Thursday, January 20, 2011

Nirvana – Smells like Teen Spirit (album: Nevermind 1991)

This is a classic song by Nirvana. I never get tired of it. Nirvana is another Seattle Grunge band that had a short career due to the shocking death of their lead singer Kurt Cobain.
The album “Nevermind “was a huge hit back in the 90’s and features many awesome songs.
I personally can’t understand a word Kurt is saying in most of their songs and neither does Weird’s Al Yankovic so I’ve added his version to this song, suddenly the lyrics make sense to me. BTW, Kurt Cobain was very impressed of this version as well (see notes below).
Link to the song: Smells Like Teen Spirit Nirvana



And now for the Weird Al Yankovic version:



Yankovic stated that when he called Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain to ask if he could parody the song, Cobain gave him permission, then paused and asked, "Um... it's not gonna be about food, is it?" Yankovic responded with, "No, it'll be about how no one can understand your lyrics." According to members of Nirvana interviewed for Behind the Music, when they saw the video of the song, they laughed hysterically. Additionally, Cobain described Yankovic as "a musical genius." (Weird Al Yankovic - Wikipedia)


What’s this song about?
In a January 1994 Rolling Stone interview, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain revealed that "Smells like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to write a song in the style of the Pixies, a band he greatly admired. He explained:
“I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band – or at least Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard.” (Wikipedia – Smell like Teen Spirits)

Info about the band: Wikipedia - Nirvana