Nirvana

[Ben Dawson]

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.

[Danny Stewart]

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

[Ben Dawson]

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.

[Danny Stewart]

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

[Ben Dawson]

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?

[Ben Dawson]

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?

[Ben Dawson]

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.

[Ben Dawson]

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

[Danny Stewart]

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

[Danny Stewart]

You're most welcome.

[Ben Dawson]

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.

[Ben Dawson]

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

[Danny Stewart]

Ooh, sorry to hear that.

[Danny Stewart]

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

[Ben Dawson]

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

[Ben Dawson]

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.

[Ben Dawson]

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

[Danny Stewart]

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

[Danny Stewart]

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.

[Ben Dawson]

ok, I'll try that