Smells Like Teen Spirit
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Smells Like Teen Spirit" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by Nirvana | ||
| from the album Nevermind | ||
| B-side(s) | "Drain You"/"Even in His Youth"/"Aneurysm" | |
| Released | September 10, 1991 | |
| Format | CD, Cassette, 7", 12" | |
| Recorded | May 1991 at Sound City, Van Nuys |
|
| Genre | Grunge | |
| Length | ||
| Label | DGC | |
| Producer(s) | Butch Vig | |
| Chart positions | ||
| Nirvana singles chronology | ||
| "Here She Comes Now/Venus in Furs" (1991) |
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1991) |
"Come as You Are" (1992) |
| Nevermind track listing | ||
| "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (1) |
"In Bloom" (2) |
|
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, and the opening track and lead single from the band's 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind. Written by Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and Dave Grohl and produced by Butch Vig, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is commonly regarded as the song that brought alternative rock and grunge music to prominence worldwide, and served as an anthem for Generation X.[1]
"Teen Spirit" was Nirvana's first and biggest hit, placing high on music industry charts all around the world in 1991 and 1992. The song reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it topped the magazine's Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was voted best single of the year in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll. The video for the song received heavy airplay and won the band "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Group" awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.[2] Over the years, listeners and critics have praised "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as one of the greatest rock songs ever.
Contents |
[edit] Origins and recording
In a January 1994 Rolling Stone interview, Cobain revealed that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was an attempt to write a song in the style of the Pixies; a band he greatly admired. He later admitted:[3]
| “ | I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies. I have to admit it. When I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band — or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet and then loud and hard. | ” |
Cobain did not begin to write "Smells Like Teen Spirit" until a few weeks before recording was due to start on their second album, Nevermind.[4] When he first presented the song to his bandmates, it comprised just the main riff and the chorus vocal melody,[5][6] which bassist Krist Novoselic dismissed at the time as "ridiculous". In response, Cobain made the band play the riff for "an hour and a half".[3] In 2001, Novoselic recalled that after playing the riff repeatedly, he tought "'Wait a minute. Why don't we just kind of slow this down a bit?' So I started playing the verse part. And Dave [started] playing a drum beat".[7] As a result all three band members are credited as songwriters.
Cobain arrived at the song's title when his friend Kathleen Hanna, at the time the lead singer of the riot grrrl punk band Bikini Kill, spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his wall. Since they had been discussing anarchism, punk rock and similar topics, Cobain interpreted the slogan in that spirit. The intended meaning, however, reflected Hanna's belief that Kurt smelled like the deodorant "Teen Spirit", which Kurt's then-girlfriend Tobi Vail wore. Cobain later claimed that he was unaware that it was a brand of deodorant until months after the single was released.[8]
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was, along with "Come as You Are", one of a few new songs to be recorded during the Nevermind sessions.[9] Nirvana recorded "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at Sound City recording studio in Van Nuys, California with producer Butch Vig in May of 1991.[10] Prior to recording, the band had given Vig a rough cassette demo recording of "Teen Spirit". Vig suggested some minor arrangement changes to the song, including moving a guitar ad lib into the chorus, and trimming down the chorus length.[11] The band recorded the basic track for the song in three takes, and decided to keep the second one.[6]
[edit] Composition
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is written in the key of F minor, with the main riff constructed from four power chords, (F-Bb-Ab-Db, or i-iv-iii-vi), played in a syncopated 16th note strum. The guitar chords were double-tracked because the band "wanted to make it sound more powerful," according to Vig.[12] The chords occasionally lapse into suspended chord voicings as a result of Cobain playing the bottom four strings of the guitar for the thickness of sound.[13] Due to being neither major nor minor, the occasional use of suspended chords also allows the chord progression used in the riff to be thought of as a I-IV-bIII-bVI major chord progression. The chord progression has been described as "an ambiguous, harmonically dislocated sequence," and "it is the asymmetrical nature of Cobain's riff [. . .] that makes it so great."[14] The US rock critic Dave Marsh has noted that the main riff of the song resembles the riff from the 1963 cover version of Richard Berry's song "Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen.[15] Comparisons have also been made by listeners to Boston's 1976 hit "More Than a Feeling".[5] Cobain himself held similar opinions, saying that it "was such a cliched riff. It was so close to a Boston riff or 'Louie Louie.'"[3]
While melodically and harmonically simple, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is structured around an alternating loud/quiet dynamic that shifts from minimalistic, moody verses to loud chorus sections. The song begins with Cobain strumming the main riff solo, adding distortion when the rest of the band joins in. During the verse Cobain plays a sparse two-note guitar line over Novoselic's eighth-note bassline pulse, which outlines the chord progression. The band builds up to the chorus as Cobain begins to play the same two notes on every beat of the measure and repeats the phrase "Hello, hello, hello, how low?" The band then launches into an explosive chorus where Cobain resumes the main guitar riff and screams the lyrics. After the second chorus, Cobain plays a guitar solo that resembles his vocal melody from the verse. The band extends the third and final verse and chorus as Cobain sings the refrain "A denial" repeatedly. At this point Cobain's vocals become stained and his voice is almost shot from the force of yelling.[12] The song ends with the feedback of the guitar.
