The Fat Angel Sings

When a band skillfully covers another artist; ultimately, it comes down to fabricating the illusion that the song was theirs all along, while always paying direct homage to the original by giving it new life.

As good as Kurt Cobain was at song writing, he was also a master of interpreting the work of others. His covers were rarely straightforward renditions — they almost always brought something new to the song and were sometimes even better than the originals. Their choice in cover songs were also always as crucial as the performances themselves. Save for a few Zeppelin covers, Nirvana rarely covered songs that were already very popular, and in the rare cases that they did (like one Beatles cover included below), they would change it up significantly.

David Bowie, the Vaselines, Shocking Blue, Devo, and the Velvet Underground are among the many artists Nirvana borrowed from during their short yet prolific career—these names alone showcase a surprisingly eclectic taste that was anything but the norm in most of their punk circles. With the band’s impeccable swan song “In Utero” celebrating its 30th anniversary, let’s look at 10 songs they made their own, and whose influence is evident within the extraordinary patchwork of Nirvana’s musical legacy.

Shocking Blue – “Love Buzz”

And what was that very first Nirvana single? Whaddya know, it was a cover! The band launched their recording careers with “Love Buzz,” originally by Dutch psychedelic-rockers Shocking Blue. Not the most obvious start for the most iconic band of the ’90s (apparently it was Krist’s idea). Already a staple of their raucous live show, “Love Buzz” did represent, according to Sub Pop founder Bruce Pavitt, “an indicator of some of their direction in songwriting.”

The importance of Nirvana’s debut single, “Love Buzz,” has over the years revealed itself to be manifold: While the 1988 release date was subsequently used to justify the band’s 2014 Rock Hall induction, “Love Buzz‘s” obsessive romanticism and in-your-face punkness offer a distinct blueprint for what became the Nirvana sound. Cobain keeps the Arabic scale employed by Dutch psych-rockers Shocking Blue in their 1969 original, but replaces the sitar-heavy riff with a wah-wah pedal and a Boss delay.

The Velvet Underground – “Here She Comes Now”

Part of a 1990 Velvet Underground tribute album and a 1991 split single with the Melvins, Nirvana’s take on the “White Light/White Heat” classic remains exceptionally faithful to the original. (The chord variation at the end of the chorus made it sound like a Cobain composition from the get-go.) Despite the band rarely playing it live, the primitive rawness of “Here She Comes Now” fits like a glove in Nirvana’s grunge repertoire—further confirmation of VU’s indisputable place in the proto-punk pantheon.

In 1990, towards the end of the era with Chad Channing on drums, Nirvana teamed up with their pals the Melvins for a split single of Velvet Underground covers. Melvins did a noisy take on “Venus In Furs” from VU’s 1967 debut “The Velvet Underground & Nico”, and Nirvana took on “Here She Comes Now” from their 1968 LP “White Light/White Heat”. (Nirvana’s cover also appeared on the compilation “Heaven & Hell – A Tribute To The Velvet Underground – Volume One“.) Their version is over twice as long as the original, and though it starts off as one of Nirvana’s more straightforward covers, they eventually turn it into something that sounds like no band in the world besides Nirvana. They apply their trademark loud-quiet-loud formula to the song, with the first more faithful half being “quiet” and the second half very much being “loud.” As the volume increases, Kurt goes off script and starts busting out throat-shredding, off-key screams and dissonant guitar solos, before the whole band just locks into a jam, with some sharp improvised basslines from Krist Novoselic. Considering VU were basically the inventors of atonal, unstructured noise rock, this was a fitting tribute.

Thunder and Roses – “White Lace and Strange”

Philly’s Thunder and Roses released just one album in 1969, “King Of The Black Sunrise”, before calling it quits. Singer/guitarist Chris Bond went on to play with Hall & Oates, but Thunder and Roses remained in obscurity, and they’re still there today. But even if they aren’t a household name, their heavy, psychedelic sound was a clear precedent to a lot of metal, stoner rock, garage rock, etc, and their album’s opening track “White Lace and Strange” found its way into the hands of Nirvana, who covered it during their first radio session for Olympia’s KAOS-FM in 1987, along with some of their own obscure early originals.

The original is more psychedelic and Cream-like, but Nirvana turned it into something that sounded much more like what we now know of as grunge. Even this early on, Kurt’s guitar playing had that swampy, flannel-wearing sound that Nirvana became known for, and it gives the song a much dirtier, heavier vibe than the original. And Kurt’s vocals only slightly hint at the ’60s-style singing of the original. He sings it like he wrote it, with all the angst his own much darker songs had. You could hear the psych-rock influence of songs like this coming through on early Nirvana originals like “Blew” and “Blandest,” and if you didn’t know any better, you might think they wrote “White Lace and Strange” too.

