"Sliver" is a short, two minute long song performed by Nirvana and released on their Incesticide album, an album of outtakes and rarities.

The song tells the story of a young child who is being baby sat by his grandparents while his parents go to a show. He engages in various activities, all while asking for his grandmother to take him home. At the end of the song, he wakes up in his mother's arms.

When I first heard this song, I assumed there was something else going on: Kurt Cobain screams that loud, and based on Nirvana's general topic matter, I assumed this was a song about child abuse, that there was a more nefarious reason why he didn't like being at his grandparents. It appears, however, that the song is just what it seems to be, a simple sliver of life.

It also says something about Nirvana that after a decade of heavy metal bands trying to outdo each other in aggression and morbidity, Nirvana could manage to seem fresh singing songs about things like bored children not liking dinner.


BrevityQuest 2020