| "Come as You Are" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byNirvana | ||||
| from the albumNevermind | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | March 2, 1992 (1992-03-02)[1] | |||
| Recorded | May 1991 (1991-05) | |||
| Studio | Sound City (Van Nuys,California) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 3:38 | |||
| Label | DGC | |||
| Songwriter | Kurt Cobain[a] | |||
| Producers | ||||
| Nirvana singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Nevermind track listing | ||||
13 tracks
| ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "Come as You Are" onYouTube | ||||
"Come as You Are" is a song by Americanrock bandNirvana, written by frontman and guitaristKurt Cobain. It is the third track and the second single from the band's second studio albumNevermind, the single released in March 1992. It was the band's second and final American Top 40 hit, reaching number 32 on theBillboard Hot 100. It was also their second UK Top 10 hit, reaching number 9 on theUK Singles Chart. The single reached the Top 10 in eight countries and theTop 40 in eleven further countries.
The unexpected success of the album's lead single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" drew Nirvana to mainstream success, withNevermind being released two weeks after the single's release. Following the album's release, the band and its management company debated whether to release "Come as You Are" or "In Bloom" as the next single from the album due to Cobain's concerns over similarity of the former withKilling Joke song "Eighties" (1984). After some persuasion by the management company, Cobain agreed to release "Come as You Are" as the second single because of its commercial potential. Killing Joke were upset over the song, and there were rumors that a lawsuit had been filed over the song, though the suit never materialized.[5] Killing Joke guitaristGeordie Walker was said to be upset about the whole situation, and he felt that Nirvana handled the matter poorly. Similarities between "Come as You Are" and "Life Goes On" bythe Damned have also been noted.
The music video for "Come as You Are" was directed byKevin Kerslake, who drew inspiration for it from the cover artwork ofNevermind.Rolling Stone ranked "Come as You Are" 445th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", and it placed 452nd on the 2010 edition of the list.
"Come as You Are" was one of the few new songs Nirvana recorded onto the rehearsal tape the group sent to producerButch Vig prior to the recording ofNevermind in 1991.[6] The group recorded the song with Vig during album sessions at Sound City Studios inVan Nuys,California, in early 1991. Cobain recorded his guitar solo in two takes, as well as three takes of vocals, of which the first was used.[7] Vig then asked Cobain todouble track his vocals throughout the entire song. During the harmony overdub session, Cobain accidentally sang the phrase "No, I don't have a gun," appearing the fourth time he sings the word "memoria" after the guitar solo. When this mistake was discovered, Cobain decided to keep it in the final recording. Vig sampled Cobain singing "memoria" from the middle of the song and placed it in the background of the song near the end twice.[8] The band also performed an acoustic version of the song during theirMTV Unplugged performance on November 18, 1993. The recording later appeared onthe live album of the performance, released about a year later in November 1994.[9][10]
"Come as You Are" is analternative rock song that lasts for a duration of three minutes and thirty-eight seconds.[2] According to thesheet music published at Musicnotes.com byBMG Rights Management, it is written in thetime signature ofcommon time, with a heavy rocktempo of 120beats per minute.[2] "Come as You Are" is composed in thekey ofE minor, and Kurt Cobain'svocal range spans oneoctave and onenote, from a low ofE3 to a high ofF♯4.[2] The song alternates between the chords of E5 and D5 during the verses and Esus4 and G in the pre-chorus, while at the refrain it changes to the chord progression of A–C5.[2] It begins with Cobain playing an unaccompaniedguitar riff for eight seconds. Cobain used anElectro-Harmonix Small Clone guitarchorus pedal to give his instrument a "watery" or "echoey" tone during the verses and pre-choruses and as a result of which, the pedal has been associated with the song ever since. He is joined by the rest of the band for the first verse, which is moody and subdued. Once the band reaches the chorus, the song reaches full volume. The shift in dynamics is a technique Nirvana used on many of its songs.[11] The song features one of Cobain's longest guitar solos. "Kurt really did not play a lot of solos," Vig said. "This one is more of a melodic part based on the vocal melody. It's not trying to show off pyrotechnics. It complements the melody of the song."[7]
Many have speculated the song to be aboutheroin,[12][13][14] which Cobain was struggling with at the time of writing and recording.[15][16] The lyrics "Come doused in mud, soaked in bleach" speak directly to aSeattle-areaHIV prevention campaign from the time period encouraging addicts to sterilize their needles with bleach before using them with the tagline "If doused in mud, soak in bleach", and "As a friend, as a trend, as a known enemy", for some, was further allegory of addiction to the drug.[13][14][17] After Cobain's death,Sub Pop records approachedG. Alan Marlatt at theUniversity of Washington to set up a memorial fund to establish an addiction treatment center titled the "Come as You Are" center, but the funding fell through after the record label was sold toWarner Music Group.[18]
