Nirvana
 

Smells Like Teen Spirit, is the song that Nirvana is best known for.
It was written sometime in early 1991 by Kurt Cobain, lead singer, founder and frontman of Nirvana. The first ever live preformance of Smells Like Teen spirit was at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington. At the time the lyrics weren't complete and there was a lot of changes between this version and the one that featured on the album Nevermind. The most notable change was that the original opening lines were "Come out and play, Make up the rules", a big difference from what would eventually become "Load up on guns, Bring your friends".

Kurt Cobain was known to change is lyrics though, especially for live prefomances, for example, the lyric "Our little group, has always been" was slightly altered to become "Our little tribe, has always been".

Another point to the lyrics is that due to Kurt Cobains slurred, tunefull singing, the lyrics were hard to decipher. A lot of people tried but they kept on getting them wrong, it amused Kurt Cobain that so many people were trying to figure out the lyrics and what they meant.
Here are the lyrics to Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Attachment 115

Many people have tried to figure out what the lyrics actually mean, Some say that it's about a break up, some say it's about a revolution. It amused Kurt Cobain that all these people were trying to figure out what it actually meant.
Kurt Cobain said in an interview with MTV, that a song doesn't have any one overarching theme, a lot of his lyrics came from poetry, or just stuff that spewed out of him at the time, sometimes he would only think of lyrics at the last minute becasue he was so lazy.

The origin of the name basically comes from graffitti, the story goes something like this.
Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the band Bikini Hill and one of Kurts friends, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since the two of them had been talking about anarchy, punk rock and other similar topics recently, he just asumed that it was supposed to be a slogan.
What it actually meant was that Kurt smelled like the deodorant "Teen Spirit" that Tobi Vail ( Kathleen Hannas band mate and Kurts then-girlfriend) wore.
Kurt would later claim that he was unhappy that the song was named after a commercial product, the company who made the deodorant tried to cash in on the connection by making several adverts referencing the song.

In later interviews, Kurt said that he was unhappy that Nirvana was best known for Smells Like Teen Spirit, and that he would have liked Nirvana to be recognized for other songs.

Later on, in the last few Nirvana tours before Kurt Cobain Died, Smells Like Teen Spirit was scrapped from the show.

Basically, my comment is that it is one of the, if not the best song ever written.

I can't upload MP3s so if anyone wants a few version up here I'll have to send them to somebody so they can upload them.

Anyway, what does everybody else think of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

That's a very profound post there, Doctor 5. I agree that it is probably among the greatest songs ever written.

Like I said, I try to learn as much as possible on the things I like. I could start a whole Nirvana thread but that could take up pages on just one comment.

Hehe. Well, you're welcome to -- I don't think anyone here would complain.

Would you like me to send a few versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit, I have the studio version and the other two are quite rare, just say the word and I'll send them through. If you're interested I'll tell you a bit about the versions.

How about the studio version with Daleks and Cybermen singing along with Kurt Cobain. Cobain could sing the clean part, the Cybermen (with voices similar to that of the new series) could sing the Bridge part (Hello, hello, hello, how low,) as that part really has a driving forward style to it and them Cybermen have a very similar quality to them, the Daleks could sing the chorus as that part is sung quite angrily and is sung basically screaming and I think the Daleks would be perfect there.
What do you think?

I have another question, to anyone who likes the song, what does the song mean to you and what's in it that you just have to go absolutely nuts to it?

Nirvana
 

Nirvana was a VERY popular band from the late 80's.
The band was formed by Kurt Cobain and his friend (bassist) Krist Novoselic in 1987. The band went through loads of drummers until Kurt settled on Dave Grohl on the album "Nervermind", these include, Aaron Burckhard, Dale Crover (from "The Melvins" fame), Dave Foster, Chad Channing and Dan Peters.
Kurt and Krist came to know each other when Kurt was at Krist's house with his brother. Kurt heard loud punk music from Krist's room, he then befriend Krist.
Later on, Kurt gave Krist a demo of the band "Fecal Matter" that Kurt had formed to try and convince Krist to join. The band never got anywhere and they later formed another band which would go further than they could have ever expected (Nirvana).
They played a few gigs here and there, and bootleggers had recorded some of their preformances.
Eventually, they recorded their first album, "Bleach", it was pretty well recieved but no where near as latter albums.
Eventually, they hired Dave Grohl, and then they recorded their second album "Nevermind", this one was INCREDIBLEY well recieved, thanks to their best song "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
After this, they enjoyed big success, and had more success with other popular songs such as "Rape Me," "Pennyroyal Tea", "In Bloom", and "Heart-shapped Box".
After "Nevermind", Nirvana was one of the most popular bands around, until April 8th, 1994, when Kurt Cobain was found dead with a gun shot wound in the head, with the official report as suicide. Although there has been a lot of speculation on his death.
Afterward Cobain's death, Nirvana released a few more albums, including self named "Nirvana" which included Nivana's 13 best performances (including "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" in the Bonus Track edition). "Sliver: A Best Of", which was a collection of some of their best songs and "With The Lights Out" (named from the line out of "Smells Like Teen Spirit") which was a collection of nearly all of Niravna's songs, it was a three-disk set and included a DVD.
Even now, Nirvana's music amazes and dazzles people today, and even today there are new fans who are absolutely in love with their music.

I am interested with other peoples views on Nirvana, so I am looking forward to seeing other peoples posts.

I would just like to say thanks to Danny for encouraging me to start this thread.

well, I've taken you up on your offer on the Nirvana thread. Thanks for giving me the inspiration.

