Heart-Shaped Box
| Heart-Shaped Box | |
|---|---|
| Nirvana | |
| publication | August 30, 1993 |
| length | 4:39 |
| Genre (s) | Grunge |
| Author (s) | Kurt Cobain |
| Producer (s) | Steve Albini |
| album | In Utero |
Heart-Shaped Box is a song by the American rock band Nirvana . It was released on August 30, 1993 and was the first single from their third studio album In Utero , which was released in September 1993. Heart-Shaped Box is one of the best-known Nirvana songs that have been covered many times - also by jazz pianists such as Brad Mehldau or Yaron Herman .
background
Heart-Shaped Box was written by Kurt Cobain between winter 1992 and spring 1993 . Cobain's widow, Courtney Love , said Cobain wrote the song while locking himself in a large closet in the couple's bedroom. "We had this huge closet" ( We had this large closet ), she explained in an interview with Rolling Stone in 1994, "and I heard him working on Heart-Shaped Box . He wrote the song in about five minutes ( and I heard him work on Heart-Shaped Box . He wrote about five minutes on it ).
Heart-Shaped Box was first performed live on January 16, 1993 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The first studio version was also recorded in January 1993 by Craig Montgomery in Rio de Janeiro . This first version of the song appeared on the band's two box sets With the Lights Out and Sliver: the Best of the Box . However, these best-of albums were released after Kurt Cobain's death. The In Utero version was finally recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini in Cannon Falls, Minnesota .
A note in Cobain's diary suggests that the line of text “I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap” was already included in an early version of the outtake Verse Chorus Verse from the fall of 1990.
content
The song Heart-Shaped Box describes Cobain's fascination for the female body in many ways. In the unused accompanying texts to In Utero , which were later published in Cobain's diaries, Cobain writes that the song was inspired by Camille's vaginal flower theory by the American social critic Camille Paglia .
Cobain's relationship with Courtney Love could also have been an inspiration for the song. According to the Cobain biography Heavier than Heaven , Love sent Cobain a heart-shaped box while on tour. After the couple's wedding in 1992, Cobain took over Love's hobby and soon there were several heart-shaped boxes on every shelf in one of the couple's houses. The original Heart-Shaped Box is said to have returned to Love's possession after Cobain's suicide in 1994, containing a strand of Cobain's hair and his suicide note.
The text on Heart-Shaped Box could also have a political dimension. According to the band bassist Krist Novoselić , the line “Broken hymen of your highness” was a direct attack by Cobain on the US-American censorship laws.
"In that song, the word hymen is used as a metaphor ( In the song, the word hymen [hymen] as a metaphor used )," said Novoselic magazine musican 1995, "In the context of synthesis censorship bills, if you were to discuss the 'Broken hymen of your highness,' as a normal, natural part of the female anatomy with a teenager, you would technically be breaking the law (In connection with these censorship laws, one would break the law by reading the line 'Broken hymen of your highness, 'as a normal, natural part of the female anatomy with a teenager). "
Music video
The video for Heart-Shaped Box was shot by the Dutch director Anton Corbijn . It shows a series of images that describe various storylines: one old, lean man with a Santa Claus hat , climbing on a square occupied by crows cross and a girl in a Ku Klux Klan robe trying fetuses from a tree pick. It also shows a woman running across a poppy field, dressed like the anatomical representation of a woman on the cover of In Utero . You can then see the band in a children's room with a heart window, in the poppy field and at the old, skinny man's bedside.
According to Charles Crosses biography Heavier than Heaven , the little Ku Klux Klan girl in the video was allegedly played by Kurt Cobain's half-sister Brianne O'Conner. The Klan girl was arguably part of Cobain's original plan for lithium . This was originally supposed to be a cartoon about a Klan girl named Prego who begins to question the racism of those around him. In the video, the girl's white hat is blown into a puddle full of ink and her entire robe is then filled with ink.
At the MTV Video Music Awards 1994 the video won the prizes in the categories " Best Alternative Video " and "Best Art Direction in a Video" and was in the categories "Video of the Year", "Best Cinematography in a Video" and " Viewer's Choice “nominated.
The video is clearly shaped by Cobain's ideas and his relationship to the Christian faith. It clearly parodies the crossing of Jesus with a thin man in a Santa hat. This was also evident in the song "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam". Cobain was not a friend of the Christian faith.
Track list of the single
- Heart-Shaped Box [LP Version] (Cobain) - 4:41
- Milk It [LP Version] (Cobain) - 3:54
- Marigold ( Grohl ) - 2:34
Chart successes and awards
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Chart positions Explanation of the data |
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| Singles | ||||||||||||
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Heart-Shaped Box ranked in the top 100 charts in several countries, including number 5 in the UK. In New Zealand the song was ranked 9th, in Sweden 16th, in Australia 21st and in France 37th. In Germany, however, the single could not place in the charts.
Heart-Shaped Box was awarded a Silver Record in 2018 for over 200,000 units sold in the UK .
| Country / Region | Award | Sales |
|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, Award, Sales) |
||
 United Kingdom (BPI)
|
 silver
|
200,000 |
| All in all |
1 × silver |
200,000 |
Trivia
- The video was made from a sketch of Cobain that he drew from a dream.
- All characters were developed by Cobain, except for the woman on the cover of the album In Utero , which was developed by director Anton Corbijn. Their scenes were recorded while the band was out of the studio.
- In order to simulate the Technicolor look , the entire video was first recorded in color, then copied in black and white and then painted again by hand, frame by frame.
- The video also won the MTV Video Music Award for "Best Alternative Video". For the third time in a row, Nirvana won this award after Smells Like Teen Spirit and In Bloom .
- Heart-Shaped Box was the last song of the band's last concert (at Munich-Riem Airport: Terminal 1) before Cobain's death
- Heart-Shaped Box was also Nirvana's last music video until the band broke up in 1994.
- The song is also featured in the popular Guitar Hero II video game for PlayStation 2 and Xbox 360 .
- The first novel by the writer Joe Hill , the son of Stephen King , bears the title Heart-Shaped Box in its original English version and has won several prizes.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated February 24, 2011) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ feelnumb.com - Breanne (Brieann) O'Connor: Kurt Cobain's Half Sister (English) accessed on October 17, 2013
- ↑ Chart positions: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ International chart tracking Heart-Shaped Box
- ↑ UK: silver
