Come On Death/Help Me Death jam
The american tour ended on 10/31/91, and they played the first show of the European tour on 11/04/91. Already on 11/16/91 two rare songs were played, Talk to me and Oh, the Guilt. Oh, the Guilt was released in late 1992 as a split single with Jesus Lizard's 'Puss', but Talk to me has never appeared in a studio version, and was only played two more times, on 11/23/91 and 11/26/91 (as we know it). Oh, the Guilt was actually written in late '90, played first on 11/25/90, and didn't appear again until 11/16/91. When Talk to me was written is not known, but they must have practised it before, since the 11/16/91 version is very good organized. Here are sound samples from the 11/16/91 show:
For the VPRO Radio session on 11/24/91 Nirvana recorded three songs: Here she comes now, Where did you sleep last night? and an unknown, unheard jam. Many think the jam might be Crisco/Rock Whore, a bootlegger name for a jam/song played on 11/30/91, and sung by someone thougt maybe to be Eugene Kelly from the Vaselines. This is what it says about the 11/24/91 jam in the Christopher Sandford book 'Kurt Cobain':
"At an Amsterdam radio appearance, the production crew requested a gaggle of tunes from Nevermind. Without responding, the band played a Ledbelly cover and composed a new song on air, Cobain stopping at the beginning to say: "Wait a minute, I have to think of some words for this."
Well, listening to Crisco from 11/30/91, I feel it's very organized, but it could also just be a jam. And it's quite short. The 11/24/91, if it's Crisco, had to be at least as long as the 11/30/91 version, otherwise it wouldn't have been recorded, and definitley not left on the tape. The jam remains unsurfaced, and can probably be found in Dutch Radio's vaults. Here's a clip of Crisco from 11/30/91:
Remember the unknown song from the late-'90 4-track demos? Well, a while ago, a new show surfaced, 12/4/91 Manchester, England. That show was opened with Dave on vocals, Krist on guitar and Kurt on drums. They played one song, with barely no vocals. Listening to it, it sounds very similar to that unknown 4-track song. Judge for yourself:
Over the year shift 91/92 Nirvana toured with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam, played on Saturday Night Live and at the MTV Studios. On January 24th they began their Australian tour in Sydney. On 2/1/92 they played an all ages show at The Palace in Melbourne, Australia. Parts of this show appears on many bootleg CDs, but it's still incomplete. The full show features a jam/song towards the end, which is about 4 minutes long and unheard. The full tape is being hoarded by a JJJ Radio employee, but should be available in bootleg circuits soon.
In April '92 Nirvana recorded three songs at Laundry Room Studios in Seattle, WA; Oh, the Guilt (released on a split-single), Curmudgeon (released as the b-side to Lithium on the single) and Return of the Rat, a Wipers cover (released on the tribute album 8 songs for Greg Sage & The Wipers). Some people think they recorded other stuff at this session, but I doubt it.
They didn't have much time to record material during their touring in 1992. Some In Utero stuff was recorded at Reciprocal Studios in October 1992, but other than that they didn't record much.
In early 1993 Nirvana were down to Brazil and played two shows, on 1/16/93 and 1/23/93. They did a studio session on 1/22/93 at Ariola Ltda BMG in Rio de Janeiro with engineer Craig Montgomery, where they recorded Gallons of rubbing alcohol flow through the strip, which is the hidden song on import versions of In Utero. Basically, it's just one riff over and over, and they jam and Kurt does some nonsense talking. They also recorded some more In Utero stuff at this session. Kurt also did some songs with Courtney, Kristen and Patty Sheimel from Hole. Two songs from that demo has surfaced, Closing Time (not Semisonic's song) and Determined/Anywhere but here. Closing Time is full length (fade-in and fade-out), but only one minute has surfaced of Determined. The available clip sounds like the song is pretty good. They also recorded Miss World, which ended up on Hole's My Body, The Hand Grenade album. Here are clips of the two Kurt/Hole songs:
Determined/Anywhere but here
Closing Time
In early '93 Kurt, Courtney and Patty once again went into the studio, this time in Seattle, and recorded some songs. This is what Courtney said about this demo:
"We pretended we were two sisters from Marysville, seventeen and sisteen, Dottie and Clara. We put the pitch way up on the four-track and we made up these really stupid songs... Sent the tapes out to all the appropriate people: Maximumrocknroll, Kim and Thurston, Bikini Kill, Fugazi, Calvin, Slim Moon. Huge Buzz."
The songs she is talking about are Hello Kitty, Lemonade Nation, Twister, Frizzle(?) and perhaps more. All of these are unheard.
These were the last studio sessions before the In Utero sessions began. That's the next section.