Live! Tonight! POLLed Out!!: The ILM Nirvana poll voting thread (Poll #69) - Voting open until Friday 6th November

http://www.sticker-dealer.de/shop_cfg/Sticker/nirvana_smileys_stickers.jpg

Please send me a list of your 20 favourite Nirvana songs (ranked top to bottom, please don't number them) - points will be allocated in the usual fashion.

Optional part: Please also name your favourite Nirvana album (this can be a comp or one of the live albums if you like).

Here's a list of Nirvana songs to refer to, anything from here is eligible (it looks pretty comprehensive):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_recorded_by_Nirvana

Send your ballots to ilmnirvanapoll AT gmail dot com, please include your username.

Polling will stay open until midnight GMT on Friday 6th November 2015.

Happy voting!

A couple of other things:

I'll be combining votes for different versions of the same song but I'll mention in the results if people have specified a particular recording.

If you want to vote for the song from the No Alternative compilation, please list it as 'Sappy' rather than 'Verse Chorus Verse' to avoid confusion with the other 'Verse Chorus Verse'...

sweet - voted. it's gotta be Dumb. or Do Re Mi

psyched!

I'll put my ballot together over the next few days, and consider the poll an absolute success if 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' places outside the Top 10.

You know I quite liked "You know you're right" at first, but when I worked out that 'they' had basically edited it into pieces to manufacture a chorus and 'structure' and that Kurt would have been furious..

Source?

https://thepastisunwritten.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/upside-down.jpg

if 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' places outside the Top 10.

I know ILM is challopsy, but I'd be surprised if it's not in the top 3.

don't think teen spirit is in my top 3 songs on nevermind

I don't care what songs come where in the final results as long as In Bloom misses the cut entirely.

u mad

I'm guessing ILX will skew In Utero > Nevermind and give the top slot to idk Serve the Servants.

I still call muddy banks my favorite nirvana album even if I always skip teen spirit

Sometimes I skip halfway into Spank Thru after I get a good chuckle. The way he sings this:

"I can't explain just why we lost it from the start
living without you girl you'll only break my heart ..."

Also the country vibe. Im all lols

Yeah, I know what you mean, it's the way he sings "heart"!

Anyway, fuck it, ballot sent. That was surprisingly easy!

listening to Nirvana for me now has almost become too complicated

Then listen to Spank Thru and get a good chuckle

You know I quite liked "You know you're right" at first, but when I worked out that 'they' had basically edited it into pieces to manufacture a chorus and 'structure' and that Kurt would have been furious..

― Mark G, Friday, October 23, 2015 5:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

nah, they played it live in chicago in 1993 and recorded it top to bottom in january 1994. it was definitely mixed to sound like a 2002 puddle of mudd single, but structurally it's not 'edited' at all.

The song sounds near enough as Hole performed it for MTV Unplugged.

in this thread are we throwing up bits and bobs that we like?

if so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trMiURBVd30

this thread should be an all out sensory assault imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoJ7J_uZTIE

http://bolrealty.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/1800-Sq-Ft-Aptt-Unitech-Fresco-Nirvana-Country-Sector-50-Gurgaon-.jpg

Bleach > Nevermind > In Utero imo

^ otm

Stop. There is something missing there. Now it's complete:

Unplugged > Bleach > Nevermind > In Utero

they had a few really solid tracks on some compilations, i hope don't get forgotten.

if i had to stan for one of them, it would be this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BE1KRj5iiM

Anyone here ever fortunate enough to see them live?

December 1993, Birmingham AL. I was sick to death of Nirvana at that point and was really there to see The Breeders, but stayed for Nirvana's set and it remains one of the most awesome shows I've ever seen.

In Utero > Bleach > Nevermind.

best song on incesticide

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0IC1uQjHMY

I was sick to death of Nirvana at that point

JF, if Kurt had lived, how long d'ya think Nirvana had left before they became viewed as an irrelevance and were either pushed back into the realm of being a cult band with a large dedicated following or they split up? It just seems to me that some people, Kurt included, were getting fed up with Nirvana even by early 1994?

I don't recall anyone being fed up. After the coma there was a lot of concern, however.

People loved him and that band. And they were only big for 2 1/2 years. It was like a lightning bolt. It has been said so many times but he really did change everything. The dude's effect on the culture was seismic.

I don't know the ages of everyone posting in this thread, but the Nirvana boom happened between the ages of 17-20 for me and it was everywhere all the time and, even though I was really into them at the start, it/they became an omnipresent nuisance by the time I finally saw them live. I wonder how I'd regard the band now if I'd not seen that show—which changed everything for me—a few months before his death.

Gonna throw it out there - Cobain peaked as a songwriter in 1991.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but some of the tracks on In Utero were actually written around the same time as Nevermind weren't they?

Are Foo Fighters tracks eligible?

xpost:

Like, I definitely know that a demo of 'Pennyroyal Tea' exists from 1990, and I've heard that 'All Apologies' and 'Dumb' were both written in 1990 as well.

Are Foo Fighters tracks eligible?

Sadly no Foo Fighters tracks, also no Sweet 75 or Eyes Adrift or William Burroughs feat. Kurt Cobain.

"Marigold" qualifies though.

Yeah!

I wasn't old enough to be one of the smelly nirvana fans that my aunt and uncle talk about. And I never got into them until after Kurt's death. I'm a little glad that I wasn't in an age where the social/cultural/popularity impact could effect my opinion.

Gonna throw it out there - Cobain peaked as a songwriter in 1991.

― Master of Treacle, Sunday, October 25, 2015 12:16 AM (18 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

these are the only songs Kurt wrote 1992-1994:

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
Serve the Servants
Scentless Apprentice
Very Ape
Milk It
tourette's
You Know You're Right
Do Re Mi
Heart Shaped Box

+ Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip & The Other Improv

xp That live version of "Beeswax" with Grohl on drums is the definitive version IMO.

