Nirvana – Nevermind

Released: 9.24.91
Discs/Tracks/Length: 1/1 – 48:08
Label:
Tracks:
1. Smells Like Teen Spirit 5:02
2. In Bloom 4:15
3. Come as You Are 3:39
4. Breed 3:04 (aka Immodium)
5. Lithium 4:17
6. Polly 2:56
7. Territorial Pissings 2:23
8. Drain You 3:44
9. Lounge Act 2:37
10. Stay Away 3:33
11. On a Plain 3:17
12. Something in the Way 3:51
B12. Endless, Nameless
Non-US Bonus, Miscellaneous, B-Sides, Unreleased & Rarities:
1. Sappy (January 1990 studio session in Seattle, WA. Produced by Jack Endino) 3:33 (appears on Sliver the Best of the Box)
2. Song in D (May not exist)
3. Come as You Are (March 1991 boombox demo) 4:10 (appears on Sliver – The best of the box)
4. Baba O' Riley (Who cover, Live in Rennes, France; December 7, 1991 - Outcesticide II track 14)
5. Crisco/Rock Whore (From the 11/30/91 Glasgow show)
6. Satisfaction ’91 (not circulating)
7. Thank You ’91 (not circulating)
8. Another one Bites the Dust (Queen Cover, jammed on 10/10/91 in Cleveland, OH) (not circulating)
9. The End (Live in Ghent, Belgium; November 23, 1991Outcesticide II track 15) 2:22
10. I Feel Fine '91
11. Love Gunn '91
12. Come on Death (Live in New York, NY on 9/28/91)
13. Wild Thing (Troggs cover jammed on 4/17/91)
14. Formaldehyde/Bullshit Jam (Cover of the theme from the classical opera "Carmen". Performed 1/23/93, 10/14/91 and 10/19/91)
15. A Beaurocratic Desire for Revenge (By the band Earth with Kurt on guitar. From an EP called "Extra-Capsular Extraction," released 10/91)
Factoids, Extras & Eggs:
1. The now-legendary Nevermind cover shows a baby swimming toward a bill on a fishhook. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water births with drummer Dave Grohl. The fishhook and bill were also Cobain's idea, and were superimposed later. The infant is then-three-month-old Spencer Elden. The Serial Number on the dollar bill is "L 94998746 B". Geffen prepared an alternate cover without the penis, as they were afraid that it would offend people, but relented when Cobain made it clear that the only compromise he would accept was a sticker covering the penis, accusing anyone who was offended of being a "closet pedophile".
2. At least three songs were recorded during the Nevermind sessions which didn't make the album's final cut: "Sappy", "Old Age", and "Verse Chorus Verse". The latter two were released on With the Lights Out. A fourth song, "Song in D", may also have been attempted.
3. Smells Like Teen Spirit: Cobain got the song name when friend Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the riot grrrl punk band Bikini Kill at the time, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since they had been talking about anarchy, punk rock and similar topics, Cobain took it to be a slogan in that vein. The meaning, however, was that Kurt smelled like the roll-on deodorant brand that Tobi Vail, Hanna's band mate, and Kurt's then-girlfriend, wore. Cobain claimed that he did not know it was a brand of deodorant, and in retrospect was unhappy that a commercial product was named in the song. In the months after the song became a hit, Colgate-Palmolive created an ad campaign to try to cash in on the connection. One TV commercial featured lines including "Do you smell like teen spirit?" and "Deodorant made for your generation".
4. Smells Like Teen Spirit: was covered by numerous artists, including Tori Amos, The Bad Plus, Pearl Jam, Xorcist, Do Kaka, and Paul Anka.
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit: According to both Kurt and Yankovic, when asked if he would be okay with Yankovic parodying the song, Kurt asked, "it's not going to be about food, is it?" Kurt admitted in interviews to being very fond of the parody. In a diary entry later published in Journals, Kurt described "Weird Al" as the closest thing America has to punk rock. Bandmate Krist Novoselic later said that the band realized that they had arrived as rock stars when Weird Al parodied them.
6. Polly: is based on the true story of a female rape victim from Tacoma, Washington. The girl, 14, was abducted in 1987 while returning from a punk rock show, and was raped and tortured by her abductor. Cobain's only narrative flourish is that the victim manages to escape by flirting with her captor, convincing him to let her go. In the liner notes to Nirvana's 1992 compilation Incesticide, Cobain expressed disdain for an incident which occurred after the song's release on Nevermind. "Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly,'" he wrote. "I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience."
7. Polly: there is a cover by Animal Collective.
8. Stay Away: The line screamed by Kurt at the end of the song "God is gay" comes from a line Kurt used to spraypaint on buildings and trucks as a teenager. The original title of the song was "Pay to Play", which appears on the With the Lights Out box set.
9. On a Plain: covers by Animal Collective and Rogue Wave.