Professional musicians react to NIRVANA (SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT)
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- Опубликовано: 27 сен 2024
- NIRVANA, SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. Need I say more? One of the greatest songs of all time, a gem in rock history and an amazing song to dig into. This week we give Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana the professional musicians' react treatment. What a tune!
I'm Jack Conte the CEO of @Patreon and one-half of the bands @ScaryPockets and @Pomplamoose.
Joining me today are 3 of my best musician friends;
Ryan Lerman, a professional guitarist the other half of @Scarypockets
Lauren O'Connell, a professional singer-songwriter who plays in a band with my wife called @Myterriblefriend
Nick Campbell, a professional bassist who plays in my bands @Scarypockets and @Pomplamoose
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I will be making a lot more videos so if you like this one, so please ding that bell and hit the subscribe button. You can subscribe here:
/ @deadwaxshow
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You can find Nirvana's channel here:
/ @nirvana
Smells like teen spirit:
• Nirvana - Smells Like ...
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We also feature other music in this video which we will link to below.
The Pixies
/ @pixiesofficialtv
The Beatles - A Hard Days Night
• The Beatles - A Hard D...
Led Zeppelin
/ @ledzeppelin
Chuck Berry
• Chuck Berry - Johnny B...
Beck
/ officialbeckmusic
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Please leave us a comment below and tell us what you would like us to react to.
Before we film episodes we ask the Scary Pockets Discord and Patreon members for questions on certain episodes, you can find the communities here;
Discord:
www.scarypocke...
Patreon:
/ scarypockets
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One of the greatest songs of all time.
Guys, DO SOMETHING OF ALICE IN CHAINS or BAD BRAINS!!! Please, i will make my hole family watch the video and give it a like!!! Love your work, keep it going
hey guys I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on the psychedelic sounds in currents by tame impala, mainly on my favorite song of the whole album: let it happen!
Yup! 🥰 thank you so much for this content!
If you like word play, Pete Steele from Type O Negative deserves a listen
Did you see the Dave Grohl Interview with Pharrell Williams were he basically gives away the inspiration for his drum playing. The Gap Band. Disco Drum Beats.
Imagine us, French kids in 1991 trying to decipher the words of this song... Just trying to get the lyrics was hard, we exchanged photocopies of lyrics in the school yards, and took afternoons to figure out what he meant, but we found it COOL, and this song was like a tsunami when it came out, we were jumping all over the place with the sound volume at maximum....
Jumping all over the place was MANDATORY!!! YEAH!
True , I remember being so confused while trying to understand those lyrics as a teen
Yep, jumping in Germany too :)
Thank you for sharing
As an English speaker we were also confused.
Even an old black woman loves this one. That bass takes me into the atmosphere.
Wait till you find out where Dave plagerised the drums from.
Old ? Are you 90 ?
@@NipponNostalgicTV he didn’t plagiarize anything lol it’s not a copy and he’s the one to expose the influence.
He did mention inspirations from Gap Band, Cameo and Chic's Tony Thompson. All the Nirvana players were outspoken on the contributions and influence of the Black community on rock music.
@@alexcrowley2635influence probably isn’t the right word. CREATION of rock music in general would be the correct phrasing . But you are right, nirvana and a few others were very vocal about this fact .
"You should not underestimate the audience's ability to feel what you're feeling." So true ma'am!
Billie, Olivia ... NIRVANA - there's nothing this group can't review and speak intelligently/elegantly about! Love this channel, thank for doing this Jack.
Thanks Zach! I think it's really fun to jump around genres and mix up old and new songs. Musicians put so much thought and effort into their art so there's always something to explore.
@@DeadWaxShow In that case, I dare you to review Biber's Rosary Sonatas. That's Biber, not Bieber, mind you! :P
"The melody over the chords is fuck1ng sick as sh1t" - Intelligent and elegant?
@@DeadWaxShow Do some Weather Report! Jimmy Webb! Massive Attack! My Bloody Valentine!
@@DeadWaxShow my two favorite songs ever are “Pictures of You” and “Letters to Elise” by the Cure. It’s would be great to see you guys break one of those down.