JF, if Kurt had lived, how long d'ya think Nirvana had left before they became viewed as an irrelevance and were either pushed back into the realm of being a cult band with a large dedicated following or they split up? It just seems to me that some people, Kurt included, were getting fed up with Nirvana even by early 1994?

it's likely they would have taken their sweet ass time with the In Utero follow up, but maybe not quite as long as Dre/MBV/GNR/D'Angelo.

Yeah, it's definitely possible that if they had followed up In Utero, it would have taken a while for it to appear... aside from 'You Know You're Right', it doesn't seem like they had many new songs lying around.

if i can be arsed to put together a ballot one of the tracks on flappy bird's list could be my #1

xp Grohl would have written some of it. possibly.

Yeah, that's a point, because Grohl apparently came up with the main riff for 'Scentless Apprentice', although I've heard since that Kurt really wasn't all that keen on it. How much of the first Foo Fighters album did Grohl have written in early '94, because I suspect that he may have had some of it lying around at that time?

kurt wanted to add his own lyrics to 'exhausted' & 'alone & easy target' but felt afraid/embarrassed to ask apparently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbTvypAUjnw

these are the only songs Kurt wrote 1992-1994:

Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
Serve the Servants
Scentless Apprentice
Very Ape
Milk It
tourette's
You Know You're Right
Do Re Mi
Heart Shaped Box

One of these will almost certainly be my #1 and at least 4 of them will make my top 10.

So I guess I'm disappointed he killed himself after this.

ah fascinating interview clip. in the Seattle episode of Sonic Highways, Dave talked about playing the FF songs for Kurt and getting encouragement about "Alone + Easy Target" in particular and that was the first time i'd ever heard any confirmation that Kurt had heard that stuff.

"Heart-Shaped Box." Jesus. I consider it the pinnacle of the whole grunge/alternative/early-1990s rock period. And that video is just stunningly beautiful, ugly, and memorable all at once (kinda like Nirvana).

i have a hard time explaining this but: it's such a thrill when you get to hear smells like teen spirit after forgetting that... it's smells like teen spirit? like this fleeting moment as if you are hearing it from the first time, dissociated from everything else. if there was ever a great song that was ever made unbearable by context, it might be this one.

Big Long Now is one of those songs that I always forget about but is so crucial to my understanding of Nirvana. Almost sounds like Alice in Chains.

I think my ballot will be quite Bleach and Incesticide heavy.

Submitted.

Bleach - 4
Nevermind - 7
Incesticide - 3
In Utero - 4
Nirvana - 1
Live at Reading - 1

Which one from Reading?

The Money Will Roll Right In

The Ballots Will POLL Right In

sry

i picked *a lot* of song off nevermind. i think i have more b-sides off of that as songs from Utero in my 20.

I should have listened to more b sides. I don't even know a lot of that stuff.

Yeah I was kind of the same until I picked up With the Lights Out cheap a few years ago.

By the way I've been sending confirmation emails as the ballots come in so let me know if you haven't had one.

anyone here still listen to Nirvana? Serious condition.

question even

To be quite honest with you: yes.

I wouldn't say that I listened to them on a regular basis these days, they're not a staple of my listening diet and I don't "binge listen" to them or anything. I can quite comfortably go months and even years without wanting to put on a Nirvana album, and indeed I have gone years without wanting to do so. However, as few and far between as they are these days, a Nirvana song will randomly appear in my head and I'll think "I wanna listen to that" ... and it's never 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Come As You Are', 'Lithium' or any of the bigger songs.

*they are=those moments are

Xps: Yeah I even own that box set, but I never listen to it because it feels like such a slog. I have a hard enough time with these polls just listening through the stuff I'm super familiar with and trying to rank that. Anything more and it'll end up putting me off the band.

I tend to listen to Nirvana as supplementary material to other, similar stuff. 50 Foot Wave always goes with Nirvana for me.

as time goes on, i'm more inclined to listens to "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol" or "The Other Improv" or the Scentless Apprentice demo where you hear Dave show Kurt the riff and they write the song in 9 minutes... i pretty much never listen to Nevermind. it's either Unplugged or In Utero

*listen

i can't remember the last time i played a nirvana track or album on my own, but if they come on the radio i will turn up the volume, every time. which pretty much makes them the james gang, but with more hits.

i never listen to them. already at the time i only listened to them when i was forced to which was quite often as they were played everywhere. i don't really know the foo fighters but i remember that i really liked that first foo fighters album and thought at the time that it was a very good memorial album. about as good as nirvana before.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E1IpiuMIIPE/hqdefault.jpg

:)

Oh, I didn't get one, gavin leeds

Voted! Very In Utero heavy but hey.

To be quite honest with you: yes.

I wouldn't say that I listened to them on a regular basis these days, they're not a staple of my listening diet and I don't "binge listen" to them or anything. I can quite comfortably go months and even years without wanting to put on a Nirvana album, and indeed I have gone years without wanting to do so. However, as few and far between as they are these days, a Nirvana song will randomly appear in my head and I'll think "I wanna listen to that" ... and it's never 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Come As You Are', 'Lithium' or any of the bigger songs.

― Turrican, Tuesday, November 3, 2015 1:45 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Cosign all of this except the second half of the last sentence - I do occasionally want to hear one of their bigger songs. That being said, Incesticide has worn better for me than any of their other records in part because none of its songs suffer from overexposure. Plus it's a lot more tuneful than Bleach.

the one that gets stuck in my head once in a while is "On a Plain" -- "love myself better than you"

yeh, on a plain would be my first pick, then maybe sliver

On a Plain has the best bridge ever.

i like the pop tunesmith nirvana, I'm not with the "oh this 9 minute feedback instrumental is the real band" camp

Mark G, I got your ballot, not sure where my reply email went!

