nirvana_slash_archive | Entries tagged with topic:homophobia

KEEP IT CLEAN
by Dave Grohl

Keep it clean
My momma said, keep it clean
Keep it clean
My momma said, keep it clean

Driving all night
Got a hankering for something
Think I'm in the mood
For some hot man muffins

Mmm, sounds so fine, yes indeed

Keep it clean
My daddy said, keep it clean
Keep it clean
My daddy said, keep it clean

Ain't looking for a fight
Ain't looking for trouble
Howdy Mr. Right
Have you met Mr. Bubble?

Hey, put 'er there, ain't she sweet

Rubbin' and a-lovin' and a-scrubbin' and a-truckin'
Maybe if we're lucky just a little bear hugging
Know what I mean?
Keep it clean!

[Spoken]
Ladies and gentlemen
God bless America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
It takes all kinds
I don't care if you're black or white or purple or green
Whether you're Pennsylvanian or Transylvanian
Lady Gaga or Lady Antebellum
It takes all kinds
Men loving women and
Women loving men and
Men loving men and
Women loving women
You know we all like to watch that
But what I'd like to say
God bless America, y'all

Rubbin' and a-lovin' and a-scrubbing and a-truckin'
Maybe if we're lucky just a little bear hugging
Know what I mean?
Keep it clean!

Archivist's note: This song was Dave's counter-protest to the Westboro Baptist Church (the "God hates fags" people), who were picketing his gig with the Foo Fighters in 2011 in Kansas City.

It was also used in a spectacularly gay promotional video for the tour, "Hot Buns" (NSFW).

Smells Like Teen Spirit
by Kurt Cobain

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

Hello, hello, hello
How low?
Hello, hello, hello
How low?
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
How low?
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

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
How low?
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

Archivist's note: Has anyone else noticed what Kurt hid in here with his clever play on words? I think it's hilarious that this song got so popular, and I bet Kurt did, too.

"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."

I recall Kurt mentioning that one proposed name for what became Nevermind was "Blowjob", and that gives a hint. What did Kurt find that was hard? Any guesses? Tasting it made him smile. :3 And why was it hard for him to find? Maybe because gay and bi men aren't as common as straight men?

Hopefully I don't need to elaborate further on that verse.

I think the poetic "A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido," is also related to this theme. What do these four things have in common? They're all things that have been treated as "unwanted", "unusual", or "outcast" by human society. Kurt feels rejected for his natural desires. The hopeless-sounding end of the song, "A denial," really says it all.

And this next idea is just a good guess, but I think the bored sounding "Hey" and "Yay" following the impassioned chorus might be Kurt's sarcastic imitation of braindead mainstream "music consumers" failing to respond in a human way to real art. Incredibly ironic that this song became the top favourite of those very braindead people, but I guess alienation is highly relatable in current American society regardless of who you are.

"Kurt was a pro-feminist person. And he was anti-homophobic. He actually said if you're homophobic or don't respect women, and so forth, so forth, don't come to our gigs, don't buy our records. Saying something like that has a really big impact. And that's one of the legacies, I think, that he's left."

-Ana da Silva of the Raincoats (one of Kurt's favourite bands)
When Nirvana Came to Britain (BBC documentary 2021)

"Novoselic and Cobain come from rural Aberdeen, Washington. [...] One of the more popular bars in town is actually called the Pourhouse, which is where two young men about Cobain's age, Joe and James, sit down for a pitcher of beer--each. [...]

"Yeah, I know the Cobain kid," says James, "Faggot."
He's a faggot?" asks Joe, taken aback. Recovering quickly, he declares, "We deal with faggots here. We run 'em out of town."

This is where Cobain and Novoselic grew up. That's why they kissed each other full on the lips as the Saturday Night Live credits rolled. They knew it would piss off the folks back home--and everybody like them.

"I definitely have a problem with the average macho man--the strong-oxen, working-class type," Cobain says wearily, "because they have always been a threat to me. I've had to deal with them most of my life--being taunted and beaten up by them in school, just having to be around them and be expected to be that kind of person when you grow up.

