Editing Nevermind (section)

===Lyrics===
The album is dark, humorous, and disturbing.<ref name="Congress">{{Cite journal |last=Sheppherd |first=Josh |date=2004 |title="Nevermind"—Nirvana (1991) |url=https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-recording-preservation-board/documents/Nevermind.pdf |journal=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref> It includes anti-establishment views,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jovetic |first=Mirjana |date=October 27, 2000 |title=Rewind to 1991 |url=https://www.scmp.com/article/329870/rewind-1991 |access-date=April 3, 2022 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref> and explores sexism,<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=November 20, 2018 |title=Nirvana's "Nevermind" Made, and Unmade, Alternative Culture |url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/touchstones/an-appreciation-of-nirvanas-1991-album-nevermind |access-date=April 3, 2022 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}}</ref> frustration, loneliness, sickness and troubled love.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nirvana: The stories behind every song on Nevermind |url=https://www.kerrang.com/nirvana-the-stories-behind-every-song-on-nevermind/ |access-date=April 3, 2022 |website=Kerrang! |date=September 23, 2021 |language=en}}</ref> Cobain said that the lyrics were taken from two years of poetry he had accumulated, and then [[Cut-up technique|cut up, choosing lines he preferred]],<ref>Steinke, Darcey (October 1993). [https://www.spin.com/2013/09/nirvana-cover-story-1993-smashing-their-heads-on-the-punk-rock "Smashing Their Heads on the Punk Rock"]. ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]''. Retrieved March 10, 2023.</ref> noting that they're "not usually thematic at all".<ref name="Cross1">{{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Charles |title=Classic Rock Albums: Nirvana - Nevermind |last2=Berkenstadt |first2=Jim |date=February 22, 2012 |publisher=[[Schirmer Trade Books]] |isbn=9780857127686 |publication-date=January 1, 1998 |author-link1=Charles R. Cross |author-link2=Jim Berkenstadt}}</ref> On the other hand, Grohl has said that Cobain told him, "Music comes first and lyrics come second," and Grohl believes that above all Cobain focused on the melodies of his songs.<ref name=classicalbums /> Cobain was still working on the album's lyrics well into the recording of ''Nevermind''. Additionally, Cobain's phrasing on the album is often difficult to understand. Vig asserted that clarity of Cobain's singing was not paramount, saying that "Even though you couldn't quite tell what he was singing about, you knew it was intense as hell."<ref name=classicalbums /> Cobain later complained when rock journalists attempted to decipher his singing and extract meaning from his lyrics, writing: "Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second-rate [[Sigmund Freud|Freudian]] evaluation of my lyrics, when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed them incorrectly?"<ref name="Cross 182">Cross 2001, p. 182</ref>

[[Charles R. Cross]] asserted in his 2001 biography of Cobain, ''[[Heavier Than Heaven]]'', that many of the songs written for ''Nevermind'' were about Cobain's dysfunctional relationship with [[Tobi Vail]]. After their relationship ended, Cobain began writing and painting violent scenes, many of which revealed a hatred for himself and others. Songs written during this period were less violent, but still reflected anger absent from Cobain's earlier songs. Cross wrote, "In the four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail." "Drain You" begins with the line, "One baby to another said 'I'm lucky to have met you,'" quoting what Vail had once told Cobain, and the line "It is now my duty to completely drain you" refers to the power Vail had over Cobain in their relationship. According to Novoselic, "'Lounge Act' is about Tobi," and the song contains the line "I'll arrest myself, I'll wear a shield," referring to Cobain having the [[K Records]] logo tattooed on his arm to impress Vail. Though "Lithium" had been written before Cobain knew Vail, the lyrics of the song were changed to reference her.<ref>Cross 2001, p. 168–69</ref> Cobain also said in an interview with ''[[Musician (magazine)|Musician]]'' that "some of my very personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that the person in the song is feeling—very lonely, sick".<ref>Morris, Chris. "The Year's Hottest Band Can't Stand Still." ''Musician'', January 1992.</ref>