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. Nevermind is a legendary album. 5. Dissonant and slick, disengaged and violent, the song takes itself seriously, shrugs, and even mocks itself within its own guitar solo in a Gen-X level of sarcasm and snark that remains unmatched. This In Utero outtake is the sound of Nirvana's classic trio in full flight — if only they were armed with a song. But the fidelity is so gross that it couldn't possibly be anything but their least essential recording. With this emphasis on physical dominance at a cost of emotional repression, any young boy or man who is in touch with his emotions can find himself faced with gruff correctives. Top 10 Nirvana Songs Characterized by dynamic shifting between chorus parts and verses, the front-man of the band, Kurt Cobain, said that he wanted to combine rock and punk elements to make compositions that would sound grunge with a tinge of rock. 71. But the band's unusual presentation of this Vaselines track — itself a sort of parody rendition of an old Christian hymn — presented a new tonal range for a band that rarely ventured out of the guitar-bass-drums format. "Help Me I'm Hungry," With the Lights Out (2004)Nirvana, then with drummer Aaron Burckhard, unveiled this abrasive cut during a 1987 in-studio set for Olympia's KOAS community radio station. Two notables, though: It’s the lone appearance of future war hero Jason Everman on guitar and the only time Cobain and Novoselic harmonized (like two hands raking across a blackboard). 40. There are deeper, more depressing wallows to be found than this Blew B side, though, and the song is basically just one verse repeated three times. 30, 29, 28. In choosing the one hushed moment from VU’s unhinged White Light/White Heat, they revealed the pop heart hiding under all their layers of flannel. 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. Another head-scratching Brazil outtake, this one with the singer yelping over a two-chord guitar vamp and death march drums. “I really didn't know what I was talking about. The recording came about in an odd piecemeal fashion: Cobain tracked his guitar, an out-of-tune 12-string, in the control room, and the rhythm section were forced to overdub onto that existing bed — struggling to tune to and play in time with his part. "Aneurysm," Incesticide (1992)The lyrics have been scrutinized to death by hardcore fans seeking thematic breadcrumbs about Cobain's drug addiction ("Come on over, shoot the shit" / "She keeps it pumping straight to my heart"), but it's widely accepted that "Aneurysm" reflects back on the nervous jitters he experienced with his then-ex-girlfriend Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail. 25. 21. "She should have made her mother proud ... she should have been a son.". What other song could topple the King of Pop while also inspiring a “Weird Al” comeback? 10. And it allowed Cobain a chance for a self-dig: “The King of Illiterature” is directed at himself. Instead there’s what sounds like a chair being dragged across the floor. "Oh, Me," MTV Unplugged in New York (1994)The dreamiest moment of Nirvana's career, thanks to the gusts of psychedelic arpeggios from Meat Puppet guitarist Curt Kirkwood. “The Man Who Sold the World,” MTV Unplugged in New York (1994). But the arrangement is more intricate than one might expect, with Dave Crover's nuanced, cymbal-heavy drums leading the riffs through sections of 4/4 and 7/8. It’s one of Cobain’s most concise and acerbic “verse-chorus-verse” songs. It’s a joke. ), both band and management imagined that this moody, Goth-y, Siouxsie and the Banshees–esque number would be the track to catapult them to the upper echelons of 120 Minutes fame (the glass ceiling for such bands in the early ’90s). I've decided to remake it. He kept chasing that elusive perfect version for years and eventually threw up his hands, tacking it onto this AIDS fundraiser compilation as an uncredited hidden track. Ben Schwartz and His Cornrows Appear in the New Trailer for Sia’s Movie, Dr. Dre Now Recovering From Brain Aneurysm. 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. ), 15. Somehow this backwards approach resulted in Nirvana's most poignant song. In an unsent letter to her (as seen in the Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven), he admits as much about the song, “which I do not play, except when my wife is not around.” It’s about an overwhelming, all-consuming relationship with obsessive and jealous behavior ultimately disintegrating its bonds. “Endless, Nameless,” Nevermind (1991). The song was written in 1992, the year Frances Bean Cobain was born, and I think she’s a deep influence on it. 64. I may add in B-Sides in the far future, but for now it's just songs from Bleach, Nevemind and In Utero (plus the covers from MTV Unplugged). Episode one’s “losing” team mount an impressive production number that surpasses last Friday’s installment from the “winners.”, Netflix to Adapt Three of Author Ibram X. Kendi’s Anti-Racism Books, The 50 Best Action Movies on Netflix Right Now. And aside from the unfulfilled promises and future sounds to be explored on their enchanting Unplugged set, I also left off their furious and messy live albums like