You Know You're Right

"You Know You're Right" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by lead vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the first song on the band's self-titled greatest hits album, and the last song the band recorded before Cobain's death in April 1994. Released officially on October 2, 2002, via DGC Records—eight years after the song was recorded—it is the final single credited to the band.

Unreleased for years, the song became the center of a legal dispute between Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and the surviving Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl. It was also the subject of a high-profile Internet leak, which led to the song being put into heavy rotation on radio stations around the world before its official release, despite cease and desist orders from Nirvana's record company, Geffen Records.

Released as a promo single, "You Know You're Right" reached number one on both ''Billboard's'' Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts.

Origin and recording

"You Know You're Right" was written in 1993. For years after Cobain's death in April 1994, it was known only from a bootlegged live version, recorded on October 23, 1993, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, and from a performance of the song by the American rock band Hole, which featured Love on vocals and guitar, during the band's ''MTV Unplugged'' set on February 14, 1995.

A studio version was recorded by Adam Kasper at Nirvana's final session, on January 30, 1994 at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, Washington, but had never appeared on bootlegs. The band had booked the studio for three days during a tour break, but Cobain had been absent for the first two days, leaving Novoselic and Grohl to work on their own songs. Upon Cobain's arrival on the third day, he immediately went to the studio's mixing console and listened to the material his bandmates had recorded, offering support. Despite his apparent enthusiasm for the session, he had arrived at the studio without his gear, and ended up using a Univox guitar that the band's guitar technician, Ernie Bailey, had reworked for him, along with the studio's 50 Watt Marshall amp, which he disliked, and a pedal board with a Boss distortion pedal.

The band jammed for approximately 20 minutes, and then began working on the arrangement of "You Know You're Right", then known as "Kurt's Tune #1". According to a May 2004 ''Mojo'' article by Gillian G. Gaar, the band rehearsed the song three times, with the structure "pretty well hashed out" on the first take, and the chiming intro featured in the final version, achieved by Cobain playing the guitar above the nut, first appearing on the third take. Robert Lang, the studio's owner, recalled being "speechless" hearing the song while in the control room with Kasper.

After recording the master instrumental take, the band and others present at the recording session took a break away from the studio to visit a local pizzeria and for Cobain to buy cigarettes, and then returned and recorded another instrumental song, titled "Jam After Dinner". Cobain then recorded the vocals to "You Know You're Right," completing the main vocals in one take, and then adding two additional vocal overdubs. These were the only vocals that Cobain recorded during the session. His final contribution to the recording was a guitar overdub. Novoselic and Grohl recorded six more songs without Cobain, who had likely left by then, after signing the studio door and adding a drawing of a cat next to his signature.

Nirvana's touring guitarist, Pat Smear, lived in Los Angeles and was not present during the session. In a 2002 interview with the website ''Nirvana Fan Club'', he said Cobain had sent him a cassette of the recording and told him he could add his part later. The band dissolved before Smear had the chance. The band reportedly planned to continue work at Lang's studio after their upcoming European tour, but Cobain died just over two months later, after cancelling the tour and returning to Seattle.

Release

Novoselic took the masters of the recordings home with him after the session, and kept them in his basement until 1998, when work began on a Nirvana box set. Although Love's lawsuit in 2001 delayed the box set's release, the song, now retitled "You Know You're Right", was mixed on July 14 and 15 of that year at Conway Studios in Hollywood, California, in anticipation of its release. According to Novoselic, the final mix does not sound significantly different from the way it sounded when it was recorded in 1994, with the most dramatic changes being the addition of compression and reverb.

"You Know You're Right" remained unreleased for years, and became the center of a legal dispute between Love and the surviving members of Nirvana. Grohl and Novoselic had wanted the song for the planned box set. Love blocked its release, saying that the song would be "wasted" on a box set, and would be better suited to a single-disc collection similar to the Beatles' compilation album '' 1''.A piece of Kurt Cobain
/ref> Her lawsuit called the song a "potential 'hit' of extraordinary artistic and commercial value", and her manager asserted that a release with the song could sell 15 million copies. Novoselic said he did not necessarily disagree with Love: "I've always considered everything she said. We've considered it and agreed and said, 'Hey, that's a great idea, Courtney.' I tried to get along with Courtney as best I could, but there's only so much you can do."

