Entertainment

Smells like 20 years later

Talk about typical slacker irony — the greatest rock album of the ’90s album sounded terrible to the man who wrote its songs and sang them. Disappointed by so many things in life, tragic Kurt Cobain always hated how “Nevermind” — the record that made him a superstar and grunge-rock legend — turned out. He derided it as sounding too much like Motley Crue.

“He had a sound in his head that they failed to capture,” says Neil Strauss, who covered Cobain’s death for Rolling Stone. “They didn’t listen to him about the way he wanted the microphones, but he eventually just gave up and let them do it their way. As a result, according to [Cobain], the final production and mix were too slick. We don’t know how ‘Nevermind’ would have sounded if he had everything his way in the studio.”

Now for the first time, fans actually have a chance to hear what Cobain was going for. For the 20th anniversary of “Nevermind” —

issued Sept. 24, 1991 — on Tuesday, the album is being reissued in a massic four-CD and one-DVD collection. Among the 94 songs, alternate takes and videos are a set of “Boombox” demos recorded by the band during three weeks of rehearsals before they headed into the studio with producer Butch Vig.

“The boombox recordings are so cool because they are super raw and primal,” says Vig, who stitched the box set together with drummer Dave Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic. “Basically it’s the band setting up a boombox in their rehearsal space and running through the songs. That’s where you get a sense of where they were — all blood and guts. Super down and dirty, but it’s what I really love. That’s my favorite part of the boxed set.”

Of the eight “boombox” recordings, seven of those tunes — including the massive hits “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are” — eventually made their way onto the finished studio version of “Nevermind.”

Few would fault Vig for giving the album the polished sound that resulted in a stunning breakthrough for both the band and its peers. Initially a slow seller, within three months, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” bumped Michael Jackson’s “Dangerous” from the No. 1 slot on the singles charts and established an edgy new voice in pop music.

Now considered a moden-rock masterpiece, “Nevermind” not only ignited the grunge movement and united the flannel-bound minions of Gen X-ers across America. It went on to sell 30 million copies, and the weight of its success crushed its architect Cobain, who became addicted to heroin and eventually committed suicide three years later in 1994.

“The record is important because it blended the punk ethic and attitude in the performance with these gorgeous melodies and enigmatic lyrics,” says Vig, who said he merely helped “focus” the group’s sound.

In fact, he says the huge shift in sound quality from the raw, thrashing rock that marked Nirvana’s first album, “Bleach,” was the arrival of Grohl, who replaced Chad Channing behind the skins.

The new set features another trove of previously unreleased tracks called the “Smart Studio” sessions. Recorded with Channing, they were intended to become an album for indie label Subpop, but instead served as a calling card to major record labels such as David Geffen’s DGC, to which the group ultimately signed.

“Listen to the Smart sessions with Chad and you hear how the songs are coming together,” says Vig, “but there’s nothing super intense or super powerful there. Compare that to the stuff after Dave [Grohl] joined the band. When they went into the studio to record “Nevermind” with Dave, they were whip-smart tight with incredible power. That’s where the transition lies — Dave took the band to another level with his drumming.”

In addition to the Boombox and Smart tracks, the box also offers B-sides, alternate mixes and, on the DVD, a full concert filmed at a gig at Seattle’s Paramount Theatre on Halloween night 1991 — a month after the album’s release just after the trio had returned from a European tour. That film is believed to be the only concert filmed in its entirety by the band.

Author of “Heavier Than Heaven” Charles R. Cross adds another turning point can be heard on the song “Sliver” that’s captured live for this boxed set on the “B-sides” disc. Cross says “Sliver” “is the first Nirvana song that’s really about Kurt, about his childhood. It’s the song where Kurt makes a huge breakthrough because it’s where he found his voice.”

Vig agrees about the importance of “Sliver.”

“That song was recorded just after the Smart sessions and just before ‘Nevermind’ was released,” he says. “That song has the line in it ‘Grandma take me home.’ That’s so not a punk-rock lyric. It’s something a little kid would say, but that’s Kurt’s sensibility. There’s a fragility to him and a femininity in him that fans really relate to, even today.”