NIRVANA – LITHIUM (DGC)
This was the Nirvana summer hit of 1992 with its release timed to coincide with their historical victory against the elements at Reading Festival that year (a festival that was very much different to the corporate logo riddled event that it is now).
The third single to be pulled from Nevermind this was also the song that they famously played the MTV Awards that summer when Kurt threatened to play “Rape Me” instead and eventually Krist would wind up bashing himself in the head with his bass after he threw it in the air.
Not the most obvious of singles Lithium is a mid tempo often slow paced number from the band that eventually explodes into a jarring finale. It is in essence quite generic in its structure as the muddled vocals make even less sense when read from a hymn sheet. With the opening lines of “I’m so happy” the lethargic continuation of the song is almost hilarious in comparison to the initial sentiments spewed out at the opening of the song. Thanks to its catchy chorus though and vocal refrains this represents one of the easier Nirvana songs to singalong to and with it perhaps one of the most rounded songs in their catalogue that truly represented the entire width of their songbook.
In the end this turned out to be a single I bought numerous times. The first time I purchased it came at the close of the 1992 summer school holidays. I bought it on cassette single from Woolworths in Clacton-on-sea and while the charts filled with horrible pieces of MTV churned euro pop this felt like one of the few beacons of hope. Indeed this was the time that Erasure were reaching the top of the charts with their Abba cover versions. The day I bought this single on cassette I bumped into a friend in town and made a joke about buying the Erasure thing instead. Immediately my friend responded how he already had the Erasure single. Years later when he was unearthed on Facebook we discovered he had now come out and was royally flying the flag. I guess Nirvana wasn’t really for him after then although Reading 92 was also the year the Bjorn Again took to the main stage with their cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The second time I bought the single it was the US import CD single version. The cover of the single had always been striking due to its similarity (in my mind) to the Incesticide cover. It was cool to see a larger version of the cover but the true gold in the import version (and the reason why I paid the equivalent of an album for it) was how it included lyric sheets for the entire tracklisting of Nevermind. The UK digipack CD single had not come with lyrics although it did have an extra track in the form of their cover of The Wipers “D-7”.
The b-sides to the release were pretty titillating. The live version of “Been A Son” eventually surpassed any studio recorded version of the song and served as an exciting example of how great the band sounded live even if it wasn’t their greatest or strongest song on its own merit. The other track to feature on the release was “Curmudgeon” which proved wonky and unsettling in a fun manner sounding once more like nothing else in the Nirvana cannon.
A great single but not their best.
Thesaurus moment: yeah.
Nirvana
DGC
This was the Nirvana summer hit of 1992 with its release timed to coincide with their historical victory against the elements at Reading Festival that year (a festival that was very much different to the corporate logo riddled event that it is now).
The third single to be pulled from Nevermind this was also the song that they famously played the MTV Awards that summer when Kurt threatened to play “Rape Me” instead and eventually Krist would wind up bashing himself in the head with his bass after he threw it in the air.
Not the most obvious of singles Lithium is a mid tempo often slow paced number from the band that eventually explodes into a jarring finale. It is in essence quite generic in its structure as the muddled vocals make even less sense when read from a hymn sheet. With the opening lines of “I’m so happy” the lethargic continuation of the song is almost hilarious in comparison to the initial sentiments spewed out at the opening of the song. Thanks to its catchy chorus though and vocal refrains this represents one of the easier Nirvana songs to singalong to and with it perhaps one of the most rounded songs in their catalogue that truly represented the entire width of their songbook.
In the end this turned out to be a single I bought numerous times. The first time I purchased it came at the close of the 1992 summer school holidays. I bought it on cassette single from Woolworths in Clacton-on-sea and while the charts filled with horrible pieces of MTV churned euro pop this felt like one of the few beacons of hope. Indeed this was the time that Erasure were reaching the top of the charts with their Abba cover versions. The day I bought this single on cassette I bumped into a friend in town and made a joke about buying the Erasure thing instead. Immediately my friend responded how he already had the Erasure single. Years later when he was unearthed on Facebook we discovered he had now come out and was royally flying the flag. I guess Nirvana wasn’t really for him after then although Reading 92 was also the year the Bjorn Again took to the main stage with their cover of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
The second time I bought the single it was the US import CD single version. The cover of the single had always been striking due to its similarity (in my mind) to the Incesticide cover. It was cool to see a larger version of the cover but the true gold in the import version (and the reason why I paid the equivalent of an album for it) was how it included lyric sheets for the entire tracklisting of Nevermind. The UK digipack CD single had not come with lyrics although it did have an extra track in the form of their cover of The Wipers “D-7”.
The b-sides to the release were pretty titillating. The live version of “Been A Son” eventually surpassed any studio recorded version of the song and served as an exciting example of how great the band sounded live even if it wasn’t their greatest or strongest song on its own merit. The other track to feature on the release was “Curmudgeon” which proved wonky and unsettling in a fun manner sounding once more like nothing else in the Nirvana cannon.
A great single but not their best.
Thesaurus moment: yeah.
Nirvana
DGC
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