In 2000, Love played the song at a private event in Hollywood. In November the following year, Love provided a portion of the song air on the NBC television program ''Access Hollywood'', for which she was being interviewed. In May 2002, four additional clips were leaked. Grohl denied claims that the leak had come from advance copies of his heavy metal side project ''Probot'', saying he had never copied any version of the song for anyone.

On September 21, 2002, an unmastered MP3 of the full studio version of "You Know You're Right" leaked online. It was quickly put in rotation by a number of alternative rock radio stations, which led to cease-and-desist letters being issued by Geffen. A number of stations defied the orders. The Seattle radio station 107.7 The End posted a banner on their website that announced: "We took your e-mails and flooded the server at Geffen Records with tons of choice words about their 'You Know You're Right' cease and desist order. Due to the huge publicity outcry, the label has released the track. Hear NEW Nirvana all this weekend, only on 107.7 The End."

In late September, Love, Grohl and Novoselic released a joint statement announcing that the lawsuit had been settled, and that "You Know You're Right" would be officially released on the ''Nirvana'' greatest hits album later that year. It was eventually released as a promo single, with a music video directed by Chris Hafner. The song was re-released on Nirvana's second greatest hits compilation, ''Icon'', in 2010.

Composition

"You Know You're Right" is an alternative rock song that lasts for a duration of three minutes and thirty-seven seconds. According to the sheet music published at Sheet Music Plus by EMI Music Publishing, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately slow tempo of 84 beats per minute. "You Know You're Right" is composed in the key of F minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and three notes. The song follows a basic sequence of F₅–D–E in the verses and pre-chorus and is mainly restricted to a droning chord of F₅ throughout the refrain as its chord progression.

Release and reception

"You Know You're Right" became Nirvana's fourth song to enter the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 45. It was the band's fifth song to reach number one on the ''Billboard'' Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it remained for four consecutive weeks, the longest of any Nirvana song. With an increase of 1,616 spins, Nirvana also broke the record for the largest detected jump by an act already on the chart. It also became Nirvana's first song to top the ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, beating their previous peak of number three, achieved by both " Come as You Are" in April 1992 and " About A Girl" in December 1994.

Amy McAuliffe from BBC called the song "a poignant reminder of what might have been" and described it as "listening to a dead man snarling out his last gasp of righteous sarcasm." Will Hermes of ''Spin'' remarked that it was "amazing how a merely good Nirvana song still scorches everything within earshot." David Samuels of ''Slate'' wrote that "unlike most post-mortem rock releases, 'You Know You’re Right' is not B-side material or the result of recording studio wizardry—it’s a real Nirvana song" that showed that "Cobain was at the peak of his powers as a vocalist and songwriter—the most gifted and popular writer that rock music had seen since Lennon/McCartney." Likewise, Larry Flint from ''Billboard'' stated, "Unlike most previously unreleased cuts tacked onto best-of sets, 'You Know You're Right' is a potent addition to Nirvana's cache of classic material."

"You Know You're Right" was ranked at the fifth best single of the year by ''Spin'', with Charles Aaron calling it a "gnarly little heart-shaped box crammed with feedback, bile, and a gut-shredding chorus." In 2002, the song received a BDS Spin Award for 50,000 radio spins in the US, and in 2003 it received a BDS award for 100,000 radio spins in the US.

Legacy

In 2011, "You Know You're Right" was ranked at number two on '' NME's'' list of the 10 best Nirvana songs. In 2015, ''Rolling Stone'' listed it at number 21 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. The song's producer, Adam Kasper, called it "one of their best songs, probably in the Top Ten."

