You Know You're Right

"You Know You're Right" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by lead vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the first song on the band's self-titled greatest hits album and the last song the band recorded before Cobain's death in April 1994.[1]

"You Know You're Right"
Single by Nirvana
from the album Nirvana
ReleasedOctober 8, 2002
RecordedJanuary 30, 1994
Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, Washington
GenreGrunge, alternative rock
Length3:38
Label
Songwriter(s)Kurt Cobain
Producer(s)Adam Kasper
Nirvana singles chronology
"Drain You"
(1996)		 "You Know You're Right"
(2002)
Music video
"You Know You're Right" on YouTube

Unreleased for years, the song eventually became the center of a legal dispute between Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and surviving Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl, with each party wanting it for a different release. It was also the subject of a high-profile Internet leak, which led to the song being put into heavy rotation on radio stations around the world before its official release, despite cease and desist orders from Nirvana's record company, Geffen Records.

Released as a promo single, "You Know You're Right" reached number one on both Billboard's Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts.[2]

Origin and recording

"You Know You're Right" was written in 1993. For years, it was known only from a bootlegged live version, recorded on October 23, 1993, at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois, and from a performance of the song by the American rock band Hole, which featured Love on vocals and guitar, during the band's MTV Unplugged set on February 14, 1995.

A studio version was recorded by Adam Kasper at Nirvana's final session, on January 30, 1994 at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle, Washington. The band had booked the studio for three days during a tour break, but Cobain had been absent for the first two days, leaving Novoselic and Grohl to work on their own songs. Upon Cobain's arrival on the third day, he immediately went to the studio's mixing console and listened to the material his bandmates had recorded, expressing approval.[3] Despite his apparent enthusiasm for the session, he had arrived at the studio without his gear, and ended up using a Univox guitar that the band's guitar technician, Ernie Bailey, had reworked for him, along with the studio's 50 Watt Marshall amp, which he disliked, and a pedal board with a Boss distortion pedal.[4] The band jammed for approximately 20 minutes, and then began working on the arrangement of "You Know You're Right, then known as "Kurt's Tune #1." According to a May 2004 Mojo article by Gillian G. Gaar, the band rehearsed the song three times, with the song's structure "pretty well hashed out" on the first take, and the chiming intro featured in the final version, achieved by Cobain playing the guitar above the nut, first appearing on the third take.[5] Robert Lang, the studio's owner, recalls being "speechless" hearing the song while in the control room with Kaspar.[6]

After recording the master instrumental take, the band and others present at the recording session took a break away from the studio to visit a local pizzeria and for Cobain to buy cigarettes, and then returned and recorded another instrumental song, titled "Jam After Dinner."[7] Cobain then recorded the vocals to "You Know You're Right," completing the main vocals in one take, and then adding two additional vocal overdubs.[8] These were the only vocals that Cobain recorded during the session. His final contribution to the recording was a guitar overdub.[6] Novoselic and Grohl recorded six more songs without Cobain, who had likely left by then, after signing the studio door and adding a drawing of a cat next to his signature.[9] The band reportedly planned to continue work at Lang's studio after their upcoming European tour, but Cobain died just over two months later, after cancelling the tour and returning to Seattle.[6]

Novoselic had taken the masters of the recordings home with him after the session, and kept them in his basement until 1998, when work began on a Nirvana box set. Although Love's lawsuit in 2001 delayed the box set's release, the song, now retitled "You Know You're Right," was mixed on July 14 and 15 of that year at Conway Studios in Hollywood, California, in anticipation of its eventual release. According to Novoselic, the final mix does not sound significantly different from the way it sounded when it was recorded in 1994, with the most dramatic changes being the addition of "a little bit of" compression and reverb.[10]

Nirvana's second guitarist, Pat Smear, lived in Los Angeles and was not present during the session, but revealed in a 2002 interview with the website Nirvana Fan Club that he was sent a cassette of the recording by Cobain, who told him he could "put [his] part on later." Smear did not have a chance to do so before the band's dissolution.[11]

