Buzz
Regarded as the 'greatest song of all time' by researchers at the University of London, Nirvana's 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' made its live debut on April 17, 1991, at Seattle's OK Hotel. Just under five months later, on September 10, it hit the airwaves as a single.
Typically reserved and not one to chat much on stage, Kurt Cobain usually left the humorous exchanges to bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl. But that night was different. With major label deals on the table, and just two weeks away from signing with DGC, the record label under Geffen, Cobain let loose. As fame loomed, he quipped to the crowd, 'Hello. We're major label corporate rock sellouts.'
Tucked away
Six months prior, Cobain was tucked away in the woods of Olympia, Washington. On a night in October 1990, Cobain and Kathleen Hanna, the vocalist of the feminist punk band Bikini Kill, shared a bottle of Canadian Club whiskey and a common goal: deface a newly established teen pregnancy center. Hanna referred to it as 'a right-wing scam that lured teenage girls in and then told them they’d go to hell for having abortions.' After some reconnaissance, Cobain stood guard while Hanna vandalized the building, scrawling 'Fake Abortion Clinic, Everyone.' When Cobain's turn came, he spray-painted 'God is Gay' in six-foot red letters.
The pair spent the rest of the night celebrating their mischief at Cobain's house. Hanna went on to 'smash up a bunch of sh*t,' then grabbed a Sharpie and scribbled 'Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit' on the wall of his bedroom before passing out. Cobain was so taken by the phrase that he decided to use it as the title for one of his upcoming songs.
"I took that as a compliment," Cobain later shared with Michael Azerrad in the authorized band biography *Come As You Are*. "I thought it was a reaction to the conversation we were having, but it actually just meant I smelled like the deodorant. I didn’t know the deodorant existed until months after the single came out. I’ve never used cologne or deodorant." Bikini Kill’s drummer Tobi Vail knew what Teen Spirit referred to because she wore it. Vail was Cobain's girlfriend at that time.
Before Cobain even understood Hanna's joke, he and Vail had already split up. Their relationship ended in early 1991, around the same time Cobain’s band was composing new material. These tracks would not only appear on *Nevermind* but also on *In Utero*, Nirvana’s third and final studio album, which wasn’t released until September 1993.
Dave Grohl, a new addition to the band, moved in with Cobain when he first relocated to Olympia. The two drove up to Novoselic's place in Tacoma and practiced every night. By late November 1990, at least half of the songs that would make up *Nevermind*—including "In Bloom," "Breed," "Lithium," "Polly," "Stay Away" (then "Pay to Play"), and "Something in the Way"—were already played at an industry showcase gig. The other tracks, including "Smells Like Teen Spirit," came together during these rehearsals.
Grohl described the band's makeshift barn studio as 'weird,' complete with brown shag carpet, stage lights, and an enormous PA system that no one quite knew how to operate. It was in this odd setting that Cobain first played the iconic 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' riff for Novoselic and Grohl. In early 1994, Cobain told *Rolling Stone* that when he first played the now-famous guitar part, 'Krist looked at me and said, 'That is so ridiculous.' I made the band play it for an hour and a half.'
According to Novoselic, he helped transform the riff into a more complete song. 'We were just playing the chorus, 'When the light's out, and it's dangerous, here we are now,' over and over again,' Novoselic recalled. 'I said, 'Wait a minute. Why don't we slow this down a bit?' So I started playing the verse part, and Dave started playing a drum beat.'
The Pixies Dilemma
There was one issue: the song bore a striking resemblance to something the Pixies—a band Cobain greatly admired—might create. 'I really remember thinking, ‘That is such a Pixies rip,’' Grohl said in a 2011 BBC documentary about the making of *Nevermind*. 'It almost got scrapped because it sounded too much like the Pixies.'
Getty Images"I was trying to write the ultimate pop song," Cobain confessed. "I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I first heard the Pixies, I connected with them so deeply I should have been *in* that band—or at least in a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics: soft and quiet, then loud and hard."
Since the band's inception, they had been on a steady 'diet' of the Pixies—along with Mudhoney, Tad, Coffin Break, and The Sugarcubes—during their long road trips. Nirvana's debut album, *Bleach* (1989), didn’t use the quiet-loud dynamic, but their 1990 single 'Sliver' did.
