Smell Like Teen Spirit Nirvana. Written by: Dave Grohl; Kurt Cobain; Krist Novoselic; Last update on: May 28, 2015. Translations: Original; 1 Others. Lyrics to 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' song by NIRVANA. It climbed to number six on the Billboard Hot. Smells Like Teen Spirit. Smells Like Teen Spirit; In Bloom; Come. Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana Songfacts. Kurt Cobain wrote this song for Nirvana; it came together in a jam session when he played it for the band. I was basically trying to rip off The Pixies. In his pre- Courtney Love days, Cobain went out with Bikini Kill lead singer Tobi Vail, but she dumped him. Vail wore Teen Spirit deodorant, and Hanna was implying that Cobain was marked with her scent.
Hanna explained that early in the night, she was Cobain's lookout as he spray pained . They got quite inebriated that night, and Hanna said, . I took out a Sharpie marker and I wrote all over his bedroom wall - it was a rental so it was really kind of lame that I did that. I passed out with the marker in my hand, and woke up hung over. Kurt thought Hanna was complimenting him on his rebellious spirit, as someone who could inspire youth. Sales of Teen Spirit deodorant shot up when this became a hit, even though it is never mentioned in the lyrics. This was the first . In an effort to save the label for acts like Porno For Pyros and Catherine Wheel, some industry folk referred to the genre as . Grunge was a look and sound that was distorted and emotive, led by bands coming out of the Northwest. Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were other top grunge bands of the era. Cobain would often dismiss the term as a meaningless label when asked about it in early interviews, but their bass player Krist Novoselic explained that it was a growling, organic guitar sound that defined it. Cobain said he wrote this song because he was feeling . That's what 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' was all about: The mass mentality of conformity. The kids were recruited at a show the band played two days earlier at The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles, where flyers were handed out saying, . You should be 1. 8- 2. Be prepared to stay for several hours. Come support Nirvana and have a great time. By the 1. 1th hour when the band had had it with me and the kids were so angry with me, they said, 'Can we destroy the set?'. This impromptu and genuine destruction provided a nice finale for the clip. The video was inspired by the movie and song Rock And Roll High School by the Ramones, and was also influenced by a 1. Over the Edge, which was a favorite of Cobain and showed rebellious kids destroying a high school. According to Bayer, Cobain was getting very frustrated with the shoot, but Bayer needed another take. Cobain channeled his frustration into the performance that you see near the end of the video, where he is screaming and mashing his face near the camera. It was great acting trigger by his real anger. Bayer did the first edit of the video, which Cobain didn't like - he used a principal character in a lot of shots and cut it too literal, with the music synching up to the playing. Cobain worked with him to recut the video and make it much more surreal, inserting his crazy look as the second to last shot, and making sure that for his guitar solo, his hands were in the wrong place on the guitar. The girls who played the cheerleaders in the video were originally supposed to be very fat and unattractive (Cobain's idea). The Director Samuel Bayer did not like this idea, but still allowed the cheerleaders to have . He says he recruited them from a local strip club, which helps explain their unorthodox cheers. Cobain said he was flattered by the parody: . Producer Butch Vig had them move it to the middle. A lot was made of Cobain being a spokesperson for Generation X when this song became a hit. Cobain responded by saying, . I don't want to be a f- -king spokesperson. What the kids are attracted to in the music is that he's not necessarily a spokesman for a generation. He doesn't necessarily know what he wants but he's pissed. It's all these things working at different levels at once. I don't exactly know what 'Teen Spirit' means, but you know it means something and it's intense as hell. Here's the cover. For a while, MTV refused to air the video. When they finally did, it was on their alternative show 1. Minutes. When the song became a hit, the video went into hot rotation. The album cover shows a baby swimming toward a dollar bill. Cobain and Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic had seen a documentary on underwater birth and wanted to use that image on the cover. Pictures of babies being born underwater were too gross, so they hired a photographer to take some underwater shots during a water babies class. The baby they chose was Spencer Elden, who was 4 months old at the time. At many of their later shows, Nirvana did not play this song, helping root out the people coming just to hear a hit. Courtney Love deliberated a long time before allowing this to be used in the 2. Moulin Rouge. Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, who along with Love control the Nirvana catalog, claimed Love was trying to get the title role in the movie, which went to Nicole Kidman. The song was later used in the 2. The Muppets (where it is performed to a captive Jack Black by The Muppet Barbershop Quartet), and in the 2. Pan, where it is sung by a large group of rebellious child slaves. It's use in this last film was, er.. Influences and similarities like this are everywhere in rock music. It did become that one song that personifies the band. But the video was probably the key element in that song becoming a hit. People heard the song on the radio and they thought, 'This is great,' but when kids saw the video on MTV they thought, 'This is cool. These guys are kinda ugly and they're tearing up their f- -king high school.' So I think that had a lot to do with what happened with the song. But do I think it's the greatest single of all time? I don't even think it's the greatest Nirvana single. And compared to Revolution by The Beatles or God Only Knows by The Beach Boys?! Smells like Teen Spirit was a great moment in time. It was so bad that it even outranked Britney's much- maligned version of . Patti Smith also recorded the song for her covers album Twelve. The song was re- released as a limited edition 7- inch vinyl single in December 2. Christmas number one in the UK Singles Chart. However, the track only reached #1. The band's producer, Butch Vig, heard this song for the first time on a low quality cassette recording the band made. He couldn't make out much of the song because it was so distorted. When the band started rehearsing it in the studio, however, Vig heard the potential in the song. He made sure it was the first track on the album, since it made a statement. To me, 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' reminds me a little bit of how Bob Dylan's songs affected people in the '6. In a way, I feel the song affected a generation of kids in the '9. They could relate to it. For this song, Joan Jett joined them. The following year, Jett was inducted into the Rock Hall.
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