My time as a guitar teacher really made me tired of this song for a while (try hearing it played by 100 different 10 year olds for two years straight...) but hearing it again with this commentary re-ignited my appreciation for it. It really is all about the feeling and they nailed it
Another amazing thing about this entire album is how it has changed the spelling of a word. Before the late '60s, "all right" was two words and only two words. Then, Dylan and The Who changed the word to "Alright" in song titles and that's now become the way the word is spelled.
Similarly, Nirvana's "Nevermind" is what most people think of as "never mind." "Nevermind" means "concern" (ex: pay that no nevermind) where "never mind" means "scratch that," "forget it," etc.
When we're using websites or certain applications, we will have the option of hitting a button for OK or CANCEL and many websites have thought of clever new words to use to make the experience feel more personal like "Hell Yeah" or "Nahh." I was, very recently, on a FedEx website where I had the option to CONTINUE or NEVERMIND. The second option should have been NEVER MIND but, because of Nirvana (and English's nimbleness) the wrong word has become the right one.
you're talking exclusively about American English which is not real English and not even remotely representative of English more broadly.
I have literally zero musical background or talent but watching people have a conversation about their passion is awesome to watch.
Love watching these reaction videos
I love how this feels like we are eavesdropping on you guys catching up in a bar - it's a very natural flow of conversation.
Also, thank you for the info-clips - some of us need the explanations!
Also: You need a drummer on the panel…
Two sentences about Grohl’s drumming here is a travesty.
A little off topic and you may have seen it but there was an interview with Dave Grohl and Pharrell Williams where Pharrell tells Dave he’s a great drummer. Dave replies.. “dude don’t say that, all I did was rip off the Gap Band.” I had the same reaction as Pharrell, so damn good.
have you seen the rick beato nirvana breakdown vid
First time I heard it, it was when the drums kick in I felt like there was a giant motor is powering on, or a sound of avalanche that's coming over my head.
It was both.
7:46 gidduh guh
I was born in 1950. Nirvana was unable to get my attention in the '90s ....and still doesn't. But I watched and enjoyed every second of this show.
I was surprised you did not talk about the production. The “bouncing” sound of the drum is so unreal and tremendously effective.
I love this project! please keep these videos coming! You guys seem to really have fun, i'ts like i can get to feel a little of what you guys are feeling! And the way you take your time to explain some of the words you're using is very thoughtful! Thanks for the video!
I'm so glad you like it. We have so much fun making each episode.
When I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time back in the day it just felt so right. I don't know why, but it did. Like the world had been waiting for that song. The 80s were just over, new stuff, fresh stuff was breaking onto the scene from everywhere. I was abandoning the hits of my teen years, which were much more in the Pop genre. And then Nirvana came along and crushed it all. I bought the Nevermind album and listened to it a lot. But that also concluded my journey not only into Nirvana, but also into the whole Grunge style. Somehow, I never connected to any of the other bands from that genre. Instead I got into Heavy Metal. In the 90s. Weird.
It's such an amazing song!
@@DeadWaxShow It is! :)
Give Soundgarden a chance.
@@canyonaro I did already. It's good, it ticks a lot of the right boxes, but somehow it doesn't fully click with me.
I LOVE your way of talking. And the little explanation-snippets are a great idea!
And holy shit, your chemistry is flawless, just friends I guess, love that!
Love how you guys talk about scales and music theory for what Cobain just did naturally.
It's not necessarily natural...he would have absorbed music theory through listening to other bands and learning their songs. Just because he didn't know the terminology, doesn't mean he didn't know theory.
@@TheStarBlack exactly.
You guys put into words so many feelings I had around songwriting and lyric writing that I hadn't been able to verbalise. 3 episodes in and I love this series.
I think Lauren nailed it at 10:12 . Nirvana's lyrics to me always felt like another instrument in the band. Not just his voice sound, but the actual shapes of the words fit into the song in a way that goes beyond literal meaning.
