NIRVANA Songs Meanings

nedjelja, 14. prosinca 2014.

All Apologies

Songwriter: Kurt Cobain
Album: In Utero (1993)

I think the song means what most people think it does. It's Kurt Cobain's first suicide note and that's what makes this song spectacular.

What else should I be
All apologies
What else could I say
Everyone is gay
What else could I write
I don't have the right
What else should I be
All apologies

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I'm married
Buried

I wish I was like you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything is my fault
I'll take all the blame
Aqua sea foam shame
Sunburn with freeze burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy

In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
Married, maried, maried!
Buried!
Yeah yeah yeah yeah

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are

I heard that in the few first lines he is literally trying to say that everyone has gay feelings deep inside them. That's pretty longshot, but, hey, anything's possible. Then he says he doesn't feel the right to write. In that time he said that he can't write songs anymore. Later he says that he wishes he is easily amused. That's his response to the music of the time, which was popular, but he didn't like it. Obviously, in the sun he feels as one is then about afterlife (where he feels as one) and buried...well, yes, buried.

Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igBmW8IhMlI
MTV Unplugged official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWmkuH1k7uA
Live At Reading - official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0drC8qVMRk
Live & Loud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j45cnkRgfqE
Lorde version from the NIRVANA Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K2DBD9TLyY

Ain't It a Shame

Songwriter(s): TRADITIONAL (Lead Belly also recorded the song)
Album: With the Lights Out (2004) (recorded in 1989)

Yup, there's nothing deep to say about a traditional folk song...

Ain't it a shame to go fishin on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to go fishin on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to go fishin on a Sunday
When you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Oh Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to have a drink on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to have a drink on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to have a drink on Sunday
When you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Oh Thursday, Friday, Saturday
Ain't it a shame

Ain't it a shame to beat your wife on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to beat your wife on a Sunday
Ain't it a shame
Ain't it a shame to beat your wife on Sunday
When you got Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday
Oh Thursday, Friday, Saturday

It's a christian song and Sunday, in Christianity, is a day in which people go to church and they dedicate the day to God. So, this song is trying to say that it's a shame doing anything else.

Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFFvkvlczPY

utorak, 18. studenoga 2014.

Aero Zepellin

Songwriters: Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic
Album: Incesticide (1992)

This is an awesome Nirvana song and probably a little underrated. And it's also a pretty straightforward song.

What's a season in a right if you can't have anything
What's the reason in a rhyme if a plan means anything
What's the meaning in a crime, it's a fan if anything
Where's the learning in a line, it's a brand, it's a brand

How a culture comes again, it was all here yesterday
And you swear it's not a trend, doesn't matter anyway
There's only here to talk to friends, nothing new is everyday
You could shit upon the stage, they'll be fans

They'll be fans [alt: If you brand] [x3]

[x2]
All the kids will eat it up, if it's packaged properly
Steal a sound and imitate, keep a format equally
Not an ode, just the facts, where our world is nowadays
An idea is what we lack, it doesn't matter anyways

Hey ... [x7]

If you still don't get it, he's trying to say that people today don't make a selection of good and bad, what you give them they will listen, music-wise, or watch, movie-wise, etc.
More puzzling than the song's meaning is it's title. It's obviously a reference to bands Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin. One source claims Kurt grew up with the sounds of Aerosmith and he himself stated in one interview that he wanted NIRVANA to partly sound like Led Zeppelin and NIRVANA also did a few covers of their songs.

Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbgF3W_CQrk
Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jesWdHMOMYM

četvrtak, 13. studenoga 2014.

About a Girl

Songwriter: Kurt Cobain
Album: Bleach (1989)

Seeing the title, you'd think the song has a self-explanatory meaning and, while it kinda does, there's more to it than just being 'about a girl'. Kurt Cobain actually wrote this song for his then-girlfriend, Tracy Marander. She was pushing him to write a song about her because he can write songs about anything but her and that's how it was made. But look at the lyrics:

I need an easy friend
I do, with an ear to lend
I don't think you fit this shoe
I do, won't you have a clue

I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
Free

I'm standing in your line
I do hope you have the time
I do pick a number too
I do keep a date with you

I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
Free

I need an easy friend
I do whip her in to land
I do think you fit this shoe
I do won't you have a clue

I'll take advantage while
You hang me out to dry
But I can't see you every night
No I can't see you every night
Free
I do
I do
I do
I do

He says he can't see her for free, he means that he's literally paying for the relationship. At the time, she was saying that Kurt should find a better paid job than music and it's said that her greed ruined the relationship.
Kurt thought about not putting the song on the album Bleach because it sounds too pop, but the producer convinced him to. He wrote the song after listening to the Beatles' album Meet the Beatles! a few times.

Audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WedEkDQltA
MTV Unplugged official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhcttcXcRYY
Live At Reading - official video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YleoyKFfHaY
Live & Loud video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV7JHSlr23g