A column dedicated to great songs, old and new.
August 23, 2005
Attributed to Huddie Ledbetter
From Unplugged in New York, Geffen Records, 1994
I have a picture of Kurt Cobain on my desk. It's a pretty well-known shot: a sort of sad close-up, with Cobain sporting a scruffy beard and looking directly into the camera, a few blonde locks falling over his face. At the bottom it says KURT COBAIN, 1967-1994. It serves to remind me that we never know from where our great artists will come, or when they will leave us.
Unplugged in New York
Nirvana
I thought Kurt Cobain was an astonishingly expressive vocalist. I'd put his screams up there with Prince's, his emotional voice-breaks up there with Hank Williams, and his commanding way with a melody up there with any of the great pop singers. I liked his original songs quite a bit, especially " Sliver", "Come as You Are", "All Apologies", "Heart Shaped Box", "In Bloom" and the more recently released "You Know You're Right, which has a great, unique vocal.
Nirvana's version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" is generally attributed (writing-wise) to Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly. The song is sometimes known as "In the Pines" and actually has roots that go a little further back than Leadbelly. Leadbelly was an early 20th-century folk/blues musician who influenced countless songwriters and performers, including Woody Guthrie. I find it significant to note that Cobain was obviously interested in the formative years of American songwriting; in songs that were created before the advent of rock and roll. I think this is indicative of his serious devotion to the art of songwriting.
"Where Did You Sleep Last Night" is shot through with personal pain and creepy paranoia, and gains more mystical power when one reflects on the various early-American scenario-possibilities inherent in the vaguely outlined story. It starts out with a pleading question, essentially the chorus:
"My girl, my girl, don't lie to me..
Tell me, where did you sleep last night?
In the pines, in the pines, where the sun
Don't ever shine...
I would shiver the whole night through..."
The arrangement is spare, open, and flavored with Lori Goldson's cello and Dave Grohl's especially light-handed flourishes on the drumkit. After a brief instrumental middle section, the band launches into a last round of choruses. The final chorus contains one of the most harrowing vocals in a pop song that I've ever heard. As the band revs it up a notch in intensity, Cobain steps up his vocal to a near manic state, seemingly channeling the pain of every past singer of the song, while remaining enormously musical and tuneful. The effect is positively chilling. It's an odd little coda to the heavy-duty unleashing of emotions when Kurt mutters a polite "Thank you" at the end of the song.
While on tour in the Pacific Northwest last spring, I noticed a sign on the freeway for Cobain's hometown, Aberdeen. I had an impulse to venture into the town and soak in the vibes of Aberdeen and the other small Washington towns where Kurt Cobain spent his early years. We didn't have the time for that kind of stop, so I instead peered out the back window, watching the road to Aberdeen disappear behind us.
I wish he hadn't left us.
pcm
Purchase:
Unplugged in New York
at Amazon.com
at Tower
Records