Me, a disgruntled 19 year old cooking at Applebees, & this song comes on the radio & just blows me away. I was like wtf is this. I know it was 91, but it felt like the kickoff to the 90's. Much needed with the staleness that was permeating the airwaves at that time.
This has the potential to be one of my favorite channels in all of youtube.
Good insight, production and chemistry between the great personalities.
Keep it up, guys!
and thank you
it was 1991. i went to the record store to buy the new Nevermind album. i asked the middle aged seller to pop the cassette into his stereo system to 'test' the sound. he put it on full volume. and was immediately blown away by the opening riff and epic drumming. he was like, wtf did i just listened to? haha
Are the lyrics sad though? Kurt had a great ironic sense of humor. I think this discussion missed the humor around lines like "I found it hard, was hard to find/Oh well, whatever, never mind." It's like he starts a thought, decides to rephrase it and then gives up. He's making fun of the very idea of meaning.
Great point!
Spot on. There’s a lot of humour in his lyrics.
Even the tittle is known to be a Koke out of an ad.
Very much on point. They miss things similar to that, often.
@@andresbarriga5305no it’s not? it’s a reference to when Kathleen Hanna spray painted “Kurt smells like teen spirit” referring to how he was with her bandmate, Toni Vail, at the time, and she used Teen Spirit deodorant, he didn’t even realize it was a deodorant until after the song released, so he claims.
The 'God he's good " i feel that hard every time I listen to anything Kurt did! He was magical!
I love the quick explanations of music concepts, it helps us learn/reinforce our own musical vocabulary. Keep up the great work!
Kurt, himself, in an interveiw said he wrote lyrics just moment before recording or even playing shows.
First one of these series I have seen. Really liked it. Great job.
Well not really a lot of his songs he wrote years before they were on any albums
they said alot of things in interviews just to fill time or make the interviewer go away.
man i am LOVING this series!!!
Great stuff, I'm so glad you like it!
Hungry for stories? Mine is really embarrassing but oh well. Had moved back to Olympia in 90 from NYc, corporate legal editing on Wall St. Moved into the woods in a little dome. A friend came by one night and forced me to go to a party she said 'was important'. I think it was out on Delphi Road, it was dark, country roads with high trees. I was really sensitive at the time, sort of introverted. When we got there, the music was deafening in this house, never even made it from the kitchen to the living room where they were playing. All I could think was, the poor birds trying to sleep! I slipped outside and went down the long drive to the swinging gate, cars were parked along the side of the narrow road all over, but no one was outside. I leaned up against the fence and just took in the air, the stars, the beauty of the night. At some point the music mercifully stopped. Not long after this guy came bounding out of the house alone, he was all ecstatic. He sat on the swinging gate, lit up a smoke, and talked about how great it was to play, he was just so excited. I will be forever grateful for that moment, and that I just smiled, happy for him. I wish I could recall more of the conversation, it was just natural banter on a perfect night. ~ Yes, it was Kurt Cobain right after signing with a label, just playing a big party with the rest of the band (who I never saw, as I never made it to that vibrating room past the kitchen). And here they are, this monumental pivot in history. This song, my God.
DJ Quik and Toni, Tony, Tone did an interpolated production of THIS song on "Let's Get Down". Thereby proving that Kurt and his composition transcended.
I’m so obsessed with your music and I can’t believe I could only find this channel after 3 uploads
Thanks so much! Many more to come Jedidiah!
Refusing to resolve the melody is what makes it. That and Dave's drum beat. Thanks for the react!
This song and album changed my life….4 yrs after he died, I discovered Nirvana.
I watched this vid several times now and so much about this stands out to me. The song is so powerful. The team's reactions and understanding highlight all of the small moments in the song that echo with us today. And, as a Gen X'er, it feels so good (and right) to see a group of Gen X'ers sit around, turn on Teen Spirit 30 years later, and still be affected by that song.
Dave Grohl, take us to the chorus.
