Come As You Are was Nirvana’s first video after the monster success of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Despite the commercial success of the previous song and video, Cobain has not enjoyed working director Samuel Bayer so, when it was time to do the Come As You Are video, photographer Kevin Kerslake was hired to direct. At the time, Cobain told Kerslake that he just wanted the video to pay homage to the cover of Nevermind and to feature a lot of “purples and reds.” Cobain and the band were happy with the way that Kerslake visually interpreted their song and he subsequently directed many more videos for the band.
The title is from a Hitchcock movie. It looks like the consensus is that the song is based on Strangers On A Train (1951)–more Hitchcock. I haven’t watched either film recently.
While the music video is gorgeous, I can’t find anything on it other than a quote from Kevin Kerslake in the book, I Want My MTV:
It was a point of honor among bands on 120 Minutes to not show up in regular rotation on MTV. They wanted to be the bad kids on the block, who showed up for those two hours on Sunday night and ran riot. At that point, indie rock was thriving. You had great underground labels like SST and Rough Trade, and they’d give you complete freedom. I wanted to do something totally new. I’d shoot Super 8, and play with the color palette to make it more psychedelic. The punk rock ethos really drove the visual content, even if you weren’t working with punk bands. My first music video–“Shadow Of A Doubt,” for Sonic Youth–used horrible quality, super-grainy performance footage. It was fantastic.
The part with the performance footage doesn’t do a whole lot for me–except to provide a strong tie between song and video by putting the harder part of the song in there. I like what Kerslake did before and after that the most. It makes me think of a very colorful, indie, and simplified version of one of those collage-style videos that Jim Blashfield made for And She Was by Talking Heads or Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush. It gives the video an ethereal quality that I love.
It’s very appropriate that this was on 120 Minutes back in the 1980s. This is exactly the kind of thing I would have expected to see on late night cable back in the 1980s and 1990s.
According to my calendar, it is Nirvana Day in Buddhism. On this day, you are supposed to celebrate when the Buddha achieved complete Nirvana–Paranirvana–by dying after having achieved Nirvana in life. It’s also a day to think about your coming death and the death of your loved ones. To quote the BBC site that talks about it:
“The day is used as an opportunity to reflect on the fact of one’s own future death, and on friends or relations who have recently passed away. The idea that all things are transient is central to Buddhist teaching. Loss and impermanence are things to be accepted rather than causes of grief.”
I honestly came across that after having already written this post. That’s kind of sad in this context, but let’s talk about this video anyways.
It’s Nirvana, so you can expect the music video to be interesting. The best thing about going to YouTube for music videos by groups like Nirvana are the comments from people either saying that this is real music or complaining about kids who wear the band’s paraphernalia, but obviously know nothing about the band. Here’s one on this very song:
“It annoys me how today people wear nirvana shirts and they don’t even know they’re a band, now when I wear my nirvana shirts I always feel as if I’m just following a fashion statement. High five to all the real nirvana fans :)”
God, don’t I know it. I feel the same way when I see people wearing Dead Kennedys’ shirts, and I just know they have no idea who The Creamsicles are, but are simply wearing them as fashion statements. It makes me so annoyed for no reason whatsoever. I also go on to YouTube comment sections to complain about it instead of using a forum read by people younger than I am so they have a place where they can learn about these things if they wish to–much like…wait I can’t spoil that yet. If you think that, then that tells you more about yourself and those people who you believe are judging you, then the people you are judging. I’m giving this person a hard time, but it isn’t so bad. I’ve read far worse. Regardless, let’s go ahead and have some fun by judging people here based on whether they are supposedly “real Nirvana fans” or not.
Don’t know why a baby is at the beginning of this video? You just aren’t a true Nirvana fan. A true Nirvana fan would know that Sliver is about Kurt growing up, and specifically being tossed around from family member to family member.
Don’t know why you would put a picture of Gorbachev above a Mudhoney poster? You could read it as a reference to Mudhoney being a big influence on Nirvana, and they were a group set to bring grunge to the masses along with Melvins and Mother Love Bone before money and tragedy changed their destinies. It would turn out Nirvana would be the one to bring grunge to the masses. Nirvana would get credited with single-handedly destroying the 1980s. Gorbachev and Bush would also get credited with ending the 1980s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. If you didn’t know that, then you are a horrible Nirvana fan.
Don’t know why they show that? Okay, even if you are a fan of Nirvana, then it could be that you just don’t own a physical copy of Nevermind with that picture on the back of it.
