How Nirvana Lyrics Reveal Kurt Cobain's Genius 

As an old memoriam

rape me/ my friend

Or he was high :)

@@mrm2542 lithium is literally the definition of oxymorons

I'm worse at what I do best, and for this gift, I feel blesed

Right on

Once he also said that he consider himself more a songwriter than a guitarist

...and Fashion tertiary (just guessing)

@sabbracadabra he probably cared more about the music. Significantly

Where did he say this? Actually in one interview he said he’s more of a songwriter than a guitarist

Thank you! I'm working on a new video about another iconic band right now. It'll be longer.

That’s what ShE SAID

There isn't more to say.

Yeah. Bigger, Longer, and Un-cut.

GoogleJim rambling bunch of rubbish ^ ^ ^ 😂😂😂

I'm pretty sure artistry is his legacy. He is the greatest song writer of my generation.

His heroin use was part of his artistry. His actual life was a piece of art. Though I feel for the ones he left behind. Well, whatever, nevermind.

@@adami2140 Very true.

I do think heroin contributed positively to his talent. But also made him flame out extremely fast.

I would say it’s a mix of modern art and classic art. He was a genius to combine a mix of the messiness of punk and the polish of pop like the Beatles.

Yes! It is so frustrating when the fanboys pretend that they were just random words and incredulously believe everything that he said even after he admitted that he said some things to troll the press. I guess the idea of a primitive just randomly spouting words is something that some people find appealing.

@@wvu05 Yup people love to romanticize the slacker poet archetype who just accidentally and effortlessly creates genius works of artistic expression without really trying. Nothing could be further from the truth,you don't get to be as good and as successful as Cobain without serious dedication,painstaking practice and indomitable drive. Luck and talent are obvious necessary components to that equation but it all starts with an uncompromising vision and pure unbridled will. The people closest to him say the same.

@@luiscypher1307 Indeed. I just dealt with one recently who insisted that those quotes were the gospel instead of an obvious attempt to get reporters off his back. I even asked how this person explained that "Polly" was inspired by a story in the newspaper and many of the details of the song matched the story in the paper, and how he came up with the lyrics from "Scentless Apprentice" based on his favorite book. The dummy even wrote off the lengthy rehearsal sessions that contradicted his statements on "musicianship" and even included a line about knowing the names of the chords. I gave my now-seven-year-old daughter a ukulele for Christmas when she was three, and she refuses to learn chords. You know what she does? Plays random sour notes. Yes, it is true that his music wasn't incredibly complex, but try to make up music that is simple and memorable and you'll find that is quite another story. Quite frankly, I think that Kurt Cobain did a huge disservice to his fans by refusing to admit the work involved because it gave them the false illusion that it was easy.

@@wvu05 True,to a certain degree his inspiration was definitely detrimental in many ways but on the other side of that coin though it also had some undeniably positive outcomes too like the effect Nirvana's success had on the industry and the death of the hair metal 'hairspray queen' era of highly technical, mastabatory virtuoso guitarism. But yes your spot on as much as his music brought back Beetlesque melodic simplicity & raw unbridled emotive authenticity that resonanated with an entire disenfranchised generation it also perpetuated many hopelessly deluded daydreamers to believe they too could be the next overnight music sensation & all they would need is some flannel,passion and a cheap guitar. The reality though is musicians like Cobain are inately born with something the vast majority of the world is not...inexplicable talent,lol.

@@luiscypher1307 Indeed. In all honesty, looking at the Nirvana story, I think that the real unsung hero is Tracy Marander, because she's the one who paid the bills while he learned how to get better. I love his music and always will, but I just wish that he would have admitted, "I practiced several hours a day, listen to a lot of music, and have a skill for finding a melody and making specific stories sound universal." I get the slacker romanticism and feeling overwhelmed by it all, but I want _more_ people who write good songs and play good music.

HIS NAME IS NIRVANA

Because he doesn't compromise that much. He lets it flow naturally. Just a bunch of thoughts put into each other, with the appearance of cohesion.

