Smells Like Teen Spirit

[crow]

In general, there are six stories that lyrics can tell:

(1) Entity described,
(2) Entity encounters obstacle,
(3) Entity fails to overcome obstacle,
(4) Entity overcomes obstacle,
(5) Entity stalemates with obstacle and loses a chunk of its soul, and
(6) Merely atmospheric meaningless words. 

Please characterize the following lyrics as one of the above. In general, you’ll ask the following questions:

(1) Is this merely atmospheric or does it describe something?
(2) does the thing it describes encounter an obstacle?
(3) does it win, lose or stale?

Here are the lyrics.

Load up on guns, bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over bored and self-assured
Oh, no, I know a dirty word
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido, yeah
Hey
Yeah
I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group it's always been
And always will until the end
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now entertain us
I feel stupid and contagious
Here we are now entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido, yeah
Hey
Yeah
And I forget, just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello, how low?
Hello, hello, hello
With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid, and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial, a denial
A denial

After characterizing the lyrics, define the pronouns in order:

Your: 
It’s:
She’s:
I:
We:
Us:
I:
Me:

Then define the other open elements of the song:

What is the dirty word?
Who’s the mulatto?
Who’s the albino?
Who has a libido like a mosquito?
What is “a denial”?

After attempting to define the above, analyze the content of the following:

“And I forget, just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind”

After answering the above questions for yourself, please speculate about what, if anything, this song is about.

[busker]

You’re asking the reader to embark on a set of exercises - to what end?
I think the lyrics of anything Kurt Cobain wrote when he wasn’t a drug addled 20 something dude were shite and not worth my time.
Proof of shite: anyone can write shite

Mulatto/ albino / mosquito/ libido are very low quality rhymes

[CRNDLSM]

And cutting out all the vocal repetition, it reads way better reformatted and makes more sense.  I would say these are the lyrics to the song even though I only wrote the chorus once, all the rest is flair (part of the music itself)



Load up on guns, bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over bored and self-assured
Oh, no, I know a dirty word
Hello, hello, hello, how low?

I'm worse at what I do best
And for this gift I feel blessed
Our little group it's always been
And always will until the end
Hello, hello, hello, how low?

And I forget, just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it's hard to find
Oh well, whatever, never mind
Hello, hello, hello, how low?

With the lights out, it's less dangerous
Here we are now, entertain us
I feel stupid, and contagious
Here we are now, entertain us
A mulatto, an albino
A mosquito, my libido

A denial, a denial

---

This is one of my favorite sublime songs 'were only gon a die from our own arrogance


Repeat 5 x
Early man walked away as modern man took control
Their minds weren't all the same, to conquer was their goal
So he built his great empire and he slaughtered his own kind
He died a confused man, killed himself with his own mind

Only 1x at the end
Were only gonna die from our own arrogance
That's why we might as well take our time


The chorus bridge verse nonsense doesn't even apply to pop music, sure there is a formula you could follow. But pop can't always be predicted.  There is a lot of garbage that follows the 'rules' that will never be popular.  

To start off a crit of lyrics by saying 'these aren't lyrics' only indicates your own inability to hear the music

[rowens]

Nirvana lyrics are dismissive of the subject while still being guilty of the subject.

A teenager, which I know a lot about, is in that high school mentality.

The lyrics say what it's like to be like that.

An albino, mosquito, black, white, poor, wealthy, ugly, hot. The dumb rhymes are being ironic and dismissive.
The chord exchange is the same chord progression of a Boston song, which Kurdt Kobane is making fun of.
He was using his love of punk rock energy and attitude and his mainstream budget and attention to play this game with music.


In Utero is my favorite Nirvana album. Especially, as I've mention years ago, the German version with the hidden track.