Something in the Way: Song Review

Kurt Cobain was full of great musical potential, but in the end, his life never amounted to near what it could have. The majority of his short life was nothing more than a sad and lifeless memoir of unfortunate happenings. However, he left a great many songs of high musical quality that reflected his depressed life. Perhaps the song that best represents his depression is Something in the Way.

Something in the Way mirrors Cobain’s unhappiness in two ways- its concise yet thought-provoking lyrics and its melody that seems to drain happy feelings from listeners as Cobain’s sad feelings are poured into us.

In Kurt’s early days his parents divorced and at one point he was a homeless child and made a dwelling under a bridge, obviously reflecting the lines “Underneath the bridge/The tarp has sprung a leak”. Whether or not he actually ate grass, kept wild creatures as pets, or ate fish is unclear but these lines certainly emphasize Kurt’s destitution.

When recording this song, Kurt and his band faced difficulties which eventually led Cobain to play the song solo for producer Butch Vig. He lay upon the couch in Vig’s studio control room and played the song on a 5-string acoustic that could barely stay in tune. Vig was so amazed by Kurt’s little performance that he asked him to remain stationed exactly where he was while he set up mikes to record the song right there in the control room. Afterwards a friend of the band who played cello, Kirk Canning, came in and did some recording for the song. However, due to Cobain’s strange 5-stringed acoustic, Canning found it difficult to tune his cello in accord with the song. The cello track, strangely enough, added an eerie and unexpectedly beautiful element to the song despite being unable to maintain a solid alignment with the tuning of the guitar.

Though this song often brings out a melancholy mood in it’s listeners, one can not deny the quality of it with its simple yet deep lyrics as well as an ominous tune.