The Vaselines – “Son of a Gun”/”Molly’s Lips”

The Vaselines were one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite bands, and he even wound up naming his own daughter after vocalist Frances McKee. Initially included in the 1992 “Hormoaning” EP and later added to the compilation “Incesticide”, Nirvana’s sunny, slightly pop-punk-ish (description) versions of “Son Of A Gun” and “Molly’s Lips” were an integral part of a BBC Radio 1 Peel Session recorded at Maida Vale Studios in October 1990.

Nirvana’s best Vaselines cover is the one they did of “Molly’s Lips” in a 1990 Peel Session (which was later released on 1992’s “Hormoaning” EP. When Nirvana mixed their trademark sound with their twee-ish indie pop influence, the result kinda sounded like pop punk, and that couldn’t have been more true than when they covered the indie pop song “Molly’s Lips” The original is about as lighthearted and twee as indie pop gets, but Nirvana cranked up the distortion, sped it up, and gave it an angst-ridden vocal performance in place of the more cooing original. It totally worked, and it tricked so many kids into listening to The Vaselines’ songwriting. Frances McKee and Eugene Kelly’s melodic brilliance and effective lyrical simplicity is all there

They later covered the Scottish band once more for their 1993 MTV Unplugged performance “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For a Sunbeam”.

The Vaselines – “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam”

As much as Kurt loved punk, he was possibly the biggest cheerleader for Scottish indie pop band The Vaselines, who broke up before Nirvana hit it big but have been reunited for a while and probably have Nirvana to thank for tons of their fans. Nirvana covered The Vaselines a few times, and one of their most moving covers was the version of “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam” (retitled “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam”) that they performed on “MTV Unplugged In New York” in 1993. As the story has been told time and time again, most artists used MTV Unplugged as an opportunity to play stripped-down versions of their biggest hits, but Nirvana turned the corporate television show into a piece of art, constructing a setlist of only the songs that they thought would sound best acoustic (no “Teen Spirit”) and playing covers that were mostly obscure to much of MTV’s audience. The first cover in the set was this gorgeous rendition of this Vaselines classic. The original is among The Vaselines’ slower songs, but Nirvana really leaned into treating this one as a ballad, and the results continue to be stunning today.

As with all of the covers Nirvana did on unplugged, Kurt sang it like he wrote it, filling his voice with as much genuine emotion as possible. It’s just different enough from the original that you need both versions in your life, but it’s similar enough that it would have been immediately obvious to Nirvana fans how much they would also love The Vaselines. It’s the perfect mix of doing a song justice while also rivaling the original.

David Bowie – “The Man Who Sold The World”

Kurt Cobain would frequently rank his favourite albums, shifting some of them around as he came in contact with new things—even if, as Charles R. Cross explains in his book Heavier Than Heaven, Cobain’s customary infatuations with a particularly niche group often meant that some of the classic artists passed him by unnoticed. This also happened with records, since “The Man Who Sold The World” isn’t David Bowie’s most well-known LP at all; The 1970 album of the same name is one of his most underrated. It’s the closest to hard rock that Bowie ever came, so it makes sense that Nirvana took a liking to this one, yet it would be precisely Nirvana’s magnificent, faithfully nocturnal cover of the title track for “MTV Unplugged” contributing to its retrospective praise almost 25 years after Bowie’s original release. 

Led Zeppelin – “Immigrant Song”

Of the many bootlegs circulating among fans, this one has a particularly heartwarming quality, having been recorded during an early Nirvana rehearsal at the home of Krist Novoselic’s mom in Aberdeen. While Cobain’s punk devotion (as seen through this raw, proto-grunge version of the 1970’s classic) would later make him repudiate his hard rock roots, telling Interview in 1991 that he had “sold his Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin collection for twelve dollars,” this wasn’t the only time Nirvana covered the British quartet: A live version of “Heartbreaker” recorded during one of their first shows in March 1987 was later included in the 2004 “With the Lights Out” box set. 

Wipers – “D-7”

“D-7” is a song originally performed by The Wipers appearing on their 1980 album “Is This Real?” and is most popularly known for the Nirvana version appearing on their 1992 EP “Hormoaning” and also on the box set “With The Lights Outs”. The song Return of the Rat off the same album (Is This Real?) has also been covered by Nirvana also appearing on the box set “With The Lights Outs”.

