page_title: Smells Like Nirvana
section_title: Live performances
hierarchical_section_title: Smells Like Nirvana / Live performances
caption_attribution_description: English: "Weird Al" Yankovic dressed as Kurt Cobain, performing "Smells Like Nirvana".
context_page_description: "Smells Like Nirvana" is a parody of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's Off the Deep End album in April 1992. "Smells Like Nirvana" was written during a three-year career low for Yankovic after the financial failure of his film UHF, but captured the quickly-rising popularity of grunge and Nirvana's success. The song was written to poke fun at the fact that many people had a hard time understanding Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's lyrics in the original song. After being unable to contact Nirvana by conventional means, Yankovic called Cobain while the band was on the set of Saturday Night Live, where Cobain quickly gave permission to record the parody.
  Recording the song was a change for Yankovic and his band. Usually, the group were forced to record several overdubs. "Smells Like Nirvana", however, was relatively straightforward in its musical composition. To promote the single, Yankovic created an associated video for the song that parodied the "Smells like Teen Spirit" video.
context_section_description: During live performances, Yankovic dons clothing similar to what Cobain wore in the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This includes an electric left-handed guitar, a shirt similar to Cobain's, and a blonde wig. The costuming for the performance is critical; Schwartz explained that "if anything's missing, Al won't do it". The rest of Al's band also participates. Steve Jay, who plays bass, uses two bass straps to emulate and exaggerate "Novoselic's low-hanging bass". He explained that he positions his instrument "to where I can just barely touch the strings". The members of the band also mock-mosh. Jim West, the band's guitarist, noted that moshing is usually tame, but that there "were a few collisions where people got hurt, but not the audience, just the band." Sometimes during the third verse, after Yankovic sings "And I forgot the next verse," he drops out for the next few lines, pretending to actually forget the lyrics.
caption: "Weird Al" Yankovic performing "Smells Like Nirvana" in concert, dressed like Kurt Cobain.
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