[edit] Release, success, and acclaim
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was released on September 10, 1991, as the lead single from Nevermind. The song was not expected to be a hit, and was intended instead to be the base-building alternative rock cut. The follow up "Come as You Are" was instead expected to be the song that would cross over to mainstream formats. However, campus radio and modern rock radio stations picked up on the track, and placed it in heavy rotation. Danny Goldberg of Nirvana's management firm Gold Mountain observed that "none of us heard it as a crossover song, but the public heard it and it was instantaneous [. . .] They heard it on alternative radio, and then they rushed out like lemmings to buy it."[16] The video received a world premiere on MTV's late-night alternative rock program 120 Minutes, and proved so popular the channel began to air it during its regular daytime rotation.[17] As a result, Nevermind began selling thousands of copies a week, culminating in the album knocking Michael Jackson's Dangerous album from the top spot on the Billboard charts in January of 1992.
Music critics were near unanimous in their praise of "Teen Spirit". The song topped the 1991 Village Voice "Pazz & Jop" and Melody Maker year-end polls, while it reached number two on Rolling Stone's list of best singles of the year. The single reached #6 on the Billboard singles chart, the same week Nevermind reached #1.[18] "Teen Spirit" also hit number one on the Modern Rock Tacks chart, and has since been certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[19] However, many American Top 40 stations at the time were reluctant to play the song in regular rotation due to its sound and restricted it to night-time play.[20] The single was also successful in other countries around the world. In the United Kingdom, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" reached #7, but charted for 184 weeks.[21] The song was nominated for two Grammy awards: Best Hard Rock Vocal Performance and Best Rock Song, losing to "Give it Away" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and "Layla" by Eric Clapton, respectively. The loss to Clapton would later be named one of the 10 biggest upsets in Grammy history by Entertainment Weekly.[22]
In the wake of Nirvana's success, Michael Azerrad wrote in a 1992 Rolling Stone article that "'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is an anthem for (or is it against?) the 'Why Ask Why?' generation. Just don't call Cobain a spokesman for a generation."[23] Nevertheless, the music media eventually awarded the song "anthem-of-a-generation" status and with it Cobain became a reluctant spokesman for Generation X.[24] The New York Times noted, "'Smells Like Teen Spirit’ could be this generation’s version of the Sex Pistols’ 1976 single, ‘Anarchy in the U.K.’, if it weren’t for the bitter irony that pervades its title," and added, "As Nirvana knows only too well, teen spirit is routinely bottled, shrink-wrapped and sold."[25] The band grew uncomfortable with the success of the song and in later shows often pointedly excluded it from show setlists.[26] Cobain said in 1994, "I still like playing 'Teen Spirit,' but it’s almost an embarrassment to play it [. . .] Everyone has focused on that song so much."[3]
Since its release, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has continued to garner critical acclaim. The Recording Industry Association of America's 2001 "Songs of the Century" project placed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at number 80, above Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band albums.[27] In 2002 NME magazine ranked the song number two on its list of "100 Greatest Singles of All Time."[28] In 2003, VH1 placed "Smells Like Teen Spirit" at number one on its list of "100 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years."[29] The song also ranked third in a Q poll that year.[30] Rolling Stone ranked "Smells Like Teen Spirit" ninth in its list The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time in 2004, describing the song's impact as "A shock wave of big-amp purity, [it] wiped the lingering jive of the Eighties off the pop map overnight."[31] In the 2006 VH1 UK poll The Nation's Favourite Lyric, the line "I feel stupid and contagious/here we are now, entertain us" from song's chorus was ranked as the third-favorite song lyric among the over 13,000 voters from the United Kingdom.[32] In contrast, Time magazine proposed in its listing of Nevermind on a list of "The All-TIME 100 Albums" in 2006 that "'Smells Like Teen Spirit' [. . .] may be the album's worst song."[33]
[edit] Lyrics
The lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as Cobain sang them were often difficult for listeners to decipher, due to their nonsensicality, and because of Cobain's slurred, guttural singing voice. This problem was compounded by the fact that the Nevermind album liner notes did not include lyrics for the song, simply random lyrical fragments. As a result, MTV prepared a version of the video that included the lyrics running across the bottom of the screen, which they aired when the video was added to their heavy rotation schedule.[34] The lyrics for the album —and some from earlier or alternate versions of the songs— were only released with the liner notes of the "Lithium" single.