Also featured as a B-side on the “Lithium” U.K. CD single, “D-7” was originally recorded during the same John Peel session integrated the “Hormoaning” EP—though the “Live at Reading” rendition arguably reigns as the supreme version. Portland punk act Wipers, whom Michael Hann called “the missing link between the Sonics and Nirvana,” are often recognized for their major influence on the overall grunge sound; Nirvana covered them again for the 1992 tribute compilation “Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers”, contributing “Return of the Rat.”

Wipers – “Return of the Rat”

Portland punk band Wipers were one of Kurt’s favourite bands he included their first three albums on his top 50 albums of all time list, and it’s not hard to hear how much of an impact they had on Nirvana and grunge in general. In addition to singing their praises, Nirvana covered a couple of Wipers songs back in the day, including “Return of the Rat” for the 1992 Wipers tribute album. The original might pass as “proto-grunge,” but Nirvana’s version is about as grunge as it gets. In place of the revved-up punk guitar strums of the original, Kurt gives a thicker, fuzzier, more muscular performance, and in place of Greg Sage’s nervy vocal delivery, Kurt gives the song his usual, grittier twist. Nothing but love for the original, but Nirvana’s version really rips in a way that Wipers’ doesn’t. It’s as good a representation of Nirvana’s fast punk side as anything.

Meat Puppets – “Lake Of Fire”

Of all the daring moves that Nirvana made during their “MTV Unplugged” performance, bringing on the Meat Puppets was perhaps the most daring. It’s said that MTV were really hoping Nirvana would bring out Pearl Jam or another more famous guest, but Nirvana insisted on bringing out Cris and Curt Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets,

It’s tough to choose from the delightful mini-session with the Kirkwood brothers that had the MTV Unplugged producers pulling their hair out—after all, the performance was supposed to include a selection of Nirvana’s greatest hits, not serve as a platform for other musicians. Though “Plateau” and “Oh Me” are equally fantastic, “Lake Of Fire” gets the final prize for the poetically macabre lyrics filled with religious references that could have easily come from Cobain himself.

Devo – “Turnaround”

It’s pretty well-known now within indie circles that Devo were more than “the band with the silly red hats who wrote ‘Whip it,’” but that wasn’t always obvious, “Turnaround”, a song by Devo, originally released as a B-Side of their single “Whip It Whip It “Whip It” is the title of a 1980 single by the United States Synthpop band Devo. It appears on the album “Freedom of Choice”. There were two 7″ single releases of “Whip It”, one backed with a remix of the track “Snowball” and one backed with “Turn Around” …. “, later rerecorded by Nirvana.

Nirvana’s 1992 compilation “Incesticide” remains a fan favourite for many reasons for one, it allowed the public to finally own official recordings of songs that had been circulating for ages as low-quality bootlegs or rare B-sides. But the album also provides valuable clues to better understand the extent of Nirvana’s sonic infatuations, notably through this cover of Devo’s “Turnaround.” The new wave synths and overall more plastic atmosphere may have been replaced by Cobain’s trademark fuzz, but the main skeleton was preserved in its entirety.

Lead Belly – “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”

Nirvana’s take on “In The Pines”—specifically Lead Belly’s version of the traditional folk song—proved the perfect closer for their “MTV Unplugged” performance, with Cobain’s visceral vocal delivery leaving no chance of an encore (though production initially tried to persuade him otherwise). Cobain’s ghostly gaze, confronting the audience with widened eyes just before howling the final words, has often been described as soul-baring and filled with epiphanic clarity and in hindsight, it almost seems to prophesy his premature disappearance less than six months later.

The Beatles – “And I Love Her”

Despite technically being a solo Cobain cover, this stripped-down rendition of the Beatles’ 1964 ballad “And I Love Her” was too stunning to be left off this list. The recording, made famous by Brett Morgan’s 2015 documentary Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (and subsequently released on the soundtrack album), celebrates Cobain’s formative years through its pop-doom duality, and it’s also a captivating sneak peek into his intimate universe and creative process.

Their covers were often a way Nirvana used their status as a huge mainstream band to shine a light on the punk and indie bands who influenced them, who hadn’t fully gotten the attention they deserved, like The Vaselines, Meat Puppets, and Wipers. They also covered lesser known deep cuts by David Bowie and Devo, unsung blues legend Lead Belly, obscure proto-metal like Thunder and Roses, and more. A lot of these songs and/or artists got significant boosts after Nirvana covered them, and — with all due respect to the original songwriters — some of these songs are now inseparable from Nirvana. Nirvana’s covers were as crucial to the overall Nirvana story and discography as the band’s best original songs, and it’d be impossible to discuss their legacy without mentioning these songs. The Nirvana recordings of them are truly iconic.