One other problem with naming Nirvana songs is that their titles are often not words from the chorus like most mainstream songs.
I think most people who know Nirvana could name Smells like teen spirit even though it’s not in the lyrics. I suspect people could name Come as you are, since it’s the first lyric of the song.
But after that, I guess it might be Heart shaped box?
With Nirvana, when you really want to hear that one song and you go look it up, you always think, okay, what’s the song name? “Yeah!”? That can’t be right. And then you have to go through some process to pry it out of your memory until you remember it’s Lithium.
That was my thought too. Nirvana pops up on my playlists fairly regularly, but I doubt I could have listed 3 of their songs and I grew up with that shit. Reading your post was a few iterations of “Oh yeah, that’s what that song is called!”
One other problem with naming Nirvana songs is that their titles are often not words from the chorus like most mainstream songs.
I think most people who know Nirvana could name Smells like teen spirit even though it’s not in the lyrics. I suspect people could name Come as you are, since it’s the first lyric of the song.
But after that, I guess it might be Heart shaped box?
With Nirvana, when you really want to hear that one song and you go look it up, you always think, okay, what’s the song name? “Yeah!”? That can’t be right. And then you have to go through some process to pry it out of your memory until you remember it’s Lithium.
I recently learned that The Man Who Sold the World was actually a David Bowie song. Naturally, since it’s in the lyrics.
That was my thought too. Nirvana pops up on my playlists fairly regularly, but I doubt I could have listed 3 of their songs and I grew up with that shit. Reading your post was a few iterations of “Oh yeah, that’s what that song is called!”
Gimme the hum test any day though!
Yup. I could probably sing along to about 10 Nirvana songs, and even knowing the words to them I might know the names of two of them.
My favorite song of theirs is actually a cover: “Lake of Fire” by the Meat Puppets
It’s just so short!