Imagine being a kid in Sri Lanka in the 90s. We'd grown up on 80s pop ballads and those early technopop songs played on radio and TV, all state-owned. And when the first private radio stations started playing, the play lists didn't change. And then suddenly, when you least expect it, someone played Smells Like Teen Spirit. The song caught my entire generation unawares, because most of us really had no reference point for guitar-driven, angry-ish vocals except maybe the occasional GnR.
In what seemed like an immediate reaction to the song, the first rock bands playing original angry rock music started popping up. Coincidence? I don't think. SLTS literally forced my generation to be like 'fuck it, I am a start a band.' Even now, all 38 years old, and having a hopefully more experienced ear that is exposed to all sorts of music, that song transports me back to that point when my ears weren't really exposed to a lot of music.
I can't speak for the rest of y'all but in Sri Lanka, Nirvana was Prometheus, and SLTS was the gift of fire.
I love that y'all paid tribute to his obvious musical instincts, even if the skills aren't polished as a properly taught musician who knew their theory. I know a few musicians who dismiss Nirvana as unsophisticated and while there is some truth to that, Cobain was a master songwriter. Nevermind was great but anyone who doubts Cobain's range as a songwriter hasn't heard In Utero. I think Rolling Stone once called 'Heart Shaped Box' as the kind of song that the Stone Temple Pilots wouldn't be able to write with detailed instructions. Harsh? Sure. Hilarious? Also yes.
Loved this discussion. I only wish you spent a little longer talking about Grohl's drumming. In an elemental song like this, it needed elemental drumming. And Mr Grohl threw the kitchensink at it. Those drums propel the song into the stratosphere.
What a story Theena!! Thanks so much for sharing!
Loving this series, keep it up! Would love to hear what you all think of Silk Sonic’s new tune Skate
Silk Sonic are so good!
Andy Wallace (mixer engineer) added a stereo chorus on the bass, using the Yamaha SPX90 (“Symphonic” chorus preset), to help it cut through the mix.
Yeah, Wallace puts chorus on bass on damn near everything he mixes. Same with the reverb snare bombs.
Literally the best react channel that exist. Really high value in production and content value.
Teen spirit connected with the deep inner loser in me . A heroin addict when I first heard them . When I finally got clean I had to avoid Nirvana cuz it triggered me . Still clean and I can listen to them now .
In my first band, my co writer was a classically trained musician that could play multiple instruments.Being an uneducated novice who literally invented tunings and lacked rudimentary formal skills, I constantly asked him how everything from time signatures to chord structures worked, but he was adamant in not teaching me.He insisted that my ignorance was why he played with me, because I came up with fresh and impossible ideas.
When I heard Nirvana, I heard material similar to my own attempts; they weren't the first, but I found it hard to beleive that people seemed to appreciate it,- finally.NFN, my first influences were the Beatles and Johnny Cash; then I discovered the Stooges and the Pixies.
at 8:10 that stuff is quite clever.
If you start that lick other way around, it is almost the same than police and ambulance sirens melody.
In here it is there but it is not, such a way that its hard to notice but it definetly brings up some emergency vibes and tension.
I can't believe you guys haven't talked about how the first and three chords of the riff are actually SUS chords! Kurt uses his pinky to barre the 4th on the F and Ab. You can hear it better on the intro when the distortion isn't on yet. That's one the most magical things to me on this composition!
Holy shit! I just listened to it and I can't believe I've never noticed it before...
I just made the same comment, I'm always amazed no-one picks this up either, it's part of the secret sauce that makes the riff so killer
This was amazing! Please do more of Nirvana.
I think it's the only song I can name where I remember the exact spot I was sitting when I first heard it.
I like how you guys break down the structure of the song. What I hear is you guys are like a chef breaking down a great recipe and illustrating why something works when in reality, the guy who first prepared the dish didn't really know theory and just threw some ingredients together and it somehow tasted good. That's what makes rock music.
Yeah, sometimes it's too much analysis. Kurt was REAL.
Actually there is a little bit of chorus on the bass in the album mix. That's an Andy Wallace mixing technique, not Krist Novoselic's typical tone. However, the chorus effect on Kurt's guitar is his EH Small Clone, and was a part of his rig in 1991-92. So there is a lot of chorus on the album mix!
