Nirvana “Nevermind” 1991. Today, February 20th, would have been Kurt Cobain’s 50th birthday (b. 1967, d. 1994). Nevermind is probably the most iconic record of the 90′s, selling 30 million copies and counting, and I still find it a bit difficult to listen to, 26 years later, not because I don’t like it but because I played it to death my junior and senior years of college at Madison (unbeknownst to me at the time Nirvana was there, too, recording part of the record at Smart Studios with producer Butch Vig). Grunge was an easy embrace: though I had just been in a hippie phase (complete with multiple Grateful Dead shows), punk was my recent past and the heavy fury of grunge clicked. My Madison social circle’s look evolved quickly from one of ripped jeans, Birkenstocks and long hair to one of ripped jeans, Doc Martens and long hair (really, all we did was change our shoes).

Nevermind hit #1 on the album charts in the US and the top 10 in many other countries, with four charting singles: “On a Plain” (#25), “Lithium” (#64), “Come as You Are” (#32) and the monster “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (#6). Probably my favorite song on Nevermind is the non-single acoustic “Polly” (originally written in 1989 and titled first “Hitchhiker” and then “Cracker’), which is a truly disturbing track inspired by a 1987 rape and abduction of a 14 year old girl. It’s one of the few tracks on the record that I can parse all the lyrics, despite a million or so listenings to the album, due to Cobain’s famous mumbling delivery (perfectly lampooned by Weird Al’s “Smells Like Nirvana”). My brain doesn’t retain lyrics like it used to so I’m still following along, this 1,000,001 time hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Load up on guns
Bring your friends
It’s fun to lose and to pretend
She’s overboard, self assured
Oh no I know, a dirty word

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, yay

I’m worse at what I do best
And for this gift, I feel blessed
Our little group has always been
And always will until the end

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

And I forget just why I taste
Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile
I found it hard, it was hard to find
Oh well, whatever, nevermind

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