart Studios, and with Steve Albini at Pachyderm, Nirvana tackled “Sappy” at every turn and considered it for all three of their albums before finally punting it to No Alternative as an uncredited bonus track. 32. While “Teen Spirit” could be obfuscating and marble-mouthed, Cobain’s lyrics for “In Bloom” are perfectly drawn and efficient, and the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic here is as profound as anything Cobain’s idols the Pixies ever pulled off. 10 Easy Nirvana Songs For Beginners. “To put a jangly R.E.M. 68. 85. Kurt knew well the dark, brutal side of masculinity, and at times in his self-scrutinizing songwriting he wholly embraced his own inner creep, but singing “Polly” from the rapist’s vantage puts the song in a lineage with the likes of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and In Cold Blood. His pain, our gain. "Mexican Seafood," Teriyaki Asthma, Volume I (1989)"Mexican Seafood" is the grossest song in a catalog that features many a queasy lyric. As we mark the anniversary of Kurt's death, TOM HOWARD takes on the challenge of ranking every Nirvana song in order of greatness. He’s not wrong: The grinding gears of “Big Long Now” evoke Black Flag dirges like “Nothing Left Inside.” It moves like it’s driving down the highway at 70 mph while stuck in second gear, but, as always, Cobain endows even the heaviest Nirvana song with a beckoning hook. 43. It just seemed to pair up so well. The music itself is a bit slight, but it's fun hearing Cobain shout about doing "the twist" in a bluesy drawl. Already a subscriber? Under Grohl’s unassuming pseudonym Late!, the tracks found their way out on low-key indie imprint Simple Machines in the midst of Nirvanamania. I'll be brief in what I say and let the songs speak for themselves. It made an early debut on Calvin Johnson’s KAOS-FM radio show, already exploring themes of confusion and doubts about feeling true happiness. Next: 25 Things That Didn't Exist Before Nirvana's Last Concert. For decades, I just chalked up the song title to a not very clever play on fish taco and thought the grunted, haughty, English-accented chorus was about performing cunnilingus “until I pee.” An online search for lyrical clarity unfortunately makes the song even grosser than my bodily-fluids-obsessed teenhood could ever have imagined. Meanwhile, his L.A. home was the target of a burglary while he was in the hospital. “I really didn't know what I was talking about. "Mrs. Butterworth," With the Lights Out (2004)Cobain rants about poverty ("Maybe someday I can get rid of that piss-stained mattress I've been sleeping on"), an overall low quality of life ("My life is shit, shit," "I'm gonna die; who wants to say? "Use just once and destroy / Invasion of our piracy," Cobain declares, chased by a skeletal bass and drums. The final song on Nirvana’s final album, there is a weariness and wooziness about All Apologies that seems to overflow with sadness in retrospect. 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