Oh there it is!

Slow updates, I guess

this is cool, the only other known performance of "gallons of rubbing alcohol." video quality is charmingly shit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzVXF1Yd4Ws

Voted!

In Utero - 6
Incesticide - 4
Nevermind - 4
Bleach - 3
Hormoaning - 1
Unplugged - 1
unreleased - 1

anyone here still listen to Nirvana?

I still listen to Bleach once in a while. It's the only one I ever feel like actively enjoying.

Nevermind sounded neat at the time, but Butch Vig's early 90s production sound has aged terribly (Gish excepted).

I probably don't listen to In Utero all the way through much more often than once or twice a year anymore but it always sounds great when I do.

I listen to Nevermind a few times a year

I heard teen spirit at a party last week and so I voted in this poll, but I really only like (and ever liked) Nevermind, I think of it as a companion album to Beatles For Sale, some solid pop jams. wondered if nirvana would become like the doors for newer generations, as much a symbol of a certain kind of youth lifestyle as a band, but I'm not sure that's panned out.

Still see plenty of teens in Nirvana t-shirts, far more so than any other band of my youth.

Are singles from "All Of Us" or "The Story Of Simon Simopath" going to be counted?

(Sorry. But someone had to make that joke.)
This is the post where we list things we don't want to discuss on ILM... EVER AGAIN.
"They've gone mad" - the most typically "unrepresentative" albums

One of my friends in school actually bought a '60s Nirvana CD by mistake, as he put it "The title should've been a giveaway really - Travelling on a Cloud"

Also yes, I still listen to Nirvana, as in I'll play In Utero a couple of times a year and Nevermind at least once, plus various other bits and bobs. I tend to revisit my favourite '90s bands fairly regularly these days.

Ballot submitted. Thought it would be an agonizing process of picking 'children,' and was actually pretty easy. Looking forward to results.

god, that "endless nameless" video is amazing.

they were totally out for kicks when it comes to their live shows. such an insane and completely visceral amount of energy.

they were p low-key when i saw them at Roseland in '93, but kurt had just od'd.

My only ballot regret was not fitting in 'You Know You're Right' - 'cause when I saw it live in Chicago as a new song, I remember being really impressed with them and the show overall.

Wonder how many ballots this will get -- I'm assuming a lot?

I'm going to go out on a non-limb and say that "drain you" is going to win this thing.

wasabi pea-sized masculinity (latebloomer) wrote this on thread rank the songs on nirvana's "nevermind" on board I Love Music on Oct 1, 2011

drain you and lounge act are the heart of this album

And looking at my ballot, they're my highest-ranked Nevermind tracks.

The second side of Nevermind >>> first

Anyone here ever fortunate enough to see them live?

long time since this got asked but i saw them at manchester poly on the first uk tour they did supporting tad in october 1989. met kurt afterwards, but he was very quiet and shy, he just signed something for a friend and then just slumped back on the table he was sitting on. was an awesome show though from both bands

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97KwmvleRok

I always wonder what the random dancing man from that Reading performance is up to these days.

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/02/catching-up-with-dancing-tony-from-nirvanas-live-a.html

drain you and lounge act are the heart of this album

OTMFM

Butch Vig's early 90s production sound has aged terribly (Gish excepted).

Utter bullshit

I love 'Lounge Act', always have and I guess I always will, obviously because of the bassline but also because I love the way the track in general sounds.

'Drain You', on the other hand, I thought was great when I first heard it but then it gradually slid to the bottom of the pile over the years to the point where I now don't even think about it, really, unless I'm listening to Nevermind and it comes on. It's not really one of those songs that, for me, springs to my mind immediately when I think of this band, and whenever I listen to it I find it okay, but it doesn't have the same power it once did.

Because the whole world’s dying to know, here are the ratings for “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in Radio On #3. I can’t remember the exact moment we were writing about it, but I know it was getting Top 40 airplay and moving up the charts--I talked about what that felt like, hearing it on a Top 40 station (Toronto’s last one; it was gone in a matter of months), in my own review. I don’t think the album had yet become the event that it turned out to be.

Leslie Singer (8.0); Patty Stirling (0.0); Scott Woods (8.5); Michael Freedberg (5.0); Chuck Eddy (8.5); Arsenio Orteza (2.5); Amy Linden (9.0); me (8.5); Frank Kogan (8.5); Chris Cook (0.0); Rob Sheffield (5.0); Jack Thompson (8.0)

You can see some of us tripping over ourselves in the accompanying commentary trying to figure out what was going on. I can’t even look at my own comment: I spend a page making sure that everyone knows that even though this song really gets to me, ho-hum, it borrows from X, Y, and Z, but it’s not as good. I can’t bring myself to say how much I unreservedly love it. (Think I did say as much of the video.) A couple of other people basically do the same. I’m guessing--maybe I’m wrong--Rob would like his comment and rating back. I’m pretty sure no one had any idea that this was a story bigger than just the song.

Frank Kogan’s comment was, and is, one of my favourite pieces of music writing ever. I think he’s the one person who was able to convey what a strange and incredible song this was.

My walk-on guns bring your friends. It’s fun to lose and pretend she’s so whup bowed and self-assured and oh and oh yon dirty word! Halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo, when the light’s out, it’s pustageous. Here we are now, entertain us. I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are now, entertain us. I am Blotto and bravado, I’m a scarecrow and a Beatle, yay yay yay. Good sense, inner sense, crypt of mankind. Dead things, many things, I can’t define. I was a wuh, I confess, to fault a skiff and finger pecs. I met a goo who so fah-spin and always will until the end. Incest and peppermints—meaningless nouns!—turn on your limb! turn your eyes around! And I forgot just why I tasted yeah, yes, makes you smile. I found it hard, it’s hard to find, well, whatever, nevermind. Sha la la. Halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo Harlow, halo halo halo, when the light’s out, it’s pustageous. Here we are now, entertain us. I feel stupid and contagious. Here we are now, entertain us. I am Blotto and bravado, I’m a scarecrow and a Beatle—bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile, bloody Nile. (8.5)

I know the attention is almost always put on Kurt (for good reason) but from re-watching the Reading videos, Krist was such an essential part of the whole sound and attitude. the sweet-spot between Paul Mccartney and The Melvins as p4k put it

dude always looked like he was having a blast

Just sent mine. How many ballots so far?

