Sappy Lyrics - Nirvana

hello

I think that whatever you as a person make of it is correct. As in all good forms of art there are different interpretations possible. I think that Kurt Cobain would be pleased by any interpretation you make.

Please , tell me , how can TURTLE CUT HERSELF ?
I mean , obviously , This song is not about a turtle . That would be just ... stupid . This is just my opinion . Don't hate me , ok !?
I think , this song is about God , religion and other , religious shit . If you cut yourself , you'll think you're happy , he'll put you in a jar , then you'll make him happy . I think that means that if you try to kill yourelf or whatever , you'll think you can be happy , but religious brainwash (laundry room) , or should I say - faith in God will make you stay . I mean , They will say that you must live becouse God is good and if you pray a little more , he will help you or whatever . Also , He will be happy if you "stay in a jar" , and be under his control . I think that religion is just shit (no ofence) , becouse , it has no use . What did God gave us in return ? Sorry if anyone got hurt about something I said . I'm just 14 so don't judge me okay ? Don't think i'm lying about my age bcs I'm NOT ! Sorry for bad English ! x

I agree it is about God and that we are like a turtle or caterpillar that he gives just enough to survive, but we are still trapped. Not my opinion on God now, but have felt that way in the past.

The laundry room I personalized and never really knew for sure what Kurt meant. It always made me remember this time when I felt like I was having a moment of Satori(Little Nirvana) in a laundromat.

Top comment made me laugh and sad at the same time. "Controlling boyfriend", yeah ; and some other says it's all about Kurt's turtle without any serious meaning whatsoever. Sure. Kurt prolly wrote great songs without atually having anything to say ; and still inspires a lot of people nearly twenty years after he died, prolly without them songs speaking to our very hearts. Just 'cause he played it cool, doesn't mean he was vain.

If you're still watching MTV in 2013, wallowing in TV-shit almost all day and night, thinking sincerely that what's important in life is controlling girlfriends and petting turtles, then... prolly you just cannot understand the meaning. Would you think Kurt's crazy clapping at the audience is just some stupid thing he might just do for fun ? Don't you think he's angry and looks just like their own, senseless reflection in a mirror that reveals how desperately they fail to understand the true meaning of his lyrics ? Clapping like it's so cool after a performance of Pennyroyal Tea, for instance, I mean... that's silly as f*ck, can't you just realize how sad this song is ? Do you think that Kurt was just "acting" anger on-stage, that he was depressed just because he didn't care ? I mean you're making me desperate aswell lol :/

While you wallow in shit the TV feeds you on, things are happening in the real world you know... interested in politics or newspapers ? opinions about wars ? The point as I see it (since I don't think one takes the time and wastes so much efforts just to write shit and throw it at people), is that YOU fans are living in a freakin' jar, wallowing in your shit, and given some ridiculous pieces of grass — girlfriends to control, pets to feed and some money, senseless TV-shows that make you so passionate, cars, drugs, porn, etc. — that give you the fake impression that you are free, even YOU are the king of the game who decides whether the turtle has a right to live or not. But you're not and never come to know it unless you just try to get out of the jar, like HE did, and see that actually you CAN'T get out of it.

Ever heard about the surveillance and repression of Occupy lately ? If not, check the Guardian ; they published a great and most interesting article about those bugs who tried to get out of the jar. HE in the song is POWER, the freakin' elite whose dark designs imply waging wars all around the world, in YOUR name while you quietly stay in your jar/box ("psychological locks", as Lauryn Hill puts it), feelin' "sappy" as hell ! that is feelin' "happy", but knowing somewhere at the bottom of your heart, that you're actually, desperately locked in your jar ; which is... you know, quite "sad" innit.

Just get out of the freakin' jar if you want to honour Kurt's memory. He certainly found inspiration in small things, but just 'cause he did so, doesn't mean his songs are only about those things. Small things make it possible to understand bigger ones. If you listen closely, or read books not only as pure entertainment, but tryin' to understand "what this guy had to say" ; you may well find that almost ALL stories and books, or movies, whatever — have something to do with YOU being locked in cells, or boxes, or jars and them throwing shit at you, expanding 'till one day, the cell bars or breathing holes become visible. When Kurt claps madly at his audience, he's like throwing shit at you monkeys living in cells. Just like you're in a zoo and don't even know it.

The song to me is about a controlling boyfriend who treats his girlfriend like a pet (he'll give you breathing holes like a rat in a box, in a jar like captured lightning bugs, wallow in your shit like a mistreated animal in a cage).

Only thing I'm not 100% on is the Laundry room but I have a few guesses.

Very simple and straightforward, though.

First line of wikipedia:

"Sappy" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It was first released as a hidden track on the 1993 AIDS-benefit compilation album No Alternative. At the time the song was credited by the title "Verse Chorus Verse", which happens to be the title of a different Nirvana song. The song, credited by its actual title of "Sappy", also appears on the Nirvana rarities box set With the Lights Out, released in 2004.

