The one song on Nirvana album ‘Nevermind’ that doesn’t feature Dave Grohl
For many rock fans, Nirvana didn’t really become whole until Dave Grohl joined the band. After shuffling through what seemed like an endless cycle of drummers behind the kit, the band became a force to be reckoned with when Grohl brought his energy to Kurt Cobain’s material, playing with the same ferocity normally reserved for people like John Bonham. Then again, it was never exactly supposed to go that way.
When Nirvana were putting together their first demos, Cobain would work with any available drummer before finally settling on Chad Channing. Though Channing was by no means a terrible musician behind the kit, there were more than a few times when Cobain would become dissatisfied with his style, including a few occasions in which he would throw himself into the drum kit after one too many sloppy performances during a night.
Between trying to find a drummer, Buzz Osborne of Melvins introduced Cobain to a band from the East Coast called Scream, whose drummer Dave Grohl was a wild animal behind the kit. After some coaxing out of him, Cobain eventually convinced Grohl to jump ship to join Nirvana before they were about to go into the studio to work on their major label debut, Nevermind.
Although the subsequent album would go on to revolutionise rock music as a whole, there was one song that Grohl arrived too late to be featured on. As the band cut the basic tracks for the record, their initial recording sessions took place in one of producer Butch Vig’s studios in Wisconsin when Channing was still in the fold.
Since these days were only meant for scratch tracks, Cobain laid down the beginnings of what he intended to be a slow acoustic song called ‘Polly’, inspired by a news story that he had read about a woman who was abused after a rock show in Washington. Taking on the role of the abuser, Cobain wanted as little adornment on the song as possible and decided to go with the drums from the original session, which consisted of nothing more than a few cymbal hits to break up the verses and chorus.
Though Grohl would eventually record background vocals for the project, they had no time to overdub the snare hits again, electing to keep what Channing did on the original demo. Then again, Grohl wouldn’t say that Channing was a poor drummer even after taking his place.
During Nirvana’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Grohl thanked Channing for his impressive performance across Nirvana’s catalogue, even admitting that Channing came up with the iconic drum fill that kicks off the song ‘In Bloom’. Grohl did have a few song ideas up his sleeve, too, with his opening drum fill of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ practically announcing to the world that the times of alternative music were about to begin.
Grohl’s performance behind the kit didn’t let up after Nirvana ended, either, playing all the drums on the first Foo Fighters album and playing with Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Queens of The Stone Age for select performances. Although Grohl may have had his moment to shine on Nevermind, Channing’s influence is still hidden in the grooves of one of the album’s most haunting songs.
