Kurt Cobain’s Isolated Vocal Track From ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ 1991

Kurt Cobain’s Isolated Vocal Track From ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ 1991:

In 1991, Nirvana’s Nevermind album exploded into mainstream popular culture like–as one writer describes it– “a grenade detonating in your car radio.” The album, and the Seattle-based grunge rock movement it emerged from, was like a booster shot of 70s punk attitude into heavy metal, sweeping away the hedonism and vanity of 80s bands like Quiet Riot and Mötley Crüe. The song that epitomized the new attitude, for many, was the opening track of Nevermind, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” with its explosive expression of youthful alienation:
With the lights out, it’s less dangerous

Here we are now, entertain us

I feel stupid and contagious

Here we are now, entertain us
The line “Here we are now, entertain us” was a joke Nirvana’s guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain liked to call out to break the ice whenever he would arrive at a party. “A lot of times,” Cobain told Rolling Stone in a 1994 interview, “when you’re standing around with people in a room, it’s really boring and uncomfortable. So it was ‘Well, here we are, entertain us.’” The title of the song was taken from something his friend Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill, had spray painted across his wall: “Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Hanna meant that Cobain smelled like Teen Spirit, a brand of deodorant worn by his girlfriend, but Cobain claimed not to know that until much later. Instead, he saw irony and rebellion.
You can hear Cobain’s isolated vocal track from “Smells Like Teen Spirit” above.  The song was recorded at Sound City studios in Van Nuys, California in May of 1991. The band reportedly chose the second of three takes. The extreme dynamics of the performance–soft to loud, apathy to rage–were inspired by the music of the Pixies. To watch a video of Nirvana trying out an early version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” before an audience at Seattle’s OK Hotel a month before the song was recorded, see Josh Jones’s December post, “The First Live Performance of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (1991).”
via That Eric Alper
Related Content:
Patti Smith’s Cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Strips the Song Down to its Heart
Nirvana’s Home Videos: An Intimate Look at the Band’s Life Away From the Spotlight (1988)
The Pixies “Acoustic Sessions”: See the Alt-Rock Stars Rehearse for the 2005 Newport Folk Festival
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