Who did Kurt Cobain write the Nirvana song ‘Lounge Act’ about?
Lyrics are a peculiar thing. Most of the time, even songwriters aren’t entirely sure what they mean. While the likes of Bob Dylan and John Lennon have been forthcoming in laying the issue bare in song and opening up on their meaning in the media, Kurt Cobain, another traditional songwriter of worldwide influence who followed the path of the above, was not so open. He didn’t want to give it all away and, as a punk at heart, refused to play the game.
The late grunge icon was a fairly frustrating fellow for fans, as although he would sometimes openly discuss the meaning of tracks, on most occasions, he wouldn’t. He was the discerning type, though, and could see no value in giving away all the tricks of the trade, particularly when some of his finest moments were fusions of influences, from real experiences to that of other musicians, often creating a surreal pastiche of the cut-up technique that makes for some pretty kooky reading.
Undoubtedly, the most famous example of Cobain’s almost nonsensical approach to lyrics that he sometimes utilised is the band’s breakout single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. It somehow managed to tap into the profoundly jaded spirit of Generation X while featuring inexplicable lines such as “A mulatto, an albino / A mosquito, my libido”.
Even a later Nirvana classic, ‘All Apologies’, which Cobain dedicated to his wife Courtney Love and infant daughter Francis Bean during the band’s iconic set at Reading 1992, would leave the songwriter a touch confused. “I Like to think the song is for them,” he later told biographer Michael Azerrad, “But the words don’t really fit in relation to us…the feeling does, but not the lyrics.”
As all fans of Nirvana know, Cobain’s music was as complicated as the brain that produced it, and the band’s second album, 1991’s Nevermind, is probably the best example of this. Brimming with classics from start to finish, one song that has dumbfounded fans since its release is ‘Lounge Act’. While the lyrics to the song open seemingly directly with, “Truth, covered in security / I can’t let you smother me / I’d like to but it wouldn’t work / Trading off and taking turns / I don’t regret a thing”, there’s still a great deal of mystery attached to them as they unfold.
Just take a part of the second verse, for instance: “I’ll arrest myself, I’ll wear a shield / I’ll go out of my way to prove I still / Smell her on you”. However, it does seem that Cobain was addressing a lover or romantic interest, and some think they know who.
So, who is the Kurt Cobain song ‘Lounge Act’ about?
In the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, a quote from an unsent letter to Bikini Kill founding member Tobi Vail is included: “Every song on this record [In Utero] is not about you. No, I am not your boyfriend. No, I don’t write songs about you, except for ‘Lounge Act,’ which I do not play, except when my wife is not around.”
Famously, Vail was Cobain’s girlfriend for a short time from July 1990. The pair would write songs together, and some even became Nirvana cuts. It was another Bikini Kill member, Kathleen Hanna, who wrote “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on Cobain’s bedroom wall, referencing the deodorant brand he and Vail had discovered at the store when dating. As this would inspire ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, some believe the ‘Lounge Act’ line, “I still smell her on you”, references the hit.