"Teen Spirit" is widely interpreted to be a teen revolution anthem; an interpretation reinforced by the song's music video.[35] When discussing the song in Michael Azerrad's biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Cobain revealed that he felt a duty "to describe what I felt about my surroundings and my generation and people my age."[36] The book Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song describes "Teen Spirit" as "a typically murky Cobain exploration of meaning and meaninglessness."[37] Azerrad plays upon the juxtaposition of Cobain's contradictory lyrics (such as "It's fun to lose and to pretend") and states "the point that emerges isn't just the conflict of two opposing ideas, but the confusion and anger that the conflict produces in the narrator--he's angry that he's confused." Azerrad's conclusion is that the song is "alternately a sarcastic reaction to the idea of actually having a revolution, yet it also embraces the idea."[38]
In Heavier Than Heaven, Charles Cross' biography of Kurt Cobain, the author makes the argument that the song is a reference to Cobain's break-up with Tobi Vail.[39] This argument is backed up by lyrics which were present in earlier drafts, which can be seen in Cobain's Journals, such as "Why don't you cry when I'm away / Oh yeah we want what's best for you" and "Who will be the King & Queen of the outcasted [sic] teens" He also referred to the preppy teens at his high school, who "always sat on the heater complaining about the heat." He said, "They just pissed me off and I wanted to let them know."[40]
Cobain has said, "The entire song is made up of contradictory ideas [. . .] It's just making fun of the thought of having a revolution. But it's a nice thought."[41] Drummer Dave Grohl has stated he does not believe the song has any message, and said "Just seeing Kurt write the lyrics to a song five minutes before he first sings them, you just kind of find it a little bit hard to believe that the song has a lot to say about something. You need syllables to fill up this space or you need something that rhymes."[42]
[edit] Music video
The music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was the first for director Samuel Bayer, who would go on to direct videos for Green Day, Metallica, and The Smashing Pumpkins. Bayer believes he was hired because his test reel was so poor the band anticipated the resulting video would be "punk", and "not corporate."[12] The video was based on the concept of a school concert which ends in anarchy and riot. Inspiration was taken from Jonathan Kaplan's 1979 movie Over the Edge, as well as the Ramones film Rock 'n' Roll High School.[12] Filmed on a soundstage in Culver City, the video featured the band playing at a pep rally in a high school gym to an audience of apathetic students on bleachers, and cheerleaders wearing black dresses with the Circle-A anarchist symbol. The video ends with the assembled students destroying the set and the band's gear. The demolition of the set captured in video's conclusion was the result of genuine discontent. The extras that filled the bleachers had been forced to stay seated for an entire afternoon of filming, and had sat through numerous replays of the song. Cobain convinced Bayer to allow the extras to mosh, and the set became a scene of chaos. "Once the kids came out dancing they just said 'fuck you,' because they were so tired of this shit throughout the day," Cobain said.[43] Cobain disliked Bayer's final edit and personally oversaw a re-edit of the video to the version that finally saw rotation.[21] One of his major additions was the next-to-last shot of the video, which was a close-up of his own face after it had been obscured for most of the video.[44] Bayer noted that unlike subsequent artists he worked with, Cobain did not care about vanity, rather that "the video had something that was truly about what they were about."[12]
Like the song itself, the music video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was well received by critics. Rolling Stone writer David Fricke described the video as looking like "the greatest gig you could ever imagine."[12] In addition to a number one placing on the singles charts, "Teen Spirit" topped the music video category in the Village Voice's 1991 "Pazz & Jop" poll.[45] The video won Nirvana the "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Group" awards at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2000 the Guinness Book of World Records named "Teen Spirit" the Most Played Video on MTV Europe.[46] In subsequent years Amy Finnerty, formerly of MTV's Programming department, claimed the video "changed the entire look of MTV" by giving them "an entire new generation to sell to."[12] VH1 placed the debut of the "Teen Spirit" video at number eighteen on its list of "100 Greatest Rock & Roll Moments on TV," noting that "the video [ushered] in alternative rock as a commercial and pop culture force."[47] The video has been parodied at least twice: in "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video for "Smells Like Nirvana" and in Bob Sinclar and Bob Sinclar's 2006 music video for "Rock This Party (Everybody Dance Now)".