The reason it is upside down and looks like a copy of a copy of a copy can be read many ways. I look at it and remember that Kurt didn’t take criticism well, and I’m sure someone said that they were a flash-in-the-pan, so their follow-up album would just be a carbon copy of Nevermind. That couldn’t have been further from the truth. Insecticide was more of a return to the harder stuff they did on their first album called Bleach.
Why does this flash onscreen for less than a second? Listen to the lyrics. They actually mean something in a song by Nirvana, which a true fan knows. Kids these days just accept things like “You don’t gotta go to work” as real lyrics. A sentient highway sign told me to make that joke.
Don’t know why there is a baby in the womb that is detached from any body? Among other reasons, such as the theme of detachment from a real family, there is a theory going around that Kurt was transgender. That could bring on an obsession with supposedly being born wrong and the body in general, which can drive you to suicidal depression and make you ashamed of having a diminutive figure by wearing numerous layers to hide it, like Kurt did. Maybe the crossdressing as well. It’s just a theory that is out there. However, if you didn’t know that it is out there, then a Nirvana fan is something you are not.
I’m running out of ways to shame people for no reason. It’s Leave it to Beaver that represented an ideal family that Cobain never had. It is also a board game since that is the kind of thing a grandmother around that time might pull out to play with their kid. It also happens to be a Cowboys and Indians game that goes right along with the Flintstones and Colonel Sanders figurines.
I’ll leave this one to you as to whether you think that’s supposed to be Marlon Jackson, of The Jackson 5, who had a twin that died shortly after he was born. It wouldn’t surprise me if that is supposed to be Ian Curtis on the right either seeing as the same year this music video came out, the band made the video for Heart-Shaped Box with former Joy Division photographer Anton Corbijn. After all, the little girl with the pointy hat was from the music video Corbijn made years after Curtis’ death for the Joy Division song Atmosphere.
I could go on and on with all the things in this such as the package of The Visible Man, the baby stuck under trash, and the model of what appears to be a father. However, if you can’t see these things for yourself, or didn’t know them right off the top of your head, then you are a terrible “fan” of Nirvana. I’m sure Kurt would agree, which must be why when they performed on MTV Unplugged they played Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam by The Vaselines, The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie, Plateau; Oh, Me!; Lake Of Fire by Meat Puppets, and Where Did You Sleep Last Night? by Lead Belly. I remember Cobain even mentioning which band played each song. He even told a story how the Lead Belly estate tried to sell him one of his guitars for $500,000. But yeah, lets judge the kids for wearing Nirvana T-Shirts, and feel ashamed for remembering them by wearing them ourselves. It just makes sense, right?
Speaking of Lead Belly. Nirvana did cover at least one other Lead Belly song called Ain’t It A Shame.
Lead Belly was a famous blues/country/folk artist from the early-1900s. This was back when there weren’t really blues artists and country artists. Blues and country were all part of any of their repertoires. It wasn’t till the record companies came along that a division was formed. They only wanted to record blues from the typical “blues” artist and country from the typical “country” artist. In Lead Belly’s case, you can hear him sing Goodnight Irene one minute and then flip it over to When I Was A Cowboy the next. He did it all. He even did a short film of himself performing some songs.
I wouldn’t have known about Lead Belly were it not for Nirvana. I would play MTV Unplugged In New York over and over again as a kid. By that point, Kurt had already been dead for several years. I also didn’t pay attention to the lyrics till I was older. It didn’t matter. I was hooked anyways. I have Kurt and the rest of the band to thank for making me aware of a greater world of music that reached back to before even my own grandmother was born.
I prefer to educate rather than judge–if I can. I do it to from time to time. If you made it this far and don’t already know, then I’ll tell you. The Creamsicles were a pseudonym Dead Kennedys used sometimes. In particular, they used it when they played a high school near me in the late-1970s. The sentient highway sign is from L.A. Story (1991), which told Steve Martin to sing Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann. It’s a 1960s song known for repetitive lyrics. I guess I could have used Louie Louie by The Kingsmen, but the video already takes place somewhere a garage rock band might practice.
One final thing before I add that worn out ending I usually put at the end of these posts. We started this post off with a someone complaining about people wearing a Nirvana T-Shirt not knowing that they are a band.
