"Lithium" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the fifth track on the band's second album, Nevermind, released by DGC Records in September 1991.
In a 1992 interview with California fanzine Flipside, Cobain explained that the song was a fictionalized account of a man who "turned to religion as a last resort to keep himself alive" after the death of his girlfriend, "to keep him from suicide." Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad described its lyrics as "an update on Karl Marx's description of religion as the 'opiate of the masses.'"
"Lithium" was released as the third single from Nevermind in September 1991, peaking at number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. It also reached number one in Finland and the top five in Ireland and Portugal. The accompanying music video, directed by American filmmaker Kevin Kerslake, is a compilation of live footage from the band's October 31, 1991, concert at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington, and from the completed but then-unreleased film, 1991: The Year Punk Broke.
Early history
Written in 1990, "Lithium" was debuted at a video session at the Evergreen State College's television studio in Olympia, Washington on March 20, 1990. The full session, which also included versions of three songs from the band's 1989 debut album, Bleach, was directed by Jon Snyder and conceived by Cobain as a potential video release. It featured the band performing live while a montage of television footage taped by Cobain at home playing in the background. To date, no full songs from this session have been officially released by Nirvana's record company, although videos for "Lithium" and "School," edited by Snyder and featuring additional footage and still photos, appeared on two episodes of 1200 Seconds, a television show produced by Evergreen students. The episodes aired in the fall of 1990 on a local community access cable station.
The song was added to Nirvana's setlist soon after, over a year before the release of Nevermind. Kim Thayil, guitarist of Seattle rock band Soundgarden, recalled hearing it for the first time during Nirvana's show at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle on November 25, 1990, saying that "when I heard 'Lithium,' it stuck in my mind. Ben, our bass player, came up to me and said, 'That's the hit. That's the Top 40 hit right there."
In April 1990, "Lithium" was recorded by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, during the recording sessions for what was intended to be a second album for the band's original label, Sub Pop. However, the release was abandoned after the departure of drummer Chad Channing later that year, and the eight-song session was instead circulated as a demo tape, which helped generate interest with the band among major labels.
On September 25, 1990, Cobain performed a solo acoustic version of the song on the Boy Meets Girl show, hosted by Calvin Johnson, on KAOS (FM) in Olympia, Washington.
Nevermind "Lithium" was re-recorded by Vig in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, during the sessions for what became Nirvana's second album and major-label debut, Nevermind. Preliminary attempts at recording the song's instruments were unsuccessful, in part because the band was having a difficult time maintaining a steady tempo, and kept speeding up. After one failed take, the band abandoned the song as a "frustrated" Cobain began playing the song, "Endless, Nameless" instead. This version of "Endless, Nameless" was released as the album's hidden track. The band's timing problems were immediately solved when their new drummer, Dave Grohl, took Vig's advice to play with a metronome; it was the only track from the album to be recorded to a click track.
The song's quiet verses and loud choruses dynamic also presented a challenge for Vig, who said that "getting the verses to sound relaxed and the chorus to sound as intense as possible, and make the transitions feel natural and effortless, was a hard one to do." As Vig recalled, "Kurt wanted to be able to play the guitar very ... not methodical—it needed to have this space." The dark sound of the distorted guitar was achieved by using a Big Muff fuzzbox played through a Fender Bassman bass amplifier, recorded with what Vig believes was an U47 microphone that he usually used to record bass guitar. The vocals for the song's verses were recorded in two takes, with the second take being used as the master vocal track, although Vig used the second line of the second verse from take one. The chorus vocals were quickly recorded and double-tracked after.
Post-Nevermind
"Lithium" was performed live at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 1992, in Los Angeles. Cobain had wanted to play the then-unreleased song "Rape Me" instead, but this was met with resistance from MTV, who wanted the band to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit," and were possibly wary of the newer song's controversial title and lyrics. Cobain agreed to play "Lithium" as a compromise, over concerns that not playing the show might lead to MTV boycotting other acts on their label, Gold Mountain, or firing their friend at the station, Amy Finnerty. "We didn't want to fuck everything up for everyone so we decided to play 'Lithium,'" Cobain explained in the 1993 Nirvana biography, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana. "Instead of bowing out and keeping our dignity, we decided to get fucked in the ass." The performance, which featured Cobain playing a short part of "Rape Me" at the beginning "just to give [MTV] a little heart palpitation," ended with Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic being struck by his bass after throwing it into the air and attempting to catch it unsuccessfully.
The final live version of "Lithium" was at Nirvana's last show, on March 1, 1994, at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany.
