Polly (Nirvana song)
"Polly" is a song by the American alternative rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the sixth song on their second album Nevermind, released in September 1991.
Origin and recording
Originally titled "Hitchhiker" and later "Cracker," "Polly" dates back to at least 1988. The earliest known version is a home demo featuring Cobain on vocals and guitar.The song was first performed live on June 23, 1989, at Rhino Records in Westwood, California. It was first recorded in the studio in August 1989 by Steve Fisk at Music Source in Seattle, Washington. The sessions were for a planned EP to coincide with the band's European tour, but only two of the five songs recorded, "Stain" and "Been a Son," were officially released, on the Blew EP later that year. On October 26, 1989, the band recorded a version during their first BBC Peel Session, at Maida Vale Studios in London, England. The session, engineered by Ted de Bono, was originally broadcast on November 22, 1989.
The song was re-recorded by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin in April 1990. This acoustic version, featuring Chad Channing on drums, later appeared on the band's major label debut, Nevermind, released in September 1991. It was the only recording from Vig's original session with the band to appear on the album, the rest of which was recorded by Vig in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California. The recording features Cobain playing a five-string Stella guitar that he said he purchased from a pawn shop for $20. "I didn't bother changing the strings," Cobain told Jeff Gilbert in a 1992 Guitar World interview. "It barely stays in tune. In fact, I had to use duct tape to hold the tuning keys in place." Vig remembers that the guitar's "strings were so old they didn't have any tone to them. A real plunky sound." Cobain's guitar and Krist Novoselic's bass were recorded live, after which Cobain recorded lead and harmony vocals, and then Channing added the cymbal crashes.
According to Vig in the 2005 documentary, Cobain accidentally sang the first two words of the third verse, "Polly said," too early, during the instrumental break, but the band decided to leave it in. However, earlier versions of the song also feature this line, including the original home demo, the 1989 Peel version, and most pre-Nevermind live versions.
The band recorded another version of the song for the BBC on November 9, 1991, at Maida Vale in London during their appearance on Radio 1's Mark Goodier Radio Session. The session, their last for the BBC, was first broadcast on November 18, 1991, and three of the four songs from the session, including "Polly", appeared on the band's compilation album Incesticide on December 1992. This faster version of the song appeared under the title " Polly."
An acoustic version of "Polly," featuring Pat Smear on second guitar and Lori Goldston on cello, was performed during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged appearance at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993.
The last live performance of "Polly" was at Nirvana's final concert, at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany, on March 1, 1994.
Composition and lyrics
"Polly" is an alternative rock song that lasts for two minutes and 57 seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by BMG Rights Management, it is written in the time signature of common time, with a moderate tempo of 122 beats per minute. "Polly" is composed in the key of E Minor, while Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and one note, from a low of D3 to a high of E4. The song has a basic sequence of Em–G5–D–C5 in the verses and D–C5–G–B5 during the refrain as its chord progression. The song starts with Cobain playing a soft, sludgy acoustic guitar riff and singing the vocals until the first chorus when bass enters, a cymbal crash is played, and Cobain adds a vocal harmony. This is done for all verses and choruses. After the second chorus the guitar stops playing and a bass break starts. The song ends with a final cymbal crash after the third chorus.Cobain wrote "Polly" about an incident in Tacoma, Washington involving the abduction and rape of a 14-year-old girl in August 1987. Gerald Arthur Friend kidnapped the girl while she was leaving a rock concert, suspended her upside down from a pulley in his mobile home and raped and tortured her with a blow torch. She managed to escape by jumping from his truck at a gas station, attracting attention from surrounding people. Friend was later arrested and convicted for his crimes. Cobain's addition to the story was to have the victim fool the kidnapper into thinking she was enjoying what he was doing to her, causing him to let his guard down long enough for her to escape. In his 2001 biography Heavier than Heaven, Charles Cross compared the song to Truman Capote's In Cold Blood in that it was written from the criminal's point of view.
In his Nirvana biography Come As You Are, journalist Michael Azerrad noted that rape seemed to be a consistent theme in Cobain's songs and interviews, as if Cobain was "apologizing for his entire gender." However, Cobain explained, "I don't feel bad about being a man at all. There are all kinds of men that are on the side of the woman and support them and help influence other men. In fact, a man using himself as an example toward other men can probably make more impact than a woman can." Following the release and surprise success of Nevermind, there were reports of a woman being raped by two men singing "Polly." This appalled Cobain, who condemned the act in the liner notes to the band's 1992 compilation album Incesticide, writing, "last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song 'Polly'. I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience. Sorry to be so anally P.C. but that's the way I feel."
Reception
"Polly" was ranked number 18 in NME's 2004 "Top 20 Nirvana Songs" list. In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked it number 29 in their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs, with Julianne Sheperd writing, "Though it's certainly not a protest song, it deftly delves into the mind of a sicko, like a succinct , and is an example of the thoughtful depths Cobain was willing to plumb." In 2019, it was ranked at number 14 in The Guardians list of Nirvana's 20 greatest songs.According to Heavier than Heaven, American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was impressed with "Polly" upon hearing the song while at a Nirvana concert, remarking of Cobain that "that kid has heart."
American alternative rock musician Amanda Palmer, who covered "Polly" on the 2011 tribute album, Newermind, discussed the song in a 2011 Spin interview, saying, "It's entirely possible that the production on Nevermind is going to feel dated in 50 years, if it doesn't already. The mystery in the lyrics to a song like ‘Polly’ is so profound. People will always be trying to make sense of what the fuck exactly Kurt was singing about. That's what makes a song last."
In popular culture
The song appears as downloadable content in the video games Rock Band, Rock Band 2, Rock Band 3 and Rock Band 4.Accolades
Recording and release history
Several versions of "Polly," both studio-recorded and live, were released during the band's lifetime, and numerous others have been released posthumously. The following tables list all studio versions of the song, and all officially released live versions.Studio versions
| Date recorded | Studio | Producer/recorder | Releases | Personnel |
| 1987/1988 | Cobain residence, Olympia, Washington | Kurt Cobain | With the Lights Out |
|
| September 1989 | The Music Source, Seattle, Washington | Steve Fisk | With the Lights Out | |
| October 26, 1989 | Maida Vale Studios, London, England | John Peel | Unreleased | |
| April 2–6, 1990 | Smart Studios, Madison, Wisconsin | Butch Vig | Nevermind | |
| November 9, 1991 | Maida Vale Studios, London, England | Miti Adhikari | Incesticide |
Live versions
| Date recorded | Venue | Releases | Personnel |
| December 3, 1989 | London Astoria, London, England | From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah |
|
| September 1, 1991 | De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands | ' | |
| October 31, 1991 | Paramount Theatre, Seattle, Washington | Live! Tonight! Sold Out!! ' Live at the Paramount |
|
| December 28, 1991 | Del Mar Fairgrounds, Del Mar, California | In Bloom Nevermind |
|
| August 30, 1992 | Reading Festival, Reading, England | Live at Reading | |
| November 18, 1993 | Sony Music Studios, New York City, New York | MTV Unplugged in New York |