"I definitely feel closer to the feminine side of the human being than I do the male--or the American idea of what a male is supposed to be," Cobain continues. "Just watch a beer commercial and you'll see what I mean."

Of course, Cobain was miserable in high school. [...] [He] was a sensitive sort, small for his age, and uninterested in sports. "He was terrified of jocks and moron dudes," recalls Cobain's old friend, Mudhoney bassist Matt Lukin.

"As I got older," says Cobain, a fan of Beckett, Burroughs, and Bukowski, "I felt more and more alienated--I couldn't find friends whom I felt compatible with at all. Everyone was going to become a logger, and I knew I wanted to do something different. I wanted to be some kind of artist.""

-16 Apr 1992, Rolling Stone magazine article by Michael Azerrad

Even In His Youth
By Kurt Cobain

Even in his youth [x3]
He was nothing
Kept his body clean [x3]
Going nowhere
Daddy was ashamed [x2]
He was something
Disgrace the family name [x2]
The family name, he was something

He was born for your crew
I've got nothing left to prove
If I die before I wake
Hope I don't come back a slave

Even in his youth [x3]
He was nothing
Kept his body clean [x3]
Going nowhere
Daddy was ashamed [x2]
He was the same, he was nothing
Disgrace the family name [x2]
Family name, going nowhere

Leave this one, for your brew
I've got nothing left to prove
If I die before I wake
Hope I don't come back a slave
Aye-Yeah!

Leave this one, for your brew
I've got nothing left to prove
If I die before I wake
Hope I don't come back again
I'm dying!

Even in his youth [x2]
Yeah, yeah

Archivist's note: For another song that uses the line, "kept his body clean" and features a dysfunctional father/son relationship, click here.

( Read more... )

Laminated Effect
(Fecal Matter tape, 1986)
By Kurt Cobain

Johnny was a homo
Kept his body clean
Moved to San Francisco
Caught a big disease
Raped by his Daddy
Told he was at fault
Living life unhappy
Covered up his soul

We're living in a time of change
Too many things you feel afraid
Doing things against the will of God
Maybe someday soon they'll realize they're wrong

Lucy was a lesbian
No, no fun in the sack
Moved to Acapulco
Nothing goes in her hole
Then she met Johnny
They dated, went to formal
He and she got naughty
Found out that it's normal

We're living in a time of change
Too many things you feel afraid
Doing many things against the will of God
Maybe someday soon they'll realize they're wrong

Made not born
Made not born
Made not born
Made not born

Archivist's note: For another song featuring the lyrics, "kept his body clean", click here.

This song appears to be written from at least two different points of view: the narrator, who simply tells the story of Johnny and Lucy in the verses, and a moralising, judgemental voice that condemns the protagonists of the song in the chorus.

When teenage Kurt was homeless and living at a classmate's house (sleeping on their sofa as the father of the family recalls), he attended church with them, and was briefly enthusiastic about the experience until he realised they were preaching hate.

This song is likely repeating some of the things he heard at that church in the chorus. As for the verses, they seem to illustrate Kurt's confused understanding of bisexuality: he describes both characters, male and female, as homosexual, but then depicts them discovering an attraction to each other by the end of the story.

The first verse is interesting in that some of the themes in it are repeated in Even In His Youth, a song that reads as more autobiographical than Laminated Effect. In both songs we see a father and son pair with a highly dysfunctional relationship, and in this song the relationship is much more vividly abusive than in the other.

This is typical of Kurt's lyrics; in a number of cases he wrote demos with much more painful lyrics than the finished songs ended up being (Something In The Way and Sliver being two other examples which were toned down for the final recording). In each of these mentioned cases, the lyrics Kurt changed had to do with child abuse or neglect, both of which he experienced in his own family.

The topic of incest is also repeated very blatantly in the album title, Incesticide.

