Smells like middle-aged spirit

Nirvana around 1992 by P. B. Rage (Wikimedia Commons)

Editor's note: You can now hear a podcast of the mixtape I made in honor of "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

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Another mixtape I'm working on is more of a compilation of songs. Or, rather, one song: "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana, which was released as a single (they still existed then, at least on CD) twenty years ago this past September.

Hard to believe! I was a mere lad of 30 when the song was released, which, merely uttering that sentence makes me want to cry. Not for the late Kurt Cobain, no, but for my tragically unhip and past-it youth. In September 1991, I had just moved away from Washington, D.C., moved back to my home state of North Carolina, and was trying to figure out what to do with the next phase of my life.

Within less than two years, I was in graduate school, and within less than four, gainfully employed in Texas. 

Within three years, Kurt Cobain was dead.

That was an incredibly long time ago that somehow seems to have passed in a less than a nanosecond.

Anyway, I never really got the same thrill over "Smells like Teen Spirit" or Nirvana that many others did. Perhaps at 30 I was already too old, mentally if not physically, to get it/them or to appreciate it/them. (A close friend of mine, 24 in 1991, also told me he felt too "old" for Nirvana at the time.) In fact, the whole grunge movement just kind of escaped my understanding and interest. Maybe because I was no longer in D.C. I missed all the grunge "culture," but you'd think, living in a couple of college towns at the time, I would have picked up more of it, even only by accident.

But, feh, the '90s are kind of blur to me these days. Plus I look really dopey in plaid flannels.

Fashion aside, the "problem" with grunge for me was twofold: (1) I'm only moderately fond of guitar-based music; (2) I'm even less enamored with skinny white-boy rock-and-roll, then and now.

I know, I know, very shallow of me to dismiss a whole era and an ethos in that way. But grunge never had, at least to me, the sheer nerve and verve of '70s punk, and certainly not the drama and glamour of early '80s new wave. Which from the reading I've done (limited as it may be) may be the point--grunge was music made by the alienated for the alienated who, by their very nature, were too inured to their alienation to take action.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit" being a case in point, at least if this article in Wikipedia can be believed: Even apparently Kurt Cobain described "Teen Spirit" as a song about the idea of revolution but one that makes fun of the idea of revolution, although "a revolution is a nice thought."

In contrast, Dave Grohl, in the same Wiki article, is quoted as saying that he doubted that "Teen Spirit" had any meaning at all.

Having said all that, I have come to appreciate, well after the fact, the sonic power of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and some other Nirvana songs. I also like how Dave Grohl shows up in the unlikeliest and goofiest of places, giving Nirvana a much better sense of humor than I would have expected.

And, yes, it was sad that Kurt Cobain felt so hopeless that he killed himself. Very sad indeed. I'm not one of those people to go off on what "a loser" he was for killing himself. Indeed, if you've never been that depressed or hopeless or bereft, congratulations. Count yourself incredibly lucky and/or blessed. May you be spared much pain in your life.

But I also avoid referring to pop stars' early deaths as "tragic" and "senseless," while we too often ignore the pain and hurt of those women and men that form a part of our more immediate sphere.

Anyway . . . bitching aside, here's to Nirvana, Kurt Cobain, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." You had your moment--and look, it's a moment that has lasted for 20 years and counting.

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Below is my short list of versions of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Can you recommend other versions for me to add?

1. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana
2. "Smells Like Nirvana" by Weird Al Yankovic (but of course)
   
3. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Patti Smith
4. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Paul Anka (seriously, it's a lot of fun)
5. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by The Bad Plus (this really wonderful, off-kilter jazz combo from Minneapolis)
6. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by The Muppets
7. "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Tori Amos (if I have to)
8. "Smells Like Electro Teen Spirit" by Dsico
9. "Atari Teenage Riot" by Atari Teenage Riot (features a sample of the guitar riff from "Smells Like Teen Spirit")

I know there are also other versions and variations by the likes of Pansy Division, The Moog Cookbook, The Flying Pickets, and The Melvins featuring Leif Garrett (!), but I haven't yet heard those.