Song Review: Come As You Are, Written by Nirvana

Come As You Are was the second single from Nirvana’s hit album Nevermind. This song along with Smells Like Teen Spirit, In Bloom, and Lithium were the highlights of the ‘first’ commercially successful grunge album. Like a lot of the album, the song is an attack on modern society, which has always appealed, in every decade of rock and roll, to the general population of young music listeners. Although, Come As You Are is relatively softer than the heavily over wrought guitar sound in other songs. It is often said that the main riff was taken from a Killing Joke song.

The riff although not the hardest to play is difficult to play while singing at the same time. When Kurt Cobain was asked what the song is about he answered, ‘A song full of contradictions on how we act versus how we think society thinks we should act.’ The song has relatively simple guitar and bass lines, the real effort is in the vocals. It is nevertheless an important song in the popularisation of Grunge.