Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I'm bored and POLLed: The ILM Nirvana poll results thread (Poll #69)

sifting? seriously? surprised. none of mine have placed yet

Yeah Sifting was one I did not expect to make it.

https://i.imgur.com/Ck2KVBG.jpg

35. Stay Away
133 points, 7 votes

ALMOST voted for that one

It didn't make my ballot and there are half a dozen others I prefer on Nevermind but it does have one of their best intros.

Our first song with votes in double figures:

https://i.imgur.com/Oa9nbC6.jpg

34. Territorial Pissings
178 points, 10 votes

Stay Away is the closet Nevermind has to filler.

I wonder whether Bowie or Nirvana benefited most from the cover.

Stay Away is the closet Nevermind has to filler.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, November 11, 2015 5:14 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. also, territorial pissings has the worst line on the album: "when i was an alien / cultures weren't opinions" wtf kurt

as I said on the other thread, i had the somewhat odd experience of In Utero being my first Nirvana album, and it shaped my taste and what i would start listening to soon after in a really major way. but over the years of going back and forth, i ultimately voted for Nevermind as my favorite album, it's just more consistently enjoyable to me.

so far "Tourette's" and "Territorial Pissings" are the only ones i've voted for, i voted for a lot of their 'this song is overtly, deliberately nonsensical' songs.

(xposts) Yeah I don't know - I always thought it was a fairly obscure choice of Bowie song prior to that but then Lulu did have a big hit with it over here.

Another one I was quite surprised to see place:

https://i.imgur.com/D9H4Gzu.jpg

33. Swap Meet
182 points, 8 votes

TRUTHBOMB/CHALLOP: Nirvana gave Bowie better cred in the 90s than Reznor ever did.

oh no doubt

fuck yeah swap meet! my #3

just beeecuuz you're paranoiiiid

Glad to see Sifter make it!

Great to see Swap Meet make it! It was in my list.

"Molly's Lips," the Bowie cover, and "Floyd..." on my list.

Swap Meet had one #1 vote by the way.

https://i.imgur.com/KFqWhUm.jpg

32. Rape Me
208 points, 10 votes

Never really liked this one I've got to say.

I got my In Utero at WalMart, so it's always been "Waif Me" to me.

Ha!

OK, last one for today:

https://i.imgur.com/mLpaTH6.jpg

31. Blew
208 points, 10 votes, 1 #1 vote

Stay Away is awesome fuiud

A recap:

TIE 40. Floyd the Barber
TIE 40. Molly's Lips
TIE 38. Sifting
TIE 38. I Hate Myself and Want to Die
37. tourette's
36. The Man Who Sold the World
35. Stay Away
34. Territorial Pissings
33. Swap Meet
32. Rape Me
31. Blew

During my listening for this poll, Swap Meet was, for whatever reason, the song that most effectively conjured potent memories of being 15. So I voted for it.

Swap Meet has such a killer chorus.

oh i did vote for Stay Away (320). Also Man Who Sold and Pissings.

p sure already that my #1 won't show

that is, #20 for Stay

"Swap Meet"!--.the chorus, the way it lurches along, and the fact that it was my first year in college--I was the #1 voter, and that's about all I have.

At the time, I was atypical at my college radio station in preferring the B-side of "Bleach" due to "Swap Meet" and (nerd alert) the Dante's Inferno label....

Interesting. "Sifting" and "Floyd the Barber" were the two Bleach songs I voted for. Glad to see it got creamed in the albums poll. I still think Nevermind is their obvious best, but after relistening I can hear why many prefer In Utero, where the production is worlds away from Nevermind and no less brilliant for it, and which certainly contains KC's sharpest set of lyrics.

Unplugged is the real slept-on record here.

And sure "Stay Away" is kind of a filler track, but it's really good filler. "Something in the Way" is the only real dud on Nevermind - bummer that it ends the record but at least it was a convenient point to switch the stereo/discman off.

Blew was my #1! Love that song. Glad it made it in.

SitW in my top 3, go to hell xp

Love you too

j/k but ya know

Hey no hard feelings Axl

I didn't vote, but is Hairspray Queen going to show up or am I in a small minority that would have it in a top 10?

Really glad to see those four Bleach songs place. I didn't vote for any of them but the major regret from my ballot (other than only finding room for one of the big Nevermind singles) is not showing that album more love. Way to go, "Sifting"!