From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah and Live at Reading Festival, sets that have been released over the years. With a feedback swell that replicates the Jaws theme, “Big Cheese” was the B side for Nirvana’s first Sub Pop single. RELATED: 10 Huge TV Shows That Defined The 1990s This version features Pat Smear on the second guitar, who … 50. "She likes to think, she likes to drink / She seems too weak, she takes all the rent / She likes the time, she owns the time / She borrows time to self-invent," Cobain observes over lurching bass and drums, building to a volatile guitar solo. What a difference a drummer makes. "Serve the Servants" In Utero (1993)"Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old." Four years later, Cobain was deep into the dark night of this song of infidelity, depression, isolation, doubt, fear, and decapitation by train. "Just because you're paranoid / Don't mean they're not after you," Cobain warns, seemingly glancing over his shoulder. "Afterbirth of a nation / Starved without your skeleton key.". All grunge bands have had their fair share of heavy material but right now I'm going to focus on the vicious sound of Nirvana by listing what I consider to be their top 10 heaviest songs. “He’s the one / Who likes all our pretty songs…” Indeed. 90. This video is unavailable. “Scentless Apprentice,” In Utero (1993). Babies who smell like butter, images of frightened wet nurses, not to mention the stenches of gas fumes, mushrooms, and semen, all give this song a visceral bouquet. It's fun as a completist's gaze into this multi-platinum band's humble beginnings. But the band also wanted to call the song “The Seattle Scene,” quipping, “If we could have thrown in Soundgarden’s name, we would have.” Taking a simple grunge lick and a repetition of lines worthy of the blues, Cobain finds the existential angst latent on the playground, at your local music venue, or before thousands of adoring fans onstage. “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience (1993), It’s a joke. "If You Must," With the Lights Out (2004)Cobain accidentally channels Bob Dylan on this dissonant waltz from their January 1988 demo. "Son of a Gun," Hormoaning EP (1992)Cobain was so enamored with the Vaselines that he covered three of the Scottish alt-rock band's songs with Nirvana, including this straightforward pop-punk number. Ultimately, the quiet-loud-quiet dynamic was perfected elsewhere, but after Nirvana’s infamous MTV Video Music Awards performance of the song, it’s hard to not hear: “Maybe I’m to blame for all I’ve heard / But I’m a turd.”. "And then it turned out to be a really good song.". 31. He only kicks a moderate amount of ass in this one. The track originated from a Grohl guitar pattern and developed into a grunge powerhouse with lyrics inspired by one of Cobain's favorite novels, Patrick Suskind’s Perfume. 33. The track peaks with a furious instrumental climax and a blaring guitar solo that resembles a short-circuiting dial-up modem. There were no real hard and fast rules for assembling the list, though the albums and singles are so formidable that I felt there was little need to comb through the demos, rehearsal tapes, and songs never officially released (if Cobain didn’t feel the urge to properly record “Pen Cap Chew” or finish “Opinion,” then I didn’t really see the need to rank them). Sub Pop’s Bruce Pavitt heard the band’s future promise in this cover, a buzz-sawing cut that revealed a keening pop sensibility. Another entry for a comp on Seattle’s C/Z Records label. 53. The vocal is pure insanity — a deafening squall that sounds like a rowdy toddler screaming between bites of food. 39. Tucked away in Journals, Kurt Cobain wrote a letter to his ex-girlfriend Tobi Vail (of Bikini Kill) about how he perceived his band in the American cultural landscape. Channing offers one of his standout Nirvana performances, barreling the song forward with his furious snare rolls. The resulting bitterness fueled many early Nirvana songs, but in a catalogue full of such themes, “Even in His Youth” relentlessly wallows in self-pity and the chord changes remain stuck in place. 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. ; February 20, 1967 Kurt Cobain is born. The themes that course through Nirvana’s discography and define their greatest songs can all be found in spades on “Drain You”: childhood innocence and puppy love; In Utero–anticipating imagery of medical devices, bodily fluids, decay, and infectious diseases; and infatuation, codependency, and the all-consuming notion of love as vampirism. Like its ludicrous, trenchant lyrics themselves, “Teen Spirit” revels in polar opposites and tries to have it both ways — to be the “ultimate pop song” and a bratty, noxious outburst, a reflection on the manic depression of its creator. Sex? As an Amazon Associate, we earn revenue from qualifying purchases. A run of underwhelming ’80s albums, a cringeworthy Beach Boys cover, and other missteps had all but sunk him Stateside, at a time even he agreed was his nadir — which is not to suggest that Nirvana’s snaking, astounding take on this early deep cut revived Bowie’s career, but it did set the stage for a greater appraisal of the Thin White Duke for a new generation. "Very Ape," In Utero (1993)At a succinct 1:55, "Very Ape" makes its case and gets out of the way. Step by step easy to follow lesson. The song is forgettable noise, but you can only assume that was entirely the point. 