"Drain You" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It is the eighth track on their second album, Nevermind, released in September 1991. The song was released as a promotional single in late 1991, and also appeared as a b-side on UK retail editions of the first single from that album, "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
A live version, recorded on December 28, 1991, at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California, was released as the second promotional single from the live compilation, From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, in 1996. This version peaked at number 44 on the Radio & Records US Alternative Top 50 chart.
In a 1993 Rolling Stone, Cobain cited "Drain You" as one of his favorite songs he had written, saying that it was "definitely as good as" their most popular song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit."
Early history
Originally titled "Formula," "Drain You" was written in 1990.
The song was first recorded in the spring of 1991, when Cobain and Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl visited Melvins drummer Dale Crover and his then-girlfriend Debbi Shane in San Francisco, California, on their way to record what became Nevermind in Van Nuys. During their visit, the four recorded several songs on a four track, including "Drain You," under the band name, the Retards. "At the time, Kurt was into starting bands with everybody," Shane recalled, "so we went to the practice space my band Dumbhead shared with the Melvins, and formed the Retards for two days."
According to Shane, the band worked on songs by all four members, with one person recording, and Cobain eventually "announced he had a song, which wasn't a Nirvana song because it didn't have a drum part. When Dale started playing drums, he was like, 'Wow, we have a drum part.'"
The sounds during the song's interlude were made by Cobain in a variety of ways, including using his squeaky mouse and rubber duck toys that he brought into the studio. Sound engineer Andy Wallace added delay to these sounds to complete the effect.
Post-Nevermind
On September 3, 1991, the band recorded a version during a John Peel session for the BBC at Maida Vale Studios in London. The full session, which also featured versions of the Nevermind hidden track "Endless, Nameless" and then-unreleased "Dumb", was produced by Dale Griffin, was first broadcast on November 3, 1991. 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 moderately fast rock tempo of 134 beats per minute.
Lyrics
In the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad described "Drain You" as "a love song, or rather a song about love," in which the babies in the lyrics "represent two people reduced to a state of perfect innocence by their love." Cobain told Azerrad that the lyrics made him think of "two brat kids who are in the same hospital bed."
According to the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven by Charles Cross, "Drain You" was one of "a half dozen...memorable songs" Cobain wrote following his break-up with American musician, Tobi Vail, in November 1990. Cross described the lyric, "It is now my duty to completely drain you," as "both an acknowledgement of the power [Vail] had over [Cobain] and an indictment."
Release and reception
According to a February 1997 Goldmine article by American journalist Gillian G. Gaar, "Drain You" was originally planned as the second single from Nevermind. A promotional single was released in late 1991, but the song "never really was played" on the radio, according to DGC's director of publicity Jim Merlis, possibly because it was overshadowed by the popularity of "Smells Like Teen Spirit." "I love the lyrics, and I never get tired of playing it," he said. "Maybe if it was as big as 'Teen Spirit', I wouldn’t like it as much." In 2015, it was ranked ninth in Rolling Stone's "No Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked" list. In 2019, The Guardian ranked it ninth on their list of "Nirvana's 20 greatest songs". In 2023, Stephen Thomas Erlewine ranked it at number 15 on the A.V. Club's "Essential Nirvana: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked" list.
In 2017, to mark what would have been Kurt Cobain's 50th birthday, the Phonographic Performance Limited released a list of the top 20 most played Nirvana songs on TV and radio in the U.K., in which "Drain You" was ranked at number 11.
The song's title was used for a chapter in Shakey: Neil Young's Biography, a 2002 biography of Canadian rock musician Neil Young, by Jimmy McDonough. The chapter focused on Young's reaction to Cobain's suicide, and included an anecdote of Young enjoying a video of Nirvana performing the song at an unnamed concert.
The Nevermind version of "Drain You" appears in the video games Rock Band 2 and Rock Band Unplugged.
On April 24, 2020, the song was performed by American musician Post Malone as part of his 15-song Nirvana tribute concert, which was livestreamed on YouTube and raised over $4 million for the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Del Mar Fairgrounds version
A live version of "Drain You," recorded on December 28, 1991, at Del Mar Fairgrounds in Del Mar, California, appeared on the live compilation From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah, released in October 1996. It was released as the second promotional single from the album, peaking at
number 44 on the US Alternative Top 50 chart which was published by Radio & Records, a sister publication to Billboard.
Music video
A live version of the song, recorded by MTV at the band's Live and Loud performance on December 13, 1993, at Pier 48 in Seattle, was released as a music video on MTV2 in November 1996, to support the release of the From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah album, even though it was a different version, recorded at Del Mar Fairgrounds in 1991, that actually appeared on the album. No known footage exists of the Del Mar Fairgrounds performance. The video also aired on Rage, Red and ARC in Australia.
Personnel
Personnel adapted from Nevermind liner notes
- Kurt Cobain – guitars, vocals, sound effects
- Dave Grohl – drums, backing vocals
- Krist Novoselic – bass
Charts
{|class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+Chart performance for "Drain You"
!scope="col"|Chart (1996)
!scope="col"|Peak<br />position
|-
!scope="row"|US Alternative Top 50 (Radio & Records)
| 23
|}
Certifications
Accolades
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:left;"
|+Accolades for "Drain You"
! scope="col"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:6em;"| Publication
! scope="col" style="width:10em;"| Country
! scope="col"| Accolade
! scope="col"| Rank
|-
! scope="row"| 1998
| Kerrang!
| style="text-align:center;"| United Kingdom
| 20 Great Nirvana Songs Picked by the Stars
| style="text-align:center;"| 11
|-
! scope="row"| 2013
| Rolling Stone
| style="text-align:center;" row| United States
| Readers’ Poll: The 10 Best Nirvana Songs
| style="text-align:center;"| 5
|-
! scope="row"| 2019
| The Guardian
| style="text-align:center;" row| United Kingdom
| Nirvana's 20 greatest songs – ranked!
| style="text-align:center;"| 10
|-
! scope="row"| 2023
| The A.V. Club
| style="text-align:center"| United States
| Essential Nirvana: Their 30 greatest songs, ranked
- The band's performance of the song on Nulle Part Ailleurs in Paris on February 4, 1994, as well as the final live version, recorded at Terminal Einz in Munich on March 1, 1994, both appeared as bonus material on the Live and Loud DVD.
Cover versions
A cover version of "Drain You" was performed by Portland indie folk band Horse Feathers. The cover was released as on vinyl as double-A-sided 7-inch single, alongside "Bonnet of Briars." The single premiered online by PopMatters, which called the cover "moving." "Drain You" was covered by Cincinnati glam rock band Foxy Shazam. Regarding the song, bassist Daisy Caplan stated, "Right away I knew 'Drain You' would be best for us. We’re more of a vocally oriented band than anything else, and the melody line lets us showcase that." Admitting that it would've been intimidating to perform one of Nirvana's big hit singles, he claims five minutes after choosing the song, the band was "getting drunk and jamming out on it." Their cover was included on the 2011 tribute album, Newermind, created in celebration of the 20th anniversary the band's breakthrough album.