Negative Creep

"Negative Creep" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the seventh song on their debut album ''Bleach'', released in June 1989.

Origin and recording

Written by Cobain in 1988, "Negative Creep" was one of nine songs recorded during Nirvana's third studio session, in December 1988 and January 1989 at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, Washington, that were released on their July 1989 debut album, ''Bleach''. According to producer Jack Endino, the band, featuring then-drummer Chad Channing along with Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic, recorded as quickly as possible, with the intention of recording a full album rather than an EP as requested by their then-label, Sub Pop. In a 2004 interview with Rob Nash of ''The Independent'', Endino recalled that the band would record the instruments "in one or two takes," and Cobain would then record the vocals in usually a single take.

Post-Bleach

"Negative Creep" was debuted live on February 25, 1989 at the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The song remained a set list regular for the next four years, until its final live performance on April 9, 1993 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. It was jammed on briefly during Nirvana's ''MTV Unplugged'' appearance in November 1993, after being requested by an audience member, but both Cobain and Novoselic said that they no longer knew how to play it.

Composition and lyrics

Music

"Negative Creep" has been described as one of the "Sub Popiest" songs the band ever recorded, and "a text book example of Seattle's true grunge sound".. The studio version is the only Nirvana recording that employs an extended fade-out while the vocals are still present.

Several critics have noted the intensity of Cobain's vocals on the studio recording, with Mark Richardson of ''Pitchfork'' writing:

"Cobain's voice through the second verse terrifies me. There is no concern for his physical well being or even his future as a vocalist in a rock band. He sings as intensely as he can possibly sing. Sometimes, when I'm listening loud, I think my headphones might be breaking up from the volume only to realize that the membrane being excited to the point of distortion is actually Cobain's larynx."

Lyrics

In his 1993 Nirvana biography '' Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana'', Michael Azerrad described "Negative Creep" as "a first-person narrative from an antisocial person," with that person being Cobain himself. James Jackson Toth of ''Stereogum'' called it a "chilling ode to social awkwardness" during which "Cobain, sounding like a cross between Lemmy and a gargoyle, acknowledges his position as a shadowy outsider–even revels in it."

Steve Fisk, who produced Nirvana's ''Blew'' EP in 1989, offered an alternate theory of the song's meaning, saying that "I got told it was about the guy who lived across the street from the duplex and would come over while Kurt was gone to try to smoke obain's then-girlfriendTracy aranderout."

The song received some criticism from members of the Seattle music scene in the late 1980s because of the lyric, "Daddy's little girl ain't a girl no more," which closely resembled the lyrics to the 1988 song, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More," by Nirvana's Sub Pop label mates, Mudhoney. According to Azerrad, Cobain claimed the similarity was an example of "subconscious theft."

Reception

In a July 1989 review of ''Bleach'', Edwin Pouncey of the ''NME'' called the song "glorious" and wrote that it was "a leash strainer of a song that eventually gets loose and goes on the rampage like a rabid Rottweiler. Fab!"

Legacy

In 2015, ''Rolling Stone'' placed "Negative Creep" at number 15 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. In 2022, ''Revolver'' named it one of the "10 Heaviest Grunge Songs of All Time," with Eli Enis writing that "for every glimpse at future pop-rock supremacy on ''Bleach'', there's another song like this, a motorik, almost thrashy ripper that sees Kurt Cobain spitting back his own ugly self-perception — 'I'm a negative creep and I'm stoned' — with the wiry wrath of the picked-on kid finally taking a swing at his bully." In 2023, ''PopMatters'' included it on their list of "The 10 Heaviest Nirvana Songs," with Dean Brown calling it "one of the most violent songs in Nirvana’s back catalogue" and "metal to the bone."

"Negative Creep" appeared in the 1996 grunge documentary, ''Hype!'', and was included in the film's soundtrack. It also appeared in the bonus CD included with the 1995 book ''Screaming Life: A Chronicle of the Seattle Music Scene'', which collected the photographs of acclaimed music photographer, Charles Peterson.

Accolades

Other releases

*A live version, recorded at the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon on February 9, 1990, was released on the 20th anniversary "Deluxe" version of ''Bleach'', which featured the full Pine Street show as bonus material.

*A live version, recorded at Sir Henry's in Cork, Ireland on August 20, 1991, appeared on the live video, '' 1991: The Year Punk Broke'', released in 1992. This version featured Cobain singing the first verse of the song in falsetto.

*A live version, recorded during the band's performance at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington on October 31, 1991, appeared on the live compilation, ''From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah'', released in November 1996. The full show was released on DVD and Blu-Ray as '' Live at the Paramount'' in September 2011.

*A live version, recorded at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, the Netherlands on November 25, 1991, was released on the 30th anniversary "Super Deluxe" version of ''Nevermind'', which featured the full show on CD and Blu-Ray.

*Two additional live versions, from the band's shows at The Palace in Melbourne, Australia on February 2, 1992, and at the Nakano Sunplaza in Tokyo, Japan on February 19, 1992, also appeared on the 30th anniversary "Super Deluxe" version of ''Nevermind''.

*A live version, recorded on February 22, 1992 at Pink's Garage in Honolulu, Hawaii, appeared on the live video ''Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!'', released in November 1994.

*A live version, from the band's performance at the 1992 Reading Festival in Reading, England on August 30, 1992, appeared on ''Live at Reading'', released in November 2009 on CD and DVD.

Covers

References

{{authority control

1989 songs
Nirvana (band) songs
Songs written by Kurt Cobain