How much you want to bet that same person doesn’t notice that when they wear their Nirvana T-Shirt around that they are actually wearing a shirt that took the mid-1960s Smiley Face button, and added X’s where the eyes are–as in Generation X? So in reality, they would also be going around wearing a T-Shirt that they don’t know the meaning behind. Then again, maybe this person does. I just thought it was worth mentioning. Especially since there are all sorts of other theories going around that don’t really mention that Nirvana was one of the flagship bands of Generation X, that generation was famously called that since they were the first generation in a longtime to not be defined by a war, and as you can see in this video as well as the cover of Bleach, they liked reversing colors. I’ll finish by borrowing from the song Bastards of Young by The Replacements:
“Clean your baby womb, trash that baby boom
Elvis in the ground, no waitin’ on beer tonight
Income tax deduction, what a hell of a function
It beats pickin’ cotton and waitin’ to be forgotten
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
We are the sons of no one, bastards of young
Not the daughters and the sons
Unwillingness to claim us, ya got no war to name us
The ones who love us best are the ones we’ll lay to rest
And visit their graves on holidays at best
The ones who love us least are the ones we’ll die to please
If it’s any consolation, I don’t begin to understand them”
I’ve always found it ridiculous that Stone Temple Pilots seems to be that band from the early 90s that keeps getting misclassified. The one I see all over the place is that they are a grunge rock band. Every time I read that, I wonder if they have ever actually listened to their music. I find it particularly baffling since they are a straightforward hard rock band–if you must classify them. I get the impression that people overthink their music, and tend to lump them in with grunge because it sounds close enough if you only listen to a couple of songs like Creep, Big Empty, or Plush. Also, I think there tends to be some general confusion about what is and isn’t grunge as opposed to just 90s hard rock. It doesn’t help that the term alternative rock can be slapped on just about anything that wasn’t obviously pop or punk in the 90s. That’s my best guess about this non-issue that I see from time to time.
I was introduced to them via the album Tiny Music…Songs From the Vatican Gift Shop, and the song Big Bang Baby in particular. I later picked up Core and Purple. Today I have all six of their studio albums. Out of all of their songs, I would say Interstate Love Song is right up there at the top along with the hidden lounge singer song at the end of Kitchen Ware & Candy Bars.
There isn’t much to say about the music video itself. The beginning of the music video makes me think of Queen Kelly (1929) for some reason. The video has a character from the silent film portion running around with his nose growing in order to fit with the theme of lying that the song is singing about.
The rest is washed out and has Scott Weiland dressed how I imagine Marc Bolan would look like if he had made it to this decade. I think we can just chalk those things up to that it was the 90s and that was Weiland’s style. I really think it’s that simple.
They got director Kevin Kerslake to do the music video who did most of Nirvana’s videos, but also worked with both Stone Temple Pilots and the spin-off group Velvet Revolver on several occasions. He also worked with other major bands of the era such as Sonic Youth, Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Green Day. He appears to still be working in music videos today since I can find a credit for him shooting Bang Bang for Green Day, but otherwise his credits seem to drop off in the mid-2000s. Like quite a few music video directors, he also has gone on to numerous concert films and music-related documentaries.
Seeing as I did Weezer’s Buddy Holly yesterday, it seemed appropriate to do Nirvana’s In Bloom today. Instead of editing themselves into a retro TV Show, they set themselves into an actual 1960s style variety show as if they were The Beatles. Makes sense considering Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic would go on to work with Paul McCartney.
I really didn’t watch MTV in the early 1990s. I was certainly listening to Nirvana’s music on an endless repeat, but I wasn’t really familiar with any of their videos beyond Smells Like Teen Spirit and Heart Shaped Box. I like the parody on display of 1960s variety shows. I love the way the host appears oblivious at the end to what was going on onstage. As I recall, the song is about a drug dealer they knew who liked listening to their music, but really didn’t know what it meant. I’m guessing that’s who the host is supposed to represent.
The video would go on to win Best Alternative Video at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1993. That brings me to another argument I’ve had stated to me about why music videos don’t belong in movie databases. The whole thing about them not winning noteworthy awards. Obviously that’s not true, and MTV has as much vested interest in giving out such awards as the Oscars and the Grammys. They even accept music videos at film festivals. That being another argument brought up as reason for the exclusion of music videos. A simple Google search turns up such festivals.
I know I missed April already, but there’s always July 20th to do another Nirvana music video. That will also give me an excuse to link to one of Gary’s reviews as an apology for making him aware of the widely held theory that The Vapors’ Turning Japanese is about masturbation while he was just trying to help me pick out a video for the Japanese holiday Ocean Day.
Through the Shattered Lens 