"Aneurysm" | ||||
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Promotional single by Nirvana | ||||
from the album From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah | ||||
Released | October 8, 1996 | |||
Recorded | Del Mar, California, December 28, 1991 | |||
Genre | Grunge [1] [2] | |||
Length | 4:31 4:35 (Incesticide version) 4:47 (b-side version) | |||
Label | DGC | |||
Songwriter(s) | ||||
Producer(s) | ||||
Nirvana singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"Aneurysm" on YouTube |
"Aneurysm" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. It first appeared as a B-side on the band's breakthrough "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single in September 1991. A second studio version was released on the rarities compilation Incesticide in December 1992.
A live version, recorded on December 28, 1991, at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California, was released as the first promotional single from the live compilation From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah in November 1996. It reached number 11 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 13 on its Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Written in 1990, "Aneurysm" is one of the few Nirvana songs credited to all three members. It was first performed live on November 25, 1990, at the Off Ramp Café in Seattle, Washington.
The first studio version was recorded on January 1, 1991, at Music Source in Seattle, Washington, where the band had recorded material for their Blew EP with Steve Fisk in 1989. Still under contract with Sub Pop, the private session was recorded for free by the band's audio engineer Craig Montgomery, who was friends with Music Source employee Brian Nelson. The seven-song session was the band's first with Grohl, who had joined Nirvana in September 1990.
According to Montgomery, the band "would play the songs live and then Kurt would either put a vocal on it or he wouldn't. It was all first take." [3] The session tapes were later purchased by DGC, whom the band officially signed with in April 1991, and the two finished songs, "Aneurysm" and "Even in His Youth," were remixed by Andy Wallace and released as b-sides on the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single in September 1991.
Both songs were re-released on the Australian and Japanese tour EP, Hormoaning , in January 1992.
A second studio version of "Aneurysm" was recorded by Miti Adhikari for the BBC program The Evening Session at Maida Vale Studios in London, England. This version was later released on the band's rarities compilation Incesticide in December 1992, along with versions of "Polly" and "Been a Son" from the same session.
Of the four songs recorded during the session, the band spent the longest working on "Aneurysm", using fade-ins and fade-outs on the backing vocals during the verses to give the recording an "unusual" vocal effect, as described by author Gillian G. Garr, and overall "lighter" feel than the Music Source version. [4]
Despite never being released on a studio album, "Aneurysm" was a regular part of the band's setlist in 1991 and 1992. The song's final live performance was on August 6, 1993, at the King Cat Theatre in Seattle. [5]
"Aneurysm" is a grunge song that lasts for a duration of four minutes and thirty-five seconds. [6] According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by BMG Rights Management, it is written in common time, with a moderately fast rock tempo of 132 beats per minute. [6] "Aneurysm" is composed in the key of B minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and five notes, from a low of A4 to a high of F♯5. [6] The song has a basic sequence of F♯5–C–B5–A5 during the introduction, alternates between the chords of B5 and D5 in the verses and follows F♯5–G♯5–A5–B♭5–B5–B♭5–A5 at the refrain as its chord progression. [6] Its arrangement begins with an extended introduction, opening with an echoed, descending guitar riff. The song's verses are structured around a simplistic, crunching two-chord sequence. [2]
According to Charles Cross in the 2002 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven , "Aneurysm" was the first of "a half dozen" songs written by Cobain following his break-up with American musician Tobi Vail in November 1990. [7] Cross described "Aneurysm" as an attempt to win Vail back, unlike later songs like "Drain You," which instead expressed "his deep level of hurt." [7] Throughout the number, Cobain loudly snarls parodic lyrics insisting listeners to, "Come on over, and do the twist." [2] His lyrics for the song make fun of pop conventions and drug-use rituals ("shoot the shit"), ("beat me out of me"). [8] During the chorus, Cobain delivers a rousing round of catchy chants. The song concludes with enigmatic praise for an unidentified woman: "She keeps it pumpin' straight to my heart." [2]
Reviewing Incesticide for the NME in December 1992, Angela Lewis dismissed the album's side two as "not terribly good" and wrote that "91s ‘Aneurysm’ is lyrically baffling and sounds tired." [9]
In his AllMusic review of Incesticide, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described "Aneurysm" as "perhaps the greatest single song the group ever recorded." [10] AllMusic's Mark Deming wrote that the song "may have been [Nirvana's] final grunge masterpiece" before the release of their mainstream breakthrough Nevermind in September 1991, and described it as being characterized by "big, loud rock riffs, pop culture parody, self-conscious self-disgust, and a finale worthy of a thousand upheld Bic lighters." [2] Jenny Pelly of Pitchfork called the song "the apex of [Incesticide] and Nirvana's career," writing that it "never fails to put the stupidest grin on my face, and I cannot hear it without flailing every inch of my body to its squirming emotional upheaval, without jerking my shoulders to its torrential feedback of the heart, as if succumbing to every knot and crevice of this punk song could save my life." [11] Pitchfork's Jeremy D. Larson called it "an absolutely perfect, blood-boiling, body-moving, and still severely underrated song." [12]
In 2013, "Aneurysm" was voted the seventh best Nirvana song in a Rolling Stone's reader's poll. [13] In 2015, it was ranked at number 30 on Rolling Stone's "No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked" list. [14] In 2019, The Guardian placed it at number six on their list of Nirvana's 20 greatest songs, with Alex Petridis calling it "every bit the equal of anything on Nevermind." [15]
In 2017, to mark what would have been Cobain's 50th birthday, the Phonographic Performance Limited released a list of the top 20 most played Nirvana songs on television and radio in the UK, in which "Aneurysm" was ranked at number nine. [16]
On April 10, 2014, "Aneurysm" was performed by surviving Nirvana members Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear, with lead vocals by Kim Gordon, vocalist and bassist of the American indie rock band Sonic Youth, at Nirvana's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. Rolling Stone named it one of the 10 Best Cover Songs of 2014, calling it a "fitting" end to the ceremony given Sonic Youth's role in helping Nirvana attain mainstream success, and writing that "Kurt would've approved." [17] Gordon discussed the performance in her 2015 autobiography Girl in a Band , writing that "Onstage, I was reminded that Kurt was the most intense performer I had ever seen ... I sang 'Aneurysm,' with its chorus, 'Beat me out of me,' bringing in all my own rage and hurt from the last few years - a four-minute-long explosion of grief, where I could finally let myself feel the furious sadness of Kurt's death and everything else surrounding it." [18]
A live version of "Aneurysm," recorded on December 28, 1991, at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California, appeared on the live compilation From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah , released in October 1996. It was released as the album's first promotional single, peaking at number 11 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 13 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart. [19] The song also received some radio airplay in Australia. [20]
Footage of the band performing the song from the 1994 home video, Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! , was used as a music video on MTV, MuchMusic, and The Box to promote the From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah album in 1996, even though it is a different version that appears on the album. [21] The Live! Tonight!! Sold Out!! version is an edit of two different live versions, from shows at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, Netherlands on November 25, 1991, and the Hollywood Rock festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on January 23, 1993. No footage of the Del Mar Fairgrounds performance is known to exist.