Try death grips :D

Yeah I'mma call BS on that one lol

@@MajorCanada *All alone is all we are

@@Crushenator500 *All in all is all we are

Which is why i find it so odd that so many idolize him so deeply. He was a great man but just a man nontheless

@@GGSOG but when you choose to write in that style, your lyricism becomes more malleable and syncopated allowing for more subtle interpretation which, in my opinion, has a larger impact

@@ltkreefer826 I think people idolize him for what he did with his music and how he presented nirvana. Not just how he did his music.

Did you not listen? It's bc he's not a "loud" person. He may like art. But he just prob just found all the extra sh weird & uncalled for

@@quiettraveller3287 i agree and appreciate the discretion of your reply unlike that other asshole lol

I grew up in Newcastle Australia at the time, Silverchair would enter band competitions and other mainstream crap, that is how Sony found them on the back of Kurt's death. It was all just a corporate set up to make money and be 'famous'. They did have some catchy tunes but they cannot be compared to Nirvana who pioneered a movement even though it was unwanted.

@@adami2140 definitely wasn't comparing them. I just find it pretty cool that they wrote and played their own stuff at such a young age. Whether they came up organically or in a mainstream way,I still respect them,or at least use to. Have you seen what Daniel is doing now? Some weird boy George techno mess. It's horrible.

I like nirvana. But I like more bush songs. Fewer silver chair songs. No other reasons, other than me being attracted to words.

malandr0bem same

It’s a totally fair call. Both bands were utterly derivative, at least at the start.

@@Steaminlidz and now they're both irrelevant bands, end of story

@@olivierdube8110 I thought that they (and Stone Temple Pilots) were pretty irrelevant back then as well.

They were ripoffs though and their music sounds dated now because they were not original

The lyrics meaning something would've been part of the joke, and paradox, that was the overall style and meaning of nirvana

down in the dumps Lmao frogstomp sounds NOTHING like nirvana ever made

@@deadroses19 You don't read well friend.. Thats actually what i said. But was still a good album and especially for being 15years old when it was recorded

Thank you!

Basically, if that's what you got out of this, you're a simpleton.

@@nicholasmaxwell9899 well why don't you enlighten me with all your wokeness oh intelligent one.

@@chimpman5584 Okay sure. So basically, art is at its best when its universal. When anyone who ever lived could or could have relate to it in some way. When one makes art that is too direct and specific, less people can relate to the sentiments that are being expressed. So it's not that Kurt's approach to art was to "just say shit" that doesn't have to make sense, even though he claimed to do so in an effort to troll the casuals like you, but rather his approach was to create art that contains enough ambiguity to resonate with anyone. This kind of art tends to be more timeless because you can twist and bend the meaning to your liking, for whatever situation you're in, qnd whatever emotion you happen to be feeling. Virtually all the great artists have done the same. Bob Dylan's lyrics can be very cryptic. The greatest painters used ambiguity. Shakespeare as well. But you can go back to thinking that the objective is to "just say shit". The rest of us will enjoy the incredible work these artists have left to us!

@@nicholasmaxwell9899 OK, I see what you're saying and I used to subscribe to that concept in my teens and even early 20s, however, sometimes that feels like a cop-out. In no way am I saying Nirvana didn't make great music, heck some of their stuff is still unmatched to this day, but I do feel that Kurt was waaay to young to write anything meaningful, and once I read some of his random scribbling before his death, I realised he was a very naive and confused young man who didn't know how to express his thoughts in any meaningful way linguistically speaking, so he expressed them through sound conveying emotion. Kudos to him for that, the sound resonates with me too. But what I won't do is sit here and read deeply into the meanings of words that when strung together have no meaning at all. I remember whilst studying psychology I read about Sigmund Freud. He would come up with his whacky theories about fancying your mother and always follow them up with: but you'll never know because it's all in the subconscious. To me that's just a cop-out, very much like artists who create their art and say well what does it mean to you? It's like, bruh...you created the shit....how about you tell me what you meant instead of deflecting from the fact that you evidently don't know either.