97. “I think there are so many other songs I’ve written that are as good as, if not better than, [‘Teen Spirit’], like ‘Drain You,’” Cobain told Rolling Stone. 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. In their Live at Reading performance, captured in August 1992, Cobain mumbles eerily over a heavy riff that could easily serve as a spy movie theme. 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. "Heartbreaker," With the Lights Out (2004)During Nirvana's first concert, a March 1987 house party, someone yelled out for this early Led Zeppelin anthem. The phase-shifting effect on “Curmudgeon” is downright nauseating, but I’ve always loved the laugh at the beginning and the tossed-off, born-again-baiting line “I love Santa / I meant God.”. But the experiment doesn't dull the magic of the original melody or lyric. In the parable, Cobain saw plenty of parallels with himself and Love. "White Lace and Strange," With the Lights Out (2004)As a guitarist, Cobain was never a master technician. He wanted more from his life, and he couldn't understand the urge to be average. Recorded with Channing as “Pay to Play,” the song found the band on the outside looking in at corporate rock; they recorded it again with Grohl and Butch Vig a few months later as “Stay Away.” A few months after that, the meteoric rise of Nevermind would have the band furiously trying to keep its distance from the trappings of such success. With Jack Endino at Reciprocal Recording, with Butch Vig at Smart Studios, and with Steve Albini at Pachyderm, Nirvana tackled “Sappy” at every turn and considered it for all three of their albums before finally punting it to No Alternative as an uncredited bonus track. 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. What other song could make corporate rock suddenly — and laughably — have to pretend it was alternative rock? While no doubt having some roots in Cobain’s own experiences with the arts-and-crafts scene in small-town Washington, the song is powered by a catchy riff and depicts a couple making their folk art out of detritus like “seashells, driftwood, and burlap” (a detail carried over from the older Cobain song “Mrs. It’s premiering on Valentine’s Day, so expect more Adam Driver lust. For my money, Nirvana best exacted revenge on Sub Pop with this early T-shirt, which put the faces of Poneman and the label’s other co-founder, Bruce Pavitt, on John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s naked Two Virgins pic. Rough edges aside, Nirvana made the song their own, infusing the glam-folk ballad with a palpable dread. Every Nirvana Project Ranked From Worst To Best. They play in several bands together, including Stiff Woodies. “Hairspray Queen,” Incesticide (1992). “Drain You” inverts Nevermind’s well-worn formula of quiet-loud-quiet as Grohl bashes out what a drummer friend once called “a punk cha-cha-cha.” It has no clear-cut chorus, instead stretching a bridge into something that resembles one. But Nirvana's final single for Sub Pop (and their first collaboration with Nevermind producer Butch Vig) signaled their aspirations for a more fluid, sonically rich style. 32. Over shards of palm-muted guitar, Cobain envisions walking into a horrific barber shop and being sexually assaulted by the entire cast of The Andy Griffith Show. Krist Novoselic, Kurt Cobain, and Dave Grohl. First called “Hitchhiker” and then “Cracker” before “Polly,” this harrowing song dates back to the Bleach era, though its minor-key folk melody was even more of a grunge outlier than “About a Girl.” It’s “ripped from the headlines” subject matter slots alongside “Paper Cuts”: Cobain took as inspiration the local story of a 14-year-old girl abducted after a punk-rock show at knifepoint by the serial rapist and kidnapper Gerald Friend. "Verse Chorus Verse," With the Lights Out (2004)The semi-ironic title "Verse Chorus Verse" clearly meant a lot to Cobain — he used it as a placeholder title on different occasions. Check out this list of songs to hear from The Guardian, featuring 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', 'Heart-Shaped Box', 'Lithium' and more. he screams. Fashion laughably wrapped itself in flannel and heroin chic, Hollywood set a rom-com in the midst of Seattle’s music scene, while a Sub Pop receptionist outed the “lamestains” in the “lamestream” media and Cobain graced the cover of Rolling Stone with a T-shirt reading “Corporate Magazines Still Suck.” Nirvana pulled back the veil to reveal such major institutions to be the hapless fools they were then and still are now. Sonic Youth must have been intrigued by the TMI lyrics — they recorded a cover version in 1998. Only “Where Did You Sleep” (a traditional murder ballad that stretches back at least to the 1870s) made it to Lanegan’s solo album The Winding Sheet (another Lead Belly cover popped up on With the Lights Out). "Forgotten Tune" In Utero reissue (2003)A mild surf-rock vibe highlights this instrumental In Utero outtake, which is much lighter and less emotionally suffocating than most of that LP. 71. "Old Age," With the Lights Out (2004)So much backstory, so little song. "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. No longer beholden to the likes of Led Zeppelin and the template of grunge, “Dive” pile-drives, hypnotizes, uplifts, and drifts with total assurance. The raw power of “Aneurysm” plays it both ways, with Cobain deploying platitudes worthy of a teeny-bop ’50s sock hop (“Come on over, do the twist”). According to producer Barrett Jones, Nirvana nailed “Return of the Rat” in one or two takes despite having never played it before, but you can tell Cobain had listened to it thousands of times. “Strip” is unfocused and, most damning, drained of emotion. 