Nirvana: Lake of Fire Meaning

Lake of Fire Lyrics

Where the bad folks go when they die
They don't go to heaven where the angels fly
Go to a lake of fire and fry
see them again 'till the Fourth of July

I knew a lady who came from Duluth
Bitten by a dog with a rabid tooth
She went to her...

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   #1 top rated interpretation:
   anonymous

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   Jan 16th 2009 !⃝

   wow 597 song interpretations for this one band alone.
   alotta dedicated fans out there or people who think they know what they are talking about with every song. that my friend is what i call a genius song writer....congrads kurt cobain. pretty damn nifty with those words he was.
2. anonymous

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   Jul 9th !⃝

   There is no heaven or hell, the lyrics are satire.the fourth of July when we see them again is the fact that they went nowhere.
3. anonymous

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   Aug 2nd 2023 !⃝

   I heard that they are saying the hell is a party like the fourth of July. Cobain “decorated” his apartment as he explained, “with baby dolls hanging by their necks with blood all over them” (Ibid. p. 54). Rolling Stone would further report that “Cobain made a satanic-looking doll and hung it from a noose in his window” (Rolling Stone, Inside the Heart & Mind of Nirvana, by Michael Azzerad, April 16, 1992). The fact that Cobain was considered some kind of national or even international hero well illustrates the wicked depths of depravity to which the human heart has sunk. While Cobain may have influenced some for evil through graffiti on churches, it was through his music that millions of people would be influenced by the satanic beings that used him like a pawn in a much bigger game. Cobain’s involvement in black magic and witchcraft would escalate to the point that Cobain would begin casting spells in an effort to see his will done (op. cit. Sandford, p. 172). Cobain’s interest in the occult would eventually lead him into a relationship with occultist William Burroughs. Stephen Davis, the biographer of the Led Zeppelin saga “Hammer of the Gods”, compares Burroughs to Satanist Aleister Crowley, stating: “Like Crowley, Burroughs was an urbane and genial human Lucifer, a modern magus, a legendary addict, and an artist whose influence extended far beyond literature to music, painting and film.” (Stephen Davis, Hammer of the Gods, Ballantine Books, New York, 1985, p. 237).
   
   Burroughs also associated with Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and, ironically, it was Burroughs who first christened hard rock with the label “Heavy Metal” (Ibid. p. 104). Burroughs claimed that he first became demon possessed after killing his wife. Cobain would seek out Burroughs’ services seeking his collaboration on a music project (Op. Cit. Sandford, p. 255). In a Rolling Stone interview, Cobain would later underscore as one of the highlights of his life that of “Meeting William Burroughs and doing a record with him” (Kurt Cobain: The Rolling Stone Interview, By David Fricke, January 27, 1994). Such was Burroughs’ influence on Cobain that, “William S. Burroughs received ‘special thanks’ on In Utero for being a cherished inspiration to Cobain (op. cit. Teen Spirit, Chuck Crisafulli, p. 84).
   
   
   
   
4. anonymous

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   Jul 21st 2023 !⃝

   He sang and wrote some religious based songs
   He once was evangelical, lived with a friend and he and his family were evangelical Christian’s. He loved the sense of family and faith they had and how the dad was a devote and picture perfect father figure and avid Christian, he attended youth group and jam nights but it all soon took a turn when they tried to form him into what they wanted him to be rather tighten accept him for who he was, like many churches and Christian’s do. He left the church life and almost became angry towards it. That’s what the some come as you are was about, how the church says “come as you are, as you were” but eventually it’s “as I want you to be” “as an old memory”. Just a bit of back ground on why he referenced religion and religious themes in his music.
5. anonymous

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   Feb 21st 2023 !⃝

   He was a junkie that just sang what another band wrote and the songs were just bullshit rhymes that just sound good together, really no meaning at all just a junkies mind speaking stupid shit and you dumb fucks eat it up.