[edit] Live performances
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (live) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, from the live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah(1996)
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" was first performed live on April 17, 1991 at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington.[48] The performance is featured on the DVD of the 2004 boxset With the Lights Out, while shorter clips are included on the Nevermind Classic Albums DVD, as well as the documentary film Hype!. As the song's lyrics had not yet been entirely written, there are notable differences between it and the final version. For example, the first performance started with "Come out and play, make up the rules" instead of the eventual opening of "Load up on guns, bring your friends". A recorded version of the earlier version appears on With the Lights Out and again on Sliver: The Best of the Box. A similar early live performance of the song (among others) is found in the documentary 1991: The Year Punk Broke, filmed during a 1991 summer tour in Europe with Sonic Youth.
Nirvana often altered the song's lyrics and tempo for live performances. Most live performances of the song had the line "our little group has always been" changed to "our little tribe has always been", which can be heard on the 1996 live album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah. Rolling Stone remarked that the Wishkah version of "Teen Spirit" "[found] Cobain's guitar reeling outside the song's melodic boundaries and sparking new life in that nearly played-out hit."[49] A memorable alternate performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" occurred on BBC's Top of the Pops in 1991, during which Cobain sang in a deliberately low, mournful tone, and altered numerous lyrics in the song (for example, "Load up on guns, bring your friends" became "Load up on drugs, kill your friends"). He would later claim he was trying to sound like former Smiths frontman Morrissey.[50] The Observer claimed Nirvana's performance was responsible for the "Teen Spirit" single entering the UK top ten the following week;[51] when Top of the Pops was cancelled in 2006, The Observer listed Nirvana's performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as the third greatest in the show's history.[52] This performance can be found on the 1994 home video Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!, and on the bootleg Outcesticide IV: Rape of the Vaults.
[edit] Cover versions
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Tori Amos cover) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Sample of Smells Like Teen Spirit" as covered by Tori Amos on the Crucify EP.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Paul Anka cover) (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- Sample of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as covered by Paul Anka on his album, Rock Swings.
- Problems listening to the file? See media help.
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" has been covered by numerous artists, including Tori Amos on her Crucify EP —which Cobain referred to as "a great breakfast cereal version".[53] The jazz trio The Bad Plus recorded the track for their CD These are the Vistas,[54] while The Melvins, as well as the industrial act Xorcist have since released tributes. The Moog Cookbook put out a synthesizer-based cover version on The Moog Cookbook; the Japanese Beatboxer Dokaka have recorded a beatboxed cover version. Bands covering the song on tribute albums include Blanks 77 with Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute to Nirvana, and Beki Bondage with Smells Like Nirvana; both released in 2000. In 2005, "Teen Spirit" was covered as a swing song by 1950s star Paul Anka. In 2006, the band Flyleaf covered the song for Yahoo's LAUNCHcast service.
