The almost ‘Nevermind’ baby - a girl.
“I went to this school where they teach babies to swim and offered $50 to bring their kids to try out and $200 if we picked them as a model. This one girl was like a machine — couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk, but she would just motor around underwater. I have no idea at all who the girl was or where she is now. I’d like to know what happened to that chick.” - Kirk Weddle (Photographer)
The Record - Kurt Cobain talks about the songs on ‘Nevermind.’
Smells Like Teen Spirit: “My generation’s apathy. I’m disgusted with it. I’m disgusted with my own apathy too, for being spineless and not always standing up against racism, sexism, and all those other isms the counterculture has been whining about for years.”
In Bloom: “Reproduction.”
Come As You Are: “An old-fashioned love song coming down in three-part harmony.”
Breed: “Getting into Middle America. Marrying at age 18, getting pregnant, stuck with a baby - and not wanting it.”
Lithium: “People who are secluded for too long go insane and as a last resort they often use religion to keep alive. In the song, a guy’s lost his girl and his friends and he’s brooding. He’s decided to find God before he kills himself. It’s hard for me to understand the need for a vice like that but I can appreciate it too. People need vices.”
Polly: “Rape.”
Territorial Pissings: “In the animal kingdom, the male will often piss in certain areas to claim his territory, and I see macho men reacting towards sex and power in the same way. I’d like to see these lost souls strung up by their balls with pages of scum manifesto stapled to their bodies.”
Drain You: “Almost all of the songs on the album are about love - or confusion, which usually is the result of love. Outcries of confusion about love and not understanding relationships, not just with your mate but with anybody, with yourself, with animals, etc.”
Lounge Act: “Love, problems.”
Stay Away: “Bitching and complaining.”
On A Plain: “Love again.”
Something In The Way: “Love - plain and simple.”
10. Lounge Act.
9. Sappy.
8. In Bloom.
7. Aneurysm.
6. All Apologies.
5. Drain You.
4. Come As You Are.
3. Heart-Shaped Box.
2. Smells Like Teen Spirit.
1. Lithium.
(nothing from Bleach?)
“Come dowsed in mud, soaked in bleach, as I want you to be. As a trend, as a friend, as an old memory, memory, memory, memory.” - Come As You Are.
Someone came up with the idea of doing a Nirvana song with PJ Harvey. Kurt loved her and we love her and we thought, ‘Yeah, what would we do?’ I said: ‘God, what if we were to do ‘Milk It’ from ‘In Utero’ with Polly singing?’ We all looked at each other like, ‘Woah, that would be amazing…’ and then she couldn’t do it!”
7/3/92 - Madrid, Spain.
“We spent some time away from each other just to do our own things, but we’re looking forward to getting back to how things were, lock ourselves away and work. Our new record’s just gotta sound different I’ve been on this big rant lately of how transition is natural, continental drift, the seasons, the weather’s different every day, people grow older and change. When I think of ‘Nevermind’ now, I think of interviews and being famous. Now I’m focusing on this new record and not even considering anything that’s happened, and maybe we can come out absolved.” - Krist Novoselic.
Interviewer: “After Nevermind, have you thought about killing the group in full glory? To embody this fantasy rock of “live fast and die young?”
Dave: “…We would have preserved the essential music….All the shit that hangs around us would be gone! People would have chosen the songs… This is a very exciting idea, but whose love of music has preserved us. Since the release of Nevermind, we thought about the next disc. Murdering the group, we would have made him a legend. Some say that ‘Nevermind’ changed the face of rock. How three fucking losers were they able to achieve sucha feat? We just change clothes. How can we change the face of the world?”
Kurt: “It’s the love of music that gives me the strength to continue. Nothing else. But I could block it out overnight. I have enough money to disappear without a trace. Bye bye, complete story. If I stay, it’s just for the punk-rock.”
Krist: “In Utero came very naturally. This is not a hard vengeful reaction. Songs are out for themselves. The rage was there, entrenched in Kurt in his belly. There was more to let it flow … Initially, we had this huge fantasy rock record. Something that would crush all existing drives. We wanted to upgrade ‘Nevermind’, outperform everyone. And then, in rehearsal, things are simplified. And the album is done alone. We were incredibly relaxed.”