Lawsuit and leak

The recording of "You Know You're Right" remained unreleased for years, eventually becoming the center of a legal dispute between Love and surviving members Grohl and Novoselic. Grohl and Novoselic had wanted the song for the planned box set, but Love blocked its release, saying that the song would have been "wasted" on a box set, and would be better-suited to a single-disc collection similar to The Beatles' 1.[12] Her lawsuit called the song a "potential 'hit' of extraordinary artistic and commercial value," and her manager asserted that a release with the song could sell 15 million copies.[13] Novoselic revealed that he did not necessarily disagree with Love: "I've always considered everything she said. We've considered it and agreed and said, 'Hey, that's a great idea, Courtney.' I tried to get along with Courtney as best I could, but there's only so much you can do."[12]

In November 2001, part of the song was aired on the NBC television program Access Hollywood, provided by Love, who was being interviewed that episode. This marked the first time any of the recording had been heard by the general public, although Love had also played the full song at a private event in Hollywood, Los Angeles earlier that year.[14] In May 2002, four additional clips were leaked, with some claiming the source of the leak was it appearing on advance CD copies of Grohl's heavy metal side project, Probot. Grohl denied the claims, saying, "I have never copied any version of 'You Know You're Right' for anyone. It has been rumored on the Internet that the song appeared on a CD that had songs from my side project, Probot. A guy from Spain said he got an advance CD. No such CD exists. It was not on any CD that I put out or compiled for anyone. I am perplexed by this and have no idea how or why anyone would leak this song."[15]

On September 21, 2002, an unmastered MP3 of the full studio version of "You Know You're Right" was leaked online. The song was quickly put in rotation by a number of alternative rock radio stations, which led to cease and desist letters being issued by Geffen. Some stations obeyed the orders, but a number of them defied. A few days after the leak, the popular Seattle radio station 107.7 The End posted a banner on their website that announced, "We took your e-mails and flooded the server at Geffen Records with tons of choice words about their 'You Know You're Right' cease and desist order. Due to the huge publicity outcry, the label has released the track. Hear NEW Nirvana all this weekend, only on 107.7 The End."[16]

In late September, Love, Grohl and Novoselic released a joint statement announcing that the lawsuit had been settled, and that "You Know You're Right" would arrive on "a one-CD history of the band" called Nirvana later that year.[6] "You Know You're Right" was eventually released as a promo single, and a Chris Hafner-directed music video was made. The song was re-released on the band's second greatest hits compilation, Icon, in 2010.

Composition

"You Know You're Right" is an alternative rock song that lasts for a duration of three minutes and thirty-seven seconds.[17] According to the sheet music published at Sheet Music Plus by EMI Music Publishing, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderately slow tempo of 84 beats per minute.[17] "You Know You're Right" is composed in the key of F minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and three notes.[17] The song follows a basic sequence of F5–D♭–E♭ in the verses and pre-chorus and is mainly restricted to a droning chord of F5 throughout the refrain as its chord progression.[17]

Release and reception

"You Know You're Right" became Nirvana's fourth song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart, peaking at number 45.[18] It was the band's fifth song to reach number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, [19] where it remained for four consecutive weeks, the longest of any Nirvana song.[20] With an increase of 1,616 spins, Nirvana also broke the record for the largest detected jump by an act already on the chart.[20] It also became Nirvana's first song to top the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, beating their previous peak of number three, achieved by both "Come as You Are" in April 1992 and "About A Girl" in December 1994.[21]

Amy McAuliffe from BBC called the song "a poignant reminder of what might have been" and described it as "listening to a dead man snarling out his last gasp of righteous sarcasm."[22] Will Hermes of Spin remarked that it was "amazing how a merely good Nirvana song still scorches everything within earshot."[23] David Samuels of Slate wrote that "unlike most post-mortem rock releases, 'You Know You’re Right' is not B-side material or the result of recording studio wizardry—it’s a real Nirvana song" that showed that "Cobain was at the peak of his powers as a vocalist and songwriter—the most gifted and popular writer that rock music had seen since Lennon/McCartney."[24] Likewise, Larry Flint from Billboard stated, "Unlike most previously unreleased cuts tacked onto best-of sets, 'You Know You're Right' is a potent addition to Nirvana's cache of classic material."[25]

"You Know You're Right" was ranked at the fifth best single of the year by Spin, with Charles Aaron calling it a "gnarly little heart-shaped box crammed with feedback, bile, and a gut-shredding chorus."[26] In 2011, it was ranked at number two on NME's list of the 10 best Nirvana songs.[27] In 2015, Rolling Stone listed it at number 21 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs.[28] The song's producer, Adam Kasper, called it "one of their best songs, probably in the Top Ten."[6]