I get the feeling that the folks who prefer Bleach to Nevermind are the same people who prefer Sabbath to Zeppelin. Some of these people are my friends. All of these people are a) cooler than I will ever be, and b) objectively full of shit.

In Utero > Nevermind > Bleach imo

This week is very busy. I'll try to make a ballot.

In Utero > Nevermind > Bleach imo

This week is very busy. I'll try to make a ballot.

― EveningStar (Sunder), Wednesday, November 4, 2015 8:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

agreed 100%. full on:

in utero > unplugged in new york > nevermind > with the lights out > incesticide > bleach > from the muddy banks of the wishkah

anybody hear the butch vig "devonshire" rough mixes of Nevermind? really cool listen, not necessarily better, but for a band with such a paucity of material left to discover, it was pretty jarring, *especially* smells like teen spirit.

ILM is so much better when we have polls going. burnt out on Nirvana but might still get around to putting something together.

Voted.

I think I voted for 2/3 of the tracklists of both In Utero and Nevermind.

Whoops, I just sent you two more emails because I made a couple of minor changes and then sent the wrong file. Most recent email should be good.

Just sent mine. How many ballots so far?

21 ballots, had a lot in the last couple of days, hoping there are yet more to come!

I'll get a ballot together for sure. Mistaki g"my libido" for "I'm a Beatle" might be a high point in Kogan's career

We were 'hem-heming' at the thought of "Here we are now, entertainers" the other day.

Just thinking about how much I loved In Bloom before that video came out. Was that the most played Nirvana video? I feel like I saw way too much of it.

It did not make my ballot.

i will try to vote as i suspect no one else will have my #1

I don't have a horse in this race but I'll be disappointed if 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' doesn't make #1. There's a reason why bands' most popular songs are the most popular – it's because they're the best.

Most popular because they are the best, or because they are the most heavily marketed, or most tailored to the lowest common denominator, or are released at the most fortuitous time. One or more of the above.

All the marketing in the world can't make millions of people love a song, and SLTS is in no way tailored to the lowest common denominator (I realize that's not what you're saying). I'm no expert on Nirvana but from what I've heard of their back catalogue it's their best song by far.

I think there's a case to be made that it is (though it's not my favourite at this point in time) but to say every band's most popular song is always intrinsically their best is ludicrous.

it'd certainly be alright if SLTS is #1 but i'm rooting for any number of other songs to upset it. these ilm polls occasionally defy conventional wisdom in fun ways.

I love pre-SLTS Nirvana live footage where you can hear people in the audience begging for "Negative Creep"

Ballot sent.

it'd certainly be alright if SLTS is #1 but i'm rooting for any number of other songs to upset it. these ilm polls occasionally defy conventional wisdom in fun ways.

no way SMLTS is #1 here. would be shocked if it came close. several people have already declared upthread their intention to not vote for it (and tbh neither did I) – and the way the polls usually wind up here is everyone seems to try their best to send in as unconventional a ballot as possible.
fully expect the ilm hivemind to rally around some random, pre-nevermind track or maybe an in utero b-side or somesuch.

Sent mine in as well.

I expect SLTS will end up in my top 5, but not top 3.

I'm definitely going to vote for SLTS, but it will probably be outside my top 10.

I've got a NIN poll scheduled in the next year or so, but I've fallen a bit out of love with them recently and am tempted to switch it up for something else. The other big three of grunge could be a good one, ie AiC, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and associated side projects.

PJ or SG would be fun

I'd just lump all three together I think, makes sense considering their members used to collaborate a lot back in the day.

i dunno. Pearl Jam have a big catalog and enough fans on ilx to make it interesting, Soundgarden might too, Alice is the only one where it might not work.

I think a few AiC songs could well sneak in - read the Dirt thread to see how highly regarded that record is on ILX.

oh i think AIC could be a factor in a combined poll, i'm just saying i personally wouldn't wanna combine them. i'd sooner just count Temple Of The Dog in a Soundgarden poll (and maybe in a Pearl Jam poll, but it's such a Chris Cornell album).

would totally love a Pearl Jam poll.

I voted! 7 from Nevermind, 6 from In Utero, 3 from Incesticide, 2 from Bleach.

ILM seems naturally anthem-resistant, so pushback vs SLTS no surprise

Bleach: 12
Nevermind: 6
Incesticide: 2

would totally love a Pearl Jam poll.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

Just checked, Vegemitegirl (sp?) has one coming up.

the dadrock of grunge

how many of Nirvana's songs aren't anthemic? the top 10 is gonna be 80% anthems no matter what.

TS is the funniest one, tho, which the Tori Amos version definitively revealed

teen spirit is probably my least favorite nirvana song. i wasn't there when it broke, i don't feel any of the excitement that 'changed music/culture/fashion/everything', it's too long, the lyrics are stupid, the riff doesn't do anything for me... i'd rather listen to any other nirvana song. *except* when it's on the radio.

How are the SLTS lyrics stupider than any other Nirvana lyrics?