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

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   Feb 7th 2023 !⃝

   Cobain did Not write the song , The Meat Puppeys did , so for All you ppl out there that talk out of your asses , learn something b4 speaking out....
7. anonymous

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   May 16th 2021 !⃝

   I think "Lake of Fire" is a piece of fluff on the surface, suggesting a non- Christian view of who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. "Bad folks go to a lake of fire and fry." Well no they don't. First of all, "good folks" don't necessarily go to heaven; Christians go to heaven. Second, technically they wouldn't fry, they would boil. Just saying. But the funniest (and deepest?) line is "see 'em again till the fourth of July." Huh? Is the author making fun of those "folks" who equate being American and being Christian as the same thing? Then this nonsensical song becomes an indictment of right wing Americanism. Cool.

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

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   Feb 7th 2020 !⃝

   On the 4th of July we celebrate America's Independence. Bad people don't go to heaven. They go to a place of fire o and fry. Man... The man who "conquered fire" like in the jungle book... Or like Eve who ate if the Apple if knowledge... As American we display our privilege of "freedom" in American with fireworks. God gave man "freewill" which also ultimately doomed Adam and Eve from "Heaven" to "Earth" with their new freedom and also sovereignty... So sinners... Like a purgatory of freedom with no heaven in waiting... Are sent like inhabitants of a free country to live and perish in their own shit and happiness... Blowing up the light that fades into the darkness that inevitable follows the explosions of beauty and wonder we have so carelessly made into a spectical while blinding ourselves of the reality that we just piss in the wind and waste our chances of wonder with pettiness such as millions of dollars spent too blow up fireworks, which another country Banks off of... Or take a bite of the Apple to understand a sliver of a university that could have offered us an eternity of bliss and complete paradise!
9. anonymous

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   Oct 21st 2017 !⃝

   When the Meat Puppets wrote this song he wasn’t writing about anything religious at all- he wrote a couple songs the same night and lake of Fire was one and was written around Halloween and he was making fun of his friends they were dressing up for Halloween party and he refused to go - that really has nothing to do with this song - most times the meat Puppets don’t remember writing songs they just don’t it in their journals
10. anonymous

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    Sep 11th 2016 !⃝

    Bad folks don't go to heaven when they die; they go to hell. But the coming back on the 4th of July is puzzling. What has it got to do with American Independence Day! And who are the bad folks. Does this refer to a certain group of people who have died but whose memories return every 4th of July!
11. anonymous

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    Oct 11th 2014 !⃝

    Maybe he was afraid that he would go to hell, so he wrote a song about it to pretend like he was able to make fun of it.
12. anonymous

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    Jul 10th 2013 !⃝

    He seemed like he was venting frustration at Christianity or merely poking fun at it, you have to understand Nirvana mellowed but they never lost their punk roots. He is saying people die suddenly and instantly and don't have time to think about it (their afterlife) everyone takes life for granted and assumes there is either heaven or hell after death.
13. anonymous

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    Apr 8th 2010 !⃝

    I love the fact that when they played songs like the man who sold the world, jesus doesn't want me for a sunbeam and all the meat puppets songs he said they were covers but I kinda think this things are useless as no of us are Kurt Cobain and be for anyone says I'm only here as the link came up cause I need the lyrics for my singer
14. CHAD

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    Oct 21st 2008 !⃝

    I thought everyone knew it was a Meat Puppets song, and that it was obviously a lighthearted look at the concept of hell.Its amazing how many songs are credited to the bands that cover them,and not the original artist. I'm just as guilty though, when I was a kid, I thought "Train kept a rollin" was an Aerosmith original.At the time, I had yet to discover the Yardbirds.
15. mattrod

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    Oct 18th 2008 !⃝

    This is not a Nirvana song! By the Meat Puppets. It appeared on Unplugged in New York, While the meat puppets played backing guitar.
16. jeff_mitchell91

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    Aug 26th 2008 !⃝

    Lake of fire is the place of burning in fire (hell)
    "where do bad folks go when they die they don't go to heaven where the angels fly, the go to a lake of fire and fry."
    the people who sin and murder, rape etc, go to a lake of fire and fry aka hell so when he's asking where bad folks go when they die he answers they go to a lake of fire (hell)
    people cry and people moan they look for a dry place to call their home, try to find somewhere to rest their bones while the angels and the devils try to make them their own."
    people live their lives and cry and moan and have fun and then they die and rest their bones and the whole time they live angels try to get them to moan (have fun and be happy)and devils try to get them to cry

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