The Original-Smells like Teen Spirit by Nirvana
Smells like Teen Spirit was the song that really made Alternative Rock a legitimate form of music. There was certainly lots of confusion about what the song was about for a variety of reasons. First, there was not lyrics for the song on the lyric sheet. Second, Kurt Cobain isn't exactly easy to understand with the way he sings. Third, the song wasn't played as widely as it could have been because of the previous issues. The song still managed to top the charts and eventually the song was widely played after the lyric issue was cleared up.
I love this song (in either form) because it is so much of a theme song for the Alt Rock genre. The cord structure is compelling even if it is odd and even though I have no idea what words are coming out of Cobain's mouth I'm still compelled to mumble along. The video shows Nirvana playing at a high school pep rally with cheerleaders included. The video does a great job of recreating the feel of watching Nirvana play live (I'm not sure if this is completely true since I never did see the band live, but the video makes you wish you could.)
The Parody-Smells like Nirvana
There's a reason that Kurt Cobain was worried that this parody might be about food, but fortunately, Weird Al had a better idea for this song. As always, the band manages to recreate the Nirvana sound so it's hard to know which version is playing if you didn't hit play yourself. But what makes this song really great is the topic of the song. After hearing the song and all the controversy around it, Yankovic decided to make the song about how hard it is to understand the original song. There are great lines through the entire song. "all these marbles in my mouth," "Sing distinctly? We don't wanna. Buy our album, we're Nirvana."
The video looks like the same as the Nirvana version, at least at first look, but there are all sorts of bizarre things that pop up. There's a cow at one point and the cheerleaders have extremely hairy armpits. There's even a janitor in a tutu. At the time this was the best in Weird Al parody, but there is one that I'm putting above this. You'll have to tune in for the last part of this list to find out what it is though.
Leave some comments or questions and I'll get back to you.
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