It made my top 5 but there are a couple of songs that I just like more.

a lot of Kurt's songs are so poetic and full of potent and cohesive imagery & language - Downer (imo the definitive Nirvana song as far as lyrics go- it's the whole band in one song), Drain You, Heart-Shaped Box, Polly, Come As You Are, All Apologies, Dumb, Something in the Way, Very Ape, Frances Farmer, Been a Son, Milk It... Scentless Apprentice lyrics are pretty stupid, but the hammer of the gods riff and that bone chilling scream make up for it... could be over-exposure, but i don't ever remember being in love with teen spirit, even when I first got into Nirvana... like whenever I hear "I Want to Hold Your Hand," I get chills, still. i understand why teen spirit did what it did but I don't 'feel' it.

The 'Scentless Apprentice' lyrics aren't stupid at all.

I didn't vote for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', either.

All of these lyrics work in the same way for me, honestly: they have plenty of memorable phrases and they can evoke images and mood, at least in his delivery, but I'm not sure I find any of them cohesive per se. I like the SLTS lyrics in the same way that I like the "Heart-Shaped Box" or "Frances Farmer" lyrics: "With the lights out, it's less dangerous/Here we are now; entertain us" is as memorable for me as "Hey, wait, I've got a new complaint/Forever in debt to your priceless advice" or "I miss the comfort in being sad".

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" has surreal/absurd/fragmentary lyrics mixed in with unforgettable phrases like "a denial." I'd say they're far, far from stupid.

i like the lyrics in scentless apprentice more than SLTS, but a lot of the lines feel weak and out of place, at least not up to par with the sound and the power of the song.

btw, one of my favorite overlooked Cobain lines: "Out of the ground / into the sky / out of the sky / into the dirt"

"She'll come back as fire, and burn all the liars, leave a blanket of ash on the ground"

fuck

That one fell right outside my top 5. Maybe I should have ranked it higher. I really enjoy the verses and the riff.
xp re "Very Ape"

"Very Ape" is the song i was most surprised to find myself putting high on my ballot, always loved it without ever remembering the title or thinking of it as a standout on In Utero

Two and a half decades of "OMG greatest song/video ever" from MTV and RS and their endless countdowns can wear anybody down, so I understand the pushback against "Teen Spirit." It's worn me down a little, too - I think I had the song at like #7. But "Teen Spirit" also one of the few pop songs where I can hear why it was so galvanizing in the first place - I'm generally wary of the Greil Marcus Moment (so overcome with emotion you had to pull the car over and listen, mouth agape), but it's not hard to imagine people pulling their cars over to "Teen Spirit" in 1991. I can still hear that immediacy when I listen in 2015, when the hagiography around Saint Kurt and the incessant fêting of The Song That Changed The World are mostly things of the past.

i kind of happened into the beginning of my active interest in current popular music right then in late '91, and i remember "Teen Spirit"'s ubiquity as well as "Losing My Religion" or "Enter Sandman" or "Under The Bridge" or "Alive" or "You Could Be Mine," but i didn't really have any particular sense of it being special or better or part of a markedly different culture than those other big rock hits of the day, or a clue that it would be a bigger influence on my personal taste in the future. i didn't actively like a Nirvana song until "Lithium" and didn't actively love one until "In Bloom," and didn't buy any of their albums until the release of In Utero.

my "mouth agape" Nirvana moment was (SPOILER) "Sliver"

I remember showing a newspaper w/ the Billboard chart that had Nevermind entering the top 10 Billboard albums to a friend, saying "This *can't* be right."

Ha, see these are the sorts of contemporaneous personal accounts I was hoping to hear. The only contemporary pop musician on my radar in 1991 (when I was 8-9 years old) was Michael Jackson, who Nirvana supposedly helped make obsolete. I don't know what song was my entree into Nirvana fandom, but it might have been "In Bloom." I didn't become seriously interested until around the second half of 1994, when Kurt was dead and the band's iconicity was already sealed.

i kind of happened into the beginning of my active interest in current popular music right then in late '91, and i remember "Teen Spirit"'s ubiquity as well as "Losing My Religion" or "Enter Sandman" or "Under The Bridge" or "Alive" or "You Could Be Mine," but i didn't really have any particular sense of it being special or better or part of a markedly different culture than those other big rock hits of the day, or a clue that it would be a bigger influence on my personal taste in the future.

I have a vivid memory of driving home from the record store on my birthday in November '91 with my best friend, jamming to the Nirvana album. I'm pretty sure I made some comment like, "This sounds like some Slayer shit." I hadn't heard Slayer.

Because we didn't have MTV, I've no idea how ubiquitous it was. Spring and summer '92 were pretty great radio seasons, in which Nirvana's role was a sliver.

The myth machine didn't start, in my experience, until the weeks leading up to the release of IU.

*how ubiquitous SLTS was

certainly "Black and White" was more omnipresent than SLTS even after the latter's chart peak.

xps what were the myths in summer of 93 when Kurt was still alive? the vanity fair piece? drugs? record label not being happy with the record?

Michael Jackson, who Nirvana supposedly helped make obsolete

um, no.

First time I heard of Nirvana was when they had the Michael Jackson impersonator accept their Grammy or whatever.

i remember going to a rock club on the jersey shore shortly after nevermind came out -- i had heard it, liked it, but it didn't register as a cultural moment to me -- and the dj played "teen spirit" and pretty much every single person who was there started singing along. that was the moment i realized something was happening.

Well the critical consensus, at least, was established pretty early on - Nevermind topped the albums poll and "Teen Spirit" topped the singles poll in Pazz & Jop 1991.

xxxp, note the word "supposedly" and interpret loosely

I've meant to read the rock press between October and January to know how this consensus formed. RS awarded it three stars, for example.

and Ira Robbins wrote it no less (iirc)

the first nirvana lyric i ever noticed was "i'm worse at what i do best," which struck me at the time as second-rate paul westerberg.

haha, that's a pretty fair take

seemingly every other punk and indie rock fan at the jersey shore had been into nirvana for quite a while by that point. grunge was huge in jersey from the get-go. and they were all waiting breathlessly for nevermind i eventually learned.