A masterpiece. A wounded traumatized childhood on display.
I'm SO THANKFUL ago you Jack for taking time to make this show !!! Ive learned more in 3videos than I EVER knew !!!! Such a work of love to your craft and of course your panel GENIUS ! ❤️❤️❤️❤️🌟🌟🌟🌟 I never liked grunge or hard rock THIS WAS AMAZING!
Holy god damn, this is one of the most introspective and profound breakdowns of a song Ive ever heard. Instant sub.
As someone who doesn't know music theory or generally anything about it, and as someone who enjoys eating, the analogy about the beans, rice, cheese and tortilla really worked for me haha
I’m enjoying these. I look forward to the next one.
They would play this song at school dances and the entire gym would become a mosh pit. Everyone I knew grew their hair out and started playing guitar. If you were of a certain age when this song came out it changed you permanently. Great discussion!
Here’s something to consider: if Nirvana can impress a die hard, old school Country fan like my mom, they HAD to have something special!
"and I forget just why I taste. Oh yeah, I guess it makes me smile."
"Taste" is heroin slang. It means "shoot smack." Doing heroin is "getting a taste." Hunting for heroin is "looking for a taste."
That slang is hidden in many songs. When Perry Farrell says "She takes a swing but she can't hit," "taking a swing" is a junkie trying to find a vein good enough to shoot into. Successfully finding a vein is "hitting." That line refers to Jane, a frustrated junkie, whose medicine is all fixed up but she cannot find a vain to put it into.
That Cobain line is still great because it's such a succinct way of expressing the frustrations associated with being a maintenance junkie -- someone dealing with all the hassles of drug addiction who isn't even getting high anymore; they're simply using to not get sick.
That rumor about him writing his lyrics right before he went on stage pretty much came from him. He said in several different interviews something similar to doing things like that.
I totally enjoyed it. keep doing vintage song reactions please
We have so many great episodes with vintage songs coming your way Ric!
I really enjoyed this break down of the song. I wanted to clarify that Kurt himself said multiple times that he would write the music first and the lyrics at the last second either in the studio or in the car. Kurt with his self-deprecating sense of humor even joked that the words didn't mean anything. He's discounting himself a bit, that was his style, the man was authentic. I don't know how often he wrote lyrics that way but it's not a legend and definitly wasn't uncommon. In live performances and outtakes he changed a phrase or two sometimes. True creativity.
I’m such a hard core nirvana fan from the 90s. I know 80% of the lyrics to nirvana songs by heart
This is my new favorite channel. So excited to see what songs and artists you'll be tackling in the future!
The insight to the lyrics is pretty telling, as Kurt thought of the voice as an instrument rather than just a medium for lyrics.
Kurt mentions "dorian mode" in several interviews, even if he is mostly joking about it. This together with his very intricate melodies makes me think he actually had some more music theory than he would talk about (since it wasn't punk). Even if it might have been just from guitar magazines and figuering stuff out himself.
Just gets better each time. Thanks for shedding light on why these songs are so great. It gives a whole new perspective to such a classic song. Loving what you are doing. Please promise you will keep it up 🎸🎸🎶🎶👍👍
That was Kurt, He was cunningly acting to subvert expectations, while desperately trying to meet them!
This channel is gonna be huge..Remember I said it!!
More Nirvana please!!!
The key is capturing the band's "Live" performance in the recording studio.
"Dave Grohl, take us to the chorus..."
**Most iconic 90s rock drum fill into most iconic 90s rock chorus commence**
The last real rock star. Kurt knew no theory. He didn't even know what the bar chords were called.
Genius! One of the most listenable songs ever. Kurt was a great songwriter.
I wish these could be like 90 minutes long...
What I was thinking… or at least 45-60min!
Apex drumming: Dave Grohl on that Queens of the Stone Age concept album, 'Songs for the Deaf' ; and the drumming on Gojira's 'The Art of Death'. INSANE.
