How Sonic Youth made Nirvana’s ‘Moist Vagina’ even weirder
Sonic Youth and Nirvana defined the 1980s and 1990s alternative scene, and it’s interesting to consider where music would be today without their influence. The bands naturally rubbed shoulders with one another, and Kim Gordon describes meeting Kurt Cobain as “one of those mutual I-can-tell-you-are-a-super-sensitive-and-emotional-person-too sorts of connections”.
In her incredible memoir, Girl in a Band, Gordon describes touring with Nirvana, writing: “I felt an immediate kinship with him. When Nirvana toured with us in 1991, before Nevermind broke, no one in Europe knew who they were. Kurt was funny and fun to be around, and soaked up any kind of personal attention. I felt very big sisterly, almost maternal, when we were together.”
Gordon has spoken very fondly of the band and Cobain, stating that “every kid wanted to be Kurt Cobain for a while”. Thus, it was only natural for Sonic Youth to honour their friends by covering one of their songs. In typical Sonic Youth fashion, they picked one of Nirvana’s weirder songs, entitled ‘Moist Vagina’.
The song was originally intended to appear on In Utero with the title ‘Moist Vagina And Then She Blew Him Like He’s Never Been Blown, Brains Stuck All Over The Wall’. However, a choice was made to leave the controversially-titled song off the album due to a fear of backlash – after all, the album already had the song ‘Rape Me’ included.
‘Moist Vagina’ can now be found on deluxe editions of In Utero, however, Sonic Youth’s cover was recorded in 1998 as a B-side to ‘Sunday’. Whereas the original Nirvana version retains their signature In Utero sound, with mellow verses interrupted with more cacophonous thrashing, Sonic Youth put their own spin on it, using Gordon’s rough vocals and much less intense instrumentation.
The result is a more raw vocal delivery of Cobain’s lyrics, which he wrote about a desperate need for marijuana. Gordon’s strained screams take centre stage in this cover of the song. However, both versions end with extremely unnerving throat sounds.
Check it out below.
