Nirvana: 15 Obscure Tracks You've Never Heard

By Jay Anderson /

9. If You Must

If You Must had been floating around for years in the Nirvana fan community in poor-quality recordings, so the version on With the Lights Out represented, at long last, a listenable version of the track. It was best known for its inclusion on the popular Outcesticide bootleg, but was apparently a track that Kurt Cobain himself hated. The track was part of the Fecal Matter demo, with The Melvins Dale Crover on drums. Fecal matter was a short lived band that featured Cobain and Crover in the mid-80s; many Fecal Matter tracks later became recognized as Nirvana songs (Spank Thru, Floyd the Barber, Downer, Hairspray Queen etc.). In a letter to Crover, Cobain stated how much he hated the song, stating he no longer played it live, and that it should be included "in the likes of Whitesnake and Bon Jovi" - bands Cobain railed against. The song, mind you, is reminiscent of neither.