Grohl reflected on the song in a 2019 interview with ''The Guardian,'' telling interviewer Eve Barlow that “I listened to it for the first time in 10 years. Oh God, it’s hard to listen to. It was not a pleasant time for the band. Kurt was unwell. Then he was well. Then he was unwell. The last year of the band was tough.” In addition to calling the lyrics "heartbreaking" in retrospect, Grohl added that "I used to think it sounded like obainwas singing the chorus. Now I listen to it and it’s like he’s wailing.”

In May 2020, American director Cameron Crowe revealed in an interview with ''Stereogum'' that he had hidden the studio recording of "You Know You're Right," given to him by Love, in his film ''Vanilla Sky'', which was released almost a year prior to the song's official release. "We couldn’t credit it in the movie and it was actually illegal," Crowe explained, "but Courtney Love gave it to us. She said, 'This is the only Nirvana song that’s never been released. Hide it in your movie somewhere.'

In a 2022 retrospective article on the song, Brad Shoup of ''Billboard'' described it as "the most anticipated rock single of 2002," and wrote that its posthumous chart success "was a testament to Kurt Cobain’s bone-deep sense of songcraft – and the still-sizable fanbase Nirvana had established before Cobain’s April 1994 suicide."

Title

"You Know You're Right" did not have an official title at the time of Cobain's death in April 1994. According to Gaar's 2002 ''Mojo'' article, it was listed simply as "Kurt's Tune #1" on the tracking sheets from the Robert Lang Studios recording session. In 1995, it was performed as "You've Got No Right" by Hole at their ''MTV Unplugged'' appearance, and this title was most commonly used by fans prior to the release of the album ''Nirvana'' in 2002.

In the liner notes to ''Nirvana'', ''Rolling Stone'' writer David Fricke erroneously states that the song had gone under the previous titles of "Autopilot" and "On a Mountain". The latter title was also cited by Charles Cross in his 2001 Cobain biography, ''Heavier Than Heaven''. These names were actually invented by bootleggers who had misheard Grohl's comment at the beginning of the live version. Grohl had announced, "This is our last song; it's called 'All Apologies'", unaware that Cobain had already started playing "You Know You're Right". Due to the relatively poor fidelity of the live recording, bootleggers believed Grohl had introduced the new song, and tried to interpret what they thought was its title. Cross also seems to misrepresent the lyrics in ''Heavier Than Heaven'', citing the lyric, "I am walking in the piss," which appears in Hole's 1995 version of the song, but in no known Nirvana recording.

Music video

A music video for "You Know You're Right" was released in October 2002. Directed by Chris Hafner, it features a montage of band footage, drawn mostly from live performances and interviews, occasionally edited to give the effect of the song being performed. The video peaked at number two of the ''Billboard'' Video Monitor, a chart of the most-played clips as monitored by the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, for the week ending October 20, 2002.

Accolades

Cover versions

The song was performed by Hole as "You've Got No Right" during their ''MTV Unplugged'' appearance on February 14, 1995. The band's lead singer and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, introduced it as "a song that Kurt wrote; helast song, almost." Seether performed an acoustic version of the song in 2003, and they did a full cover version at Rock in Rio in 2004.

Personnel

*Kurt Cobain – guitar, vocals
*Krist Novoselic – bass guitar
*Dave Grohl – drums
*Adam Kasper – recording and mixing, producer

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Recording and release history

Six versions of "You Know You're Right" are known to exist: the final studio version along with three rehearsal takes from the same session, the live version from the band's show at the Aragon Ballroom in October 1993, and an acoustic demo that was first released in November 2004 on the band's rarities box set, ''With the Lights Out''.

Demo and studio versions

Notes

In addition to the final version, three rehearsal takes were apparently recorded, but remain unreleased.

References

External links

"You Know You're Right" discography information

Notes

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1994 songs
2002 singles
Nirvana (band) songs
Hole (band) songs
Songs written by Kurt Cobain
Song recordings produced by Adam Kasper
Songs released posthumously