I first heard it on my car radio. The musical landscape was grim at the time. A solo guitar, then the pounding drums crashing in along with the full bore electric guitar assault, which then subsided into a subtle guitar and bass line. Who is this? What is this? This is incredible, this is exciting, whatever it is! All I felt was a sensation starting in my spine and moving up into my brain. It was only a few days later when I saw the video and found out who'd done the song and its title (FM radio was too cool to reveal those essentials).
Smells Like Teen Spirit was released 25 years ago tomorrow, placing it on the midpoint between the release of Revolver by The Beatles and today. Nevermind, the Nirvana album containing the song was released two weeks later.
It's still a great song; it gets the same reaction from me it did all those years ago. Nirvana was a talented band. Kurt Cobain could actually compose melodies and the group had a sense of sound dynamics so they weren't always just bashing away. But it was still difficult to listen to a lot of their music at one time - Kurt was also a sick puppy, and it was just too depressing except in small doses.
Anyway, here's Smells Like Teen Spirit, followed by an outstanding cover by The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain (on which you can actually understand the lyrics).
Thanks for this! Especially the cover :)
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