In mid - '97 a Seattle-based magazine called The Stranger released a clip of a previously unheard Nirvana song called Old Age. However, the song wasn't new to Nirvana fans; it had appeared on Hole's album My Body, the Hand Grenade already. The song sparked a huge debate about wheter Courtney or Kurt wrote the song. Courtney says that she wrote the song, while Krist claims that Kurt wrote it.
The clip of the song (that's all that's surfaced of it, as I'm writing this) comes from Nirvana's March 1991 Boombox/4-track demos done for Butch Vig before they went in to record Nevermind. These are the songs rumoured to have been on that demotape:
If this tracklist is to belived, I'm quite surprised Drain You and Come as you are isn't there. And why would no In Utero songs be there. Krist says in the liner notes of Muddy Banks that tourette's had been around "a couple of years" before it was debuted (on 8/30/92), so that might have been done here, or on 1/1/91, or at the Nevermind sessions. This demo is one of the most desired pieces to surface of Nirvana's. Dave has actually said in an interview, which was done during his time in Nirvana, that they recorded new songs on boomboxes, but they usually lost the casettes, or forgot about them. This might have been one of those lost casettes, and the remaining copy is the one Vig kept for himself.
Here's a sound clip of Old Age:
The band began working on Nevermind in May 1991, at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, CA with producer Butch Vig. Acoording to John Loughney's Recording Sessions Guide (see Links section for link) there were at least four other songs tried out during the Nevermind sessions, which has not appeared yet:
As the new book on the Nevermind Sessions says, there were one song called Sappy recorded, and one called Verse Chorus Verse. This means that Sappy is the name of the song on the No Alternative album, and Verse Chorus Verse is unheard. Many speculate that VCV maybe is the real name for In his hands...Also, Vig says that the version of Sappy on No Alternative was recorded during these sessions, not during the In Utero sessions.
Song in D is another mystery song that is written about in the book on the Nevermind Sessions. It has never been heard, unless it's a temp name for another song. I believe early versions of the In Utero material Kurt had at that time might have been recorded too, although perhaps only with scratch vocals, or in unfinished versions - Dumb, Pennyroyal Tea, Rape Me and possibly tourette's. Rape Me might really have been recorded, since it was opened on 6/18/91, even before Nevermind material as Something in the Way, Lounge Act and Endless, Nameless. There might have been other stuff recorded, one never knows. Butch Vig has said in an interview regarding new Nirvana material being released:
"Kurt didn't want the left-over songs from the Nevermind sessions released, and I think his will should be respected, but as the fans should be able to hear the unreleased material, there might be further releases."
Kurt definitley had more songs. They did play some more songs during the next few tours, which is the next segment.