The Last Nirvana Song

Every now and then I get a bit of Nirvana nostalgia and fall in love again with one of my all time favorite bands. But, as we all know their career was short, explosive, bittersweet and tumultuous. It's hard to listen to them without the painful reminder that their time with us was woefully short and ended in tragedy.

There's no secret collection of completed studio quality songs. Unfortunately, there's really not much left in the Nirvana vault. Hardcore fans are still elated to occasionally find that a new live recording has surfaced, or a home demo has been found or an obscure 1980s track has been unearthed. However, as far as completed studio work, we've basically reached the end of the road.

Back when I was younger, one of my good friends was also a massive fan of the band. Wise beyond his years, he basically hit the nail on the head just a few years after Cobain died - "Once they run of out Nirvana recordings, they'll probably resort to releasing whatever recordings they can find. We'll probably get to hear Kurt brushing his teeth." he said. It's a bit of an exaggeration, but he's right. We've seen Kurt's journals, old demos of him messing around - lots of things that were likely never meant to see the light of day, essentially because the high quality songs have already been released. One could argue that there is value in those kind of recordings, insight into the creative process but regardless they came to fruition because that's virtually all there is left.

When we got word that there was basically one last studio recorded, full band Nirvana song, recorded January 30, 1994 just mere months before Kurt's death, it became a holy grail of sorts.

Though, it was never officially titled it came to be known as You Know You're Right.

I just happened to hear the song, for the first time in a few years and all the memories and emotions hit me like a freight train, again.

The song does have a pretty interesting back story, though. It is assumed to have been written in the latter half of 1993, as the band played a slightly different version of it live in October of 1993. On January 30, 1994 the band recorded it in Seattle during their final studio session. Cobain himself even demoed an acoustic solo version of it at some point around that time.

The 1994 studio version of the song remained locked away for years until talk of a release of the song began, and in turn a fierce legal battle ensued. Courtney Love felt the track would be best suited for a single disc "best of" album, whereas Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl wanted to release it on an "anthology" type boxed set.

The lawsuit was eventually settled in 2002, with the studio recorded You Know You're Right appearing on the 2002 best of release Nirvana. The boxed set went on as planned, despite being delayed a few years and was released in 2004 with the acoustic solo demo of the song.

Now here's where the real fun starts.

At the beginning of October 2002, the song was officially released as a single, with the full compilation due out at the end of that month. However, prior to this a rough mix of the track leaked on the internet.

Yes, the last proper Nirvana song, one that was the subject to years of legal wrangling, perhaps the most sought after track for the band at the time....just somehow ended up online in its entirety, outside of any official release. Fan sites began blowing up and even some radio stations picked it up and started playing the mp3 file on the air. Cease and desist orders began flying around, and as a legal battle ended, a new legal battle started.

Whoever leaked the song, it was a clear fuck you to Courtney Love. She may have won the battle, but she lost the war. Essentially every Nirvana fan on the planet with a computer heard the track well before it's official release. In 2002 I was following this pretty closely, if I recall correctly, a fan from Spain claimed to acquire an advance copy of Dave Grohl's Probot CD, which had the Nirvana song secretly at the end of it and subsequently the track was leaked and spread like wildfire.

In the end, it was almost like something Cobain himself would have done.

While lyrically it invokes a definite sense of despair and sadness, the song ended up being a poignant track to be remembered as their final work. You Know You're Right is pure Nirvana: loud guitars, pummeling drums and a powerful vocal delivery. None of them at the time knew they'd be recording their final song together, but what came of it was among their best.