Nirvana: the probable link between “Heart-Shaped Box” and Kim Gordon

After being overwhelmed by an unexpected global success thanks to “Nevermind”, Nirvana find themselves forced into a condition they had not sought, divided between enthusiasm and rejection for a fame that wanted to force them to redefine themselves. As angry reaction to the upheaval of their position, Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl then worked on “In the Uterus“, For free yourself from ghosts left over from a record like the one from 1991.”We have never sought such success, on the contrary”, Cobain said in an interview for the magazine “Hard!” released in February 1994 (available on livenirvana.com) and already featured on Rockol for the thirty years of “In Utero”: “All this useless stuff has done nothing but create great difficulties for usas we ended up closing ourselves more and more, while all the press and people tried to make us ‘open up’, to finding something fantastic in ourselves, something we ourselves never thought we had and actually we haven’t.” To escape from it all, and react to the phenomenon that was engulfing them, Kurt, Krist and Dave locked themselves away at the Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and with Steve Albini they recorded and finished their third studio album in less than two weeks.

It is within this search for Nirvana, through a minimal and total sound, to reclaim oneselfwhich also fit the stories and readings around the texts of “In Utero”. Like the one, which has resurfaced in recent days, according to which Courtney Love claims Kurt Cobain wrote a verse on “Heart-Shaped Box” with Kim Gordon in minddriven by a very real anger.

After being at the center of the story shared a few weeks ago by Melissa Auf der Maur with Billy Corgan, the same Courtney Love was a guest on the Smashing Pumpkins frontman’s podcast “The Magnificent Others“.

During the in-depth hour-long chat, available in the video below, Love and Corgan discussed the often unwelcoming nature of the ’90s indie scene, and at one point, the Hole musician went on to talk about Kim Gordonat the time part of one of Kurt Cobain’s favorite bands, Sonic Youth. In this context, however, Courtney Love described Gordon as a “gatekeeper” – as a “sort of figure who decided who could be part of the scene and who couldn’t”.

“In the ’90s it was really terrible,” Love recalled to Corgan: “I remember in Holland I was with you and they were really mean.” The Smashing Pumpkins frontman reiterated: “I was their fan, I went to pay my respects and I was treated really rudely by them.” Courtney then moved on to tell Corgan about how Kim Gordon was an inspiration for Kurt Cobain in writing the first part of the chorus of “Heart-Shaped Box” and stated:

“You know that line from Kurt that goes, ‘Hey, wait. I’ve got a new complaint / Forever in debt to your priceless advice’? It’s about Kim. It’s literally about Kim.”

Courtney Love added: “He was really mad at her. The point is, around the time of Nirvana’s first album, ‘Bleach,’ Kurt tended to keep his talent hiddento not really show off. Partly because Seattle was there, an environment that didn’t feel entirely its own, and partly because of Kim Gordon.”

During the chat, Kurt Cobain’s widow then recounted an episode in which she saw Kim Gordon approach Nirvana’s guitarist at the time, Jason Everman, during a concert and completely turn down the volume on his guitar. Despite this, Love confessed that However, he asked for Gordon’s help to produce Hole’s debut album, “Pretty on the Inside”.. “I know I was marked by Kim, so much so that I had to write her a letter to ingratiate myself with her. You don’t go to the cool husband, you go to the wife. And she produced my first album, to her eternal regret.”

However, in a 1993 interview with Circus, Kurt Cobain explained that the line “Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint” was a reference to the how he felt perceived by the media. “After all the shit I’ve had to read about myself – and especially my wife – in the last year and a half, I should have put out a really hateful record,” Kurt said: “I should have used every opportunity to attack someone. I wanted to do it, I really felt it, but it doesn’t make sense. I’m already known as a complainer and a whiner. Yes, I took a few digs at the media and other things that happened to us. But, for the most part, I made sure not to complain. I really tried not to.” When asked why the chorus of “Heart-Shaped Box” says, “Hey, wait, I’ve got a new complaint,” the late Nirvana frontman, implying that the image as a complaining millionaire anarchist is a media construction, responded: “It’s just a way to show how I’m perceivedHe added: “I’ve become much more optimistic about everything. Having a wife and daughter can obviously change your perspective on things. Two years ago I didn’t think about the future at all. But now I have this huge responsibility to my family and it’s probably more pressure than anything I’ve had with this band. In the last year and a half, even before I found out that Courtney Love was pregnant, I started to evolve a little, stopping being completely negative, pretending to be punk and hating the world.”

In the book “Come As You Are” by Michael Azerrad, the the song had even been interpreted as dedicated to Courtney Love herselfreporting that the idea came from a heart-shaped box full of items that the musician gave to Cobain. In 2012, when Lana Del Rey covered “Heart-Shaped Box”Courtney wrote subsequently deleted Twitter posts claiming that “the song is about my vagina“, emphasizing in particular the line “Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back” and claiming that “some of the lines about my vagina were written by me”. As a test to Lana Del Rey, Love then concluded by writing: “So next time you sing it, think about my vagina, okay?”.

However, during Billy Corgan’s podcast, Courney Love also described Del Rey as “a very good friend” who allowed her to live in her house for free. Furthermore, Love then asked Dave Grohl to “just say we’re cool” and for her fans, described as “straight white males”, to stop “targeting” her..