Бесконечная и Безымянная: История песни Nirvana

1991 song by Nirvana

"Endless, Nameless" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain, bassist Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. It is the 13th and final song on the band's second studio album, Nevermind, released in September 1991. This song was released as a hidden track, beginning approximately 10 minutes after the end of the album's final listed song, "Something in the Way," and occupying the same track. It was first credited by name when it was re released as a B side on the album's second single, "Come As You Are," in March 1992. On November 12, 2021, "Endless, Nameless" was released as a 7 inch single included on the 30th anniversary reissue of Nevermind.

The earliest known live performance of "Endless, Nameless" was at the No More Wars anti–Gulf War benefit show on January 18, 1991, at the Evergreen State College Library 4300 in Olympia, Washington.

The song was first recorded in the studio during the recording sessions for the band's second album, Nevermind, in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. It was recorded following a failed attempt at recording the future Nevermind single "Lithium," with a "frustrated" Cobain instructing producer Butch Vig to continue recording while he, Grohl and Novoselic began playing "Endless, Nameless." As Vig recalled, “the rage and frustration in [Cobain's] voice was fuckin’ scary to hear, because he kind of lost it.” Vig remembered Cobain being "really pissed off, thrashing and screaming" during the take. Unlike the rest of Nevermind, the song was recorded live, with no overdubs added afterwards. Cobain's vocals and guitar were recorded in the middle of the room, with Cobain singing into a Shure SM57 microphone designed for conversation and not music. Vig recalled that "we had tremendous bleed from the bass and drums all pouring into Kurt's microphone." and not a Mosrite as claimed by Vig, appears in Come As You Are. This version of the song featured Cobain briefly singing part of "Turning Japanese," the 1980 single by English rock band the Vapors. The full session, which also included versions of the Nevermind song "Drain You" and future In Utero song "Dumb", was first broadcast on November 3, 1991. When played live, "Endless, Nameless" was usually performed last, with the band members frequently destroying their instruments and the stage during the end. The final live performance of the song was on December 13, 1993, at Pier 48 in Seattle during the Live and Loud concert, filmed for MTV. The original broadcast of the performance, on December 31, 1993, only included a noise jam at the end of the recognizable song that was not credited as "Endless, Nameless." However, the jam was included as part of the song when the full show was released on DVD in September 2013.

According to Come As You Are, Cobain himself was unsure of what he was singing during the performance, but believed the lyrics included the lines, "I think I can, I know I can." In a 1991 interview with ICE, Geffen Records’ vice president of marketing Robert Smith explained that using the song as a hidden track "was kind of a joke for the band to do, as in we're not going to list it in the packaging, or mention it exists. It's for that person who plays the CD, it ends, they're walking around the house and ten minutes later Kaboom!" The album's mastering engineer, Howie Weinberg, recalled receiving "a heavy call from Kurt" after the band noticed the song's initial absence, asking him, "Where the hell is the extra song?" and demanding he "Fix it!" In 2019, Vulture ranked it at number 16 on their "Best Nirvana Songs, Ranked" list, calling it "a revolting sound that Nirvana brought to bear on millions of Middle American homes" that "surfaced like a nightmare, a cherry bomb in a disc changer, Cobain’s stomach pain manifested in sound." In 2023, PopMatters included it on their list of "The 10 Heaviest Nirvana Songs," with Dean Brown describing it as "an obstinate emission hell bent on rupturing the mournful mood left by 'Something in the Way.'" American musical comedian "Weird Al" Yankovic parodied the song on his 1992 album Off the Deep End with the seven second long hidden track, "Bite Me." Off the Deep End also featured the lead single "Smells Like Nirvana," a parody of the 1991 Nevermind single "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and an album cover that parodied the cover of Nevermind.

A live version of the song, from the band's appearance at the 1991 Reading Festival in Reading, England on August 23, 1991, appeared on the live video The Year Punk Broke, released in 1992. Footage from this performance of the song, including Cobain jumping into the drum set at the end, later appeared in the music video for "Lithium" in 1992. The studio version recorded for the BBC in London on September 3, 1991 appeared on the Nirvana box set With the Lights Out, in November 2004. A live version of the song, recorded at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on October 31, 1991, appeared on the live video Live! Tonight! Sold Out! !, released in November 1994. Footage from this performance of the song also later appeared in the "Lithium" video. The full concert was released on DVD and Blu Ray in September 2011.