‘Drain You’: The song Kurt Cobain wanted Nirvana to be remembered for
When Nirvana suddenly broke out of obscurity to become the grunge gods of the 1990s, perhaps no one was as surprised by the storming success as the trio themselves. They had spent four years altering lineups and intimate shows, and the height of their notoriety was largely limited to college radio. However, all that changed in 1991 with the release of Nevermind, heralding a rock and roll revolution primarily in the form of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’.
For a band that had a tenure so short as it ended up becoming the case for Nirvana, it was inevitable that despite the depths of their artistry, only a few songs would take charge in defining their legacy. Nothing does that in their own back catalogue and, in many ways, in the era of rock at large, like the aforementioned lead single on Nevermind, bolting the band out the blue and landing Kurt Cobain the enviable role of being one of the most illustrious frontmen in all of music.
But like many artists who have fallen victim to having one particular storming hit on their hands, the rapturous acclaim of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was both a blessing and a curse. Individually, it’s still one of the best-selling songs of all time and could have easily filled the band’s pay packets all on its own – however, ultimately, it’s just one tune, and Cobain especially felt that if the world looked beyond it, they would find so many more treasures within the walls of the Nirvana songbook.
He told Rolling Stone in January 1994, a mere three months before he died, that: “Everyone has focused on that song so much. The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. It’s been pounded into their brains.” Certainly, the steadfast backing of MTV proved a juxtaposing force in expanding the band’s commercial horizons but also pigeonholing them into a box, where Cobain felt they had so much more to give that only the legacy of just one seismic song.
He continued: “But there are so many other songs that I’ve written that are as good, if not better, like ‘Drain You’. That’s as good as ‘Teen Spirit’. I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing it. Maybe if it was as big as ‘Teen Spirit’, I wouldn’t like it as much.” ‘Drain You’, complete with Cobain’s classic grungy whining tone and visceral guitar riff, is definitely a Nirvana hallmark – but it also holds a certain depth within its midst that Cobain was clearly keen to convey.
The song doesn’t have quite the abrasive edge of something like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’; there’s a softer cadence laced through it, lamenting love, albeit in a pretty perverted sense, through raw images such as: “Chew your meat for you/ Pass it back and forth/ In a passionate kiss/ From my mouth to yours/ I like you,” creating other gruesome bodily references throughout the rest of the song through nods to infections, eyes, fluids, and lips.
Squeamish as it may make you feel, this was in many ways purely a precursor to the depths Cobain would delve to next on In Utero, making the body a vehicle for passion as much as blood and guts. Ultimately, ‘Drain You’ was his declaration that Nirvana were a dark force to be reckoned with, as away from the heights of mainstream success, the reality was much gorier.
