“Return of the Rat,” Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers (1992). In no uncertain terms, toxic masculinity and what fathers pass down to their sons over generations is incredibly fucked. But the experiment doesn't dull the magic of the original melody or lyric. (It also could just be one friend ribbing another — in the Unplugged footage, the singer does appear to crack a smile after that jab.) Perhaps the line “He’s scared in case I want it all” proved telling: Not long after, Grohl found himself without a band and formed what would become the multiplatinum alt-rock warhorse Foo Fighters. But woe to the band that tried to go toe to toe with the Jesus Lizard in the early ’90s — its brawny “Puss” obliterates Nirvana’s side here. "Blandest," With the Lights Out (2004)Recorded during the 1988 sessions that also spawned "Love Buzz," "Blandest" is certainly more interesting than its title suggests. “I think we sound like the Knack and the Bay City Rollers being molested by Black Flag and Black Sabbath,” Kurt Cobain once quipped about Nirvana’s mix of candied pop and acidic sludge. "D-7," With the Lights Out (2004)Cobain once again paid tribute to his favorite Portland punks on this droning Wipers cover, which appeared on the Hormoaning EP. 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. “Now I vomit cum and diarrhea / On the tile floor like oatmeal pizza / With a toilet bowl full of a cloudy pus” is an early instance of a theme — the body and its attendant horrors — that would run through Cobain’s later lyrics. All Nirvana ALBUM songs ranked. I will be counting songs that are on live albums if they are unique to that live album and do not appear on a studio album. But he was capable of some dazzling moments when the mood struck: See this rabid live Thunder and Roses cover, tracked during their KOAS radio session. In Grohl’s hands, those cool beats were infused with plenty of punk fury and raw power for a song that mocks corporate rock culture. "On a Plain," Nevermind (1991)Cobain was known for writing lyrics last-minute, and "On a Plain" comes off like a song about that very process, boasting a number of hilarious lines that feel like self-referential placeholders about writer's block ("I'll start this off without any words," "One more special message to go / And then I'm done, and I can go home," "It is now time to make it unclear / To write off lines that don't make sense"). Best Nirvana Songs. Holed up at Laundry Room Studio in West Seattle, they tossed off a few new ideas; one was “Curmudgeon,” which landed on the B side of “Lithium” three months later. "White Lace and Strange," With the Lights Out (2004)As a guitarist, Cobain was never a master technician. “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” B side (1993). But it’s still repugnant. Yes, classic ’70s rock hangs over Nirvana but just as vital were Greg Sage and the Wipers. More information Every Nirvana Song, Ranked Thirty years after the band’s debut album, we look back at their entire catalogue. All rights reserved. As Courtney Love’s management put it when she sued to prevent Novoselic and Grohl from releasing it, the song was a “potential ‘hit’ of extraordinary artistic and commercial value.” And it did top Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart when it finally saw daylight. They almost cover up lines about Cobain’s “dingaling” and jacking off in polyester, as well as this machismo-skewering corker of a chorus: “I got a dick, dick — hear my fucking hate!” Stowed away on a Kill Rock Stars comp released just a month before Nevermind, the band appears with idols such as the Melvins, Bikini Kill, and Jad Fair (not to mention the other Courtney Love). So ludicrous was the idea of achieving financial stability by playing music that Cobain replaced the word money in the line “all the money that I make” with Mudhoney. Scoff. 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. But there's a real charm to the off-hand jam vibe, with the guitarists building mammoth, Black Sabbath-y distortion over Mark Pickerel's tumbling drum fills. In the parable, Cobain saw plenty of parallels with himself and Love. 21. “You Know You’re Right,” Nirvana (2002). Rescued from the Fecal Matter demo, it’s the song that first made Novoselic suggest that he and Cobain form a band. "The story is about a guy who lost his girlfriend," Cobain once said of "Lithium." The Kirkwoods’ songwriting style stands in stark contrast to Cobain’s: surreal and enigmatic, one part folk wise, the other part stoned philosophy major. (Fun fecal fact: Cobain originally titled the song "Imodium" as a wink to the anti-diarrheal used by Tad Doyle, frontman of Seattle grunge act Tad, during the two bands' joint European tour.). "Lounge Act," Nevermind (1991)One of the only Nevermind songs that sounds like Cobain knocked off five minutes before recording, "Lounge Act" lacks the immersive darkness or dynamic shifts that define their masterpiece. "Pennyroyal Tea," In Utero (1993)For several years of his adult life, Cobain struggled with chronic stomach ailments, which often resulted in vomiting blood and struggling to eat regular meals. type of pop song on a grunge record, in that scene, was risky,” Cobain told Rolling Stone in 1994. 97. The first half of the song is fairly pedestrian hard rock, giving way to a blaring solo that conjures the punky spawn of Tony Iommi. 