Pay to Play
Lyrics: Kurt Cobain

Monkey see, monkey do
I don't know why I
Walk around, follow you
I don't know why I
Pull it out, keep it in
I don't know why I
Have to have poison skin
I don't know why I

Pay
Pay to play
Pay to play
pay to play

Move an inch, take a mile
I don't know why I
Never faded, never smiled
I don't know why I
Nevermind, eat and run
I don't know why I
Fuck your ass for the fun
I don't know why I

Pay
Pay to play
Pay to play
Pay to play

-6 Apr 1990 (recording date)

Archivist's comments: These lyrics were eventually sanitised and published as "Stay Away" on Nevermind. The original lyrics are pretty obviously about Kurt's experiences with male street prostitutes. Seattle has long been infamous for rampant street prostitution in certain districts, and one of these areas, Aurora Avenue, has been documented as a favourite hang-out for Kurt.

( Read more... )
Edit Sept. 2021: I found a quote from Kurt that confirms that these lyrics are indeed gay.

For two other songs that use the word "faded", click here and here. Kurt and Krist seem to have had their own special meaning for the term, which appears to be used as slang for orgasm.

Interviewer: "Was there an incident that really pushed the button that got you and the town [Aberdeen] at loggerheads, as it were?"

Kurt: "Well, what started the witch hunt was I decided to take some acid one evening and spray paint "queer" on the side of four-by-four trucks, the local rednecks' trucks. And so one of them saw me from his window and started screaming, "There's the queer vandal!" I'd been doing it for a while. But that night I decided to really go for it and do a lot, a lot of vandalism. So they caught me and chased me around."

Int: "The cops caught you or just some of the local toughs?"

Kurt: "The locals. The local toughs, right. [he laughs]

Int: "And did they know who you were?"

Kurt: "No. Just that crazy skinny kid who never went to school. Who was probably gay."

Int: "Well, are you?"

Kurt: "If I wasn't attracted to Courtney, I'd be a bisexual."

Courtney: "Faggot!!" [laughter]

Int: "So they ran you out of town?"

Kurt: "Yeah."

Int: "Did you ever go back?"

Kurt: "Well, um, every time I've gone to Aberdeen lately I've felt a real big threat. Actually, Chris was beaten up at a Denny's one night. Some locals were giving him the eye and I don't think it was sexual. They started beating him up in the men's room saying, "Some local hero you are."

-11 Sept 1992, Monk Magazine

Kurt: "Obviously it's a tragedy, something terrible. A lot of artists are sick and don't think the government cares a fuck. In twelve years, the Republicans have preferred to see people with AIDS, homosexuals, as people of a lower class and have preferred to see the genocide of these people. Imagine if we still put people in gas chambers; they still have that shit working. They ignore it and haven't contributed funds to stop the disease. It's very sad.
There was so much promotion that you would have to be an idiot not to know that today you've got to use condoms or not share a needle. That promotion had the effect of slowing AIDS. You attempted to lower the number of patients by means of promotion. After that, they talk about conspiracies and stuff. I don't know enough to just give an opinion." *

-31 Oct 1992, Argentina

*Archivist's note: This interview was translated into a foreign language and then back into English. It seems clear that some nuance was lost due to awkward/imprecise translation.

Kim and Kurt

"Kurt was always protective of his little sister. Some eighteen years after this picture [above, left] was taken, Kim came out to Kurt, and he immediately expressed concern for her safety in Aberdeen--a town not known for tolerance towards homosexuals."

-Chris Molanphy, Kurt Cobain: Voice of a Generation (2003), pg. 18 (the author interviewed Kurt's family for this book)

Interviewer: What do you guys think about this No On 9 thing?

Krist: The trend--fascism is just rising and rising, you know, I watch the news and I see skinheads firebombing refugee centers in Germany, and to have it materialise so close to home is outrageous. You gotta fight back. You know? If you don't care, you're worse than the conservative fanatics that are implementing this on everybody. And you gotta choose sides.

Interviewer: What do you say to people out in rural, outskirt part of Oregon, who may not be as politically aware of what's going on as the people in Portland?

Kurt: It's so surprising that it started in Springfield, I mean, just my first reaction was that Oregon's such a liberal state, I couldn't believe it, I mean, isn't Springfield really close to like, Eugene? It's amazing. It's just--it's perfect proof that it can happen anywhere and will keep spreading, and it will start in small, obscure towns like that.