Grohl reflected on the song in a 2019 interview with The Guardian, telling interviewer Eve Barlow that “I listened to it for the first time in 10 years. Oh God, it’s hard to listen to. It was not a pleasant time for the band. Kurt was unwell. Then he was well. Then he was unwell. The last year of the band was tough.” In addition to calling the lyrics "heartbreaking" in retrospect, Grohl added that "I used to think it sounded like [Cobain] was singing the chorus. Now I listen to it and it’s like he’s wailing.”[29]

In May 2020, American director Cameron Crowe revealed in an interview with Stereogum that he had hidden the studio recording of "You Know You're Right," given to him by Love, in his film Vanilla Sky, which was released almost a year prior to the song's official release. "We couldn’t credit it in the movie and it was actually illegal," Crowe explained, "but Courtney Love gave it to us. She said, 'This is the only Nirvana song that’s never been released. Hide it in your movie somewhere.'[30]

Music video

A music video for "You Know You're Right" was released in October 2002. Directed by Chris Hafner, it features a montage of band footage, drawn mostly from live performances and interviews, occasionally edited to give the effect of the song being performed.[31] The video peaked at number two of the Billboard Video Monitor, a chart of the most-played clips as monitored by the Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, for the week ending October 20, 2002.[32]

Title

"You Know You're Right" did not have an official title at the time of Cobain's death in April 1994. According to Gaar's 2002 Mojo article, it was listed simply as "Kurt's Tune #1" on the tracking sheets from the Robert Lang Studios recording session.[33] In 1995, it was performed as "You've Got No Right" by Hole at their MTV Unplugged appearance, and this title was most commonly used by fans prior to the release of the album Nirvana in 2002.

In the liner notes to Nirvana, Rolling Stone writer David Fricke erroneously states that the song had gone under the previous titles of "Autopilot" and "On a Mountain." The latter title was also cited by Charles Cross in his 2002 Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven.[34]:306 These names were actually invented by bootleggers who had misheard Grohl's comment at the beginning of the live version. Grohl had announced, "This is our last song; it's called 'All Apologies'"[35] unaware that Cobain had already started playing "You Know You're Right." Due to the relatively poor fidelity of the live recording, bootleggers believed Grohl had introduced the new song, and tried to interpret what they thought was its title. Cross also seems to misrepresent the lyrics in Heavier Than Heaven, citing the lyric, "I am walking in the piss," which appears in Hole's 1995 version of the song, but in no known Nirvana recording.[34]:306, 381

Accolades
Year Publication Country Accolade Rank
2003 Spin United States Singles of the Year[26] 5
2004 Q United Kingdom High Spirits: 10 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever[36] 9
2011 NME Nirvana: Their 10 Best Tracks[37] 2
2019 The Guardian Dave Grohl's Landmark Songs[38] N/A

Cover versions

The song was performed by Hole as "You've Got No Right" during their MTV Unplugged appearance on February 14, 1995. The band's lead singer and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, introduced it as "a song that Kurt wrote; [the] last song, almost." Seether performed an acoustic version of the song in 2003 and in 2004 a full cover version at Rock in Rio.

Personnel

Charts

Recording and release history

Six versions of "You Know You're Right" are known to exist: the final studio version along with three rehearsal takes from the same session,[60] the live version from the band's show at the Aragon Ballroom in October 1993, and an acoustic demo that was first released in November 2004 on the band's rarities box set, With the Lights Out.

Demo and studio versions
Date recorded Studio Producer/recorder Releases Personnel
1993 Cobain residence, Seattle, Washington Kurt Cobain With the Lights Out (2004)
Sliver: The Best of the Box (2005)
  • Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar)
January 30, 1994[A] Robert Lang Studios, Seattle, Washington Adam Kaspar
Nirvana (2002)
Icon (2010)
  • Kurt Cobain (vocals, guitar)
  • Krist Novoselic (bass)
  • Dave Grohl (drums)

Notes

^ In addition to the final version, three rehearsal takes were apparently recorded, but remain unreleased.[61]

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Notes
  1. "You Know You're Right" was only released as a downloadable single and no physical single was released at a time when no countries in the world were including downloads in their charts. Therefore all of the song's chart peaks are based on radio airplay including its peak on the Billboard Hot 100 which was earned entirely from its peak on the Billboard Hot 100 Airplay (Radio Songs) component chart of the Hot 100
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