Songwriter: Kurt Cobain
Writing Period: 1991
Recording Session: 26/10/92 Word of Mouth Productions, Seattle, WA
Alternate/Working Titles: Waif Me
Common Mislabels: Break Me - Wreck Me - Big Cheese - Something in the Way
Keen to move away from the glossy production of their previous album and get back-to-basics, NIRVANA returned to the familiar surrounds of Word Of Mouth Productions, formally known as Reciprocal Recording. Producer, Jack Endino, found the atmosphere markedly different to that enjoyed on previous occasions, however: It was very tense, he explains. "There was something dark in the air. It was dysfunctional in some way. People were not communicating with each other. Kurt was sort of in a different reality from everybody else. It made me very uneasy. Everybody seemed to be very on edge. It just wasn't the same band it had been."
The sessions began badly, with Cobain failing to arrive on the first day, "He didn't show up at all the whole first day—didn't show, didn't call, just no Kurt." Cobain's negligence came as a shock to Endino, "For him to book studio time and then not show up was completely unlike anything he'd done in the old days."
Cobain's attention was then diverted on the second day when Courtney Love called by the studio with baby Frances, "It was a little distracting!" admits Endino. "Courtney came down to the studio with Frances and immediately everything was centred on the baby. Frances was only two weeks old or something. But I have to say that they were both very cute with the baby. You just had to grin and bear it. It's a baby and they're new parents so you have to let them do their thing."
The band recorded basic tracks for six songs—Dumb, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, tourette's, Pennyroyal Tea, Rape Me, and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter—Rape Me was the only song to which a vocal was added.
Cobain delivered his vocal to Rape Me with baby Frances bawling in the background, "She was sitting on his lap, and then they held her up to the mic while Kurt was singing." Endino admits to finding the result somewhat unsettling, "as a piece of art, he's singing in this very cracked, too-many-cigarettes voice Rape Me and then there's a baby crying. It does creep me out. I think he wanted to disturb people with that juxtaposition."
from Disc 2 of "With the Lights Out"
Lyrics
Rape me
Rape me, my friend
Rape me
Rape me again
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
Hate me
Do it and do it again
Waste me
Rape me, my friend.
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
My favorite inside source
I'll kiss your open sores
You appreciate your concern
I hope you lie and burn
Rape me
Rape me, my friend
Rape me
Rape me again
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
I'm not the only one
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me (Rape me)
Rape me