Nirvana suggestions for another episode: "About a Girl," "Something in the Way" and "Heart-Shaped Box." "About a Girl" is probably Kurt Cobain at his most Beatle-esque. "Something in the Way" shows the gentler side of his work. I love the harmonies and use of lyrical imagery in "Heart-Shaped Box." Shawn R., Mo-Mutt Music/Sacred & Secular
OMG yes! Your reaction video to Smells Like Teen Spirit is amazing. Thank you for jumping into the deep end of 90's rock.
I was jamming on David Lee Roth Tobacco Road and like the insane Elephant Gun !! Such a shame it didn’t make it on the radio!!
The pixies we're ground breaking but I don't think anyone can take going loud and then going soft as a creditable thing. Jazz does it alot and blues does it even more. It's like rock coming back home to its roots.teen spirit Is really bluesy actually in its sound dynamic.
Nirvana paved the way for the Grunge era. RIP Kurt Cobain! Your music transcends the Grunge era!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏😇😇😇😇😇😇😇🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎶🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁👍👍
i'm loving this channel so much, this group is awesome
the girl gets it
Y'all keep doing your thing! This is SO FAR beyond just a "reaction."
I just need to listen to you guys talking about Thrice!!!
they put up posters on phone poles saying "want be nirvana video? be at this place at is time".
5:33 Andy Wallace who mixed Nevermind said he used Chorus on the bass to add movement
Everyone always says the intro is power chords but I'm hearing the sus4 really subtlety on the F and Aflat chords. It just sounds like he's barring all the strings and it's bleeding in but gives it a unique atmosphere.
Y'all must live somewhere with no humidity if you've never heard someone screaming about mosquitos.
This is such a classic!!! My favourite lyric is "Hello hello hello how low" so clever. I lived in England when this one came out. It was the jolt the music industry needed at the time. Similar to The Sex Pistols for me in many ways.
The Rhyme "A mullato, an Alibino, a Mosquito, my libido. Is structured like a Rap Lyric.
Nirvanas rendition of David Bowies "The Man Who Sold the World" was amazing. Every musician was so emotive with their instruments, just an amazing cover.
Hey guys look for it: the chorus sound you feel in everything is the Andy Wallace method
AT 14:00 - that is literally the definition of Justin Vernon's entire discography!
Thank you for explaining these musical jargon phrases for novices like me
one of the only channels/videos I watch on 1x speed.
Suuuuper dig this new content. Thank you so much!!! I hope tool will eventually be in the line up.
ABSOLUTELY!!!!🙌🔥
It's a gestalt approach to Lyricism. He knows that when you put these words together, your brain will make the leap to the meaning or a meaning. (At least it did for him).
kurt and pat smear walked into a room once and heard dave playing guitar...they then said...wow daves a better guitar player than us
Holy music nerd deep dive. Maybe this series could be used as supplemental material at the School of Rock.
This was such a good tune to dive into.
@@DeadWaxShow On the surface, it was 4 chords and some pretty monotone singing, bit there was so much more underneath.
I think that the heavy influence of the Melvins explains alot about his writing.
I like how she blasts, "Nobody says STRIFE in real life," and then uses "apocryphal." SMH "Whatever nevermind!"
The lyrics are understandable if you get the key:
Imagine Kurt, the outcast kid, sitting by himself in the cafeteria, listening to the "cool kids" in BFE Washington at the next table, writing in his notebook, and mocking what they say.
Load up on guns, being your friends. It's fun to lose and to pretend. She's overboard and self assured. I know a dirty word.
He's fed up with their banality and he's putting words into their mouths.
I feel stupid and contagious
He's yelling because he's furiously pissed off at how they can possibly think they're cool or funny.
It’s funny to hear you guys reference the Cobain interview where he “acknowledges” that he stole from the Pixies, but actually that was a misdirection. The song is Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” with different lyrics.
You almost, nearly almost used the Rick Beato "What Makes This Song Great" line. 0.37 ""What Makes It So Great". Made me giggle.
But, a good job from all the experts on camera. Well done on the break down.
Speaking of break down, how about analysing - Dirty Loops - Breakdown.
I love that Grohl said he stole the beat from The Gap Band ... and he did.