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Nirvana · S5 E4
The Label Panics
DGC hears the album and worries it is uncommercial. The bass is too heavy. The vocals are buried. There are no obvious singles. Kurt agrees to let Scott Litt remix 'Heart-Shaped Box' and 'All Apologies' but refuses to touch anything else. The compromise satisfies nobody, which is probably the point
DGC Records offices, Los Angeles, spring 1993. The label puts on the In Utero masters for the first time, and within minutes somebody asks if they can get Butch Vig to fix it.
"Pennyroyal Tea," Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York (1993). Stripped of Albini's distortion, this is the song as pure melody: just Kurt, an acoustic guitar, and lyrics about self-medicating with herbal poison. "Pennyroyal Tea" was planned as In Utero's third single. It never came out. This Unplugged performance is as close as it got.
The Phone Call
DGC hears In Utero and panics. The bass is too heavy, the vocals are buried under distortion, and half the tracks sound like they were recorded in a garage. The label has spent two years building Nirvana into the biggest band in the world, and the band has just handed them an album that sounds designed to undo all of that.
Sources
Michael Azerrad, "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana," Doubleday, 1993
Everett True, "Nirvana: The True Story," Omnibus Press, 2006
“The record the band made is the record the band wanted to make. I have no problem with anything on it.”
— Steve Albini, responding to reports of label interference with In Utero, letter to the Chicago Reader, 1993
Pennyroyal Tea, Nirvana (1993)
Pennyroyal tea is a real herbal concoction that has been used for centuries as a folk abortifacient. Kurt uses it as a metaphor for self-medication and self-destruction: "I'm on warm milk and laxatives, cherry-flavored antacids." The song is one of the most melodic things on In Utero, proof that Albini's raw production didn't strip out the hooks. Listen for how the Unplugged version changes the song's character entirely. Without the distortion, the melody comes forward and the lyrics hit harder. The acoustic guitar exposes every note. This is what DGC wanted the whole album to sound like, and what Kurt refused to give them.
Sources
Nirvana, MTV Unplugged in New York, DGC Records, 1994
In Utero, Nirvana, DGC Records, 1993, liner notes
TAP TO REVEAL: How many songs on In Utero were actually remixed?
The Leak
Before the album is even finished, a Newsweek article reports that DGC considers In Utero unreleasable. Albini is furious. He writes a public letter to the Chicago Reader defending the recordings and accusing the press of doing the label's dirty work. Kurt is caught in the middle: he loves the album but knows DGC controls when and how it reaches the world.
Sources
Steve Albini, letter to the Chicago Reader, 1993
Newsweek, "Nirvana's In Utero" reporting, spring 1993
The Label Fight: The Numbers
Endless, Nameless, Nirvana (1991)
The hidden track at the end of Nevermind, born from Kurt smashing his guitar in frustration during the "Lithium" sessions at Sound City. Six minutes of feedback, screaming, and controlled destruction. The connection to the In Utero label fight is direct: this is what happens when Kurt Cobain feels like someone else is controlling his music. The instrument breaks, the noise takes over, and something raw emerges from the wreckage.
Endless, Nameless, Nirvana (1991)
Less a song than a six-minute exorcism. The lyrics, to the extent they exist, are screamed fragments that collapse into feedback. "Endless, Nameless" was never meant to be a proper track. It was the sound of a man breaking his instrument because the take wasn't working, and then realizing the breaking was the take.
Who remixed "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" at DGC's request?
The album is remixed, the tracklist is locked, and then Walmart sees the song titles. Next: "Rape Me," the song that makes America's biggest retailer refuse to sell In Utero.
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