While on a European tour promoting 'Sliver,' Cobain met Ken Goes, the Pixies' manager, with the idea that Goes might manage Nirvana. Instead, Cobain spent the majority of the meeting asking questions about the Pixies. Goes described Cobain as more than just a fan; he was a 'student.' When Charles Thompson, a.k.a. Black Francis of the Pixies, unexpectedly walked into the hotel, Cobain declined Goes's offer to introduce him, ending the meeting altogether. Cobain apparently didn’t feel worthy of meeting such indie rock royalty.
Months after 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was recorded, Cobain still worried that it sounded too much like a Pixies imitation. As Nirvana's sound engineer, Craig Montgomery, drove the band to Los Angeles to film the music video for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' Cobain played him the song and nervously asked, 'Do you think it sounds too much like the Pixies?'
A Path of Influence
Cobain also, likely unknowingly, drew inspiration for the main riff from Boston's 'More Than a Feeling.' 'I take it as a major compliment,' Boston songwriter Tom Scholz said, 'even if it was completely accidental.' Nirvana poked fun at the resemblance during their 1992 Reading Festival performance. Cobain even wrote in his journal, probably half-joking, that 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' and Blue Oyster Cult's 'Godzilla' were also somewhat similar.
But the song was far too good to discard. So, it made its way onto the setlist for Nirvana's headlining gig at the OK Hotel on Wednesday, April 17, 1991. The show was a fundraising event for Fitz of Depression singer Mike Dees, who was trying to avoid jail time over hefty traffic fines. Or at least, that's the legend. Dees himself claimed it wasn't a benefit show, but admitted that Cobain donated $250 from Nirvana's earnings to help Fitz of Depression with a tour van and Dees with his traffic fines. The rest of Nirvana's earnings went to gas money for their trip to Los Angeles to begin recording *Nevermind*.
That night, the Seattle music scene was split: Alice in Chains was performing nearby at a warehouse on a pier, posing as a music venue for Cameron Crowe's 1992 film *Singles*. Nevertheless, the OK Hotel was packed—and the crowd was about to witness a pivotal moment in music history.
If you watch the performance above, you'll notice that the song's iconic lyrics, especially the verses, were far from finished. 'Here we are now, entertain us' was already in place—Cobain claimed it was something he used to say as an icebreaker when arriving at a party.
A Gen-X Anthem is Born
When it came to the rest of the lyrics, Cobain took his time and at one point showed them to Novoselic, asking for his opinion. 'I checked them out and said, 'I think they're pretty cool,'' Novoselic recalled. 'But then he seemed disappointed that I wasn't just raving about them. The thing was, I just didn’t get them the first time I read them. Later, when I heard it in the context of the song, I understood. He was talking about kids, commercials, Generation X, the youth culture, and how he was disillusioned by it all. He didn’t want to be part of it.'
Novoselic wasn't the only one with this interpretation of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' The song has been so often described as 'an anthem for Generation X' that it might as well be its alternate title. But in the end, it's a song about Cobain and a specific moment in time.
For his 2001 biography *Heavier Than Heaven*, Charles R. Cross was granted unprecedented access to Cobain's private journals. In the book, he writes:
"Though Kurt never explicitly mentioned it, his most famous song, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit,' could only have been about one person, with the lyrics 'she's over-bored and self-assured.' 'Teen Spirit' was shaped by many influences—his anger toward his parents, his boredom, his deep cynicism—but certain lines seem to echo the presence of Tobi [Vail]. Cobain wrote the song shortly after their breakup, and the first draft even included a line that was cut from the final version: 'Who will be the king and queen of the outcast teens?' In his imagination, the answer had once been Kurt Cobain and Tobi Vail."
Cobain didn't pose the question about the 'king and queen of the outcast teens,' nor did he sing about a woman who was over-bored or self-assured, to the crowd at the OK Hotel that night, which was made up of around 500 fans and two opening bands. One of those bands was Fitz of Depression, led by Dees, of course. The other band had a drummer who wore Teen Spirit. If her ex-boyfriend's lyrics about heartbreak had been any less obscure, her deodorant might have faced a more rigorous test.
This story has been revised for 2020.
