but that's the way I feel. [4] However, earlier versions of the song also feature this line, including the original home demo, the 1989 Peel version, and most pre-Nevermind live versions. In fact, I have to use duct tape to hold the tuning keys in place.”eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'rocksoffmag_com-box-4','ezslot_4',107,'0','0'])); The flat plucky sound removes any polish that could mediate between, and ultimately, divide musician and listener. "I didn't bother changing the strings," Cobain told Jeff Gilbert in a 1992 Guitar World interview. Of all the dark songs by the band Nirvana, 'Polly' is probably the most disturbing of them all. It strikes at the core, and as a result, has a unique power to expand our empathy, which is why the perspectives of “Polly” are so horrifying.eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'rocksoffmag_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_2',106,'0','0'])); “Polly” is composed in the key of E minor and Cobain’s vocals range from a low of D3 to a high of E4. Cobain wrote "Polly" about an incident in Tacoma, Washington involving the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl in August 1987. I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience. Originally titled "Hitchhiker" and later "Cracker," "Polly" dates back to at least 1988. Jeff Lynne sang the word "groose" in the chorus of "Don't Bring Me Down" as a nonsense placeholder, but left it in when he found out it means "greetings" in German ("gruss"). According to Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography Come as You Are, "Polly" is based on the true story of a female rape victim from Tacoma, Washington. Each verse reports what’s happening with an amused detachment, which is somehow scarier for its lack of emotion. "Polly" is an alternative rock song that lasts for two minutes and 57 seconds. Immediately, we are taken inside the mind of this vile man, carried along in the stream of his consciousness. É a sexta canção do álbum Nevermind, de 1991. In a way that only music can, Cobain forces an emotional identification with evil, to stop us from suppressing this brutality and exposing it into the mainstream making it unavoidable. As an artist, you can impact people much differently to what an activist or a politician can do. "I didn't bother changing the strings," Cobain told Jeff Gilbert in a 1992 Guitar World interview. Although Cobain’s views were deeply rooted in politics, his true genius was as an artist. It was first recorded in the studio in August 1989 by Steve Fisk at Music Source in Seattle, Washington. Não sou eu, coma uma semente Deixa-me cortar suas asas sujas Deixe-me dar uma volta, se corte Quer ajuda, me satisfaça Eu tenho um pouco de corda, eu te avisei Eu juro que eu tenho sido verdadeiro Deixe-me dar uma volta, se corte Quer ajuda, me satisfaça The mystery in the lyrics to a song like ‘Polly’ is so profound. A sample of "Polly", based a real-life account of the abduction and torture of a 14-year-old girl. After kidnapping the girl, Gerald repeatedly raped and tortured her. The song has a basic sequence of Em–G5–D–C5 in the verses and D–C5–G–B♭5 during the refrain as its chord progression. In an interview with Guitar World in 1992, he discusses the guitar he used. Ariela loves music - she like all kinds of music, she listens to different types of music depending... One Response to “The Meaning Behind ‘Polly’ by Nirvana”, Im 14 I love the band nirvana my favorite song his heart shaped box and I’m form NY the Bronx you can follow me on instagram @aden_pearce2020. There's a point in the song where Cobain sings only "Polly says..." before pausing and starting over. “Nevermind” is Nirvana’s most successful album and is still a very popular album today. And it happens every few minutes,” Kurt says. “Polly” is a song designed, in other words, to give Cobain access inside your head. In the VH1 Classic Albums documentary about Nevermind, bass player Krist Novoselic remembers Kurt Cobain writing "Polly" after reading a newspaper article about the abduction, rape, and torture of a 14-year-old girl who had just finished attending a punk rock show in Tacoma, Washington. The lyrics follow the perspective of a rapist who, having tied up a girl, now fluctuates between treating her as his pet and absentmindedly torturing her. In 1991, the album “Nevermind” came out by Nirvana. Many argued that Kurt Cobain should have done more research, people said that he got many of the details wrong. The song 'Polly' was inspired by the true story of a kidnapping of a 14 -year-old girl who was abducted after a rock concert outside the Polly: Nirvana's Most Haunting Song | Rocks Off Mag Of all the dark songs by the band Nirvana, "Polly" is probably the most disturbing of them all. Nina Rindt: Formula One’s Forgotten Style Icon, Long John Baldry: Pioneering British Blues Vocalist. The tracks from those Wisconsin sessions, which included soon to be Nirvana classics "In Bloom" and "Lithium", would be used by the band as a demo in an effort to attract major label attention. Cruelties like those detailed in “Polly” are so heart-rending that the normal human instinct is to turn away. The following tables list all studio versions of the song, and all officially released live versions. In 1991, the album “Nevermind” came out by Nirvana. The song was re-recorded by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin in April 1990. https://nirvana.fandom.com/wiki/Polly?oldid=6187. The group has some pretty dark songs, but none compared to the dark meaning behind ‘Polly’.Kurt Cobain wrote the song based off of an event he read about in the newspaper in 1987. but that's the way I feel. It is the sixth song on their second album Nevermind, released in September 1991. Kurt Cobain wrote the song based off of an event he read about in the newspaper in 1987. Go to Appearance > Customize > Subscribe Pop-up to set this up. In his 2001 biography Heavier than Heaven, Charles Cross compared the song to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood in that it was written from the criminal's point of view. It also stands as drummer Chad Channing's only contribution to Nevermind, having been asked to leave the band before the recording of the album in Los Angeles. