Heart-Shaped Box
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| “Heart-Shaped Box” | ||||||||||||||
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| Single by Nirvana from the album In Utero |
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| B-side | "Milk It"/"Marigold" | |||||||||||||
| Released | August 1993 | |||||||||||||
| Recorded | February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio, Cannon Falls, Minnesota | |||||||||||||
| Genre | Grunge | |||||||||||||
| Length | 4:39 | |||||||||||||
| Label | DGC | |||||||||||||
| Producer | Steve Albini | |||||||||||||
| Nirvana singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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| In Utero track listing | ||||||||||||||
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"Heart-Shaped Box" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by Kurt Cobain and a little help from drummer Dave Grohl. It was the first single from their 1993 album In Utero. The song reached #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, staying there for three weeks and was a Top 5 hit in the UK.
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[edit] Origin and recording
"Heart-Shaped Box" was written by Kurt Cobain sometime in late 1992 or early 1993. Cobain claimed the song was inspired by documentaries about kids with cancer. Cobain forgot about the song for a while, but began working on it again when he and his wife Courtney Love moved to an apartment in Hollywood Hills.[1] According to Courtney Love, the song was written in a closet in the couple's bedroom. "We had this huge closet," she explained in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview, "and I heard him working on 'Heart-Shaped Box.' He wrote the song in five minutes." Love also revealed that she asked Cobain for the song's guitar riff, and that he slammed the door in her face. "He was trying to be so sneaky," said Love. "I could hear that one from downstairs."
Nirvana had difficulty completing the song an thats where Grohl came in. Cobain attempted to have the rest of the band complete the song during jam sessions. He said, "During those practices, I was trying to wait for Krist and Dave to come up with something but it just turned into noise all the time." One day Dave made one last attempt at completing the song. Cobain and the band were able to come up with a vocal melody and the band finally finished writing the song. Cobain said that when they completed 'Heart-Shaped Box,' "We finally realized that it was a good song."[2]
"Heart-Shaped Box" was first performed live on January 16, 1993, in São Paulo, Brazil. The first studio version was recorded by Craig Montgomery in January 1993 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This embryonic version appears on the band's 2004 box set, With the Lights Out, and on their 2005 compilation album, Sliver: The Best of the Box. It features unfinished lyrics, as well as a longer chorus and an extended, more caustic guitar solo.
The In Utero version was recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It was remixed, along with "All Apologies" and later "Pennyroyal Tea," by Scott Litt prior to the album's release, which led to accusations of selling out from many of the band's detractors. Cobain was unapologetic about the band's decision, and maintained that the vocals and bass were not prominent enough in the original mixes. [1] Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic was also unhappy with the original mix of "Heart-Shaped Box." In a 1993 Chicago Sun-Times interview, he said the original effect used on the song's guitar solo sounded "like a fucking abortion hitting the floor." When the song was remixed by Scott Litt, Cobain took the opportunity to add acoustic guitar and backing harmonies.[3]
[edit] Meaning
In the unused In Utero liner notes — published posthumously in Journals in 2002 — Cobain writes that the song was inspired by "Camille's vaginal flower theory," most likely referring to the American social critic Camille Paglia, of whom he was a fan.[4] In Paglia's 1990 book Sexual Personae, she explores the prevalence of female genitals being perceived as wounds — often manifesting in diseased flower imagery - in psychoanalytic literature. She cites the ailing flower in William Blake's "The Sick Rose," the "poisonous genital flowers" in Joris-Karl Huysmans' À rebours, and a description by Tennessee Williams comparing a vagina to "a dyin' orchid."[5] Cobain, too, was also reminded of vaginas by flowers, and in the second verse of "Heart-Shaped Box," he sings of "meat-eating orchids" that "forgive no one just yet."
Indeed, in a 2005 Spin interview, Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, claimed that "Heart-Shaped Box" was written about her vagina. Critics of Love often cite the song as proof of her domineering presence in their relationship, but Cobain refuted this in interviews. "Everyone thinks of me as this sad little spineless puppy who needs to be taken care of," he told Details in November 1993. "It sickens me." [2]
"Courtney is my wife, and a lot of people could not accept the fact that I'm in love, and that I could be happy," said Cobain in a 1993 interview with Jon Savage.
Cobain's relationship with Love may also have inspired the song's title. According to the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven by Charles R. Cross, Love courted Cobain by sending a small heart-shaped box to his hotel room while he was on tour. After their marriage in 1992, Cobain adopted Love's hobby, and the couple eventually accumulated a large collection of heart-shaped boxes, which lined the shelves of their many homes. According to Heavier Than Heaven, the original heart-shaped box remained in Love's possession after Cobain's death in April 1994, and contains Cobain's suicide note and a lock of his hair. According to The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists, Neil Strauss now owns the original "Heart-Shaped Box" as he claims Courtney Love gave it to him during her stay at Project Hollywood.
