There’s nothing else like “Something In The Way” on Nirvana’s 1991 major label debut, Nevermind. With its languid acoustic guitar, whispered vocals from Kurt Cobain, and quiet drum pattern, the song grips you with its unrelenting simplicity and troubled lyrics. Nirvana knew it was special when they recorded it.
“Something In The Way” was written by Cobain and recorded at California’s Sound City Studios with producer Butch Vig, who linked up with the band in 1990 to record all of Nevermind, the band’s first album under DGC Records and second overall, following 1989’s Bleach. Originally, the band tried to record the track the way they had the rest of the album, with Cobain, drummer Dave Grohl, and bassist Krist Novoselic playing together in the main studio while Vig recorded the performance from the control room. But the song wasn’t sounding the way Cobain had envisioned in his head.
After a few tries, Cobain emerged from the studio and, out of frustration, sat on the control room couch to show Vig how “Something in the Way” should sound. “He layed on his back and started playing the guitar, and he was barely singing. It was coming out as almost a whisper,” Vig recalled in an episode of Classic Albums. Vig was completely moved by Cobain’s solo performance—so much so that he decided to record Cobain’s vocals and guitar right there in the control room. “I quick grabbed a couple mics and plugged them in, un-plugged the phone, and turned the fans off,’” Vig said. “I literally held my breath for three minutes while he sang.”
Grohl and Novoselic added their parts to “Something In The Way” later on; the former had the most trouble matching his drum beat to the slow-moving pace of Cobain’s guitar. “I think I tortured him on it,” Vig said. “Sometimes we punched it in bar by bar just to make sure it was really languid…I think it was in his nature to hit hard.” For the final piece of the puzzle, the band hired cellist Kirk Canning to record the strings you hear on the track.
Like most Nirvana songs, “Something In The Way” has caused fans to obsess over the meaning of Cobain’s trademark vague lyrics. One popular theory is that the lyrics are autobiographical, referring to a period after Cobain dropped out of high school and supposedly lived under the Young Street Bridge over Washington’s Wishkah River. The song’s opening lines surely support that idea, but there’s a lot of debate over whether Cobain really did live there—his widow, Courtney Love, recently claimed he didn’t.
Underneath the bridge
Tarp has sprung a leak
Although she denies that Cobain lived under the bridge, Love does see “Something in the Way” as somewhat autobiographical. She points to a line later in the verse where Cobain sings about the honorable moral code he follows when it comes to food.
It’s okay to eat fish
’Cause they don’t have any feelings
For Love, those lyrics are a direct reflection of Cobain, who, in real-life, loved turtles and other underwater creatures. “Nothing else cuts me like that line,” Love told the Los Angeles Times. “He knows it’s a lie … He’s telling himself anything just to get through.”
Cobain refuted the notion that “Something In The Way” was autobiographical in his 1993 biography Come As You Are. He told author Michael Azerrad that he wasn’t reflecting on his past, but rather imagining how his present might be had life taken a different turn. “It’s like if I was living under the bridge and I was dying of A.I.D.S., if I was sick and I couldn’t move and I was a total street person,” Cobain said. “That was kind of the fantasy of it.”
Either way, “Something in the Way” is, at its heart, a song about yearning. The title phrase might describe an impediment, something holding the narrator back. In that case, the chorus is about knowing there’s something else out there—maybe something better—but not being able to reach it.
Something in the way, mmm
Something in the way, yeah, mmm
“Something In The Way” was never released as a single and never charted on the Hot 100, but it remains one of Nirvana’s most enduring hits. It’s been covered by artists like Stereophonics and Post Malone, and in 2019, Rolling Stone ranked it just inside the Top 5 on its list of the greatest Nirvana songs. (There are 102 to choose from.) In 2022, after appearing on the soundtrack for The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson, the song soared back into the iTunes chart’s Top 20.
We may never know who the narrator was or what was holding them back on “Something In The Way,” but if you need those answers, you’re kind of missing what makes the song—and Cobain himself—resonate with so many people. “Something in the Way” isn’t about actually getting what you’re searching for. It’s a reminder to—against all odds—keep trying.
You can read all the lyrics to “Something In The Way” on Genius now.
