Nirvana: Breed Meaning

Breed Lyrics

I don't care [x5]
Care if I'm old
I don't mind [x5]
Mind, don't have a mind
Get away [x4]
Away, away from your home
I'm afraid [x5]
Afraid, afraid of a ghost

Even if you have
Even if you need
I don't mean to stare
We don't have to...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   drumlord420

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   Jun 13th 2010 !⃝

   Righteous is right. The working title was Immodium.
   You ppl have to realize that you can't fully understand anything kurt ever wrote up until In Utero fully, because Kurt wrote about meaningless things and intentionally contradicted his statements. He would write a few sincere lines and then go and mess the meaning all up with weird, space lyrics. That's just the way Kurt liked art.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   caliban78

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   Apr 29th 2008 !⃝

   This is actually a much easier song to dissect than most of his work. Kurt is desperate to love and be loved, and feels that his best chance is to offer what he thinks most women want: security (we can plant a house, we can build a tree), but he doesn't want children if she doesn't. She doesn't care, because she isn't looking for anything specific (I don't really care, we could have all 3 she said)
3. anonymous

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   Dec 27th 2016 !⃝

   I think this song is about having child.He thinks that he was confuse with having child,he cant think about it.....but he says that she said good to his openion...
4. anonymous

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   Oct 25th 2011 !⃝

   i think he wants to make a baby.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
5. anonymous

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   Sep 6th 2009 !⃝

   As I feel that most of Nirvana's songs are artistically ambiguous, I have my own interpretation of Breed. To me, it's about a guy who is infatuated with a girl and will do anything to have her, including forgoing sexual urges and (desperately) suggesting that they can "plant a house" and "build a tree," but the girl is ultimately uninterested ("I don't even care / We can have all three"). The second verse replacing "We can have all three" with "We don't have all three" can be a hint that they did eventually get together but the guy didn't keep true to his promises.
6. sergio

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   Feb 14th 2009 !⃝

   I Like Cobain went threw my parents having a bad divorce. When I was younger( before puberty) I asked my father why my mom and him decided to have kids if their relationship was shaky. The fact that Kurt song says "We don't have to breed is telling his listeners to not breed and have kids with out knowing if your going to be there for them. Cobain and I wish our parents wouldn't have had us or at least been more committed before doing so. Ge tells us that sex followed by divorce messes up the child.
7. anonymous

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   Dec 31st 2008 !⃝

   Breed is a hyperbole used in reference to make a comparison to the poor, being careless, a runaway, and basically a wastecase, in contrast to the upper and upper-middle class citizen, the ones who strive for sucess and look down upon others. This song pokes fun at the higher class for thinking better of themselves

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
8. jtg08

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   Oct 12th 2008 !⃝

   CONSTIPATION???? Jesus you haven't explained how that ties into the song? Then I'll listen.
   Let it be

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
9. eastlife1985

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   Sep 6th 2008 !⃝

   I was thinking what this line means:
   "we can have all three", she said!
   if what Righteous (the one above me) has said is true, it can be like this: in the rest of lyric the guy is talking to the girl (who goes to church and deals with religion and ghosts) that she should run away from home with him and they can live together in a house, and have tree (loving nature as a teenage) but not a child.
   
   Her answer is positive and she adds (for their imaginary life) that they can have all three: house (place for living), tree (nature) and children.
   
   in fact this song is about makin a family.
   its a hopeful song and not about misery or obssesion or despair.
10. Righteous

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    Aug 16th 2008 !⃝

    The original song name of the song was immodium, named after the medicine that tad Doyle had taken while they were on tour in the uk. It wasn't after Dylan Carlson as some believe. There is also a little bit of kurt' feelings of religion in the song. as a teen, Kurt lived with one of his friends named Jesse Reed whose family attended church regularly, and Kurt went for a while, but eventually gave up on it.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
11. QuincyPatterson

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    Jun 20th 2008 !⃝

    Its About a kid Named Dylan Carlson. one of Kurt's friends. He had a constipation thing going on and the original name for this song was immodium which is a medicine for constipation.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Jan 8th 2007 !⃝

    this song seems to address a desperate approach to a runaway or homeless mans desire to get out of a bad situation. excepting an inadequate offering or compromise of social acceptability, life's building blocks, and relationship to a female without breeding his bad genetics. a tough life not to continue into the next generation. strange take on this but this is a typical fractured cobain style song with no de-coder.
13. anonymous

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    May 4th 2006 !⃝

    I think that this song is Kurt's opinion of sex and the whole "macho man" thing. It's possibly about a man's/his obssesion with sex. Or it could be him taking a sarcastic look at the obsession with getting laid.
14. anonymous

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    May 3rd 2006 !⃝

    This song is basically about Growing up and being trapped by middle class America.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway

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