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"It's really shocking and there's so many horrible aspects of what happened and what people have done to each other [in Bosnia-Herzegovina]. I think that's an aspect of it that a lot of people have ignored, like, rape wasn't even considered a war crime, like even in Nuremberg, nobody was tried for rape. You know, and I was hearing stories in refugee camps about how women rape victims were just kind of lumped in with everybody else and they weren't really having any special needs and I think that's just an indicator of people's perspective towards women.
"The band has an organization. It's kind of my pet thing, it's called the Balkan Women's Aid Fund and what we do is solicit foundations for grants and ask people for individual donations, too, and we did some work with the Italian Red Cross and we got some money to the Autonomous Women's House working out of Zagreb. And all of these organizations that we work with they have, like, a feminist perspective and we think that's important because you get those kind of values across, you change people's values overall."
-Krist, March 1994, MTV News
Kurt: Now some white trash mothers are gonna sue us after they beat their children for a few years and neglect them, and then they kill themselves and blame it on us.
Krist: That's right. 'I gave him a good Christian upbringing. What happened?'
Kurt: 'I tanned his ass every day. He should have turned out just fine. If it wasn't for that record...'
-10 Aug 1993
Archivist's notes: They were talking about censorship and the moral panic among fundamentalist "Christians" in America, who conveniently blamed rock music (including Nirvana) for their children's behaviour, while failing to look at the real source of the problem: their own abusive parenting.
Interviewer: Some of the people who responded to the song, "Rape Me", said they were offended by it, in some way, or that they couldn't understand it. Could you explain the meaning of the song to perhaps clear up...
Kurt: Well, we're the cover boys of about ten different magazines this month and in every one of those magazines we explain it pretty good. It's an anti--let me repeat that--ANTI-rape song. I got tired of people trying to put too much meaning into my lyrics, you know, as being too...not making enough sense, so I decided to be really blunt and bold. I just thought, it's a kind of a funny, just reward for a person who rapes--like a guy, like a mean asshole who rapes a woman, violates her, then he goes into jail and get raped, you know. And I think it's a kind of justice, in a way.
Krist: Maybe being offended and not understanding it goes hand-in-hand.
Int: Yeah, well the only reason they were offended is that they obviously took it as a macho, you know--
Krist: They've been programmed by too many beer commercials, or something.
Int: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know how you would misunderstand something like that--
Kurt: I thought we made our stance on rape clear within the last year-and-a-half. Plus, anyone who knows about us would probably know that we are pretty much anti-rape, at this point, you know?
Int: Yeah, you'd think that would be clear, but I guess these were people who didn't know that much about you and were just listening to a record. I mean, you had trouble with Saturday Night Live, right? I mean, trying to get that song played. Why is that if it's this straightforward anti-rape song? Why are they having a problem with it?
Krist: Maybe you shouldn't be talking about it. It's like, taboo, you know? Daddy's bonking the little stepchild, "We don't talk about that here! Nope!".
Int: What's controversial about an anti-rape song? I guess it's the nature of...
Krist: It's a taboo.
Int: Taboo subject.
Krist: Yeah.
-24 Sept 1993
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.
tags:
- date:1986,
- date:band era,
- decade:1980s,
- media:audio,
- media:lyrics & titles,
- person:kurt,
- topic:aids,
- topic:bisexuality,
- topic:child abuse,
- topic:dating & relationships,
- topic:emotions & self-expression,
- topic:family,
- topic:god & religion,
- topic:homophobia,
- topic:homosexuality,
- topic:incest,
- topic:morality,
- topic:rape,
- topic:sexuality,
- type:draft,
- type:factual
Interviewer: "Are you going back [to Seattle] to vote in the elections?"
Kurt: "Yeah, I'll vote for Clinton."
Int: "Do you think he's the true change that he says he is?"
Kurt: "No, he's a Democrat, and the Democrats are not close either morally or philosophically to what I think. The Democrats are very conservative, but at least they're not as conservative as the Republicans. Republicans are the incarnation of Satan. I hate them. For me, the word 'Republican' is a bad word; when someone says 'Republican' they are saying, "cheat". It's the most offensive term you can say to someone. But in America there's nothing beyond these options."
Int: "Ross Perot?"
Kurt: "Nah, the guy sucks. He's rich; I don't trust him as president. In the end, though, I would risk it with someone who is not a professional politician, someone who does not follow the guidelines for being a certified politician. I'd prefer to vote for Perot, but he's not going to win; he is well behind. I don't want to waste my vote, and I prefer to make sure Bush doesn't continue. Obviously, the way the guy is doing things doesn't work." *
-31 Oct 1992, Argentina
*Archivist's note: This interview was translated into a foreign language and then back into English again, and it seems clear some nuance was lost due to awkward/imprecise translation.