I wasn't paying much attention to mainstream music. Mostly punk and thrash and funk-metal. But a friend of mine who was more of a jock came up to me and thought they'd be up my alley. Smells Like Teen Spirit sounded like a good title for some joke punk like Dead Milkmen or Mucky Pup, so I kept my ear to the airwaves in hopes to catch it. A few days later in my mom's minivan, the DJ announced the song and I braced myself for some real comedy rock stylings. It took my about half the song to get over my disappointment and re-calibrate and bask in what I was hearing. I bought the cassingle as soon as I could and the album like a month later.

I turned 30 in October of '91, a month and a bit after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came out (also exactly when I started supply teaching). I'm not sure if it was already on the radio at that point, or if that didn't happen for a few weeks. It--it plus the video especially--really did feel momentous. Knocking Michael Jackson out of the #1 spot felt momentous, and also kind of baffling/astounding. Michael Jackson did not come close to being obsolete, and most everyone who was popular before, I'm sure they remained popular. Which doesn't, to me, make the song or that moment any less surprising or thrilling. And I totally understand where someone might be thoroughly sick of the song and sick of the deification. Not me, but I have a long list of other "Satisfaction"s I never want to hear again for the rest of my life.

I will never, ever get tired of "Satisfaction" tbh

i just did not pay attention to music really *at all* until i was 15 or so. i honestly was introduced to nirvana when weird al spoofed them. and i think, i had just started listening to alternative radio around the same time.

I'm glad we're discussing this. I was a Billboard chart freak even then and own the issue/chart in which Nevermind knocked Dangerous out. What was impressive about the feat? Soundscan was already a phenomenon raising eyebrows, c/of Skid Row and R.E.M. #1s and EMF almost hitting the top ten. And don't forget massive sales for Garth Brooks. It made sense that a sophomore release by a punk band might dethrone any icon.

like, in early '92 anything was possible. I did think at the time, "Wow, I had no idea we'd been underreporting country sales for years."

I was 12 in 1991 but was pretty seriously into classic rock and had outgrown hair metal a year or two earlier. SLTS did feel pretty exciting/significant when I first heard it. I remember that it actually reminded me of 60s garage rock.

Somebody please vote for "Aero Zeppelin," which I had to strike from my ballot at the last minute.

(xxpost) I used to get into these arguments with Chuck Eddy, and I don't have any appetite for them any more. But--for a variety of reasons--comparing to Nevermind to the four artists you mention makes very little sense to me. Soundscan cleared the ground for something like Nevermind to hit #1, but it still had to happen. Whether the charts were rigged or not, there was lots of country and metal and British new wave (or whatever the hell EMF were) that sold millions of albums down through time, and however you want to classify R.E.M., their breakthrough was incremental and far from surprising (check the chart rankings of all the previous albums--it's a steady climb). Nothing like Nevermind had ever sold much of anything. No matter how artfully you argue the point, you can't make that album's ascension to #1 not completely unexpected..

You can, it's just not as fun, but real life is often boring

EMF definitely were not new wave. They were shit, though. Unbelievably shit.

jeezus, clemenza is right; watch the skies

Nevermind also peaked at #7 on the UK album chart and went onto become a million-seller. Compare this with Pearl Jam's Ten which peaked at #18 and sold about 300,000.

You're right about R.E.M., and that's a bad example (on a Monday thread I was the one who pointed out that R.E.M. were successful from the beginning, each album outselling the other). And the album's success didn't adulterate what came before and afterwards. What I had a problem with is the PUNK DETHRONES KING OF POP line beloved of glossy mags. It could've been Achtung Baby that Nevermind dethroned.

We're coming at this from wide age disparities. I was in senior year of high school when it hit, and by late spring '92 SLTS and "Come As You Are" were blasting out of cars in the school campus life next to Kriss Kross. It didn't feel particularly revolutionary, thanks to this context. Nirvana (at the time) sounded like a damn fine rock band, no more no less.

Azzerad in Come As You Are (essential reading IMHO) makes an interesting point of the flukiness that helped Nirvana really break among the tentpoles: Michael Jackson's star was beginning to wain slightly (which was escalated with the molestation charges), U2 had just put out a 'weird' album, and Guns'n'Roses just dropped two 'weird's. Add to that the legend of many of the x-mas gifted copies of Dangerous et al being returned for Nevermind on 12/26/91 and...

Alfred otm. For me they sounded like the first retro band. Not revolutionary at all. They were much better than the next retro band, i mean oasis, though. At the time there was loveless and stuff. Even seamonsters and bandwagonesque were much more exciting than nevermind. It was an ok album but nothing really groundbreaking.

Bandwagonesque was groundbreaking?

I mean, i love it too, but that band was way more retro than Nirvana ever was.

my only experience in '92 with a bloody valentine was realizing that February that I could never have a girlfriend.

i'm listening to Bleach for the first time in maybe 20 years and Christ, it's amateur hour compared to the later stuff

glad KC dropped the metal act

Hiring a good drummer helped.

i crossed path with a nirvana super fan in 95 and he basically let me help myself in his collection of bootlegs so i could, i remember telling him, "make myself a new nirvana album, as close to studio quality as possible". he basically had all there is to get way back then. for a giggle i went downstairs to dig in a crate of cassettes and found it , here's the playlist i came up with back then

side a
untitled II
love buzz
spank throu
the extreme
verse chorus verse
moist vagina
talk to me
it takes time
pay to play

side b
d-7
even in his youth
gallons of ...
i hate myself and i wanna die
sifting jam
dazed n confused jam
school live
drain you live

the top tracks in there (verse chorus verse , ihmaiwtd)turned out to be my favorites over time, it was like a much needed crutch so i could get back on my own feet some times later in like 97. right now i don't remember having any big musical moments as a listener between 94 and 97, i think , except ironically with joe dassins . damn that shit put a smile on my face , good times

Rock radio was practically devoted to retro at the time that Nevermind hit, at least in North America!

true, the biggest new band in 1990 was The Black Crowes, the Tesla version of "Signs" was huge, etc.

can you explain how and why Bleach is ameteur hour compared to the rest of do you just mean it is a different style?

the extreme = if you must. it made my top 10

Bandwagonesque was groundbreaking?

