“The first time Kurt and I slept together was at a Days Inn in Chicago, we were having our first postcoital moment, and we’re watching MTV and the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video came on. I pulled away from him because it was his video, his moment, he was the king of the fucking world, he put his arm around me and pulled me closer. Which was symbolic, like, I’m letting you into my life. That really endeared him to me,” - Courtney Love.
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.”
Bill Nye @TheScienceGuy - “Smells Like Air Pressure”
![“When we played in Buenos Aires [1992], we brought this all-girl band over from Portland called Calamity Jane, during their entire set, the whole audience - it was a huge show with like 60,000 people - was throwing money and everything out of their pockets, mud and rocks, just pelting them. Eventually the girls stormed off crying. It was terrible, one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, such a mass of sexism all at once. Krist, knowing my attitude about things like that, tried to talk me out of at least setting myself on fire or refusing to play. We ended up just having fun, laughing at them. Before every song, I’d play the intro to ‘Teen Spirit’ and then stop. They didn’t realize that we were protesting against what they’d done. We played for about forty minutes, and most of the songs were off Incesticide, so they didn’t recognize anything.” - Kurt Cobain.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mcz7ibI7UJ1qir6ydo1_500.jpg)
“When we played in Buenos Aires [1992], we brought this all-girl band over from Portland called Calamity Jane, during their entire set, the whole audience - it was a huge show with like 60,000 people - was throwing money and everything out of their pockets, mud and rocks, just pelting them. Eventually the girls stormed off crying. It was terrible, one of the worst things I’ve ever seen, such a mass of sexism all at once. Krist, knowing my attitude about things like that, tried to talk me out of at least setting myself on fire or refusing to play. We ended up just having fun, laughing at them. Before every song, I’d play the intro to ‘Teen Spirit’ and then stop. They didn’t realize that we were protesting against what they’d done. We played for about forty minutes, and most of the songs were off Incesticide, so they didn’t recognize anything.” - Kurt Cobain.
The ‘Zen-On’ bass used in Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” music video shoot by Krist Novoselic will be auctioned next month : http://bitly.com/T1jleZ
“We ran the riff, then I wrote the lyrics. People think we wrote the songs of the adolescent revolt in 1991! If it inspires, very well. But it’s not our role to tell people what to think or do with their lives.” - Kurt Cobain on “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, 1992.
“”Teen Spirit” was such a clichéd riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or “Louie, Louie.” When I came up with the guitar part, Krist looked at me and said, ”That is so ridiculous.” I made the band play it for an hour and a half.” - Kurt Cobain.
Sydney, Australia, 1992.
“This song is called Smells Like Thirtysomething” - Kurt Cobain before playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Nirvana performing at the ‘Top Of The Pops’ in the United Kingdom. Artist performing on the show were required to sing live with a backing track. The band seized the opportunity to make a mockery of their performance. The show’s producers were not amused, afterwards they asked Kurt if they could redo their performance, Kurt’s response: “No, I’m quite happy with that, thank you…”
“Even in rehearsals when they started playing it, you know their guitar and bass rigs were so loud, so unbelievably loud and Dave didn’t have any mics on him or anything and the drums were equally as loud in the room. And I remember literally standing up and starting to sweat and pacing around the room because the song was so powerful and so amazing and so hooky… I didn’t even know what Kurt was singing at that point.” - Butch Vig on “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
