Dave Grohl’s favourite Nirvana lyric: “One line that gives me chills”

Of all the titans of grunge, Nirvana was never known as the most lyrical band in the world. Although Kurt Cobain may have stirred up kids’ souls across the globe whenever he sang, his lyrics were often abstract tone paintings that had to do more with the sound of the words than anything too lyrical. When he wanted to, though, Cobain could create a lyric sheet for the ages.

When Nirvana first performed on Unplugged, Cobain expressed some regret about not being taken as seriously, lamenting that everyone focused on artists like Eddie Vedder when talking about phenomenal songwriters. Reflecting on the group’s lyrics for Classic Albums, Dave Grohl remembered Cobain emphasising the melody before anything else, recalling, “He used to say to me ‘music comes first and lyrics come second’, and I think Kurt’s main ability was with melody”.
Across their breakthrough release Nevermind, Cobain did have his fair share of great lyrics as well. Between songs about the burnt-out feeling of Generation X, ‘Polly’ detailed the haunting story of a brutal attack suffered by a female music fan. At the same time, ‘Something in the Way’ talked about the disassociation that misfit kids felt day after day.

While Cobain never claimed to speak for his fans, his position as one of the biggest rock stars in the world started to get to him when making their third record. Coming only a year and a half after their breakthrough, In Utero was the sound of Cobain delivering an apathetic middle finger to the mainstream, with songs that seemed designed to be unsophisticated.

originally had written the music in response to the book Perfume. While Cobain puts together disturbing imagery throughout every line, the song is also home to one of Grohl’s favourite lines that Cobain wrote.

When talking about the impact the song has, Grohl singled out one section of the song as his favourite, telling Mojo, “One of my favourite lines in a Nirvana song – which is f–king dark and which I didn’t realise the weight of until I sat in my house in Seattle playing the first mixes of In Utero is the line on ‘Scentless Apprentice’ where Kurt sings, ‘You can’t fire me because I quit.’ If there’s one line in any song that gives me the chills, it’s that one”.

Coming out of Cobain’s mouth, that line is all the more disquieting after becoming one of the biggest celebrities in the world. Even after slaving away to become an internal phenomenon, Cobain seems resentful of everything it took to get him there, spitting out the words like an average maintenance worker who has been told off one too many times.

Then again, the real power Cobain exhibits in the song doesn’t even feature any lyrics. Before he sings the line “GO AWAY” in the chorus, his vocal break during his scream sounds like a man on the verge of insanity, almost like he’s trying to tear his vocal cords to shreds with every syllable. Although ‘Scentless Apprentice’ made for a pummelling live track every time Nirvana played it on the accompanying tour, it’s hard to listen to it and not hear his cry for help .