There it said it was a a hidden track on the 1993 AIDS-benefit compilation album No Alternative.
So it has to do something with aids and his methods of transmission.
Breathing holes must be sex.
Grass must be weed
Jar (?)
But after you do it you will feel dirty and messy.

In conclusion you are sad but the you do that things that make you happy and you will be sappy because ur still aware of your problems but still that thing will make you sappy

People can take this song... and put so many idealistic meanings behind it. Cobain is no longer alive to tell us the meaning. We can take this, because of that fact, and apply it. Teach it. Use it as a tool or a medium to support our process of thinking. in this sense, Kurt Cobain is a revolutionary. In a egotistical sense of the word, he's a god. The father of grunge. Who died to live amongst kings and angels. He left us only his words to remember him by. Each one a riddle about life. Each one a lesson to be learned. He was young, but he discovered a lot about human nature in his time on Earth. Through this he passes his teachings to us.

You are all reading into it way too much!!! This song is about his pet turtle. Any other explanation is purely coincidental and comes after the fact. Thats the beauty of ambiguous lyrics. They can mean literally anything to anyone, and you can apply your own meaning.

This song uses a catipiler in a jar as a metephore for our relationship to God. Not that kurt necccesarily believed in God but if there is one kurt is expresing it wouldnt change his apathy and he'd probably even be angry toward God. The idea came to him thinking bak to youth, wen he wz pist off looking at his pet catipiler, thinking thats probly all we are to God

I think, he is talking about the creation of man. Like he put the soul in a jar (body), gave breathing holes, and covered it with grass (hairs). We think we are happy to be human and we are making fool of ourselves.

Nirvana used Laundry Room Studios in Seattle several times in 1992, so I would hypothesise that Kurt was revising these lyrics as he did so often, at least the chorus, around about that time. He had form for taking lyrical inspiration from 'found objects' or things at hand: 'Teen Spirit' itself famously being the name of a deodorant.

Sappy
A song barely anyone knows about by Nirvana. The song is genious and is about doing things to make yourself happy for a temporary time and then realizing where you are and how its ruining your life. The main example of the song is doing drugs to calm you down for a short period of time and then you snap back into reality. This sounds ironic because Kurt does drugs but Kurt tried to get people to not do what he did like do drugs, smoke, and live a life of anger.

The tip of turtle´s Kurt show:
People say "I am happy", and all what we have is few, very few...
Is it anti-system? Is it a suicide manifesto? Maybe. It is poetry! It is rock!
And I am sure this is not a gospel!!!!

People seem to be reading too much into this song. It is about God and his relationship to us. In a broad sense it can be boiled down to this: a child keeping an insect (or other creature) in a jar. God is analogous to the child and does things that he thinks will make the captive insect happy. I think many of us have kept some sort of creature in a jar as children and often it doesn't end well. Ultimately, this song challenges the traditional Christian concept of who God is and how he relates to us. I doubt the individual verses mean anything deeper than what the entire song is trying to convey.

I love how so many people say that to them this song is about relationships and how the girl is being controlled..
Good job interpreting the lyrics in any way that pleases your own desires and needs.

The FACTS, however, are as follows;
FIRST: Cobain recorded a solo acoustic demo of this song in 1988. The lyrics are very similar, but the first lines are; "And if you say your prayers, You will make God happy". He clearly says God. This demo is easy to find on the internet, here is one link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPRNcqrANDY

SECOND: The entire lyrics seem to me, to be obviously about religion. And yet, at second thought they can be interpreted in many other ways. However, the strongest lines suggesting a religious theme are these; "He'll cover you with grass, And you'll think you're happy". This seems like a simple analogy of being buried in a graveyard under a christian tombstone, believing you'll be happy because you should be going to heaven. But the relationship theme fanatics have many ways to interpret this in their own way. BUT, there is one line that most people seem to have troubles with. "You're in a laundry room". The chorus of the song. People who interpret the song as about relationships have only come up with bullshit explanations for this line. But in the context of religion, the meaning is clear and simple. "You're in a laundry room". Think. Laundry and religion? What connection is there? Money laundry?...No, it's more like Brainwashing.
It's a metaphor, kids. "You're in a laundry room" = You've been brainwashed. It is well known that religion is often compared with brainwash, and it often is very simple, cold and brutal brainwashing.
And then the "Conclusion came to you" line is evidently about realizing this, that you're in the laundry room. That you've been brainwashed by society. That you believe a lie.


And to sum up; The entire lyrics match this perfectly, Cobain himself says "God" in the demo instead of just "him", and this explains the elusive chorus line "You're in a laundry room". Now, I'm not against religion or anything, I don't think I have any vested interest. This just seems like the logical and neutral conclusion to interpret the song. Otherwise, I am not forcing this on anyone. And of course, it is possible I am wrong, this is a Nirvana song after all. Still, this is by far the most likely theme I've come across.