Ten from the vaults: the unseen works of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana

Stinking of You clip from YouTube

The Son / Stinking of You / Nighty Nite

From 1992, Cobain’s life ceased to revolve around Nirvana. Instead he retreated into family life with Courtney Love – soon joined by Frances Bean Cobain, his daughter – and into chemical interests. Nirvana spent barely any time together in studio after the conclusion of Nevermind, sessions were rushed and half of the songs recorded were already old. This makes Cobain’s ongoing home recordings, either solo or in collaboration with Love, of serious interest to fans of his music – this is the true grail and it’s still unclear how much material he had sketched out that might, given more time, have emerged in future Nirvana or solo releases.

Over the years Love has cited titles that refer to no known song – The Son and Ivy League being prime examples. She handed a recording of a Cobain/Love duet laid down in Brazil in early 1993 to British DJ John Peel which has been circulating under names such as ‘It’s Closing Soon’. Tales are told of a set of joke recordings going under the name ‘Nighty Nite’. A vague doodle now called ‘Stinking of You’, to which Cobain contributed little more than the title line, is seen on the document ‘Hit So Hard’ while various of Cobain’s barely-there contributions to Hole sessions have been on bootleg for quite some time.

Despite all these hints all that can be said is that Love is the prime mover on the skeletal recordings uncovered thus far with Cobain little more than a background presence cajoled into taking part. The hope remains that someday there will be a fuller reckoning with the creative endeavours of Cobain, and of the Love/Cobain couple, across 1992-1994.

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