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Comment by michaelwww | Hacker News Reader

The hook for me in "Smells Like Team Spirit" beside the musical goodness were the lines

    Here we are now
    Entertain us!

It's a primal scream asking "Why was I born? For this crappy life?" Kobain studied philosophy casually as a working class boy like me, so I'm sure he came across Schopenhauer's idea that since life is suffering, it's better not to be born at all.

Someone had the same idea before me: There's a naked baby boy swimming in a pool like the cover of the most famous Nirvana album in the upper right of this article:

Is living really better than never being born at all?

https://bigthink.com/thinking/anit-natalism-david-benatar-sa...

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Two anecdotes that you likely already know:

Teen Spirit was a deodorant and his friend Kathleen had written “Kurt smells like teen spirit” on the wall. Kurt misunderstood the reference.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smells_Like_Teen_Spirit

The swimming baby recently sued for the use of his image (and lost).

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/04/arts/music/nirvana-neverm...

Yea, I've heard that. I've been to Kurt Cobain park by the river twice and sat under the bridge where Kurt composed Something In The Way. Aberdeen Washington is one of the most depressing towns in the North West because it's was a lumber town with an air of desperation about it. I passed through a couple times and they didn't even a memorial for Kurt for a long time. Now they begrudgingly have a shitty park by the river, which seems fitting.

    Underneath the bridge
    Tarp has sprung a leak
    And the animals I've trapped
    Have all become my pets
    And I'm living off of grass
    And the drippings from my ceiling
    It's okay to eat fish
    Cause they don't have any feelings

Nirvana - Something In The Way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4gMfdfRRnA

Here's a few pictures:

https://imgur.com/a/xL0xlB0

https://imgur.com/a/X5OFp5e

https://imgur.com/a/SRdBtXC

Cobain made a lot more sense after spending time at the park in Aberdeen

I think I remember reading a Cobain interview where he stated this sentence was something he often said when he was invited by friends for dinner or the like. I can't seem to find the reference so I may have dreamt it.

no, you're right because i also remember reading that he used that phrase often at parties as an "icebreaker"

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