Kurt came up with the concept of the Teen Spirit video, broadly inspired by Ramones’ trashy 1979 film Rock’N’Roll High School, and also Jonathan Kaplan’s ’79 teenage delinquent punk film Over The Edge. And I wish I had, because then it would’ve sounded more like Nevermind and it wouldn’t have been such a drastic leap.” “I had a few more like that that I could’ve put on the album. “It’s obvious that when Bleach came out I was very set in one frame of mind, except for that one song About A Girl,” Kurt told Melody Maker. The original draft of Teen Spirit included a line later picked up on by Kurt’s future wife Courtney Love: ‘ Who will be the king and queen of the outcast teens?’ Clearly, it was intended for Vail. Smells Like Teen Spirit was supposed to be called Anthem, but Bikini Kill had a song called Anthem, and we got in a big argument, and I won so he had to change it." “Who really knows what they are about? They sound great and some of the imagery is strong, but as far as them being about any one person or thing or situation, it’s not clear, is it? They seem to be written in code. “The songs were confusing,” comments Vail. What was there to do in life, now that the adults had grabbed all the fun adolescent stuff for themselves?
“Boredom: the desire for desires,” as Russian philosopher Leo Tolstoy wrote. The famous ‘ Over-bored and self-assured’ line in Teen Spirit is a reference to both Vail and Cobain’s personalities. That idea doesn’t come from anything that really happened.” I am sick of being the girl who is blamed for his suffering. “The idea that I broke his heart, and that he was helpless and fatally wounded by that, is just stupid romantic tripe. “Contrary to popular belief, he broke up with me,” Vail states firmly. Self-hating and dissatisfied with life in Olympia but not wanting to admit it, and frustrated that his relationship with Vail wasn’t progressing as he wanted, Kurt split up with her. And as much as he felt energised by her creativity, Kurt was a solo creator. It was during one of these nights that Hanna spray-painted ‘Kurt smells like Teen Spirit’ on a wall, referring to the brand of deodorant his girlfriend, Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail, wore.Ĭobain and Vail split up shortly afterwards, him feeling excluded by her self-assurance and youth (she was 21, he was 23 but she made him feel older). Grohl dated Bikini Kill singer Kathleen Hanna for a couple of weeks, and the Nirvana/Bikini Kill couples briefly socialised together, skateboarding and indulging in the occasional spot of vandalism.