75. Butterworth”). "And my eldest boy — he's nine — turned to me recently and said: 'Mum, we prefer Nirvana's version of "Molly's Lips" to yours!'". Yet these three Unplugged covers are captivating. Here, it was a crutch. The story goes something like this: Sheriff Kurt moseys into … An Investigation into Joshua Bassett’s “Lie Lie Lie”, What does “Lie Lie Lie” tell us about the current. Meanwhile, his L.A. home was the target of a burglary while he was in the hospital. 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. “Territorial Pissings” remains as furious and funny as it was the day Nirvana laid it down in one take with Cobain’s guitar jacked right into the mixing desk. 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. In November 1988, Seattle’s Sub Pop label inaugurated its seven-inch-vinyl-only Singles Club with the debut single by a new, unheard-of band hailing from the logging purgatory of Aberdeen, Washington. We're forever in debt. From its dark, enchanting vocal melody to its quiet-loud leap to its signature power-chord churn — a minor-key surge that, like Boston's "More Than a Feeling," inspired countless teenagers to pick up a cheap pawn-shop guitar — there isn't a more expertly crafted rock song to emerge from the entire decade. Finally heard in 2002, it still sounds like a message from beyond the grave as Cobain embodies a lifetime of physical and emotional agony in every single utterance of the word pain. 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." 49. “Downer,” Bleach CD bonus track (1990). The "Hey! "Is it me, or my attitude?" The following section lists the 10 best Nirvana songs ever, in alphabetical order. "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. At least until Cobain does his best impersonation of comedian (and future In Utero liner-notes writer) Bobcat Goldthwait’s screechy delivery and adds some thrash-metal growls that thoroughly trash the song. 58. Even his newfound and newly scorned fan base gets the lash: “Nothing to do with what you think / If you ever think at all.”. But where does it finish among Nirvana's best tracks? "Fill my toilet bowl full of a cloudy puss / I feel the blood becoming chowder rust." "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. It’s a haunting, burdened, one-of-a-kind moment in their discography (and the doom-laden version they cut at the BBC is incredibly heavy). "Do You Love Me?," Hard to Believe: A Kiss Cover Compilation (1990)Guitarist Jason Everman makes one of his two recorded Nirvana appearances on this Kiss cover, not that you can tell: It's a demo-worthy afterthought stuffed to the brim with Cobain's wild wails. The 10 greatest Nirvana songs, from 'In Bloom' to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' Twenty-five years since Kurt Cobain's death, Mark Beaumont picks the Seattle band’s greatest tracks In Utero wasn't exactly a "screw you" to radio programmers, but "Tourette's" was the closest they came. “Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle,” In Utero (1993). If only books on tape sounded like this. It really highlighted for me what a great band Nirvana was. And rightly so. For the first year of the series, the Sub Pop Singles Club released music by underground luminaries like Sonic Youth, Fugazi, and the Flaming Lips, bands that have remain touchstones in alternative rock ever since. The song captures Cobain and all of his contradictions — sweetness and scorched earth, innocent and forever damned. Stripped down to just Cobain and an acoustic guitar, switched to a higher key nearly outside his register, the song was much better served on the MTV Unplugged in New York performance, revealing a hushed anguish and a fraught plea in the lines. Discarding the lyrics (and any real musical development), the bluesy riff just kinda plods on and on. "Even in His Youth," Hormoaning (1992)"Daddy was ashamed — he was nothing / Smears the family name — he was something," Cobain sings over a primal two-chord riff and ride-heavy drum groove, tapping into youthful angst the way only he could. He was baptized during his turbulent teenage years and even briefly attended church service. In no uncertain terms, toxic masculinity and what fathers pass down to their sons over generations is incredibly fucked. "Nothing more than a joke," he told Rolling Stone of the name. Originally named “Imodium” — after tour mates Tad’s front man Tad Doyle’s diarrhea meds — the greasy, go-go churn of “Breed” is early-’90s hookup culture at its grimiest, the stench of Marlboro Reds (back when smoking in bars was standard) and cheap beer oozing out of its every pore. The admission “I’m a negative creep, and I’m stoned” is at once blunt, livid, sinister, and funny, with a ludicrously gruff bellow of a vocal driving the point home. While an outlier in Nirvana’s oeuvre, this song’s heavy riffs, downer vibe, and intensifying build reveal that even if the band had just remained yet another grunge act from the Pacific Northwest, they would have stood apart from the rest of the Sub Pop roster. 