Sounds Like Teen Spirit

A friend sent me a link to the Youtube clip below of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” that features only the vocals. In an era of Auto Tune and other computer-based wizardry, it seems quaint to behold a vocal track where the gasps of air are clearly audible and the only enhancements are some good old-fashioned reverb and vocal track layering. The vocal is definitely not what you'd call “pretty” but its raw throaty feel is perfect in the same way that Bob Dylan's voice is perfect for the stories he told. There's been ample discussion and debate over the meaning of the song, much of it fueled by the fact that the band often provided vague information each time they were asked to explain it. Is the teller of the tale angry? Frustrated? Bored? I'd say perhaps he's frustrated about being bored. Historically speaking, there was a lot to be frustrated about back then living in the aftermath of the Reagan Years.

As I listen to this, I'm trying to keep out of my mind the history behind the track, its aftermath, and the way the story ends but I inevitably fail. It's difficult to evaluate this track solely within its own context because of the fact that so much has been discussed about the song and the band that wrote it. Looking back, the song is a clear dividing line in rock music. It ushered in what was for me the last great run of new rock music. In the way punk rock shook people out of the stupor of dinosaur rock, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the antidote to the ennui and bad sartorial style of the hair metal bands.* In the way that the single snare beat that leads off “Like A Rolling Stone” was a breath of fresh air, the opening riff of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sounds like relief to me. It's the relief that rock music was now back in the hands of people that wore thrift store clothes like I did and who weren't interested in the trappings of being music superstars. Sure enough, pop culture swung back the other way as it tends to do and we were soon deluged with boy bands and other things that took over the airwaves.

The stripped-down version of this song serves as a elegy for what once was and is now sadly gone. Ever since the end of Nirvana, I've held out the hope that there's a kid in a basement somewhere with a guitar who's sowing the seeds of the next go-round. This may be hopelessly optimistic as today's music business is so much different that a wide-scale rumbling from the underground may not happen again.

* (Disclaimer: I loved the first Poison record and played a few of their songs in a band. I will tell anyone willing to listen that Poison could've gone down in history as a cool younger brother to Cheap Trick had they ditched the makeup and hairspray).