Thursday, March 3, 2011

90's Jams #41: Nirvana "Lithium" (1991)

Probably the best song ever written about bi-polar disorder, "Lithium" was the third of Nirvana's four retardedly fucking huge Nevermind singles that ended up all famously adhering to a soft/loud/soft/loud format and first achieved nationwide infamy after a live MTV performance in September 1992 that more or less defined the term "classic" - the Beatles-on-Ed-Sullivan moment of the 90's - the singular live TV performance that sparked a million junior high grunge bands. Considering the immense chaos surrounding their lives at the time, (with "immense chaos" being somewhat of an understatement), Nirvana completely owned the FUCK out of this moment. The contradictory lyrics and gentle simplicity of Kurt's vocal melody were all intact as well, but it wasn't immediately obvious considering the "Rape Me" intro, the bass toss, Grohl's "Hi Axl" outro, the stage diving, the awkwardly glorious guitar throwing and drumkit stumbling... Huge MTV moments are rarely this compelling. For five perfect minutes, the world was completely theirs.

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