Growing Up Nirvana
For the better part of the past decade, I have not felt Nirvana. Sure, listening to their music is not out of the question, but after he ended his life, I was numb to their relevance in my life. As a teenager, my life changed after I 1st put ‘Nevermind’ into the CD player. Before Nirvana, rap and r&b; were my objects of listening pleasure.
While listening to ‘Nevermind’, it’s extreme message of social disruption, pessimism and drugs as therapy was relating my thoughts and life to the mainstream. At 16, I finally realized that similar thoughts and passive-aggressive behavior and they finally became a part of numerous scenes and classifications. There were the Slackers, Gen X, Grunge among others. Then, He killed himself and my generation lost its voice and all of this attention died along with it. His death seriously wounded his represented generation.
The Song
Finally, after years of legal struggles, the public finally has the chance to hear the studio version of ‘You Know You’re Right’. On the net, there has definitely been plenty of live versions of the song floating around (most were/are extremely poor quality), but it lacked a bit without a little treatment by a producer.
Surprisingly, it is very edgy and sounds like something that should have been on ‘Insecticide’ or ‘Bleach’ because it does not have a real pop feel to it. It’s perfect example of the grunge genre. The contrast between the subtle verses and powerful chorus is immense. Also, the band has played more with the structure including rocking out at the end of the verse rather than building up during the chorus. This is a great song, but is definitely wounded by mediocre production.
As a result of the producers seemingly trying to create an epic feel to this historic piece, they included ill-advised odd music box intro and outro as well as overdubbing his vocals while in chorus. Based on listening to this, it hurts, but the pain of the production fades after each listen.
The Lyrics:
I would never bother you
I would never promise to
I will never follow you
I will never bother you
Never speak a word again
I will crawl away for good
I will move away from here
You won’t be afraid or fear
No thought was put into this
I always knew it would come to this
Things have never been so swell
I have never failed to fail
Paaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn (3x)
You know you’re right (3x)
I’m so warm and calm inside
I no longer have to hide
Let’s talk about someone else
Steaming, soon begins to melt
Nothing really bothers her
She just wants to love herself
I will move away from here
You won’t be afraid or fear
No thought was put into this
I always knew to come to this
Things have never been so swell
I have never failed to fail
Paaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn (5x)
You know you’re right (17x) (except last 3 or 4 where he sings:
You know your rights
Paaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn
-Lyrics by Nirvana
Conclusion
Following the many repeated listens of this well-performed, but comparitively poorly produced track, I have forgiven Kurt. This piece, has helped me feel a little of what was felt at 16 when I initially listened to ‘Nevermind’.
