Kurt Cobain never claimed to be the greatest guitarist in the world. Even though what he played always serviced the music, most of his guitar prowess with Nirvana. It consisted of generating abstract noises on the guitar or crafting the odd melodic flourish. It was to do a transition between the verse and the chorus. Cobain wasn’t your average guitar hero, but one of his comrades wasn’t pleased with his contribution to one of their famous singles.
Nirvana had gradually risen to the top of the musical world by the time they released their album Nevermind. In just a few months, the band had gone from performing the traditional punk rock squalors to ousting Michael Jackson at the top of the album charts. Many fans do flannel and shout about their unhappy home situations in the same way that Cobain did.
His magnum opus pleased Cobain with the effort he put into it. He believed the finished result was much too smooth for his liking. Cobain was humiliated when he heard the final mixes of his songs. He said it sounded closer to a hair metal record than what he heard in his brain, owing to his involvement with stronger artists like Slayer.
Cobain was opposed to creating a follow-up record to Nevermind. Once the band had time to work on it. When they went into the studio with minimalist producer Steve Albini, they wanted to create sounds that conveyed the atmosphere of the band performing in the room. They wanted to do it with Dave Grohl’s drumming sounding considerably more powerful than before.
As a result, In Utero is one of the band’s most naked recordings. Cobain delivered one of the most unrestrained vocal performances he had ever recorded. Though the new tracks were everything but mainstream. ‘Heart Shaped Box‘ became the album’s smash single, containing some of Nirvana’s weirdest guitar parts.
After the first listen to the album, what he heard immediately frightened Krist Novoselic. He believed that Cobain needed to retake the guitar part since it was so bad. Krist Novoselic told Conan O’Brien that the final product drastically destroyed the track’s final mix. He stated, “I’m like, ‘Well, you know, this song is a very nice tune. In some ways, it’s a melancholy song’. I believe I said something along the lines of, ‘This seems like you simply threw this abortion on the floor’. ‘All of a sudden, there’s just this abortion on the floor, this is horrible,’ I remarked.
It’s simple to understand where Novoselic is coming from. In comparison to the rough guitar tone in the chorus, the terrible screech coming out of the solo is piercing from the outset, almost sounding as if Cobain was trying to play his part through a toy amp.
While the bassist had reservations, the song would go on to become a fixture of alternative rock radio, featuring the guitar solo in all its brilliance. Even if it wasn’t the most pleasant mixing option, Cobain’s decision to let the solo alone was probably closest to what he heard in his thoughts. Given Cobain’s unstable mental condition at the time, this was the equivalent of him expressing his rage on the rest of the world.