The "Aneurysm" video reached number one on the Canadian MuchMusic Countdown in November 1996. [22] The video was also played on Rage and Red in Australia. [23] It was also played on The Box in the UK and Ireland. [24]
Weekly charts(From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah version)
| Year-end charts
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Year | Publication | Country | Accolade | Rank |
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1998 | Kerrang! | United Kingdom | 20 Great Nirvana Songs Picked by the Stars [40] | 15 |
Nashville songwriter/producer Shane Tutmarc released an all electronic version of the song as a single, and music video, in 2013. [41]
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind (1991), released on DGC Records. The unexpected success of the song propelled Nevermind to the top of several albums charts at the start of 1992, an event often marked as the point when grunge entered the mainstream. It was Nirvana's biggest hit, charting high on music industry charts around the world in 1991 and 1992, and was number one on the charts in Belgium, France, New Zealand and Spain. It was met with wide critical acclaim, and described as an "anthem for apathetic kids" of Generation X. Although Nirvana grew uncomfortable with the mainstream and commercial attention the song brought to them, listeners and critics continue to praise "Smells Like Teen Spirit" as one of the greatest songs of all time.
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 1991, by DGC Records. It was Nirvana's first release on a major label and the first to feature the drummer Dave Grohl. Produced by Butch Vig, Nevermind features a more polished, radio-friendly sound than the band's prior work. It was recorded at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, and Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, in May and June 1991, and mastered that August at the Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California.
Incesticide is a compilation album by the American rock band Nirvana. It consists of their 1990 non-album single "Sliver", B-sides, demos, outtakes, cover versions, and radio broadcast recordings, and as such is not the official follow-up to the band's breakthrough album, Nevermind. The album was released on December 14, 1992, in Europe, and December 15, 1992, in the United States. It eventually reached number 39 on the Billboard 200.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah is a live album by American rock band Nirvana, released on October 1, 1996. It features live performances recorded between 1989 and 1994.
Hormoaning is an extended play (EP) by the American rock band Nirvana. It was released on January 27, 1992, through DGC Records and Geffen Records. It was released in Australia and Japan only, during the band's tour there.
"Come as You Are" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by frontman and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the third track and the second single from the band's second studio album Nevermind, the single released in March 1992. It was the band's second and final American top 40 hit, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, and second UK top 10 hit, reaching number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The single reached the top 10 in eight countries and the top 40 in eleven further countries.
"In Bloom" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the second track on the band's second album, Nevermind, released by DGC Records in September 1991.
"Lithium" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the fifth track on the band's second album, Nevermind, released by DGC Records in September 1991.
"Sliver" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic.
"Drain You" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the eighth track on their second album, Nevermind, released in September 1991. The song was released as a promotional single in late 1991, and also appeared as a b-side on UK retail editions of the first single from that album, "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
"On a Plain" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the 11th track on their second album, Nevermind, released in September 1991.
"About a Girl" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the third song on their debut album, Bleach, released in June 1989.
"Polly" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the sixth song on their second album Nevermind, released by DGC Records in September 1991.
"Been a Son" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It was originally released on the Blew EP in November 1989, which charted at number 15 on the UK Indie Singles chart.
"Endless, Nameless" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. It is the 13th and final song on the band's second studio album, Nevermind, released in September 1991.
Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! is a live video by the American rock band Nirvana, directed by Kevin Kerslake, and released on November 15, 1994, on VHS and laserdisc. It was re-released on DVD on November 7, 2006.
The discography of Nirvana, an American rock band, consists of three studio albums, twenty-one singles, five live albums, two extended plays, four compilation albums, and three box sets.
"Dive" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic. It was released as the B-side to the band's second single, "Sliver" in September 1990. The same version was re-released as the opening track on the compilation album The Grunge Years in 1991, and again on the Nirvana rarities compilation, Incesticide, in December 1992.
Live at the Paramount is a live video and album by American rock band Nirvana, released on September 24, 2011. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc as part of the 20th anniversary of the band's second album and mainstream breakthrough, Nevermind.
Aneurism
External videos | |
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Nirvana - Aneurysm (Live at Reading 1992) on YouTube, NirvanaVEVO |