The song has been adapted into other forms over the years. Germany's Atari Teenage Riot sampled "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in their song "Atari Teenage Riot," from their 1997 album Burn, Berlin, Burn!. An instrumental cover version was produced by World Championship Wrestling as the entrance music for wrestler Diamond Dallas Page, with clips of DDP's voice dubbed in from time to time. The snippet of the song was also performed in a cabaret style in the 2001 movie Moulin Rouge!.
In addition to cover versions, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has also inspired a few parodies. "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song in 1992 with "Smells Like Nirvana", a song about Nirvana itself. Weird Al's parody was about how it was difficult to understand Cobain's lyrics and their meaning. The music video for the song even went as far as using the same set, costumes, and members of the cast from the original "Spirit" video. Yankovic has said Kurt Cobain told him he realized that Nirvana had "made it" when he heard the parody.[55] In 1995, the queercore band Pansy Division recorded a parody of the song called "Smells Like Queer Spirit" for their Pile Up album.
[edit] Formats and track listing
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The version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the release is the single edit that was featured in the music video, which removes approximately thirty seconds from the album version. In particular, two repetitions of the main riff have been removed from the beginning of the song, as has the repeat of the first section of the guitar solo. Additionally, the UK CD single falsely lists the length of "Even in His Youth" as 4:20. The US CD single correctly lists the song length as 3:03.
[edit] Chart positions
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Official New Zealand Singles Chart | No. 1 |
| 1991 | Official Belgium Singles Chart | No. 1 |
| 1991 | Official Irish Singles Chart | No. 1 |
| 1991 | Official Spanish Singles Chart | No. 1 |
| 1992 | Official French Singles Chart | No. 1 |
| 1992 | Official Norway Singles Chart | No. 2 |
| 1992 | Official German Singles Chart | No. 2 |
| 1991 | Official Sweden Singles Chart | No. 3 |
| 1991 | Official Holland Singles Chart | No. 3 |
| 1992 | Official Italian Singles Chart | No. 3 |
| 1992 | Official Australian Singles Chart | No. 5 |
| 1992 | The Billboard Hot 100 (US) | No. 6 |
| 1992 | Official Switzerland Singles Chart | No. 6 |
| 1991 | Official UK Singles Chart | No. 7 |
| 1992 | Official Austrian Singles Chart | No. 8 |
| 1992 | Official Finland Singles Chart | No. 9 |
| 1992 | Hot 100 Brasil | No. 9 |
| 1991 | Modern Rock Tracks (US) | No. 1 |
| 1992 | Mainstream Rock Tracks (US) | No. 7 |
| 1992 | Hot Dance Music/Club Play (US) | No. 14 |
| 1992 | Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales (US) | No. 27 |
| 1992 | Hot 100 Airplay (US) | No. 41 |
| 1992 | French Airplay Chart | No. 1 |
| 1991 | Triple J Hottest 100 | No. 1 |
| 1992 | Poland Airplay Chart | No. 2 |
| 1992 | Slovakian Airplay Charts | No. 9 |
| 1992 | Canadian National Airplay Chart | No. 17 |
| 1994 | Latvian Airplay Charts | No. 18 |
[edit] References
- Classic Albums--Nirvana: Nevermind. Isis Productions, 2004.
- Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1993. ISBN 0-385-47199-8
- Crisafulli, Chuck. Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song. Carlton, 1996. ISBN 0-684-83356-5
[edit] Notes
- ^ Sold On Song Top 100. "Smells Like Teen Spirit". BBC.co.uk. Retrieved on October 29, 2006.
- ^ "Past Winners Database". Los Angeles Times (2006). Retrieved on October 29, 2006.
- ^ a b c d Fricke, David. "Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview." Rolling Stone. January 27, 1994
- ^ Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday, 1993. ISBN 0-385-47199-8, pg. 175
- ^ a b Azerrad, pg. 176
- ^ a b "Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit." Rolling Stone. December 7, 2000.
- ^ Cross, Charles. "Requiem for a Dream". Guitar World. October 2001.
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 211-12
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 167
- ^ Cross, Charles. "The Stories Behind the Songs". Rolling Stone. November 14, 2002
- ^ di Perna, Alan. "The Making of Nevermind". Guitar World. Fall 1996.
- ^ a b c d e f g Classic Albums--Nirvana: Nevermind. Isis Productions, 2004.
