Video will appear as you scroll through the story
Nirvana · S2 E5
About a Girl
The one song on Bleach that sounds nothing like the rest. Acoustic, melodic, a Beatles song played through a Marshall amp. Kurt wrote it after listening to Meet the Beatles on repeat for three hours. It is the first time anyone hears what Nirvana actually sounds like when Kurt stops pretending
1989. Kurt locks himself in the bedroom of a tiny Olympia apartment, puts Meet the Beatles on repeat, and does not come out for three hours. When he emerges, he has written the one Bleach track that sounds nothing like the rest.
"The Man Who Sold the World", Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York (1993). Kurt channeled the Beatles into "About a Girl." Here, he channels David Bowie, stripping a glam-rock classic down to its melodic skeleton. It is the same instinct: find a great melody, play it honestly, and trust that the song is strong enough without hiding behind noise.
The Pop Song on a Punk Album
"About a Girl" is built on two chords, E minor and G, alternating back and forth like a heartbeat. There are no distortion walls, no screaming choruses, no dynamic explosions. It is, unmistakably, a pop song, and on an album full of Melvins worship it sticks out like a confession at a punk show.
“I was listening to Meet the Beatles and I just wanted to write a song like that. Something really simple and catchy.”
— Kurt Cobain, on writing "About a Girl," from Michael Azerrad, "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana," Doubleday, 1993
TAP TO REVEAL: Who is "About a Girl" actually about?
The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie, performed by Nirvana (1993)
Originally a David Bowie song from 1970, Nirvana's Unplugged version reimagines it as something haunted and fragile. Kurt's vocal sits right on the edge of breaking, and the 12-string acoustic guitar gives the arrangement a shimmering quality that Bowie's original never had. Listen for how Kurt changes the phrasing in the chorus. Where Bowie sang the melody as a confident statement, Kurt turns it into a question, his voice rising at the end of each line as if he is not sure of the answer.
About a Girl: The Details
Polly, Nirvana
From Nevermind (1991). Another acoustic song, another melody stripped bare, and proof that "About a Girl" was not a fluke. Kurt wrote "Polly" about a real kidnapping case from Tacoma, telling the story from the abductor's perspective in a voice so calm it makes your skin crawl. The dark twin of "About a Girl": both songs prove Kurt was at his most powerful when he was at his quietest.
Nirvana covered "The Man Who Sold the World" on MTV Unplugged. Many viewers assumed it was a Nirvana original. Who actually wrote it?
Bleach is out, the reviews are solid, and Sub Pop wants Nirvana on the road. A Dodge van with no heat, broken seats, and five people crammed in with their equipment is about to cross America. Next: life in the van.
0 XP earned this session