[edit] Music video
The "Heart-Shaped Box" music video was directed by Dutch photographer and video director Anton Corbijn. It includes a number of striking images, including a skeletal old man in a Santa hat hanging from a crow-ridden cross, a young girl in a Ku Klux Klan costume reaching for fetuses in a tree, and even a large woman dressed to resemble the anatomical model of the cover of In Utero, complete with angel wings. It also includes shots of the band performing in a field of poppies, hinting at the field of sleep-inducing poppies from the The Wizard of Oz, and of Cobain singing into the camera in a fake-starlit room as Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl sit behind him. A less-common version of the video was made with alternate footage during the final verse (very likely a director's cut), including more shots of the young girl and the large woman, and scenes of Cobain lying on his back in the poppy field, with smoke rising from his mouth. This video can be seen on the DVD The Work of Director Anton Corbijn.
After the video's release, Nirvana was sued by Kevin Kerslake, who had directed the videos for "Come As You Are," "Lithium," "In Bloom" and "Sliver," and who claimed that the band had stolen his early ideas for the clip in the final product. Kerslake dropped the case following Cobain's death in April 1994. The video won two posthumous MTV Video Music Awards in 1994: for best alternative video, and for best art direction. The awards were accepted by Cobain's former bandmates Novoselic, Grohl, and Pat Smear.
In the BBC documentary "The Last 48 hours Of Kurt Cobain", former Nirvana producer Jack Endino said the video for "Heart-Shaped Box" was "scary" for those who knew Kurt, after his death.
[edit] Early variation
An early treatment for the song's music video appears in Journals.[6]
Apparently, Cobain had wanted the American beat poet William S. Burroughs to appear as the skeletal old man on the cross. This variation describes "William and I sitting across from one another at a table" in a room with blinding sunlight pouring through the window. Then, "he gropes me from behind and falls dead on top of me...a ghost vapor comes out of his chest and groin area and enters me [sic] body."
The treatment also features Novoselic dressed as a New Wave keyboardist, shots of violins and strobe lights, and animated doll footage. None of these made it into the video.
[edit] Covers
"Heart-Shaped Box" has been covered by the following artists:
- American rock musician Patti Smith (Live, 2000)
- American rock band Evanescence
- South African rock band Seether
- American alternative rock band The Used
- American pop artist Michelle Branch
- American rock singer Jordis Unga
- American rock singer Patrice Pike on episode 2 of Rockstar: Supernova.
- British "casio nihilist" act The Vichy Government
- American indie rock band Lovedrug
- American jazz pianist John Colianni
- French rock band Aqme
- Welsh singer Emma
- Spanish rock band Savia
[edit] Track listing
The following songs appeared on the single:
- "Heart-Shaped Box" [LP Version] (Cobain) - 4:39
- "Milk It" [LP Version] (Cobain) - 3:52
- "Marigold" (Grohl) - 2:33
[edit] Chart positions
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[edit] Accolades
| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
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| Rolling Stone | United States | Singles - Critics Pick ("Heart Shaped Box") ([8] | 1993 | 3 |
| Rolling Stone | United States | Album - Critics Pick | 1993 | 1 |
| Village Voice | US | Pazz & Jop Video of the Year[9] | 1993 | 1 |
| Kerrang! | United Kingdom | 100 Greatest Rock Tracks Ever[10] | 1999 | 10 |
| Kerrang! | UK | 100 Greatest Singles of All Time | 2002 | 32 |
| NME | UK | Top 20 Nirvana Songs | 2004 | 4 |
| Q | UK | 10 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever | 2004 | 5 |
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Doubleday, New York: 1993, ISBN 0-86369-746-1
[edit] Notes
- ^ Azerrad, p. 324-25
- ^ Azerrad, p. 325
- ^ Azerrad, p. 338
- ^ Allman, Kevin. "The Dark Side of Kurt Cobain". The Advocate, February 1992. Retrieved on 11 September 2007.
- ^ Paglia, Camille. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. Yale University Press, 1990. p.434 ISBN 0-300-04396-1
- ^ Cobain, Kurt. Journals. Riverhead Hardcover, 2002. ISBN 1-57322-232-1. p. 244
- ^ a b "Nirvana—Artist Chart History: Singles". Billboard. Retrieved on 11 September 2007.
- ^ "Best of 1993". Rocklistmusic.co.uk. Retrieved on 12 September 2007.
- ^ "Search". Village Voice. Retrieved on 12 September 2007.
- ^ Kerrang! magazine, issue 746, April 17th 1999.
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| Preceded by "No Rain" by Blind Melon |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single October 16, 1993 - October 30, 1993 |
Succeeded by "Into Your Arms" by The Lemonheads |
