The Who Prep Covers Album

The Who are planning a collection of vintage R&B covers, similar to the Motown and James Brown songs they performed early on in their career. "We're digging through lots of material and seeing what will work," says producer T Bone Burnett, who expects to travel to London this fall to begin recording. "There's an incredible treasury of songs in the mode of what they used to play. Not 'Heat Wave' [an early favorite of the band], but ones that people probably haven't heard of." Pete Townshend may also write new material for the project. "It might be a combination of both," Burnett says. "We're still turning it over." In other Who news, the band will perform on July 12th in Los Angeles for VH1's Rock Honors.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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