Negative Creep

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"Negative Creep"
Song by Nirvana
from the album Bleach
ReleasedJune 15, 1989
RecordedDecember 29–31, 1988
GenreGrunge
Length2:56
LabelSub Pop
Songwriter(s)Kurt Cobain
Producer(s)Jack Endino
Bleach track listing
11 tracks
  1. "Blew"
  2. "Floyd the Barber"
  3. "About a Girl"
  4. "School"
  5. "Love Buzz"
  6. "Paper Cuts"
  7. "Negative Creep"
  8. "Scoff"
  9. "Swap Meet"
  10. "Mr. Moustache"
  11. "Sifting"

"Negative Creep" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the seventh song on their debut album Bleach, released in June 1989.

Origin and recording[edit]

Written by Cobain in 1988, "Negative Creep" was one of nine songs recorded during Nirvana's third studio session, in December 1988 and January 1989 at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, Washington, that were released on their July 1989 debut album, Bleach.[1] According to producer Jack Endino, the band, featuring then-drummer Chad Channing along with Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, recorded as quickly as possible, with the intention of recording a full album rather than an EP as requested by their then-label, Sub Pop. In a 2004 interview with Rob Nash of The Independent, Endino recalled that the band would record the instruments "in one or two takes," and Cobain would then record the vocals in usually a single take.[1]

Post-Bleach[edit]

"Negative Creep" was debuted live on February 25, 1989 at the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The song remained a set list regular for the next four years, until its final live performance on April 9, 1993 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. It was jammed on briefly during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance in November 1993, after being requested by an audience member, but both Cobain and Novoselic said that they no longer knew how to play it.

Composition and lyrics[edit]

"Negative Creep"
"Negative Creep" is exemplary of Seattle's grunge sound. It features Cobain's frantic wails and screaming on top of a repetitious and heavy grunge riff.[2]
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Music[edit]

"Negative Creep" has been described as one of the "Sub Popiest" songs the band ever recorded,[3] and "a text book example of Seattle's true grunge sound".[4]. The studio version is the only Nirvana recording that employs an extended fade-out while the vocals are still present.[5]

Several critics have noted the intensity of Cobain's vocals on the studio recording, with Mark Richardson of Pitchfork writing:

"Cobain's voice through the second verse terrifies me. There is no concern for his physical well being or even his future as a vocalist in a rock band. He sings as intensely as he can possibly sing. Sometimes, when I'm listening loud, I think my headphones might be breaking up from the volume only to realize that the membrane being excited to the point of distortion is actually Cobain's larynx."[6]

Lyrics[edit]

In his 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad described "Negative Creep" as "a first-person narrative from an antisocial person," with that person being Cobain himself.[7] James Jackson Toth of Stereogum called it a "chilling ode to social awkwardness" during which "Cobain, sounding like a cross between Lemmy and a gargoyle, acknowledges his position as a shadowy outsider–even revels in it."[8]

Steve Fisk, who produced Nirvana's Blew EP in 1989, offered an alternate theory of the song's meaning, saying that "I got told it was about the guy who lived across the street from the duplex and would come over while Kurt was gone to try to smoke [Cobain's then-girlfriend] Tracy [Marander] out."[9]

The song received some criticism from members of the Seattle music scene in the late 1980s because of the lyric, "Daddy's little girl ain't a girl no more," which closely resembled the lyrics to the 1988 song, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More," by Nirvana's Sub Pop label mates, Mudhoney. According to Azerrad, Cobain claimed the similarity was an example of "subconscious theft."[7]

Reception[edit]

In a July 1989 review of Bleach, Edwin Pouncey of the NME called the song "glorious" and wrote that it was "a leash strainer of a song that eventually gets loose and goes on the rampage like a rabid Rottweiler. Fab!"[10]

Legacy[edit]

In 2015, Rolling Stone placed "Negative Creep" at number 15 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs.[11] In 2022, Revolver named it one of the "10 Heaviest Grunge Songs of All Time," with Eli Enis writing that "for every glimpse at future pop-rock supremacy on Bleach, there's another song like this, a motorik, almost thrashy ripper that sees Kurt Cobain spitting back his own ugly self-perception — 'I'm a negative creep and I'm stoned' — with the wiry wrath of the picked-on kid finally taking a swing at his bully."[12] In 2023, PopMatters included it on their list of "The 10 Heaviest Nirvana Songs," with Dean Brown calling it "one of the most violent songs in Nirvana’s back catalogue" and "metal to the bone."[13]

"Negative Creep" appeared in the 1996 grunge documentary, Hype!, and was included in the film's soundtrack. It also appeared in the bonus CD included with the 1995 book Screaming Life: A Chronicle of the Seattle Music Scene, which collected the photographs of acclaimed music photographer, Charles Peterson.

Accolades[edit]

Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
1998 Kerrang! United Kingdom 20 Great Nirvana Songs Picked by the Stars[14] 9

Other releases[edit]

  • A live version, recorded at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon on February 9, 1990, was released on the 20th anniversary "Deluxe" version of Bleach, which featured the full Pine Street show as bonus material.
  • A live version, recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on November 25, 1991, was released on the 30th anniversary "Super Deluxe" version of Nevermind, which featured the full show on CD and Blu-Ray.

Covers[edit]

Year Artist Album
1996 Tura Satana Relief Through Release
1997 Machine Head Take My Scars
2001 Dee Dee Ramone Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute to Nirvana
2004 Velvet Revolver Slither

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Nash, Rob (November 19, 2004). "No less dangerous". The Independent. Retrieved February 1, 2023.
  2. ^ "Bleach (album review)". Sputnik Music. January 14, 2005. Retrieved July 6, 2011.
  3. ^ Crisafulli, Chuck (1996). Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every NIRVANA Song. Omnibus Press. p. 25. ISBN 0-7119-5809-2.
  4. ^ Gage, Josephine (September 23, 2009). "Nirvana Ultimate Mix". IGN. Retrieved August 27, 2014.
  5. ^ Howard, Tom (April 5, 2019). "Every Nirvana song ranked in order of greatness". NME.
  6. ^ Richardson, Mark. "Happy Birthday, Kurt". Pitchfork. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
  7. ^ a b Azerrad, Michael (1994). Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. Doubleday. pp. 100–101. ISBN 0-385-47199-8.
  8. ^ Jackson Toth, James (April 4, 2014). "The 10 Best Nirvana Songs". Stereogum. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  9. ^ True, Everett (March 13, 2007). Nirvana: The Biography. Da Capo Press. p. 114. ISBN 0306815540.
  10. ^ Pouncey, Edwin. "Nirvana : Bleach (Sub Pop import US LP only) – 08/07/89". NME. No. 8 July 1989. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
  11. ^ Dolan, Jon (April 8, 2015). "No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked". Rolling Stone. Retrieved February 9, 2020.
  12. ^ Enis, Eli (April 4, 2022). "10 HEAVIEST GRUNGE SONGS OF ALL TIME". Revolver. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  13. ^ Brown, Dean (January 30, 2023). "The 10 Heaviest Nirvana Songs". PopMatters. Retrieved January 31, 2023.
  14. ^ "The Hit List: 20 Great Nirvana Songs Picked by the Stars". Kerrang!. No. 709. July 25, 1998. p. 49. Retrieved July 21, 2019.
  15. ^ O'Driscoll, Des (April 4, 2014). "Nirvana in Cork: The legendary 1991 gig in Sir Henrys". Irish Examiner. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
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