@@chimpman5584 You made some good points, and so I think the answer is probably somewhere in the middle. He was definitely young and naive and he did write a lot of random lyrics because as you said, I think he was more concerned with the sound and attitude of his music. However, I think if you were to go song by song, you would be surprised by how many of his songs do have tangible themes and sensible lyrics. It's not all "a mosquito, my libido" gibberish. Kurt Cobain was very young, angry, and naive. But he was also super intelligent in an artistic way, and he was an absolute visionary. He did everything for Nirvana, wrote the music + lyrics, did all their artwork, made all their business decisions. And maybe sometimes artists use ambiguity as a cop out, but I don't think that was the case with Kurt. When I read his lyricism and hear him talk about writing, I can tell that cryptic style of writing is just his personal taste. It's what he enjoys more. I can totally relate to it because I'm the same way. I like when the artist let's me interpret things in multiple ways. Bob Dylan, widely regarded as the greatest lyricist ever, likes his art that way too. Some artists may use that as a cop out, but others like Kurt Cobain, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, John Lennon, etc.. use it as a way to give their listeners a chance to be creative themselves within their interpretations. I think it usually means something to them, but by leaving it somewhat cryptic or open ended, any single human being can use their interpretation to mold it into something they can connect with. I think that's very powerful.

Everclear

It's funny bc I switch up alot. I mean, if everything else seems to suck. At least you can hide away w/ music. But I randomly thought, biggie biggie can't you see? Sometimes you words just hypnotize me. And I just love your flashy ways... This is why they're broke & you're so fake. I never really followed this west coast east beef thing. I was last on all the classic gangster movies. I never the I'd actually end up in a world of them all around me. Also, random shout-out to all my bouncers 👊🤗

TheNerdLexicon Cause hes a douche ?

Exactly. It's punk rock. It's supposed to be easy, off the cuff, little thought put into it. Simple enough that anyone can play it.

I did too, until I saw photos and videos of Cobain writing with his right hand. Turns out he was ambidextrous. He played guitar lefty, and did everything else righty.

No He Should Stay Dead!!!!!

Girls underarm deodorant I believe. I remember the commercials

Hum,not really...

LOL

In their most popular song it says I'm never alone I'm alone all the time please tell me how that's not nirvana inspired

That album is so good.

mmm yeah right

“This is how I like to write my stories”

Nobody cares.

@@weatheredtome I do

LION FOR LAMBS stop kissing ass

Thanks Chris!

Johns would get wayyyyyyyyyy better as he got older , and he is a genius in his own right , but No more maybes , your babies got rabies , is hilariously bad , but yeah , teenagers eh.

Yeah me too.

Kurt Cobain will Live Forever!,

Me too, let's burn a Starbucks

we all are. I'm 35 now and seems like I was just 21. Life does this to most of us.

It’s *all in all is all we are. “All in all is all we all are” is redundant.

Yes, _"all in all is all we are"_ is one version. Believe me, I paid close attention to that [Buddhist-like] praise. *All in All is All we All are* is also used in other live recordings. Its not redundant from a deep eastern philosophical perspective. See below example. *ALL within the ALL is ALL we ALL are. Peace.* Breakdown: *ALL* (finite beginning-ending/changing matter) *within the ALL* (Infinite Beginningless-Endingless/Non-Changing Spirit) *is ALL we ALL are,* therefore you and I are smaller consciousness finite fragments/specks/part and parcel of god, but we are NOT the Supreme Infinite Spirit Realm Supernatural Consciousness Summit that is Godhead while we exist as lower awareness finite realm material beings. *Peace.* Now do you realize you, I, we, are all specks of god. *A Complete Macrobiotic Yin Yang Philosophic Understanding Combined With Its Practical Dietary Discipline Is Timeless Universal Law. All Other Teachings Are Incomplete. ― Herman Aihara, Michio Kushi & Master George Ohsawa* ☯ ✞ ∞

Orange-Cat-Bad lol dude I get the straight forward meaning in one of the most straight forward lines of a nirvana song. Most of us do. Not that deep. Just good writing from existing and reading etc,. What I was saying is those aren’t HIS lyrics for the song. He probably knew that saying and broke it down so it made sense to him and the song. It doesn’t go much further than saying we are all of the all. He just chose his own way of saying a very straight forward statement.

