Negative Creep
"Negative Creep" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the seventh song on their debut album Bleach, released in June 1989.
Origin and recording
Written by Cobain in 1988, "Negative Creep" was recorded for Bleach by Jack Endino at Reciprocal Recording in December 1988 and January 1989. It is the only recording on the album that ends with an extended fade-out, giving it a 1960s pop aesthetic."Negative Creep" was debuted live on February 25, 1989 at the Husky Union Building at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. The song remained a set list regular for the next four years, until its final live performance on April 9, 1993 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. It was jammed on briefly during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance in November 1993, after being requested by an audience member, but both Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic said that they no longer knew how to play it.
Composition and lyrics
Music
"Negative Creep" has been described as one of the "Sub Popiest" songs the band ever recorded, and "a text book example of Seattle's true grunge sound".Lyrics
In his 1993 Nirvana biography , Michael Azerrad described "Negative Creep" as "a first-person narrative from an antisocial person," with that person being Cobain himself. James Jackson Toth of Stereogum called it a "chilling ode to social awkwardness" during which "Cobain, sounding like a cross between Lemmy and a gargoyle, acknowledges his position as a shadowy outsider–even revels in it."Steve Fisk, who produced Nirvana's Blew EP in 1989, offered an alternate theory of the song's meaning, saying that "I got told it was about the guy who lived across the street from the duplex and would come over while Kurt was gone to try to smoke Tracy out."
The song received some criticism from members of the Seattle music scene in the late 1980s because of the lyric, "Daddy's little girl ain't a girl no more," which closely resembled the lyrics to the 1988 song, "Sweet Young Thing Ain't Sweet No More," by Nirvana's Sub Pop label mates, Mudhoney. According to Azerrad, Cobain claimed the similarity was an example of "subconscious theft."
Reception
In 2015, Rolling Stone placed "Negative Creep" at number 15 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs.Several critics have noted the intensity of Cobain's vocals on the studio recording, with Mark Richardson of Pitchfork writing, "Cobain's voice through the second verse terrifies me. There is no concern for his physical well being or even his future as a vocalist in a rock band. He sings as intensely as he can possibly sing. Sometimes, when I'm listening loud, I think my headphones might be breaking up from the volume only to realize that the membrane being excited to the point of distortion is actually Cobain's larynx."
"Negative Creep" appeared in the 1996 grunge documentary, Hype!, and was included in the film's soundtrack. It also appeared in the bonus CD included with the 1995 book Screaming Life: A Chronicle of the Seattle Music Scene, which collected the photographs of acclaimed music photographer, Charles Peterson.
Accolades
Recording and release history
Demo and studio versions
Live versions
| Date recorded | Venue | Releases | Personnel |
| February 9, 1990 | Pine Street Theatre, Portland, Oregon | Bleach |
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| August 20, 1991 | Sir Henry's, Cork, Ireland | ||
| October 31, 1991 | Paramount Theatre, Seattle, WA | From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah Live at the Paramount |
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| February 22, 1992 | Pink's Garage, Honolulu, Hawaii | Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! | |
| August 30, 1992 | Reading Festival, Reading, England | Live at Reading |