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked it number 29 in their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs, with Julianne Sheperd writing, "Though it's certainly not a protest song, it deftly delves into the mind of a sicko, like a succinct Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and is an example of the thoughtful depths Cobain was willing to plumb. According to Vig in the 2005 Classic Albums: Nirvana - Nevermind documentary, Cobain accidentally sang the first two words of the third verse, "Polly said," too early, during the instrumental break, but the band decided to leave it in. ", The dirty version of Cee-Lo Green's "Forget You" contains 16 F-bombs. 8 Myths About Nirvana's 'Nevermind, "Cool Hand Puke: Kurt Cobain tries to explain why Nirvana — third-hand guitars and all — is suddenly the hottest band in the country", "Nirvana's Latest, Incesticide Is No Trump Card, But It's Still A Winner", "No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked", "Nirvana 'Polly' Sheet Music in E Minor - Download & Print", "Nirvana: Read SPIN's 1994 Essay on Kurt Cobain's Rise, 'Out of the Blue, "FREE ALBUM: SPIN Tribute to Nirvana's 'Nevermind, "The Hit List: 20 Great Nirvana Songs Picked by the Stars", Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle, Experiencing Nirvana: Grunge in Europe, 1989, Smells Like Bleach: A Punk Tribute to Nirvana, Nirvana – A Classic Album Under Review – In Utero, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polly_(Nirvana_song)&oldid=973338574, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar, backing vocals), Kurt Cobain (vocals, acoustic guitar, backing vocals), This page was last edited on 16 August 2020, at 17:48. The kidnapper, Gerald Friend, was paroled in 1980 after being jailed for a similar conviction in 1960. Who Was Polly? The girl, 14, was abducted in 1987 while returning from a punk rock show, and was raped and tortured by her abductor. If we go back to school after Fall Break, what would you do? "Polly" was ranked number 18 in NME's 2004 "Top 20 Nirvana Songs" list. Of all the dark songs by the band Nirvana, “Polly” is probably the most disturbing of them all. The lyrics depict desires, regrets, cries for help, cruelty, self-deception, and righteousness. Several versions of "Polly," both studio-recorded and live, were released during the band's lifetime, and numerous others have been released posthumously. “That’s a 20-dollar junk shop Stella—I didn’t bother changing the strings. This is fairly clear from the first two lines of the song. "Polly" is a song by the American alternative rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. Nirvana Wiki is a FANDOM Music Community. [12] Gerald Arthur Friend kidnapped the girl while she was leaving a rock concert, suspended her upside down from a pulley in his mobile home and raped and tortured her with a blow torch. [1] On October 26, 1989, the band recorded a version during their first BBC Peel Session, at Maida Vale Studios in London, England. "[17] This appalled Cobain, who condemned the act in the liner notes to the band's 1992 compilation album Incesticide, writing, "last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly'. In fact, I had to use duct tape to hold the tuning keys in place. "[4] Cobain's guitar and Krist Novoselic's bass were recorded live, after which Cobain recorded lead and harmony vocals, and then Channing added the cymbal crashes. However, it found its way onto the band's second album, Nevermind, two years later, and remained a part of the band's regular setlist until Cobain's death (and Nirvana's dissolution) in April 1994. [9] "Polly" is composed in the key of E minor, while Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and one note, from a low of D3 to a high of E4. The feeling is lifted even further by the simplistic equipment used. However, Cobain explained, "I don't feel bad about being a man at all. Friend was later arrested and convicted for his crimes. Dating back to at least 1988, "Polly" stands alongside "About A Girl" as one of singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain's earliest forays into unfiltered pop songwriting. It’s not women that need to be trained in defending themselves, it is the man that needs to be taught not to rape. Anonymous This song is about a girl that was raped after a nirvana concert. The surprising and profound choice Cobain makes in “Polly” is to make the protagonist of the song the rapist. [19], According to Heavier than Heaven, American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was impressed with "Polly" upon hearing the song while at a Nirvana concert, remarking of Cobain that "that kid has heart. Then G5, B flat 5, D5, E5 for the choruses. [19], According to Heavier than Heaven, American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was impressed with "Polly" upon hearing the song while at a Nirvana concert, remarking of Cobain that "that kid has heart. A real plunky sound. "Polly" was the sixth track on Nirvana's breakthrough 1991 album Nevermind. She managed to escape when Friend took her for a ride and stopped for gas. "Polly" is composed in the key of E minor, while Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and one note, from a low of D3 to a high of E4. [13][14] She managed to escape by jumping from his truck at a gas station, attracting attention from surrounding people.