Interviewer: Like Colorado.

Kurt: [nods]

Krist: Yeah.

Interviewer: [unintelligible due to loud background music]

Krist: I mean, homosexuality is a natural thing and to meddle with nature is going to cause a lot of friction, like in society. You just can't repress something like that, you can't repress a person's feelings.

-10 Sept 1992, No On 9 pre-gig interview

Interviewer: At what point did it seem to you that he was not--can you describe the men in Aberdeen? In general?

Wendy O'Connor (Kurt's mother): No. [laughs]

Int: Well, Kurt seems very, like, different. At what age was it clear that he was not going to be a logger?

Wendy: Ok, I was thinking the other day about how I guess he thought at one point he might be gay, which is fine, I mean, it runs in our family, but I kind of felt that he was kind of questioning himself. He would ask me questions about girls. And trying to figure out how to get one, I think. That's what I thought.

And I think he was really kind of like, wondering--because he was artistic... and so I started thinking about this the other day, and he was really--he and I were really best friends. I mean, when he died I lost one of my best friends. We had so much fun talking about the world and politics and life and music and just everything. We talked all the time.

And he was very aware, especially when I was with three not-suited men, how that made him feel. He didn't like the way his dad talked to me. He didn't like the way my boyfriend after Don treated me. [...]

He and I were so close, and he was very respectful, he was very courteous, good, really good manners. I made sure of that. Because Don had none. [...] We were just really close, and I think that is what makes the difference in these roughhouse boys, you know, jocks--they're more bonded to their dads, I think, than they are to their mothers. I prefer men that love their mothers. They're just gentler, they understand women a little bit better.

And then just being an artist, he--everywhere in school, except for English and art, he felt like the jocks were--you know, I don't know. He never came home and said he was being bullied. Or that he was being picked on. He never said that. I just assumed that because he wasn't into sports [...] that Kurt probably felt a little left out that way.

And as he got older he got a little more shy. Just maybe less confident. When he was young he didn't care what people thought. And then as he got older he became aware that he wasn't like the regular guys. But it didn't mean that he didn't have guy friends, he had a lot of guy friends, but they were very much similar to him.

-2015, Montage of Heck film outtakes

"Luckily, I found a gay friend, who basically saved me from wanting to kill myself half the time. Apparently everyone in high school knew he was gay, they just didn't bother to tell me, or I just didn't bother to notice, you know, until he decided to make a pass at me one night. And I just flatly told him that I wasn't gay, but I'd still be his friend. After that I started to realise that people were looking at me even more peculiarly than usual. And then I started to get harrassed by some of the people, especially in gym class. They felt threatened because they were naked and I was supposedly gay, so they'd either better cover up their penises or punch me. [laugh] Or both.

But then after that I started being proud of the fact that I was gay even though I wasn't. I really enjoyed the conflict. Pretty exciting. Because I almost found my identity. I was a special geek, you know? It wasn't quite the punk rocker that I was looking for, but at least it was better than being the average geek."

-Kurt (About A Son, audio recorded 1992, film released 2006)

"Well, when we played that No on 9 benefit in Portland, I said something about Guns N' Roses. Nothing nasty-I think I said, "And now, for our next song, "Sweet Child o' Mine.'" But some kid jumped onstage and said, "Hey, man, Guns N' Roses plays awesome music, and Nirvana plays awesome music. Let's just get along and work things out, man!"

And I just couldn't help but say, "No, kid, you're really wrong. Those people are total sexist jerks, and the reason we're playing this show is to fight homophobia in a real small way. The guy is a fucking sexist and a racist and a homophobe, and you can't be on his side and be on our side. I'm sorry that I have to divide this up like this, but it's something you can't ignore. And besides they can't write good music." [Laughs]"

-Kurt, The Advocate 1993

Audience member: So, 22 years ago, you guys were on SNL--in dresses--and there was a man-on-man kiss. That was revolutionary.