6. By the time Nirvana was gearing up to go into the studio for Bleach, Cobain still didn’t have set lyrics for many of the songs. Novoselic and Grohl wanted to recruit alt-rocker P.J. Those bands were cool, but it was “Love Buzz,” the first single from Nirvana, that proved to be seismic, wholly shifting the paradigm of ’90s culture. The story goes something like this: Sheriff Kurt moseys into … 37. That's Cobain screwing with us right off the bat on In Utero's Pixies-ish opener. Sometimes I think religion is OK for certain people. Or even a song that turns crashing on your girlfriend’s couch into high romance. No clue. Extra points to the frontman for attempting the Jimmy Page guitar solo. You can honestly just buy it if you want to own Nirvana’s Greatest Hits. "Mexican Seafood," Teriyaki Asthma, Volume I (1989)"Mexican Seafood" is the grossest song in a catalog that features many a queasy lyric. "The Other Improv," With the Lights Out (2004)Is there anyone on Earth who cites this ragged Brazil leftover as their favorite song? Call it his version of original sin or the mark of Cain, but it’s a sign of worthlessness, failed potential, life as little more than a stigma — which is basically how most teenagers feel about themselves at some point, a nadir Cobain could put into words. Recorded by Nirvana for a John Peel Session and included on the Australian tour EP Hormoaning, it’s fairly faithful to the original. Another Hasbro game gets the live-action series treatment. "Where Did You Sleep Last Night," MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)Cobain continued his Lead Belly obsession during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged set, reinterpreting this traditional murder ballad with a quiet intensity. As Michael Azerrad wrote in Come As You Are, “The night before the sessions … Kurt sat down and wrote into the wee hours.” But while he came up with plenty of choice words for the album, even Azerrad admits that by the time Cobain got to “Sifting” and “Scoff,” “it was very late, and Kurt was getting burned out.” It sounds like it. "Paper Cuts," Bleach (1989)Melvins drummer Dale Crover powers the breakneck attack of this metallic deep cut, one of three that began life as a 10-song pre-Bleach demo. Due in part to its flannel-heavy music video, itself a definitive moment of the grunge era, "Teen Spirit" swelled into a culture-defining moment that eclipsed Nirvana itself. "Here She Comes Now," Heaven & Hell: A Tribute to the Velvet Underground (1990)Cobain channels Lou Reed's signature vocal style on this faithful Velvet Underground cover, stretching out the track to five minutes. "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"). And I’m like, I don’t want to give it a name, so let’s just call it ‘Forgotten Tune’ and let people make up their own minds what it is.". "If You Must," With the Lights Out (2004)Cobain accidentally channels Bob Dylan on this dissonant waltz from their January 1988 demo. But most songs from this era emphasize a few ludicrous guitar effects, Cobain’s knack for turning primal screams and mumbled mewls into something resembling hooks, and Dave Grohl’s ability to muscle just about any drumbeat out of the fucking park. Every Nirvana Song, Ranked Thirty years after the band’s debut album, we look back at their entire catalogue. The band clearly gives zero fucks, as at one point Cobain laughs, asks about taking yet another aimless solo, and then flails about. 21. MTV Unplugged in New York. If only he'd written an actual song to accompany the weirdness. Pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea not only gives his name to Greg Sage’s label but is also a reference in this Wipers song. “Death / Violence / Excitement” goes one blood-boiling scream, thrilling and nihilistic at once. "Breed," Nevermind (1991)Nevermind's most animalistic, unhinged single — and the one least defined by Butch Vig's slick production style — "Breed" thrives on a bluesy, metallic riff that could pass for early Sabbath. It’s funny to imagine the milquetoast Mayberry characters as sadists, yet the claustrophobic small-town terror feels earned. When it emerged on With the Lights Out, this acoustic bedside recording couldn't help feel a bit underwhelming, with Cobain belting a Beatles-ish melody in a key slightly too high for his quivering voice. And in an 1993 Rolling Stone interview, he highlighted "About a Girl" as a bold move for its time. The Kafkaesque specter of a bureaucracy taking over one’s life weighed on Cobain, and in the case of the Hollywood starlet, Farmer’s alcoholism and Benzedrine habit led to a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia and her involuntary commitment to a psychiatric hospital, where she received electroshock treatments that quickened her demise. 92. But you can hear the seed of a Nevermind-level song here, which only amplifies the sadness. In one of his journal entries, Cobain explains this minute-and-a-half blast as a parable about old men being turned into birds “to scream at the top of their lungs in horrified hellish rage every morning at daybreak to warn us all of the truth … screaming bloody murder all over the world.” There’s a righteous amount of screaming here against a fun, if derivative, punk chord progression. And rightly so. Albini's production here is stunning in its simplicity: Grohl's drums, captured with that famous bone-dry clarity, thwack through the speakers, and the frontman's voice explodes with a natural reverb on the first note of each verse's second line. Nirvana’s buzz-saw pop-punk cover of the Vaselines’ first single, “Son of a Gun,” captures the group’s giddiness, with Grohl’s boisterous attack basically throttling the song. "I Hate Myself and Want to Die," The Beavis and Butthead Experience (1993)The backstory of this Brazil recording, a demented swirl of sci-fi feedback and carnivalesque bass, is much more intriguing than the song itself. I'm also including the songs on Incesticide and anything else I've heard. “If there is a ‘Seattle Sound,’ it came from Portland, Oregon, in the early ’80s by a three piece band named the Wipers.” So Kurt Cobain wrote in his Journals. "Old Age" started out in 1991 as a loose cassette recording intended to showcase their material for producer Butch Vig (who went on to produce Nevermind); and the band recorded an in-progress take during the sessions for that album. 