Kurt Cobain wrote “Rape Me” around 1991, shortly before the release of Nirvana’s breakthrough album Nevermind. There were a few live performances of it at that time, lacking the bridge, which was added when it appeared on In Utero in 1993. Initially, it was intended to be a staunchly anti-rape song and was written to be painfully blunt. But it was shrouded in misunderstandings, and many people thought it was actually about the media.
The song was often considered controversial. MTV forbade Nirvana from performing it at the 1992 VMAs, and it caused big retail stores in the U.S. to initially refuse to stock In Utero. During their MTV Unplugged performance, Cobain played the intro to “Rape Me” before transitioning into the MTV-approved “Lithium”. This, naturally, sent the executives into a tizzy.
In a 1993 interview, Cobain was asked to explain the meaning of the song to assuage outrage, offense, and confusion from some listeners. Cobain started by noting that Nirvana had been the “cover boys on about ten different magazines,” and they’d been asked to explain the song in each one.
“It’s an anti—let me repeat that—anti-rape song,” Cobain explained, emphasizing the point he’d been asked to make many, many times. “I don’t know,” he continued. “I just got tired of people trying to put too much meaning into my lyrics. It’s not making enough sense, you know, so I decided to be really blunt.”
Kurt Cobain Once Again Explained the Often Misunderstood Nirvana Song
Kurt Cobain continued to explain the meaning of “Rape Me”. For him, it was a purposefully bold way to express his stance against sexual violence. It’s ironic, of course, that his attempt to be blunt and obvious became his most often misunderstood song.
“I thought, it’s a kind of funny just reward for a guy who rapes a woman,” Cobain explained, “And then he goes into jail and gets raped. You know, I think it’s kind of justice, in a way.”
It’s clear that this was a question Nirvana had been asked multiple times. The three of them look tired and a little bored. Meanwhile, the interviewer attempts to get them to speak about the controversy surrounding “Rape Me”. But Cobain simply reiterated their stance.
“Most anyone who knows about us would probably know that we are pretty much anti-rape,” he said. “At this point, you know.”
‘Rape Me’ Was Not About The Media
In an August 1993 interview with Much Magazine, “Rape Me” came up again. But the initial question was more about how Nirvana makes their concerns heard regarding sexism and violence against women. Cobain seemed more willing to discuss it when framed in this way.
“Having to resort to doing something like [writing ‘Rape Me’] is so embarrassing,” he said. “Because people didn’t understand when we wrote songs like ‘About A Girl’ or ‘Polly’, and having to explain that and having misunderstandings about that is so… I decided to write ‘Rape Me’ in a way that was so blunt and obvious that no one could deny it, you know? No one could read into it any other way.
“Although some people have, actually!” he added. “Some people thought that maybe it had something to do with my disgust with the media and the way they’ve treated us and stuff like that. But it’s not true! That’s not what the song is about at all.”
Instead, he clarified, “It’s my way of, in a sarcastic way almost, of saying, ‘How obvious do we have to be?’”
Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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