I don't have to think, I only have to do it

The original TV broadcast of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York had room for two Meat Puppets covers -- "Plateau" and "Lake of Fire" -- both of which I remember hearing on FM radio quite a lot in the 1990's. The third, "Oh Me," was cut for commercials in the original airing of Unplugged, but it is my favorite song in the whole set, equaled in loveliness only by "All Apologies."

As I write this, I'm wondering if there is a connection between my affection for "Oh Me" and its status as a relatively obscure track, compared to Unplugged's other covers (Meat Puppets, David Bowie, Vaselines, Leadbelly), which make Unplugged such an amazing collection of influences and interpretations. I wonder if I am proprietary about "Oh Me" because I want it to belong to me in a way that other Nirvana songs cannot, simply because the band continues to be so popular and has so few songs to choose from as your favorite.

It reminds me of when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" became a massive success, and I resented no longer feeling like the only 14-year-old kid to have discovered them. Nirvana no longer belonged to me, in other words. Probably every kid felt this way. Adolescence is a very self-centered time.

I love this song. The way it arrives, the way it departs, the unresolved chords, the understated guitar solo in the middle that remains the only guitar solo I can play by heart.

If I had to lose a mile, if I had to touch feelings/ I would lose my soul, the way I do/ I don't have to think, I only have to do it/ The results are always perfect, but that's old news

Watching "Oh Me" on YouTube, I am surprised at how sad it makes me to see Kurt Cobain so emotionally invested in his performance. It is possible -- probable, even -- that I am projecting emotions onto Cobain that aren't there. In so doing, I will hardly be unique, but watching him, I feel that he really wants to get this one right, that he wants his performance to match up to his love for the material, and he does it.

"Oh Me" is a beautiful, soulful, sincere performance. This is a song of yearning, of infinity stored deep inside.

Would you like to hear my voice/ Sprinkled with emotion/ Invented at your birth?

Yes.

Nirvana "Oh Me"