50 Nirvana Songs Ranked (Reupload) I accidentally deleted this list. And to put a jangly R.E.M. 72. Political Punk Rock Black Flag guy,” Cobain told Michael Azerrad of this bass-propelled cut, which lashes out at a "slippery pessimist hypocrite master" and "conservative communist apocalyptic bastard." 5. Cobain openly cops to his heroin use, nonchalantly offers up a horror like “my mother died every night,” and then reveals that his art is “to write off lines that don’t make sense.” As the song creeps higher toward its glorious peak, Cobain regards its other lines and shrugs: “What the hell am I trying to say?” It’s by turns a confessional, self-obfuscating song, not to mention the only instance of self-love for Cobain — though “love myself better than you” may not mean much from someone who hates the world. 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 the thing, though: With very few exceptions, Kurt Cobain didn't write filler. 41. In his 1993 interview with The Advocate, Kurt Cobain declared, “Out of all the bands who came from the underground and actually made it in the mainstream, Devo is the most subversive and challenging of all.” And while Cobain professed a love for New Wavers like Oingo Boingo and the B-52’s, he made his love for Devo clear with this delectably buzzy take from Nirvana’s 1990 Peel Session. Vague and watery (thanks to that pedal), the song uses a string of clichés (“The choice is yours”) and the imagery of opposites (mud and bleach, friend and enemy) to frame its theme of the uncertainty of people and the gulf between our expectations and reality. 49. "Turnaround," Hormoaning EP (1992)In which Nirvana remove the jittery, synth-fueled zeal from a signature Devo tune and bathe it in lukewarm distortion. "In Bloom" Nevermind (1991)The rhythm section dominates this Nevermind masterpiece from start to finish: Grohl's open tom-tom flourishes, swooshing hi-hats, and frenetic pre-chorus snare rolls; Novoselic's gurgling bass throughout the verses. ), 57. "School," Bleach (1989)This fangs-out riff-monster began life as a parody of the blooming Seattle grunge scene, but Cobain added a new wrinkle by framing the lyrics around the same concept — using the "school" scenario to vent about the rampant cliques permeating the industry. “Something in the Way,” Nevermind (1991). "Aero Zeppelin," Incesticide (1992)Given that it's the first song Nirvana ever played live, "Aero Zeppelin" is fittingly tethered to their influences — most evident during a cocky, strutting guitar riff that borrows a hint of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way." Beyond the zeitgeist and Greek tragedy, their genius can be gleaned on a deep cut from a multi-platinum album, in a song that stands slightly apart from everything else in their catalogue. Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown really did meet up in a Florida motel in 1964. "We don't know it!" You\'ll receive the next newsletter in your inbox. "Heart-Shaped Box," In Utero (1993)"Smells Like Teen Spirit" may be Nirvana's signature song, the one that changed it all, and an obvious choice to top any and every list. As the newest member of Nirvana, Dave Grohl had no intention of giving up the job anytime soon, but perhaps to play it safe he taped a few songs with himself playing every instrument. It's fun as a completist's gaze into this multi-platinum band's humble beginnings. And the song's ubiquity hounded Cobain for the rest of his career, signifying his conflicted relationship with fame. That utterance of “I like yewwww” is equal parts sweetheart crush and psychotic obsession. In the decades since his death, most aspects of American culture remain willfully obtuse and oblivious to sexual violence, yet Cobain’s ability to make the blunt and harrowing catchy is evidenced here; every shredded, double-tracked vocal cord shrieking of that defiant plea at song’s end still sends shivers. Nirvana's final album mostly harnessed abrasiveness as a weapon (see "Milk It," "Very Ape"). There's nowhere to hide. I was just throwing together words.”. 33. Using any other standard, it's a solid rock song, built on a spidery Novoselic bassline and Cobain-in-pop-mode hook. By the seventh verse, Cobain’s increasingly fraught voice finally breaks with a skin-freezing shriek at the word shiver. “Territorial Pissings,” Nevermind (1991). In Utero wasn't exactly a "screw you" to radio programmers, but "Tourette's" was the closest they came. An In Utero noise jam relegated to the B side of “Heart-Shaped Box” and tacked on to the end of certain pressings of the CD, “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip” is akin in concept only to Nevermind’s notorious “Endless, Nameless.” Instead, the band reveals a level of slackness rivaling that of its peers in Pavement, right down to Cobain’s spot-on Stephen Malkmus impersonation. Given its early stage (tracked during the 1990 KAOS radio show), the song shows promise — hinting to the four-chord triumphs he'd perfect soon after. ", 3. While the other two ("Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam," "Molly's Lips") were destined to become career highlights, "Son of a Gun" fell through the cracks in their catalog. No longer beholden to the likes of Led Zeppelin and the template of grunge, “Dive” pile-drives, hypnotizes, uplifts, and drifts with total assurance. It’s the title of our new album. 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