Breed (song)
"Breed" is a song by the American rock band, Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the fourth song on their second studio album, Nevermind, released in September 1991.
Background and recording
Written by Cobain in 1989, "Breed" was originally titled "Imodium," after the anti-diarrhea medicine used by Tad Doyle, lead singer of Seattle rock band TAD, during Nirvana's and TAD's shared European tour. It was first performed live on October 8, 1989 at the Lif Ticket Lounge in Omaha, Nebraska."Breed" was first recorded in the studio in April 1990 by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, during the recording sessions for what was intended to be the band's second album on Sub Pop, their original label. However, this planned album was cancelled after the band signed with DGC Records shortly after. Vig re-recorded the song during the sessions for what became the band's second album and major label debut, Nevermind, in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. Cobain recorded four vocal takes for the song, with each successive take "getting worse because he blew his voice out," as Vig recalls. The first take was chosen as the master. Both recordings of the song also feature the guitar being panned from one channel to the next during the guitar solo to create what Cobain biographer Charles R. Cross called "a dizzying" effect.
"Breed" was performed for the last time live at Nirvana's final concert, at Terminal Einz in Munich, Germany on March 1, 1994.
Composition
Music
"Breed" is an alternative rock song that runs for a duration of three minutes and three seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by BMG Rights Management, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately fast rock tempo of 160 beats per minute. "Breed" is composed in the key of F minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and three notes, from the low-note of C5 to the high-note of F5. The song follows a basic sequence of F5–E5–F5–A5–E5 in the verses and bridge and D5–A5–C5–B5 during the refrain as its chord progression.Lyrics
Lyrically, the song addresses themes of teenage apathy and fear within the American middle-class. Stevie Chick of Kerrang wrote that lyrics such as "We can plant a house, we can build a tree" displayed Cobain's "gift for crafting witty, purposeful nonsense."Reception
In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked "Breed" at number four on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs, with Julianne Escobedo Shepherd calling it "one of the most alive songs on Nevermind." In 2020, it was ranked 13th on Kerrang!'s The 20 Greatest Nirvana Songs - Ranked list, with Sam Law writing that it was "probably Nirvana’s greatest heads-down banger," and that "its 184 seconds feel guaranteed to light the fuse on every mosh within a 100-mile radius."In 2017, to mark what would have been Cobain's 50th birthday, the Phonographic Performance Limited released a list of the top 20 most played Nirvana songs on television and the radio in the United Kingdom, in which "Breed" was ranked at number 13.
On April 24, 2020, the song was performed by American musician Post Malone during his 15-song Nirvana tribute concert, which was livestreamed on YouTube and raised more than $4 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
In popular culture
The Nevermind version of "Breed" appears in the 2007 American action film, Shoot 'Em Up, directed by Michael Davis. It also appears in the video game Tony Hawk's Proving Ground, also from 2007.Accolades
Recording and release history
Studio versions
| Date recorded | Studio | Producer/recorder | Releases | Personnel |
| April 2-6, 1990 | Smart Studios, Madison, Wisconsin | Butch Vig | Nevermind |
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| May 2–28, 1991 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, California | Butch Vig | Nevermind With the Lights Out |
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