Hey everyone

I haven't updated this page in a while because I was having computer issues, so sorry! But I am updating now.

Remember I used to have a link between Jake Gyllenhaal and Kurt Cobain here? Well I've thought up a longer, more complex and slightly more obsessive link between them. Enjoy!

1. Kurt Cobain was the frontman of a band called Nirvana
2. The drummer of Nirvana was Dave Grohl
3. Dave Grohl has also played the drums in a song by The Queens Of The Stone Age
4. The frontman of Queens Of The Stone Age was Josh Homme
5. Josh Homme dates the lead singer of The Distillers, Brody Dalle
6. Brody Dalle used to be married to the lead singer of Rancid, Tim Armstrong
7. Benji Madden of Good Charlotte has appeared in a video for Rancid
8. Benji Madden has also done guest vocals for a band called The LostProphets
9. The LostProphets are named after a live Duran Duran bootleg.
10. The song "Notorious" by Duran Duran featured in the movie Donnie Darko
11. The role of Donnie Darko was played by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Ta da! All new levels of obsession...

Heart-Shaped Box

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak

I've been locked inside your Heart-Shaped box for weeks

I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap

I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait! (Alt: Hate! Haight!)

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Your advice

Meat-eating orchids forgive no one just yet

Cut myself on angel's hair and baby's breath

Broken hymen of your highness I'm left black

Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Your advice

She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak

I've been locked inside your Heart-Shaped box for weeks

I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap

I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Hey! Wait!

I've got a new complaint

Forever in debt to your priceless advice

Your advice (x3)

Kurt Cobain was, first and foremost an artist. For him, this encompassed everything from drawing, music, and most importantly lyric writing. Cobain became renowned during his unfortunately short music career for his extremely poetic and ambiguous lyrics.

While, by his own admission Cobain was “a walking contradiction” at times his lyrics are easy to decipher. In this essay, I hope to decipher the meaning of one of Nirvana’s most widely misunderstood songs - an apparent ode to Kurt’s treacherous wife, Courtney Love - Heart Shaped Box.

The song’s title originates from a present Courtney presented Kurt when they first became an item. She had heard of Kurt’s love for dolls and to win him over, she presented him with a small heart shaped box with a doll inside.

Some believe that the song is Cobain’s open declaration of love for his wife, but many Nirvana fans tend to disagree. Love was known for her manipulative qualities - is Heart Shaped Box in fact Cobain’s plea for help?

The first hint that “Heart Shaped Box” may not be a love song appears in the first line of the song:

“She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak”

Cobain’s reference to his own weakness is important. Also, the use of “She eyes me” suggests that Courtney, an excellent judge of character noticed Kurt’s weakness and manipulated it to her own devices. Indeed, friends of the couple often noticed Kurt’s reliance on his wife and her ability to control him. The most apparent example of this occurred within the band itself. Cobain was the principle songwriter, but until the arrival of Courtney Love, all song-writing royalties were split evenly between Cobain and the other band members, Dave Grohl and Krist Noveselic. However, Love told Cobain his friends and band mates were taking advantage of him, and as principle songwriter he deserved a bigger share of the money. This was clearly not for Cobain’s benefit, but for Love’s own. Cobain however did what Love asked and his band mates, although shocked, agreed to allow Kurt to take a larger share of royalties. After Kurt’s death both Grohl and Noveselic said that after that, the band was never the same. Cobain himself was not money hungry, but Love. In persuading him to hurt his friends in order to gain more money for her own personal spending, she demonstrated her control over her husband. While Kurt never acknowledged Love’s control over him outright, it appears in the above lyric that Cobain knew of his wife’s influence over him. He also acknowledges his weakness in the opening lyric, his weakness perhaps being that he could not resist Courtney.

Love herself has appeared on many occasions to be without heart or consideration for the feelings of others. She manipulated the man who loved her, but did not remain loyal to him - a fact many say Cobain knew. After his death, she shamelessly bad-mouthed the deceased star and once tried to claim he was not the father of their daughter. It would be almost impossible for Cobain to spend the length of time he did with Love and not see her apparent mean streak. It is the following lyric that has caused most doubt over the actual meaning of the song.

“I’ve been locked inside your heart shaped box for weeks”

Many claim that in this lyric Kurt is not referencing Love’s early gift, but the fact that she is heartless. The use of “locked” breeds connotations that Kurt was trapped in his relationship with Courtney, perhaps by the baby daughter he adored. “Locked” also suggests that someone has the ability to free Kurt from his turbulent relationship with his wife - whether he believed it to be himself or her, we shall never know.

Cobain never denied it was his physical attraction to Love that drew him to her in the first place. In “Heart Shaped Box” it seems he ponders whether or not this was ultimately his downfall.

“ I've been drawn into your magnet tar pit trap”

In this line, Cobain references Love as having magnetic powers over him. However, the use of “trap” suggests, just as “locked” that he is now in the relationship against his will. This line is Cobain’s admission - he was attracted to Love at first, but now he cannot escape her.

Cobain may have thought the world of Love at the beginning of their relationship, but by 1993 he seemed to be less than dazed by his over ambitious wife.

“I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black”

This line is possibly the only lyric in the song that shows Cobain’s regret over the change in his once loving wife. He acknowledges her change “your cancer”/when you turn black” but shows his regret in not being able to stop this change by expressing his wish to “eat” Courtney’s “cancer” or the thing that has changed her. It appears by this lyric that Kurt, more than anything wanted the old Courtney to return. But deep down, Cobain may have known that the old Courtney was no more than an act to reel him in.

It is well documented that Cobain has a stormy and at times non-existent relationship with his mother, Wendy. Many now believe that Cobain saw Love as a mother replacement, which is why he found it so difficult to sever ties with her.

“Throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back”

The use of “umbilical noose” suggests once again that Cobain was aware of the fact he looked on Love as a mother. However, the use of “noose” suggests that Cobain was also aware of the fact that this view of Love would be damaging to him in the long run. Indeed, it was, with evidence now suggesting that Cobain’s apparent blindness to Courtney’s “real” personality led to his murder.

The view that Cobain did look on Love as a mother is further repeated with his childish yell of “Hey! Wait!” which holds some desperation in its delivery. Love was also highly ambitious, a fact Cobain admits himself. Perhaps his cry for her to stop shows his fear of her leaving him behind - not because he loved her, but because he needed her.

In conclusion, there is no doubt that at one point Cobain was in love with Courtney. He adored her, worshipped her, and was addicted to her much like he was addicted to heroin. But by 1993, the magic appeared to have worn off. Cobain paints a picture of a manipulative, cunning Courtney in “Heart Shaped Box” - a Courtney he did not love, but could not walk away from.

To this day, I firmly believe there only was one true love song written by Kurt Cobain - “About A Girl” which is a song not about Courtney, but about Tracy Marander, a woman who genuinely loved Kurt and whom he loved in return.

While fans of Courtney paint “Heart Shaped Box” as an admission of devotion, I will always see it as an admission of weakness of Kurt’s that Courtney used to her own selfish aims.