Composition
Music
"Lithium" is a grunge, alternative rock, and punk rock song that runs for a duration of four minutes and sixteen 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 124 beats per minute. "Lithium" is composed in the key of D major, with guitars tuned down a whole tone, and chord shapes resembling chords in the key of E major, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and three notes, from the low-note of C3 to the high-note of F4. The intro, verses, and chorus have a basic chord sequence of D5–F5–B5–G5–B5–C5–A5–C5 and alternates between the chords G5 and B5 during the bridge. A transition from the bridge to the main chord sequence consists of a bar of C5 and a bar of A5. The sheet music makes no reference to the lowered tuning of the guitars and (inaccurately) shows the E major key signature.
The arrangement is representative of the musical style Nirvana had developed during work on Nevermind, alternating between quiet and loud sections. In the song, Cobain fingers chord shapes on his guitar but varies between playing single notes and double stops on the instrument, giving the track a loose feel.Chappell, Jon. "Nirvana's Music". Guitar. June 1993. The song opens with bouncing guitar strums before Cobain starts singing his lines in an almost whispered manner.Time. Volume 142. Time Incorporated, 1993. Page 173. His voice retains a measured calm during the verses, where low, open guitar lines trace the outline of the song's melody.Deming, Mark. Nirvana - Lithium Song Review by Mark Deming. AllMusic. Retrieved on March 27, 2019. During the chorus, Cobain shouts "Ye-eh-eh-eh-eh" over five notes and distorted, towering riffs.Savage, Jo. August 15, 1993. Sounds Dirty: The Truth About Nirvana. The Observer. Cobain's thick, surging rhythm guitar meshes with Novoselic's melodic bass and Grohl's intense, snappy drumming.
Lyrics According to Cobain, "Lithium" was "one of those songs I actually did finish while trying to write it instead of taking pieces of my poetry and other things".
In his 1993 biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad described the song's title as "an update on Marx's description of religion as the 'opiate of the masses.'" Gillian G. Gaar described it as "a song whose sing-along melody typically masks the disturbing quality of the lyric, which touches on the solace one can find in religion or madness." As Cobain explained, "In the song, a guy’s lost his girl and his friends and he’s brooding. He’s decided to find God before he kills himself. It’s hard for me to understand the need for a vice like [religion] but I can appreciate it too. People need vices."
In Come As You Are, Cobain acknowledged that the song might have been inspired in part by the time he spent living with his friend Jesse Reed and his born-again Christian parents. Cobain told Azerrad that he wasn't necessarily anti-religion, saying that "I've always felt that some people should have religion in their lives ... That's fine. If it's going to save someone, it's okay. And the person in ['Lithium'] needed it."
Release and reception
"Lithium" was released as the third single from Nevermind on July 13, 1992. Featuring a cover photo by Cobain, the single contained a sonogram of the musician's then-unborn child Frances Bean Cobain,Cross, Charles R. Heavier Than Heaven, Hyperion, 2001. p. 250. as well as full lyrics for all the songs on Nevermind. Cassette, CD, 12-inch vinyl, and British 12-inch vinyl picture disc editions included "Curmudgeon" and a live version of "Been a Son" (performed on Halloween the previous year) as B-sides. The British 7-inch and cassette featured only "Curmudgeon" as an extra track, while the UK CD release added a cover of the Wipers' "D-7" recorded for BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel's program in 1990.Gaar, Gillian G. "Verse Chorus Verse: The Recording History of Nirvana". Goldmine. February 14, 1997.
John Sullivan for New York Magazine described "Lithium" as a "flawlessly crafted hit." AllMusic's Mark Demming remarked, "For all the sound and fury of Nirvana's epochal album, Nevermind, it's significant that the album's best and most affecting song is also among the quietest. ... The liberating force of Nirvana's inspired anger was rarely more powerful than in the service of this song." Time music critic Christopher Farley praised the song for its "gorgeous guitar hooks," writing, "Its punk-inspired, we-couldn't-care-less ethos seemed to reflect the restless apathy some young people felt toward their times."
"Lithium" was ranked the 20th best single of the year in the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, tying with singles by Ministry, Lisa Stansfield, and Utah SaintsChristgau, Robert. "The 1992 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". March 2, 1993. Retrieved on September 10, 2008. In 1993, it was voted at number 50 on Spins Top 100 Songs of Our Time. In Israel, it was voted in at number 4 on the IBA's "Voice of Israel" singles chart.
In 2012, NME ranked "Lithium" at number 52 on its list of the "100 Best Tracks Of The '90s". In 2013, it was voted first "by a pretty comfortable margin" in Rolling Stone's reader's poll of "The 10 Best Nirvana Songs." In 2019, the song was placed at number seven on Rolling Stones ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. In 2023, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ranked it fifth on the A.V. Club's "Essential Nirvana: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked" list.
According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Lithium" was the tenth most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 123,000 spins. All of the songs in the top 10 were from the 1990s.
Legacy On April 10, 2014, "Lithium" was performed by surviving Nirvana members Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear, with lead vocals and guitar by American rock musician St. Vincent, at the band's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.