It could've been Achtung Baby that Nevermind dethroned.

I think I would actually find this more meaningful since, iirc, everyone seemed to think the EMF/Jesus Jones 'dance-rock' style that U2 was copping on this was going to be the next big thing in the rock world until Nevermind blew up.

can you explain how and why Bleach is ameteur hour compared to the rest

I like tunes, unless you can do squall & feedback a lot better than they did. The best tune on Bleach was remade better on Unplugged.

Covers fully eligible, right?

I included a cover in my ballot, but wish I had used that spot for an original instead.

Bleach totally has tunes, very strong tunes, buried in the feedback and squall. The combination of the two makes it probably their most thrilling record to me.

I wish I'd remembered about Sappy before I submitted my ballot

the mix of melody and distortion was quite innovative at the time. tfc didn't go as far as mbv but they had their own distinctive sound which could be quite abrasive.

dunno about innovative, i always thought they borrowed their thing from dinosaur jr and just added a heap of big star

well i wish he hadn't buried em, then xxp

Somebody please vote for "Aero Zeppelin," which I had to strike from my ballot at the last minute.

― Futuristic Bow Wow (thewufs)

Done.

Bleach - 5
Nevermind - 4
Incesticide - 4
IU - 5
Unplugged - 2

Actually a more even spread than I anticipated.

gonna send a ballot if it's not late

I more or less agree with Dr. Morbius about Bleach. Squall and feedback were done better on In Utero as well. "About a Girl" is the only Nirvana song where I prefer the Unplugged version to the studio version.

Tbf, I also never heard Bleach until my mid-20s so nostalgic attachment to the Nevermind and In Utero songs could be clouding my judgment. I listened to them all this week, though, and that's how it felt.

I watched the documentary last night, which was gripping every time it didn't cut to animated sub-Linklater footage.

i'd forgotten the crucial "yeahs" in "Something in the Way"

I thought the animation was really nicely done!

xpost

'd forgotten the crucial "yeahs" in "Something in the Way"

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius)

Agreed, these make the song.

I wanted the documentary to be punk like Cobain: terse and sardonic.

Covers fully eligible, right?

Absolutely!

I wish I'd remembered about Sappy before I submitted my ballot
― nate woolls, Friday, November 6, 2015 7:35 AM (2 hours ago)

might not be too late to resubmit yr ballot?

sent

Favorite album: Unplugged

was also a senior in hs when Nevermind dropped, was the first/only time a tape was furtively passed among kids like some talisman, "you have to hear this", remember friends staying up all night listening to it in their bunk beds. it crossed crowds too, it started with the alt.ier crowds but it was everywhere very quickly. I mean this is just my high school but it was the only time I've experience a phenomenon like that

I loved Unplugged at the time but I haven't been able to listen to it in years. I think I'd want the guy to be a much better player if I have to listen to an entirely acoustic album.

*if I were

Sent.

Breakdown was something like

Nevermind 6
In Utero 6
Bleach 3
Incesticide 2
Unplugged 1
Misc 2

I was 14 when Nevermind came out and it was a big fucking deal to me and my friends.

the only Nirvana music that i got permanently sick of was Unplugged and the downtempo In Utero tracks that dominated radio for about 2 years after Kurt died -- it was just a consistent parade of All Apologies/Pennyroyal Tea/Dumb/About A Girl/The Man Who Sold The World. i could only bring myself to vote for even the studio version of one song that appeared on Unplugged.

I was 3 when Nevermind came out and discovered Nirvana c. 1999 thru Weird Al

I attribute the longterm success of Unplugged to programmers relieved to avoid playing those harsh IU tunes.

Weird Al's "Teen Spirit" cover--the video--is the only Weird Al thing I've ever loved.

sent!

I attribute the longterm success of Unplugged to programmers relieved to avoid playing those harsh IU tunes.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, November 6, 2015 10:45 AM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

pretty much, although considering that "All Apologies" and "Pennyroyal Tea" were slated as the 2nd and 3rd singles before he died, it was kinda gonna go down that way anyway. maybe Kurt could've muscled a video for "Rape Me" or "Scentless Apprentice" onto MTV at the end of the album cycle.

I was like 11 or 12 when Nirvana hit, and they came at a very crucial time in my development into a surly and cynical teen. I remember buying the "Nevermind" CD in a store and being real embarrassed of the cover.

Reading about the "Montage of Heck" CD is making me depressed. They put his story about sleeping w the girl on it, the one from the movie that Buzz Osborne said was BS. The narrative pushed seems to be that Kurt was some kind of media mastermind who was artfully and consciously self-mythologizing. Tbh I am real tired of it and every time I hear about it, it just comes across like something out of the press kit for the "Montage" documentary.

It's pretty clear from the lyrics of the songs he actually released while alive that he was just as interested in tearing down as building up.

Kurt Cobain was an unreliable narrator. He liked it that way. His self-mythologizing started years before he got famous—there’s those tall tales of living beneath Aberdeen’s Young Street Bridge, for example, or the stomach condition that he could only treat with hard drugs.

I have been under the assumption that his stomach pain was real, that he had been to many doctors and they were unable to help him. It's even often cited as one of the causes of his suicide. It's not another piece of self-mythologizing like a selfie or FB post. It's not like there was a simple cure for his condition and he decided to just do hard drugs instead. But yeah about that narrative...

http://www.avclub.com/review/montage-heck-home-recordings-reveals-kurt-cobains--227634

It's like saying Hank Williams didn't succumb to alcoholism to ease his chronic lifelong back pains he invented that for branding purposes.