Dave: You know, I'm glad that some people think that. [audience laughter] I'm not kidding! You know one of the things we wanted to represent--we were the antithesis of a lot of that, like, bullshit heavy metal, that homophobic jock rock, because we truly grew up in an underground community where everybody was different and everybody was cool and that's what was so great about it. I mean, you know, I used to get fucking chased around my neighborhood in Virginia, with people calling me a "fag!", because I listened to punk rock. So then I was like, 'I'm in the biggest fuckin' band in the world!' [flips the bird]

[audience cheers]

AM: Thank you, and how do you think things have changed in the 22 years since then? I mean, it's big-time changes.

Dave: Like, musically?

AM: Musically, sociologically, everything.

Dave: Well, that was such a great time in the 90s, in the early 90s, because there seemed to be like this rebirth of idealism, or something, people were--they didn't feel so restricted any more. They didn't feel so compartmentalized, it was more cool. It was ok to be weird, you know. And it was ok to sound like a band in a garage. And it still is! That was a really exciting time.

I mean, I have kids. I have two daughters. And they're great, they're super fun. And I look at them and I can't wait till they fucking dye their hair blue! I can't wait till they start doing all the stupid shit I did when I was young, because I feel like you have to really try to experience everything before you decide--before you really become, you know, the person that you are.

-Bottle Rock Napa Valley 2013

"I've had the reputation of being a homosexual every since I was 14. It was really cool, because I found a couple of gay friends in Aberdeen-which is almost impossible. How I could ever come across a gay person in Aberdeen is amazing! But I had some really good friends that way. I got beat up a lot, of course, because of my association with them.

People just thought I was weird at first, just some fucked-up kid. But once I got the gay tag, it gave me the freedom to be able to be a freak and let people know that they should just stay away from me. Instead of having to explain to someone that they should just stay the fuck away from me-I'm gay, so I can't even be touched. It made for quite a few scary experiences in alleys walking home from school, though."

-Kurt, The Advocate, 9 Feb 1993

"If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us-leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records."

-Kurt, 1992, in the liner notes for Incesticide

quote of the day

"God is gay and so am I."
-Kurt
Journals (hardcover ed.), pg. 123
.

page summary

rocknroll1968 - Lyrics: Keep It Clean (2011)
rocknroll1968 - Lyrics: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt's Feminist Legacy (2021)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: The Cobain kid is a faggot (1992)
rocknroll1968 - Lyrics: Even In His Youth (1991)
rocknroll1968 - Lyrics: Laminated Effect (1986)
rocknroll1968 - Lyrics: Pay To Play (1990)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: The Queer Vandal strikes again (1992)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt on the AIDS crisis (1992)
rocknroll1968 - Excerpt: Kim comes out to Kurt (1994?)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Fascism & Homosexuality (1992)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt thought he was gay as a teen (2015)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Not gay, but proud (1992)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt won't shake hands with the enemy (1993)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Nirvana as the antithesis of homophobic jock rock (2013)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt on hanging with the gay crowd in high school (1993)
rocknroll1968 - Quote: Kurt slams bigots (1992)

January 2024

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NIRVANA SLASH ARCHIVE

homo sex rules

Entries tagged with topic:homophobia

Lyrics: Keep It Clean (2011)

Lyrics: Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991)

Quote: Kurt's Feminist Legacy (2021)

Quote: The Cobain kid is a faggot (1992)

Lyrics: Even In His Youth (1991)

Lyrics: Laminated Effect (1986)

Lyrics: Pay To Play (1990)

Quote: The Queer Vandal strikes again (1992)

Quote: Kurt on the AIDS crisis (1992)

Excerpt: Kim comes out to Kurt (1994?)

Quote: Fascism & Homosexuality (1992)

Quote: Kurt thought he was gay as a teen (2015)

Quote: Not gay, but proud (1992)

Quote: Kurt won't shake hands with the enemy (1993)

Quote: Nirvana as the antithesis of homophobic jock rock (2013)

Quote: Kurt on hanging with the gay crowd in high school (1993)

Quote: Kurt slams bigots (1992)

quote of the day

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January 2024