Hmmm... not many responses, eh? Well, I like Nirvana. ;)

You're most welcome. :)

well, atleast it give me something to do for a couple of hours. When I had finished writting it, I accidentally deleted the entire thing, so I had to start all over again, which was little annoying.

but what about the different Smells Like Teen Spirit versions? Would you like me to send them through?

Ooh, sorry to hear that.

You're welcome to upload them here if you'd like.

but, I had what I was going to write planed already so it didn't take long to write again.

I'll try it, but I have a problem uploading music files up on here. I might try uploading them as WAVs if I can't get the mp3s.

I am still having trouble uploading them, is there anything that I might be doing wrong?

Still, it's typing it that's hardest usually, not just coming up with what to say.

You definitely don't want to upload them as WAVs. WAV files are much bigger than MP3s, and if MP3s fail then WAVs definitely won't work.

My advice would be wait until this weekend when I get the new server in place and hopefully that will fix it.

ok, I'll try that

It looks as if the Smells Like Teen Spirit and Nirvana threads are a place where you and I can chat about them, doesn't it Danny?

At what point over the weekend is the switch going to occur?

I would say so. :D

It's been delayed until next weekend or possibly later. See the news thread.

ah, ok.
So what is it about Smells Like Teen Spirit that you like?

oops, sorry about the double post, it didn't come up on my computer that I had sent the first one. I'll just get on in deleting one of them.


EDIT: all sorted.

Have you ever tried listening to Smells Like Teen Spirit with headphones? Oh my GOD, what an exhilerating experience it is. You really get the full quality of the music and the bass is so clear and heavy. The quality sounds much cleaner, but of course not the music itself because then it wouldn't be grunge, would it?

oh well, whatever, nevermind.
Me quoting Smells Like Teen Spirit there.
Have you got any Nirvana albums? I have got "Nevermind" and the self titled "Nirvana" album, but I have heard a lot more of their stuff than what's just on those albums. I'm also planning to buy "With The Lights Out", it's a 4 disk set (3CDs and a DVD, not bad) which has just about every recorded Nirvana song in know existence.

here's a few links to some REALLY good preformances, including the video.
I'll get 'em up after I find them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW4VVVXSiEw this one, in my opinion, is Nirvana's best live preformance of Smells Like Teen Spirit. If anyone can top it, then let me know. But to me, this one's the best.#

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWpds_vC9VU this one is the funniest of them all, this one was recorded right here in England (London to be exact, but I live at the other end of the country almost). It was recorded on Top Of The Pops (recently played it's last ever episode), in attack against TOPT for the policy for having to lip and instrument mime, they made a mock version, with altered lyrics. You can see that Kurt wasn't playing guitar, just look at the hand movement (at some points he wasn't even playing (mock miming) guitar. And the he sung in a delibrate lower, mournful tone (which in my opinion, sounded fantastic, especially good in the chorus.) This one wasn't at all serios and it's good for a laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPQR-OsH0RQ And here's the video, the best video EVER made, EVER. Never has a songs apparent meaning been so well portrayed in the video, the video showed everything that Nirvana was about. Just look as the audience gets more and more rowdy and the excitement starts to REALLY rise. Just look at the audience as the bridge comes round the second time and they run in on Kurt. The excitement rises at the exact right moments. By the time the chorus comes round again, the audience is dancing around and going CRAZY.
Just watch it, you'll see that the video perfectly compliments the song. You'll see what I mean.
This is the closest I could get to the full length video, there was a bit cut off of the end, but all other versions actually cut down the music itself.

Well, that's it, I may find somemore good ones later.

I might end up picking up the big set. I don't own any albums, but then again I'm not a big album person. Don't tell anyone, but I download the music that I want. :P

yeah, I do the same. I wont tell.

Thanks Ben! All great videos! :)

here's a link to another live version, it's not a video but it is pretty good

http://www.radioblogclub.com/open/77...n%20Spirit.mp3

If ever the massive impact of Smells Like Teen Spirit (the Nirvana version), listen to the Tori Amos version (it's.......not good, it's a piano ballad version and the only way Smells Like Teen Spirit works properly is when it's a grunge version, namely the original). After that, it'll once again pound on your brain like the first ever time you heard it.

that's supposed to be the "if ever the massive impact fades"

Ben, please don't bother to post corrections to your posts. Either edit the original, or just leave it alone. I'm sure we'll have no trouble figuring out what you meant.

Sorry, I'll bear that in mind from now on.

Here are some versions of Smells Like Teen Spirit.

The first one is of a live preformance, in my opinion, their best live preformance ever.

The second one is basically the original studio version, although, for the first two times the chorus comes in, I've added the famous live preformance from Top Of The Pops where they just made a mockery of it.

The third one is just the original studio version sped up, there is a little bit at the biginning that got cut out accidentally. This version is not to be taken seriously at ALL:P (as the second one,) I just thought it would be fun to upload them.

And here's another one, I would have posted it in the last post, but for some reason I couldn't get it uploaded in the last post. I'm glad I finally managed to put the files up on here:D.

I have decided to upload all the Nirvana songs that I can find, I may not be able to get them all up tonight, but I'll do my best.:D

Now where to begin,

the first song is a song called "Dive". For me, this one is nearly the only one that rivals "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

The second song is a song called "You Know You're Right", this song was first released in Nirvana's self titled "best of" compilation in 2003. Of course, because of this, it is the first song by Nirvana to be released after Kurt Cobain's death.

The third one is a song called "Come as you Are", this one is known as the second best song by Nirvana and has recieved almost as much popularity as "Smells Like Teen Spirit".

This one's called Lithium, I like this one a lot, listen out for the lyric "I'm so horny, that's ok my will is good".

I'll post this one and then post the others in other posts so that I don't run out of room.