10 Biggest Mistakes In Rock Music History
4. Polly - Nirvana
There have been rumors going around for years that the genius of Kurt Cobain may just be a bit too overhyped. As much as people love to shower him with praise for introducing the concept of alt rock to the masses, it's not like he was the greatest musician in the world. And yes, he wasn't the greatest technician...even when it came time to record dead simple songs.
Outside of a few touchups by Butch Vig, Polly is one of the only tracks off of Nevermind not to be recorded in the legendary Sound City Studios in California. Dating back to an earlier session, the starkness of this version is a lot more unsettling than any studio cut, but Kurt wasn't completely sold on this version of the song at first either, considering that he screws up a line halfway through the song.
Once they run through the second chorus, there's a break in the music where Krist Novoselic is the only one playing. Then halfway through, you hear Kurt's voice, which was actually the result of him not counting the timing of the song properly and coming in too early. Turns out that Kurt actually liked the way it sounded on playback and decided to keep that as the definitive version that made it onto Nevermind. Since he eventually did the same thing for the new wave version of the song on Incesticide, it seems that Kurt learned to live with his mistake.