NVM: 6
IU: 5
WTLO: 5
B: 2
I: 2

I wish I'd remembered about Sappy before I submitted my ballot
― nate woolls, Friday, November 6, 2015 7:35 AM (2 hours ago)

might not be too late to resubmit yr ballot?

Yeah nate if you want to make any changes let me know.

I'm going to have to take a look at ballot, I haven't looked at it since I sent it!

did they add the Kurt sleeping with the girl story to the soundtrack album just to wind up the Melvins doofus? i do hope so.

Bleach - 6
Nevermind - 4
Incesticide - 2
In Utero - 8

Looking back at this ballot a fortnight after quickly putting it together, I can definitely say that I stand by it 100%

Oh, in that case I'm going to switch something too Gavin.

did they add the Kurt sleeping with the girl story to the soundtrack album just to wind up the Melvins doofus? i do hope so.

Since half the movie was just songs from Nevermind I hope they put half of Nevermind on the soundtrack too.

Swap Meet is their most underrated song by far. No idea why they barely played it live, even during the Bleach tours. Really *tuneful* song with a fucking killer riff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysqFhPc__o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOgxpFrYT-0

It's never been a favourite of mine, tbh.

"Bleach" works best if you hear it as a concept album about the horrors of small-town life. "Swap Meet" fits pretty snugly into the narrative.

I wish I'd remembered about Sappy before I submitted my ballot
― nate woolls, Friday, November 6, 2015 7:35 AM (2 hours ago)

might not be too late to resubmit yr ballot?

Yeah nate if you want to make any changes let me know.
― Gavin, Leeds, Friday, 6 November 2015 18:49 (4 hours ago)

Thanks, could you swap it for the song I've got at no. 19 please?

Done!

If anyone else wants to vote or make any changes to their ballot, there's still time - I'll check tomorrow morning for anything that comes in overnight. I've had 35 ballots in which is great.

awesome. ballot coming!

teen spirit is probably my least favorite nirvana song. i wasn't there when it broke, i don't feel any of the excitement that 'changed music/culture/fashion/everything', it's too long, the lyrics are stupid, the riff doesn't do anything for me... i'd rather listen to any other nirvana song. *except* when it's on the radio.

― flappy bird, Thursday, November 5, 2015

i was there maaan and mostly agree with some dude's post. sounded like hardcore gone pop, which was disappointing to the extent that it felt like The Man had co-opted the one scene i maybe still kinda cared about but also kinda, if it has to be someone these guys do have a crazy rhythm section.

that said, the riff killed in "more than a feeling" and it kills in "teen spirit" too

that said, the riff killed in "more than a feeling" and it kills in "teen spirit" too

― resulting post (rogermexico.), Saturday, November 7, 2015 2:05 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dSPH9YZCCA

sounded like hardcore gone pop, which was disappointing to the extent that it felt like The Man had co-opted the one scene i maybe still kinda cared

Was it more disappointing than "I'll Be You"? (Honest question.)

interesting question -- i don't think i held "i'll be you" against the replacements any more than i held "heartbreak beat" against the furs. it was kind of nice to see them score a minor hit.

the discomfort around nirvana was different. it wasn't about the act so much as the scene. suddenly people who wouldn't have been caught dead at a hardcore show were ~all about~ what sounded a lot like a hardcore act with some poppy numbers and the media were talking about them as if they'd popped fully-formed from the skull of Zeus. but they did sound great tho :)

"disappointing" was maybe the wrong word. "unsettling" maybe...

can't bleeve you guys let The Man take a great song away from you

you'll get over it

any of you guys see Soaked In Bleach by the way? i can't face it.

i've seen bits and pieces, and well... it won't put you in a good mood

OK, I got 39 ballots in the end - thanks to all who voted. Not sure when I'll start the rollout, it'll depend on when the Extreme Metal one gets going.

=xtreme metal still hasn't happened yet?

yeah i wouldn't say hold up the results on account of any other poll. but do it whenever you feel like too, don't let anybody rush you.

i watched Kurt & Courtney for a piece about music docs a couple years ago, between that and Montage i don't think i wanna see another Cobain doc ever again.

Do post a link on this thread when the countdown starts please, I often miss stuff I haven't bookmarked! Looking forward.

http://loudwire.com/kurt-cobain-mtv-unplugged-cardigan-sells-137-5k-lock-hair-pulled-from-auction/

there's a certain glow over kurt in this performance

am i guilty of subscribing to the myth? sure. but that doesn't mean it's not anymore emotionally moving

just total end of the world nervous energy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbuN55HXb2E

xp Don't think I've ever heard "Pennyroyal Tea" unplugged on the radio. "Lake of Fire" on the other hand...

OK, just noticed that Frobisher was planning to start the metal rollout on Friday so I'm going to get the results thread started later today and hopefully finished by the end of the week.

woohoo

btw, does anyone know what's up with the deluxe edition of the montage of heck home recordings that are supposed to come out on Friday? there's no listing on amazon. i'm dying to hear that 9 minute "do re mi" medley

oh, it's one iTunes, nevermind. pre-ordered!

*bud abbott voice* no, Nevermind is a completely different album!

The phenomenon of people writing "nevermind" to mean "never mind": no one actually did this pre-1991, did they?

dunno, but don't get me started on "everyday is a winding road"

feel like you could get away with it in the context of e.g. "make no nevermind"

Blast 'Stay Away' - not filler.

The phenomenon of people writing "nevermind" to mean "never mind": no one actually did this pre-1991, did they?

― EveningStar (Sund4r), Wednesday, November 11, 2015 1:32 PM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaky_Styley#Track_listing