Opinion (song)

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""Opinion""

Song by Nirvana
from the album 'With the Lights Out'
Released	November 23, 2004
Recorded	September 25, 1990 at Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington
Genre	Grunge
Length	1:34
Label	Geffen

"Opinion" is a song by Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band, Nirvana. It is survived by only one known version: a solo acoustic rendition performed live on an Olympia, Washington college radio show on September 25, 1990. This version appeared on bootlegs for many years, and in 2004 was officially released on the band's box set, With the Lights Out (and again, in 2005, on the compilation album Sliver - The Best of the Box).

1 History
2 Other versions?
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] History

While introducing "Opinion", Cobain joked with host Calvin Johnson that he had written most of its lyrics earlier that evening, while driving to the studio. Indeed, it is possible that Cobain wrote the song specifically for his appearance on the radio show. In the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier than Heaven by Charles R. Cross, the tenant of the apartment next to Cobain's recalls hearing him write a beautiful song through the wall one day, and then perform it on the radio a few hours later.

[edit] Other versions?

A 4-track version of "Opinion" was rumoured to have been recorded in 1994, during an infamous session in Cobain's basement with Nirvana guitarist Pat Smear and Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson, but it is now believed that only an unsurfaced rendition of "Do Re Mi" was recorded at this session.

[edit] Trivia

After performing "Opinion," Cobain joked with Johnson that he thought it sounded like "Taxman," the George Harrison-penned Beatles song which opens their 1966 album, Revolver. This banter, as well as Cobain's aforementioned introduction, is not included on the officially released version.

According to his widow Courtney Love, Cobain had intended on donating "Opinion" to one of his idols, the American musician Iggy Pop, and the equally rare "Talk to Me" to his friend Mark Lanegan, of the American grunge band the Screaming Trees. However, after Cobain's death in April 1994, Love switched songs, giving "Opinion" to Lanegan, and "Talk To Me" to Pop. To date, neither song has been recorded.