Nirvana meaning: (in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism. *All in All is All we All are* fits very well with ancient eastern Buddhist philosophy. But so does the short version you say, as does *All in One is One is/in All* and *All in All is what we are* etc. Under *Published on Sep 21, 2012* is an explanation of an early written and late 1991 live performance version of All Apologies with some very different lyrics. Like I already said: I've heard the *"All in All is All we All are"* in a live performance and the 8D multidirectional (posted below) being repeated over and over which is different from this listed below very different ending. All in all is all we are All in one is one is all All in all is what we are All in one is one in all All is one is one in all All is one and one is all All in one is one in all All in one is one in all *Nirvana - All Apologies (Early Version) [Lyrics]* - Incesticide23 channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xmHRzXhO1Jo.html Next, down below, though the printed lyrics show it as you say, it is very clear and especially so to the end that Kurt is saying *All in All is All we All are.* Even Sinead O'connor clearly sings it as All in All is All we All are... Thus, from Kurt himself, there are changed renditions of these lyrics. Nirvana - All Apologies | 8D Audio *multidirectional* - yourmusicwaves channel ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-5qDoAIVSL18.html

Holy shit! That just hit me.

You should make a video discussing Cobains lyrics for three hours. I’m sure many people would like to hear it.

@Doll Steak dang

I'm glad someone said this, because it blows mine too.

Exactly he himself was a high school drop out.

@Doll Steak Idk what alternative meanings you find in lyrical content like 'you're back in highschool' x7 'no recess' x4 or 'Pee-pee in my face, I die smothered in Andy's butt' and maybe it's just me, but I have a hard time finding anything to relate to in that. As for the second lyric, I don't really have any particular desire to find those words relatable in any context. Maybe you need a LOT more imagination than I possess to interpret Nirvana, idk.

Thats just what he said..... He wrote INCREDIBLE lyrics.

I love debaser man im still new to the rock scene only ever listened to grunge like soundgarden and nirvana if you can tell me any bands that i most certainly wouldnt know or many bands off your head I'd love that alot

@@sumtingwong5963 Some lesser known bands with grungy sound are: Failure, Dinosaur Jr., Polvo, Into Another, Heatmiser, PJ Harvey, Slint, Sebadoh, The Smashing Pumpkins and No. 2. (Most are not labeled as grunge, I just think they can sound like that sometimes.) And of course check out: Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Pearl Jam. I know you didn't ask for grunge in particular, but still that's a couple of bands you might grow to like.

I just listened to the whole album today, they really paved had some good stuff

@@sumtingwong5963 The Pixies songs that may have influenced Nirvana(my guess): "I Bleed" "Tame" "Crackity Jones" "Bone Machine." Lots of screaming, slow build ups, quiet and a panic attack.

@@sumtingwong5963 Debaser is one of the greatest songs ever for getting drunk with friends and dancing like an idiot to.

Agreed

Yeah, but I can still enjoy his unusual lyrics simply enough

You're not thinking hard enough about how to spell 'too'

Spot on comment. Zeppelin, Hendrix, The Beatles.. Nirvana is also timeless. Soundgarden, AIC were also great bands. The 80s Hair bands were all so fake, cheap, shallow. The difference between Art and Business could never be more obvious.

I hope one day kids will be learning in school about him and his art

Many people buy the shirt without even knowing it is a band.

@@Head318Hunter corporate rock still sucks...🐢 and that is why alot of the bands today and the last 15 - 20 years ain't be remembered... I can think of a few but that's it...

Frogstomp, nevermond here too... also the eurythmics and Johnny Farnham but I managed to lose those ones fast.

@@ryry2402 I was in grade 7 and my uncle let me pick any 2 CD's. I still love these albums

@@kieronreilly6713 I was... jeez... sorta the same. Nsw aus. I sorta fell away from this kinda music. had more influence on me than I'm happy to admit. Old years old now on a nostalgia trip. Trying to get my daughter's interested in music made with actual instruments. After overhearing them recite awful whoreish lyrics from a Billie eilish girl realising maybe our generations mopey musical hero's weren't too bad after all.

@@ryry2402 Qld Australia. I feel ya

Frogstomp is the album every 16-year-old wishes they could make but could never pull it off

But you're Australian. Obviously you think that.

Ditto

My thought, exactly. Nice to get a glimpse of Kurt's genius, without the distraction of his shortcomings. I'm so sick & tired of it; Courtney Love & a syringe were not an integral part of his artistry. He was an artist from day one.