Pop Song 531 of 1000 'Heart-Shaped Box' Nirvana 1993

11 months ago
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Pop Song 531 of 1000 'Heart-Shaped Box' Nirvana 1993

Please watch the MV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6P0SitRwy8
Please watch Nirvana live https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92fK3K8nagk

In the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Cobain told author Michael Azerrad that "Heart-Shaped Box" was written about children with cancer. "Every time I see documentaries about little kids with cancer I just freak out", he explained. "It affects me on the highest emotional level, more than anything else on television."[2] As Azerrad noted, however, the song's lyrics were more likely about Love. Charles R. Cross, author of the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, described the lyric, "I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black" as "what has to be the most convoluted route any songwriter undertook in pop history to say 'I love you'".[14] Garr wrote that "while the song does reference [cancer], the lyrics appear more to address the physical and emotional dependencies inherent in relationships."[13]

Cobain's unused liner notes for In Utero, first described in Heavier Than Heaven and published in Journals the following year, featured an explanation for "Heart-Shaped Box" that "fell completely apart", according to Cross, "but touched on The Wizard of Oz, 'I Claudius', Leonardo da Vinci, male seahorses (who carry their young), racism in the Old West, and Camille Paglia".[14]

The song's title was inspired by the collection of heart-shaped candy boxes Love kept in the front room of the Fairfax apartment she and Cobain lived in.[2] However, early versions of the song featured the word "coffin" rather than "box". According to Bailey, the song also featured the working title "New Complaint."[15] In a 1993 interview with Circus, Cobain explained that the chorus lyrics "Hey/ Wait/ I've got a new complaint" were a reference to how he believed he was often perceived by the media.

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice
Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet
Cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath
Broken hymen of Your Highness, I'm left black
Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Hey! Wait!
I've got a new complaint
Forever in debt to your priceless advice
Your advice
She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak
I've been locked inside your heart-shaped box for weeks
I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

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