- ^ Chappell, Jon. "Nirvana's Music". Guitar magazine. June 1993.
- ^ Rooksby, Rikky. How to Write Songs on Guitar. Backbeat: San Francisco, 2000. ISBN 0-87930-611-4, pg. 55.
- ^ Marsh, Dave. Louie Louie, University of Michigan Press, 2004 ISBN 0-472-03023-X
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 227
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 199
- ^ "Nirvana Achieves Chart Perfection!" Billboard. January 25, 1992.
- ^ Basham, David (2001). Got Charts? No Doubt's Christmas Gift; Nirvana Ain't No Beatles (http). MTV.com. Retrieved on October 19, 2006.
- ^ Ross, Sean. "Nirvana Receiving Less-Than-Spirited Airplay." Billboard. February 1, 1992.
- ^ a b Nirvana and The Story of Grunge. Q. pg. 54. December 2005.
- ^ "Grammy's 10 Biggest Upsets" (http). EW.com (2007). Retrieved on February 13, 2007.
- ^ Azerrad, Michael. "Inside the Heart and Mind of Nirvana". Rolling Stone. April 16, 1992.
- ^ Garofalo, Reebee. Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA. Allyn & Bacon, 1997. ISBN 0-205-13703-2, pg. 447
- ^ Reynolds, Simon. "Boredom + Claustrophobia + Sex = Punk Nirvana". New York Times. November 24, 1991. Retrieved on April 8, 2007.
- ^ Crisafulli, Chuck. Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song. Carlton, 1996. ISBN 0-684-83356-5, pg. 38
- ^ Allen, Jamie (2001). New song list puts 'Rainbow' way up high (http). CNN.com. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ NME's 100 Greatest Singles of All Time Unveiled (http). NME.com (2002). Retrieved on October 22, 2006.
- ^ "VH1's 100 Greatest Songs" (http). CBSNews.com (2003). Retrieved on October 19, 2006.
- ^ U2's One named 'greatest record' (http). BBC.co.uk (2003). Retrieved on October 22, 2006.
- ^ "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (http). RollingStone.com (2004). Retrieved on October 19, 2006.
- ^ "U2 cop nation's favourite lyric" (http). ITV.com (2006). Retrieved on October 22, 2006.
- ^ Tyrangiel, Josh (2006). "Nevermind by Nirvana" (http). Time.com. Retrieved on April 6, 2007.
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 199
- ^ Chrisafulli, pg. 38
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 211
- ^ Chrisafulli, pg. 37
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 213
- ^ Cross, Charles. Heavier Than Heaven. Hyperion, 2001. ISBN 0-7868-6505-9, pg. 169
- ^ Cobain, Kurt. Journals. Riverhead Books, 2002. ISBN 1-57322-232-1
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 213
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 214
- ^ Azerrad, pg.190-91
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 191
- ^ Christgau, Robert (1992). The 1991 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll (http). RobertChristgau.com. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ ABC News: Achieving Nirvana: Grunge Band's 'Teen Sprit' is Top Song of Past Two Decades (http). ABCNews.Go.com (2006). Retrieved on December 1, 2006.
- ^ 100 greatest rock & roll moments on tv (20-1) (http). VH1.com. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ (2004). With the Lights Out (pp. 23) [CD liner notes]. Santa Monica: Geffen Records.
- ^ Ali, Lorraine (1996). From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah (review) (http). RollingStone.com. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Cross, pg. 208
- ^ Reynolds, Simon. "Nirvana: Smells Like A Sensation". The Observer. December 8, 1991.
- ^ "Top of the Pops" shows (http). Observer.Guardian.co.uk (2006). Retrieved on October 18, 2006.
- ^ Azerrad, pg. 257
- ^ Norris, Michele (2003). The Bad Plus (http). NPR.org. Retrieved on April 7, 2007.
- ^ Weird Al Yankovic Dishes On James Blunt, Discusses His Role As the Whitest, Nerdiest Rock Star Ever (http). RollingStone.com (2006). Retrieved on October 21, 2006.
[edit] External links
- Smells Like Teen Spirit discography information at sliver.it
- Salon article on cultural impact of Smells Like Teen Spirit
- Smells Like Teen Spirit at MusicBrainz
