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Opinion (song)

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"Opinion"
Song by Nirvana
from the album With the Lights Out
ReleasedNovember 23, 2004
GenreAlternative rock
Length1:34
LabelDGC
Composer(s)Kurt Cobain
Lyricist(s)Kurt Cobain
Audio sample

"Opinion" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. The song was written by lead vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. "Opinion" is an acoustic demo recording from the earlier days of the band. Just one recording of ‘Opinion’ has been released, taken from the solo acoustic session frontman Cobain did for a KAOS-FM in Olympia, Washington on September 25, 1990. Appearing on Calvin Johnson's “Boy Meets Girl” show, he brought along an acoustic guitar to play a handful of new songs, including "Opinion." Cobain claims he wrote the song while driving to radio session. He apparently didn’t feel the desire to finish "Opinion" in proper and had the grainy demo recording stashed away afterwards.

"Opinion" is a rough solo acoustic number that features Cobain's lone voice accompanied by driving guitar. Lyrically, "Opinion" is cynical rant about sensationalist media. The unfinished song was never released before or since been officially released. However, the KAOS session version became widely available with its inclusion on the band's 2004 compilation album, With the Lights Out.

Background

The earliest known recording of "Opinion" is a solo acoustic performance by Kurt Cobain on KAOS (FM) at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington on September 25, 1990.[1] During the leadup to release of Nevermind, Cobain made an appearance on Olympia's KAOS-FM radio show, hosted by Calvin Johnson.[2] When appearing on Johnson’s “Boy Meets Girl” show, he brought along an acoustic guitar and a few new songs.[3] Cobain played a handful of solo acoustic songs, including "Opinion," a song that had never before or since been released.[2] He started off the mini-set list with a solo performance of “Opinion" before shifting into "Lithium," "Been a Son."[3][4] The songs were so new Cobain introduced "Opinion" by telling host Calvin Johnson during an on-air he had "written most of the lyrics this evening," jokingly adding that he had done so while "driving with one foot" to the radio station."[1][3] Regarding the song, he stated, "I wanted it to be as spontaneous as possible."[5] After the song, Cobain asked Johnson if he thought it sounded like "Taxman" by the Beatles.[1]

After Cobain's death in April 1994, his widow, Courtney Love, began mentioning the song in interviews, saying she would donate it to Cobain's friend Mark Lanegan, lead singer of the Seattle band Screaming Trees, while giving another Nirvana rarity, "Talk to Me," to Iggy Pop.[6][7] No version of "Opinion" by Lanegan is known to exist. Love occasionally referred to the song as "Opinions" in these interviews, the official BMI listing of the song.

Recording

"Opinion" is a rare acoustic demo recording from the early days of Nirvana.[8][2] The track was recorded during a radio session held at KAOS-FM in Olympia, Washington.[5] Just one rough recording of ‘Opinion’ has been released. It is taken from a solo acoustic session Kurt Cobain did in Olympia, Washington KAOS FM on September 25, 1990.[9] In an interview held immediately after he’d played it, Cobain said the song sounds like ‘Taxman’ by the Beatles.[9] Both the song and the session as a whole demonstrates how effective Cobain and Nirvana were with acoustic number in the years prior to their MTV Unplugged concert.[2]

Nirvana never bothered to record the radio recording in proper.[10] A sketch of a song, "Opinion" was never developed further unlike some of the other number Cobain played that same evening, such as "Dumb," "Polly" and "Lithium."[3] Cobain apparently didn’t feel the desire to finish "Opinion" and had the grainy demo recording stashed away directly after this was recorded.[11][5] However, there is apparently a full-band, studio-recorded version somewhere that has yet to see the light of day.[2] According to Jim Griffin, an ex-employee of Nirvana's record label, Geffen Records, an electric version of "Opinion" was recorded by Nirvana in the studio.[12]

In 2015, a brief clip of a second recording of "Opinion" appeared in Montage of Heck.[13]. Shortly after the film's release, Morgan tweeted that he was “listening to a mind blowing 12-minute acoustic Cobain unheard track" that he planned to include in the film's soundtrack, Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings,[14][15], which he later confirmed was "Opinion".[16] It was later confirmed that the tape with this recording also includes two previously unreleased "practice audience" versions of "Talk to Me", along with the acoustic demo of "You Know You're Right" that was included on the With the Lights Out box set.[17]

Composition

"Opinion" is an alternative rock song that runs for a duration of one minute and thirty-four seconds.[2] Musically, the track is rough, solo acoustic demo recording.[18][2][8] The solo number features Cobain's lone voice accompanied by driving acoustic guitar.[2][19] It has a musical composition that is grainy and quiet, with Cobain singing melodies in a cracking voice.[2][5] The song is built around a repeating four-chord progression that carries throughout both its verses and choruses.[3] Lyrically, "Opinion" is cynical rant about sensationalist media.[2][9] The song has barbed lyrics aimed at the media with lines such as, “Congratulations you have won / it’s a years subscription of bad puns / and a make-shift story of concern / and to set it off before it burns.”[3][9]

Release and promotion

In September 1990, during the leadup to release of Nevermind, Kurt Cobain made an appearance on Olympia's KAOS-FM radio show, hosted by Calvin Johnson.[2] He played a handful of solo acoustic songs, including "Opinion."[2] The unfinished demo song was never released before or since been officially released.[2][11] However, the KAOS session version became widely available with its inclusion on the band's compilation album, With the Lights Out (2004).[2][10] It is among the many leftovers and outtakes, drawn from the Nevermind period to their transition from Sub Pop to DGC, featured on the disc.[19][4] The second disc opens with the radio recording of "Opinion" from of Cobain’s acoustic KAOS appearance.[10][4] This version, which had appeared on Nirvana bootlegs since the 1990s, was officially released in November 2004, on the Nirvana rarities box set, With the Lights Out[2] It also appearing in November 2005 on the single disc compilation, Sliver: The Best Of The Box. It omitted most of Cobain's conversation with Johnson, although parts of this conversation appeared in the 2015 documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, directed by Brett Morgan.

