Nirvana - Smell Like Teen Spirit

Music Video

Smell Like Teen Spirit Lyric

Load up on guns and bring your friends
It's fun to lose and to pretend
She's over bored and self assured
And all I know are dirty words

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 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 Yay!

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, 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!

Song Notes :

Kurt Cobain: "I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off The Pixies."

"Cobain wrote this for Nirvana. It came together in a jam session when he played it for the band"

"Kathleen Hanna, the lead singer of the group Bikini Kill, gave Cobain the idea for the title when she spray painted "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit" on his bedroom wall after a night of drinking and spraying graffiti around the Seattle area. In his pre-Courtney Love days, Cobain went out with Bikini Kill lead singer Tobi Vail, but she dumped him. Vail wore Teen Spirit deodorant, and Hanna was implying that Cobain was marked with her scent"

"Cobain didn't know it when he wrote the song, but Teen Spirit is a brand of deodorant marketed to young girls. Kurt thought Hanna was complimenting him on his rebellious spirit. Sales of Teen Spirit deodorant shot up when this became a hit, even though it is never mentioned in the lyrics"

"This was the first "Alternative" song to become a huge hit. Since "alternative" implies lack of popularity, people started referring to the genre as "Modern Rock." It helped ignite the "grunge" craze, characterized by loud guitars, angst-ridden lyrics, and flannel"

"The group hated the video, but everyone else loved it. The concept was "Pep Rally from Hell." The cheerleaders were strippers"

"Two days before shooting the video, the band played a show at The Roxy Theater in Los Angeles where they invited everyone to come by the shoot and be in the video. The shoot, which took place at Culver City Studios in California, took 8 hours, so they had no problem getting the kids to come out of the bleachers and form a mosh pit at the end of the day"

"The video was inspired by the movie and song Rock And Roll High School by the Ramones. At the end of the video, when the band and the teenagers smash the set, it is real. The band and the teenagers had began getting mad after being on set for over 8 hours, and one of the teenagers asked if everyone could destroy the set. The producer said yes, so they destroyed it"

"The girls who played the cheerleaders in the video were originally supposed to be very fat and unattractive (Cobain's idea). The Director did not like this idea, but still allowed the cheerleaders to have "sleeve" tattoos and the symbol for anarchy on their shirts"

"Weird Al Yankovic did a parody of this called "Smells Like Nirvana." He shot his video in the same gym with the same janitor, but in his video, the janitor was wearing a tutu. Cobain said he was "flattered" by the parody: "I loved, it, it was really amusing"