Cobain described the lyrics of "Come as You Are" as contradictory, and said the song was about "people and what they're expected to act like."[7][14] Pointing to the line "Take your time, hurry up, choice is yours, don't be late," essayist Catherine J. Creswell writes that in Cobain's lyrics,"[p]hrases clump into strings of empty clichés whose own ostensible meaning is forced into contradictions or simple rhyme sound."[19]
In light of Cobain's suicide in 1994,AllMusic's Mark Deming suggests that hearing "Cobain sing 'and I swear that I don't have a gun' gives 'Come as You Are' an edge it was never meant to have when [Nevermind] was first released in 1991." Deming reasons that the "I don't have a gun" lyric is Cobain's "attempt to reassure listeners that ... his target is the world at large rather than the individuals in it, and that there was still room in this damaged world for everyone."[20] Others have suggested the lyrics regarding the "gun" are metaphors for escapism and turmoil found in heroin usage.[14][21]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [22] |
Wary of the similarity between the main riff of "Come as You Are" and Englishpost-punk bandKilling Joke's 1985 single "Eighties", Nirvana and its management were unsure about releasing the song as the second single fromNevermind. Danny Goldberg, head of Nirvana's management Gold Mountain, later revealed that "[w]e couldn't decide between 'Come as You Are' and 'In Bloom.' Kurt was nervous about 'Come as You Are' because it was too similar to a Killing Joke song but we all thought it was still the better song to go with. And, he was right, Killing Joke later did complain about it."[23][24] Nirvana biographerEverett True writes that "Come as You Are" was eventually chosen for release as a single because "Goldberg favoured the more obviously commercial song".[25]
It was anticipated that the first single fromNevermind, "Smells Like Teen Spirit", would be a "base-building alternative cut", while "Come as You Are" would be able to cross over into other radio formats. However, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a surprise hit and boosted the band's popularity, whereas "Come as You Are" served to maintain it.[26] After its release as a single in March 1992, "Come as You Are" peaked at number 32 on theBillboard Hot 100. The single stayed on the chart for 18 weeks.[27] The song also reached number three on theBillboardMainstream andModern Rock Tracks charts.[28] The single also broke the top 10 of theUK Singles Chart, peaking at the ninth spot,[29] where it was also the week's highest new entry.[30] In Israel, it was voted in at number 3 on theIBA's "Voice of Israel" singles chart.[31] This song ranked number 82 inBlender's "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born",[32] and 452nd onRolling Stone's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[32] In 2019, the song was placed at number 17 onRolling Stone's ranking of 102 Nirvana songs.[33]
Although members of Killing Joke claimed the main guitar riff of "Come as You Are" plagiarized the riff of "Eighties", the band reportedly did not file a copyright infringement lawsuit, whichRolling Stone magazine attributes to "personal and financial reasons".[23] However, conflicting reports state that Killing Joke did file a lawsuit but that it was either thrown out of court,[34] or that it was dropped following Cobain's death.[35]Geordie Walker, Killing Joke's guitar player, said that the band was "very pissed off about that, but it's obvious to everyone. We had two separate musicologists' reports saying it was. Our publisher sent their publisher a letter saying it was and they went 'Boo, never heard of ya!', but the hysterical thing about Nirvana saying they'd never heard of us was that they'd already sent us a Christmas card!"[36]
Later it was also noted that a third song,the Damned's "Life Goes On", pre-dated both and contained a similar riff to both songs.[37]
In 1999, "Come as You Are" was voted in at number 49 inKerrang! magazine's "100 Greatest Rock Tracks Ever!".[38] As of April 2016, according toBusiness Insider, "Come as You Are" was the sixth most streamed song from the 1990s onSpotify.[39] According toNielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Come as You Are" was the third most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 134,000 spins. All of the songs in the top 10 were from the 1990s.[40]
The music video was directed byKevin Kerslake, who later directed the videos for "Lithium", "In Bloom", and "Sliver", as well asPantera's music video for "This Love". After the unsatisfactory experience filming the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video withSamuel Bayer, Cobain selected Kerslake due to hisimpressionistic style. Cobain was unable to formulate any ideas beyond homaging theNevermind album cover and including "a lot of purples and reds", so he let Kerslake conceptualize the video.[41] Filming took place between January 16-20, 1992.[42][43] The band shot outdoor footage inWattles Park inHollywood Hills a few days prior to the main video shoot. This took place in anAir National Guard hangar atVan Nuys Airport.[43] Kerslake projected this footage in the background of many shots in the main part of the video.[44]
The video features the band in a dark room, where the appearance of falling water in front of the band distorts and blurs the band members' forms (an idea suggested by Cobain).[41] Throughout the video, clips such as cells multiplying at an incredible rate and an unborn organism in its embryonic stages are shown. The video also features Kurt Cobain swinging violently on a chandelier as water begins to flow into the room as well as a dog wearing acone collar trying to go down stairs, ababy swimming underwater (a reference to the cover ofNevermind), and a pistol sinking. Towards the end, a clip of the band appears, with Cobain in the front, lying on the ground and kissing the camera.