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. That's one roundabout way to score a hit. Cobain was in no mood to screw around: "If you ever need anything, please don't / Hesitate to ask some else first," he sings snarkily over a fittingly primal punk-metal riff. Is it about love? *Sorry, there was a problem signing you up. But they lurched into the riff nonetheless — first instrumentally, then with Cobain wildly screaming the lyrics. Already a subscriber? It’s ethereal and haunting, like a fading memory, yet it carefully pressurizes and bursts forth like a broken dam at the chorus, a sensation still visceral after all these years. 14. “It should have been a lot rawer … I’ll admit I like Cheap Trick.” Like many of Nevermind’s lyrics, its toggle between nonsense and clarity, between being willfully mystifying and struggling to be coherent. Yes, classic ’70s rock hangs over Nirvana but just as vital were Greg Sage and the Wipers. Nevermind's secret closer wasn't exactly a masterpiece: It's basically seven minutes of feedback, fuzz, caterwauling, and what sounds like the dying cries of a blown-out synth-bass. Sure, it’s a sound you can easily find on obscure Japanoize titles, on a Slayer album, or at the climax of a David Lynch film but in few other places in American pop culture. To an almost cosmic degree, “Sliver” arose thanks to some ridiculously auspicious circumstances. This is a confessional, angst-ridden missive about ex-girlfriend and Bikini Kill member Toni Vail. But this 1989 leftover — his most overt exploration in that vein — is more interesting in theory than as an actual song, despite Novoselic's colorful bassline. Good deed indeed, but their straightforward version added nothing to the original. The Academy Bumps Best International Feature Shortlist Up to 15. Twenty-six years later, I remain of two minds about In Utero. That sentiment presented a conflict after Nevermind made Nirvana the coolest band of their era. Yikes. ), 57. 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. 62. "It’s a twisted song, almost like something that could have been on her record Rid of Me, which was also produced by Steve Albini. ", 3. “Verse Chorus Verse,” Nevermind reissue (2011). How better to say I love you forever than “I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black”? "Mrs. Butterworth," With the Lights Out (2004)Cobain rants about poverty ("Maybe someday I can get rid of that piss-stained mattress I've been sleeping on"), an overall low quality of life ("My life is shit, shit," "I'm gonna die; who wants to say? That utterance of “I like yewwww” is equal parts sweetheart crush and psychotic obsession. Some of his most iconic moments were actually tacked onto compilations ("Sappy") or even went unreleased ("You Know You're Right") before his suicide at age 27. With those lyrics, it was never destined to be a classic. But their discography was compiled no less than three times since the early ’90s, and they even re-formed to release two playful new albums in the 21st century. “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” MTV Unplugged in New York (1994). 30. The band conveys the impotent rage almost any artist can feel in a marketing or business situation, but songs bemoaning “the industry” are, for me, a chore to listen to no matter the genre. "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. “Sifting” and “Scoff,” Bleach (1989). "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. 70. "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. 26. Another instance from Bleach of Nirvana’s taking a standard grunge riff and turning it into something that falls outside the range of most other bands of the era. There’s a handful of RIAA Diamond-certified albums (meaning they sold over 10 million copies), and none of them — not Cracked Rear View, not Please Hammer, Don’t Hurt ’Em, not even *NSYNC — carry a profound sense of the void, a physical sound that signifies the true atrocities of human existence. All Nirvana ALBUM songs ranked. It was founded by lead singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic. Cobain told Azerrad it was a fantasy of sorts, “like if I was living under the bridge and I was dying of AIDS, if I was sick and I couldn’t move.” The song was rendered in the control room of Sound City Studios (where Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours was recorded), with all phones and air-conditioning turned off so Butch Vig could capture Cobain’s hushed performance. For all Cobain’s talent, Nirvana would have been significantly less impressive, and, in fact, were, without the future Foo Fighter’s power and grace around a kit. 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