Critical reception

Describing it as an "acoustic rough," Raou Hernandez of The Austin Chronicle characterized "Opinion" as "a Cobain snark."[18] Spin's Will Hermes called the unknown acoustic demo "brilliant."[8] Writing for the same publication, Jim DeRogatis described the song as "an angry, acoustic diatribe against a sensationalistic media" and noted that the lyrics seem prescient.[20] Larry Bartleet for NME said, "... the grainy recording of his voice cracking doesn’t hide the potential of this song."[5] Andrew Sacher from BrooklynVegan stated, "It's just Kurt and a guitar, and it's just a minute and a half long, but that's all Kurt needed for the magic to come through. Lyrically cynical and melodically beautiful, it holds its own against a large handful of Nirvana's properly recorded songs. ... Nirvana may be best known for being loud and heavy, but they were just as good at soft, quiet music and "Opinion" one of the finest examples of that."[2] Rolling Stone writer Bienstock found the lyrics of "Opinion" to be pointed, but felt it "comes off as little more than a sketch of a song."[3] Scott Reid from Cokemachineglow opined, "though a fine song, it's not hard to understand why the group never bothered to record it proper."[10] Likewise, David Browne of Entertainment Weekly contrasted the song with other leftovers and outtakes from Nevermind which he viewed as strong and remarked, "Too bad the band never cut the driving ”Opinion.”[19]

Accolades

Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
2019 NME United Kingdom Every Nirvana song ranked in order of greatness[9] 38
Rolling Stone United States All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked[3] 80

Recording and release history

Date recorded Studio/venue Releases Personnel
September 25, 1990 KAOS (FM), Olympia, Washington With the Lights Out (2004)
Sliver: The Best Of The Box (2005)
c. 1992-1994 Unknown studio Unreleased
1994 Cobain residence Unreleased[note 1]
  • Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar)

References

  1. ^ a b c Jovanovic, Rob (September 2004). Nirvana: The Recording Sessions. S A F Pub Ltd. p. 125. ISBN 978-0946719600.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Sacher, Andrew (February 11, 2019). "Nirvana's 15 Best Non-Album Songs". BrooklynVegan. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h "No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked". Rolling Stone. April 5, 2019. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  4. ^ a b c Vellucci, Justin (2004-12-08). "With the Lights Out". [[]].
  5. ^ a b c d e Bartleet, Larry (2015-07-15). "14 Essential Nirvana B-Sides, Demos And Rarities". NME. IPC Media – Inspire (Time Inc.).
  6. ^ Loder, Kurt (April 22, 2008). "Courtney Love Opens Up About Kurt Cobain's Death (The Loder Files)". MTV. Archived from the original on January 29, 2013.
  7. ^ Holmen, Rasmus. "Courtney Love MTV Interview MTV Networks - 09/08/94". Nirvanaclub. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  8. ^ a b c "Nirvana - With the Lights Out". SPIN. 2004-12-24. Retrieved 2011-11-27.
  9. ^ a b c d e Howard, Tom (April 5, 2019). "Every Nirvana song ranked in order of greatness". NME. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d Reid, Scott (2004-12-01). "Nirvana: With the Lights Out". Cokemachineglow.
  11. ^ a b Beta, Andy. "Every Nirvana Song, Ranked Thirty years after the band's debut album, we look back at their entire catalogue". Vulture. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  12. ^ "Opinion". livenirvana.com. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  13. ^ a b Kurt Cobain - Opinion RareVersión #MontageOfHeck. YouTube. February 22, 2016. Retrieved November 21, 2019.
  14. ^ Cooper, Leonie (March 10, 2015). "Previously unheard 12-minute acoustic Kurt Cobain track to feature on 'Montage Of Heck' soundtrack". NME. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  15. ^ Mokoena, Tshepo (March 10, 2015). "Unreleased Kurt Cobain song to feature on Montage of Heck film soundtrack". The Guardian. Retrieved November 19, 2019.
  16. ^ "New info about Opinion home demo". Imgur. 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
  17. ^ "Shkreli Contract". Imgur. 2016. Retrieved 22 November 2019.
  18. ^ a b Hernandez, Raoul (2004-12-10). "Nirvana Gift Guide". The Austin Chronicle. Austin Chronicle Corp.
  19. ^ a b c Browne, David (10 December 2004). "With the Lights Out". Entertainment Weekly: 89.
  20. ^ DeRogatis, Jim (June 2002). "Nirvana Wars". Spin. Vol. 18, no. 6. SPIN Media LLC. p. 72. Retrieved August 17, 2018.

Notes

  1. ^ A short clip of this version appears in the film Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck.[13]
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