"Hairspray Queen" was a tough cut for me

xposts but

I predict: /In Utero/ > /Unplugged/ > /Nevermind/ > /Incesticide/ > /Bleach/.

xposts now but I suspect if we'd voted for 2 or 3 albums it mighta shook out this way. Unplugged likely everyone's #2. I'd honestly have to check my ballot to see if I voted for that or In Utero...

i know people started to talk about seeing Nirvana in the voting thread but waited to post that here. first time i saw Nirvana they were the opening band for Sonic Youth's Goo tour, so it was Nirvana's Bleach tour. i was blown away and had to find out who that opening band was. show was 08/17/90 - Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood, CA, so a good year before Nevermind. During "Love Buzz," Kurt jumped into the audience and allowed members of the crowd to play his guitar for a minute before going back onstage. last time i saw them it was like the second or third last show Nirvana played in the US outside of his home town of WA. the second show was 12/30/93 - Great Western Forum, Inglewood, CA. the show was very, very dark and chaotic. it was also really powerful as Kurt gave it his all and was practically falling down from exhaustion. it did feel like a moment in time that i would never witness again. a few months later he was dead.

now but I suspect if we'd voted for 2 or 3 albums it mighta shook out this way. Unplugged likely everyone's #2. I'd honestly have to check my ballot to see if I voted for that or In Utero...

Unplugged is p dud-ish in my books. For me, it's mostly In Utero > Nevermind > Bleach > don't care.

hm. felt like a bolt from the blue at the time. really would have liked to have seen where they went from there.

synth pop

Didn't Kurt want to make an album that was like Automatic for the People?

He said that in a really dark Rolling Stone interview near the end

Voted Nevermind over In Utero in the albums. I thought I would have preferred the latter as that's the one I listen to more these days, but then my top 20 had about 8 tracks from Nevermind.

Didn't Kurt want to make an album that was like Automatic for the People?

― Modern French Music from Failure to Boulez (askance johnson), Wednesday, November 11, 2015 10:51 PM

He unofficially did with Unplugged

i wish i had included Dive in my list. not an oversight so much as having not realized how good it was until after the results came out.

Toad or toe, people? The only thing I liked about that song was that he may have run down his pet amphibian.

oh the guilt = my favourite song not to place

moist vagina is such a great overlooked track, classic alone for Kurt wailing "MARIJUANAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" and then the vocal fry at the end

really i do suspect those of you who don't think "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is one of Nirvana's 20 best recordings of pure frontin'

― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Sunday, November 15, 2015 4:05 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I don't think it is, and I'm definitely not "frontin'"

ok i believe you

(i just don't understand)

Yeah, I don't quite get the Smells Like Teen Spirit contempt. That's part of the reason I made it my #1, to counteract the negative creeps (Just kidding). In truth any of my top 5 could have been 1.

I'm far far more sick of Lithium and Come As You Are than Smells Like Teen Spirit.

been a son is a pretty cool song. i've never heard it before. thanks poll!

Thanks to the poll for making me listen to "Do Re Mi" for the first time. It's great! I can't believe I never sought it out. I guess I was put off by the price of the big box set (I had no money then) and ignored the "best of the box" thing. It's a rough cut, but I had bits of it stuck in my head for days. What a shame the world never got the "next" Nirvana record, with that, "You Know You're Right," and hell maybe even some songs that showed up on the first Foo Fighters album. Wasn't it meant to be like the White Album, with a little bit of everything? Maybe I'm wrong, but I recall Kurt was supposed to go out to Georgia and meet with Michael Stipe and throw around some ideas. Ach, what a loss...

Lounge Act
Aneurysm
School
Dumb
Even In His Youth - actually discovered this song while making my list
Scentless Apprentice
Milk It
Stay Away
Drain You
Negative Creep
All Apologies
Come As You Are
Molly's Lips
Breed
Sliver
Been A Son
Do Re Mi
Marigold
The Man Who Sold The World
Heart-Shaped Box

The funny thing was that I had a really hard time picking 20 songs but ordering those 20 didn't matter too much.
I love that 'Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle' ranked so high because that was my hardest cut.

I'm also glad that Wishkah did really good considering 'Spank Thru' was the only song that didn't place.
The Wishkah versions of several songs are better than the stereo versions.

'Molly's Lips' was the other song I never actually noticed until I made my list.

I ranked a few faves.

No Incesticide? I know it's not strictly an album but with such a sparse discography I'd have thought you'd take everything you could get.

Also I think my rankings would possibly be exactly the opposite way round to yours (some days IU first and Bleach second).

Yes - felt that way since it came out. Ultimately, he was a great singer, and never communicated more clearly than on Unplugged. All the covers freed him up to really reveal something that his instinctively blunt poesy kept hidden.