10 Perfect Rock Music Songs That Were Inspired By The Beatles

In the age of grunge, Kurt Cobain almost seemed like the one Beatles apologist coming out of Seattle. While bands like Soundgarden and Pearl Jam may have focused on the harder edged side of the Fab Four, Kurt was a die-hard John Lennon fan, and producer Butch Vig even had to talk him into doubling his vocals on Nevermind specifically because that was what John did on his favorite Beatles songs. By the end of the band's tenure though, Kurt capped off his last recorded statement with a more depressive take on John's work.

While there are songs on Nevermind like Lithium that do borrow the same pop song structure of the Fabs, All Apologies is by far the prettiest song that the band ever released, along with a truly disturbing lyric sheet about Kurt's state of mind at the time. Being far more depressed than before and growing suicidal, this song shows Kurt really laying into himself, finding no joy in being happy or feeling empathy anymore and almost apologizing to the rest of the world because of how withdrawn he's become now that he's famous.

The lyric sheet is disturbing enough, but that melodic foundation of the guitar riff is one of Kurt's greatest guitar lines, hooking you like an inverted version of Here Comes the Sun, sticking to one string and trying to squeeze out a decent melody from the whole thing. Kurt's fixation may have still been on the Beatles, but the candid sounds of this song almost feels closer to what John Lennon was feeling when he was undergoing primal scream therapy during the Fabs' final days.