Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit lyrics

The early '90s saw the rise of teenagers thinking it was cool to carry a gun to unless your friends. Although you're risking being arrested or killed the song says they were willing to take the chance. She's over bored and self assured is perfect for the '90s. The '90s saw females become the aggressor's of sex that nearly made the make teens look like and seem like Innocent angels. Hence, oh no, I know a dirty word.

The chorus is basically the teen calling for help with no answer. Then asks how low must we be as humans not to help. Teens in the '90s felt the rest of civilization just turned there backs to them. Adults asking what's wrong with the kids, are they stupid? The AIDS pandemic was peaked so, because many teens were asexually active they were shunned as ALL teens had AIDS.

The lyric, I am worse at what I do best is not a contradiction. It's basically saying, the adults and people who run the country/world order look down at me because of the kind of music I play. He still feels thankful and blessed for being lyrical, a musician, and obviously a different sounding voice than all other singers. He says that his little group of band members, 3, have been together a long time, and they'll always be together until he decided it's the end for himself.

Finally, "I don't know why I taste" which is a way of saying, I don't know why I'm alive. Of yeah, I guess because I'm supposed to be happy/smile.

This is a just an interpretation that I think gets looked over because of the time period the song came out in. That time period you didn't use lyrical puzzles like you see now. This is just my opinion. Thanks.

He actually wrote this song for his first proper partner, they were really close at one point but due to the pressures of Kurt hitting the big time, the woman could no longer deal with it and decided to leave him. The title "Smells Like Teen Spirit" comes from the perfume that she wore which was called "Teen Spirit" and Kurt loved the smell so what he's doing is expressing his true feelings about this woman and making sure that she knows he never forgot her. If you watch the documentary that is about Kurt and his life all the way up until his death, you will learn this.

Best Nirvana song ever.

R.I.P Kurt. We all miss you.

I don't care if he killed himself or if his wife killed him, all I care about is that he did and still does influence bands today and actually speaks to people through his music even now that he is gone. He is a musical genius, one of the best and the world will never forget him. No matter the reason for this song or why it was made, it's still a great song and it did change music for the better. All I know is that Nirvana is one of the greatest bands of all time, and whoever doesn't believe this can shut their f*cking mouths and go strait to hell.

The main arching theme to this song is depression maybe in the current climate: Stories about drug culture, no joy/pleasure, xenophobes/bigots, ignorance and degenerate behavior. The manic music is incongruent to the main theme. Kurt is basically taking a giant dump and they were eating it up with joy and that couldn't have set well with Kurt.

It's rather ironic that he went out in such a violent suicide. This culture of archetypes that made Kurt sick in the guts was his very ending. He detested the consumer, the idol worshipers, the common norm but in the end with Kurt ripping his head off, he bowed to the fatalistic and violent archetype of human nature, something Kurt detested.

I have always heard the lyric listed on the Internet as "Oh no, I know a dirty word" as "I know I'm not 'the dirty word'". If you listen to the song there is definitely a 't' after the second 'no' sound. When Cobain was young and later, he was very pro-gay rights and hated homophobia, although he was straight. (Watch the doco "Montage of Heck" for proof of this.) In this song, he's attacking people who can't even say the word 'gay' while at the same time saying he's straight. Of course, he did use the dirty word himself eventually, in "All Apologies", and I think this later song is part of the reason he killed himself.
For a song that provides a cryptic commentary on Cobain's suicide, listen to "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by Filter.
I don't know why the internet is awash with what seems to me a false version of the lyrics. I am sure my sense of the lyrics is correct, that somehow a false transcription gained traction as the official transcription. But then I could be wrong.