The music video was placed into heavy rotation onMTV in the US.[45] It was placed into theBuzz Bin onMTV Europe,[46] before being placed into active and heavy rotation.[47] It was also played onMTV Australia,Rage andVideo Smash Hits in Australia.[48]
In his biography,The Storyteller, Grohl wrote that he can no longer watch the video because it reminds him what a bad state that Cobain was in at the time due to his heroin abuse.[49]
In 2005, a sign was put up inAberdeen, Washington, Cobain's hometown, that reads "Welcome to Aberdeen: Come As You Are" as a tribute to Cobain. The sign was paid for and created by the Kurt Cobain Memorial Committee, a non-profit organization created in May 2004 to honor Cobain. Founded by authorJeff Burlingame and Aberdeen City Councilman Paul Fritts, the committee also plans to create a Kurt Cobain Memorial Park and a youth center in Aberdeen.[50]
The song appears in two scenes ofDefinitely, Maybe, a 2008 film starringRyan Reynolds, and is a thematic element.[51][52]
The 2016 filmAs You Are was named after the Nirvana track. The plot "revolves around a trio of high schoolers in the 1990s, trying to find their way through the difficult maze of adolescence."[53]
A cover of the song, performed byCivil Twilight, appears in the end scene of theDefiance episodeDown in the Ground Where the Dead Men Go.[54]Elvis impersonatorJim "The King" Brown also covered the song on his 1998 albumGravelands, as didCaetano Veloso in 2004.
A remix of the song was used for trailers ofMarvel's 2017Netflix seriesThe Defenders.[55]It also made an appearance in the 2019 filmCaptain Marvel,[56][57] and subsequently peaked at number 11 on theBillboardHot Rock Songs chart with a 267 percent increase to 2000 downloads sold and a 30 percent increase to 2.8 million US streams in week ending March 14, 2019.[58]
The song "Adam's Song" byBlink-182 references "Come as You Are." "Come as You Are" features the lyrics, "Take your time, hurry up, the choice is yours, don't be late," while "Adam's Song," in turn, features the lyrics, "I took my time, I hurried up, the choice was mine, I didn't think enough."[59]
The song was also featured in the closing credits of the Season 2 finale of the Apple TV+ alternative history seriesFor All Mankind.[60]
"Come As You Are (House Mix)" is an electronic tribute with trumpeterMaurice "Mobetta" Brown andhouse music DJChip E. fromNirvana Reimagined as House and Techno by producers Jonathan Hay and Cain McKnight.[61][62]
The song was used in theLuca Guadagnino filmQueer, during the introduction of the character Eugene Allerton (played byDrew Starkey).[63]
UK 7" single(DGCS 7)
US 7" single(DGCS7-19120-A)
UK 12" single(DGCT 7)
UK 12" picture disc(DGCTP 7)
| UK CD single(GED 21715)
US CD single(DGCDS-21707)
Japanese mini CD single(MVDG-8)
US cassette single(DGCCS-19120)
Australian cassette single(DGCCS19065)
|
Personnel adapted fromNevermind liner notes[3]
Nirvana
Technical
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
Decade-end charts[edit]
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[108] | 7× Platinum | 490,000‡ |
| Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil)[109] | Gold | 30,000‡ |
| France (SNEP)[110] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
| Germany (BVMI)[111] | Platinum | 600,000‡ |
| Italy (FIMI)[112] Sales since 2009 | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
| New Zealand (RMNZ)[113] | 4× Platinum | 120,000‡ |
| Spain (PROMUSICAE)[114] | Platinum | 60,000‡ |
| United Kingdom (BPI)[115] Sales since 2004 | 3× Platinum | 1,800,000‡ |
| United States (RIAA)[116] | 5× Platinum | 5,000,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
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