Classic Track: Nirvana – Lithium

TG takes a look at Kurt Cobain’s powerchord-fuelled anthem for the dispossessed in this month’s easy Classic Track Everything you need to know before playing ‘Lithium’

Seemingly written through the eyes of a character, Lithium is a song that evolved lyrically to reflect Cobain’s own dark feelings. It was “some of my personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that the person in the song is feeling – very lonely, sick,” the frontman related to Musician magazine.

If its subject matter is bleak and morose, it’s contrasted and lifted by an ironic, celebratory pop chorus. Instrumentally, a knowing light and shade approach was becoming a calling card of Cobain’s songwriting on Nevermind. The structure of Lithium is an example of the influential quiet/loud dynamic Nirvana were spearheading, and it can also be heard on fellow singles Smells Like Teen Spirit and In Bloom.

What all three songs share, then, is the requirement for two guitar tones: clean and distortion. That means you’ll need either a two-channel amp or a distortion pedal. Read on as we break the whole track down for you.

Kurt began the Lithium sessions with a Fender Stratocaster, before smashing it when the session broke down into Endless, Nameless. The intro and verse sections sound best played with a neck-position single-coil or a warm sounding bridge humbucker, with your amp set to a clean sound. The original guitar tracks were recorded through a Fender Bassman, and Lithium is the only track on Nevermind that uses an Electro-harmonix Big Muff. To replicate the thick layers of distortion, we’d suggest switching channels on your amp or using a dedicated drive pedal. Just make sure to switch on the distortion at the right time (on the B chord) to coincide with the drum fills leading into the chorus.