Nirvana: Sliver Meaning
Song Released: 1990
Sliver Lyrics
They dropped me off at Grandpa Joe's
I kicked and screamed to let me go
Grandma take me home (x8)
Had to eat my dinner there
Mashed potatos and stuff like that
I couldn't chew my meat too good
Grandma take...
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1TOP RATED
#1 top rated interpretation:The song is a memoir of his childhood, or of the main character of the song's childhood.
'Mom and dad went to a show' wecan assume that the protagonist is a child because of the language used
'They dropped me off at grandpa joe's' they didnt want their kid to be with them and the kids first memory was being away from his parents
'I kicked and screamed said please dont go' he felt unloved and unwanted
The lyrics 'grandma take me home' keep on repeating throughout the song. This could have a deeper meaning that the protagonist grew up with his grandmoter and didnt feel like his house was a home, leaving him wanting a home environment.
'Could'nt chew my meat too good' this could mean that the child's parents didnt do their parently dutys by teaching him to do things such as hew certain types of food.
'She said why dont you stop your crying go outside and ride your bike' the grandmother tries to be a maternal figure, but the child rejects the instincts wanting his real mom.
'After dinner i had ice cream i fell asleep and watched tv' again showing how the grandmother cared for him, she did sweet gestures to make the child feel more at home. Ice cream can also be a symbolism for his grandmother being sweet and caring to him
'I woke up in my mother's arms grandma take me home' his mother finally came to pick him up, but his father was not there. Implying that his parents had a fight or his dad left him. The protagonist then realizes that his grandmother is his mother figure and again asks her to take him 'home'
'I want to be alone' the last words of this song. I think this is about what broken homes do to a child especially while growing up. His parents rocky relationship made him think that love never lasts and he just wants to be secluded so that nobody disappoints or upsets him again. -
2TOP RATED
#2 top rated interpretation:I always took this that something more sinister occurred with his grandfather...I'm not gonna go into detail but assume the worse...
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I agree that he believes he was beeing dumped at grandmas home because his parents were busy having fun, without thinking of him, so the show is probably a refrence to the divorce.
The grandparents do their best but all he needed his parents their guidance their happy life. -
This song is about Kurt being abused as a child physically and mentally.
For the mental part he is being tormented by having to live with his grandparents. When his parents got divorced, at a young age can make a child depressed.
For the physical part he is being forced to move back and forth from his Mom, to his Dad and to even his grandparents.
For the lyric "Couldn't chew my meat to good" means that his parents didn't give him the things a child needs. The lyric "I woke up in my mothers arms" means his mother came back but not his mother meaning that his dad dumped her (hense the divorce that later happens). The lyric "Grandma take me home" repeated throughout the song means that he wants his grandma to take him home, but what home? He doesn't have a proper home for a child anymore. The lyric "I kicked and screamed said please dont go" means that he might be scared of his grandpa because he is very abusive. He is abusive because in the acoustic version of this song Kurt added the lyric "My grandpa had a cigarette, it touched my arm on accident, I swear to god it hurt real bad" . Maybe he was abusive, or maybe it was just an accident.
Will Kurt Cobains tragedy ever stop?
In short, this is a song about a child from a divorced family trying to get through life.
None of the information you just read is 100% true.
Still a rockin' song though, just rock's!!
Anyway, if you want to listen to a happier song listen to "In Bloom" or "Lithium" -
serious its just about a kid who doesnt wanna go to his grandparents andis having a tantrum. i woke up in my mothers arms. doesnt necessarily mean his father ran off.
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when things get really bad this song always comes to my mind specifically the line "grandma take me home". It's definitely a reflection of is childhood and yet applicable in any age during a rough time when we are somewhere we don't want to be.
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I really connect to this song in a way because my parents divorced when i was in 2nd grade. Due to visitation hours, I had to visit my dad every other weekend. My dad has asperger's and my Grandma came down to help him out since my mom wasn't around. I hated seeing my dad, so on weekends i would always kick and scream, my grandma would end up having to take me home a lot.
I think, from my experience, it just describes the frustration of being 'displaced' how when you are at this place you dread going to, you don't focus on anything else, you just want to go home (like how kurt sings about not wanting to ride his bike, not chewing his meat to good, apathy towards ice cream)
Its the feeling of frustration due to an awkward childhood, where you never felt like you never really belonged and you just wanted to go home to see your mom.
Make sense? -
I think that this is a reference to a happy time in Kurts life before his parents got divorced and he got kicked out of his house. it could also be a cry for wanting his parent to come back to him get married and be a happy family again something that he was denied as a child.the song focuses on his parents leaving him and all he wants is to go home and be with them he is clearly not happy or content in his current situation
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Ha I remember my parents, mainly my mom, dropping me off at my grandparents' house. This is kinda of a funny song to me. Seeing how things are seen as a child. How stupid things like just spending time at your grandparents for a while and seem like the end of the world and you're so sad.
Now it's kinda funny cause your like that wasn't that bad...u know when you look at it like an adult -
Obviously if you have all read his quotes bio's and seen interviews, his life was horrible during the teens. He was never home and kicked out and moving around from relatives to friends to under bridges with homeless people and he is simply moving around in this song. "go outside and stop your crying" get out and stop wyning to me and other things that could mean and his grandma was one of his closest family relations and the chorus "grandma take me home" he is asking and wanting to go back home (to a good, right, happy home
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
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Cobain always said he never wrote autobiographically because his "life was too boring there would be nothing to write about" so I think that his parents divorce does seep through the cracks in this story, but that's not really what its about.
This songs about how a childs parents went to some kind of entertaining performance and left the child with the grandparents, and although the grandparents take care of the child in the studio version, in the acoustic demo version he adds an extra verse, singing "grampa had a ciggarette, it touched my arm and hurt so bad" so there are some signs of abuse, but in the end he says he fell asleep watching tv and woke up in his mothers arms, but he still says "grandma take me home" so I think that that means that the father kicked the mother and him out of the house so there isn't a home his mother can go home to, also suggesting divorce -
I believe this is about a shitty expeirience Kurt Cobain had as a child. I think theyre are some people who could relate to a tale as a little child being forced to live with somebody because your parents made you. It is simply his shity expeirience with being forced to live with his grand parents, and the fact that at the end he woke up back in his mothers arms makes the song all the more hateful towrds the expierience
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It's about his mother and father's divorce and having to live at his grandma's then his dads...Don Cobain promised he wouldnt remarry then he did.. So Kurt moved back to his moms
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I agee with that, but I think it might also be a metaphor. How his parents ditched him at his grandparents place, but in the end his mother came back (I woke up in my mother's arms) but not his dad? maybe...
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It's about his childhood. I guess the line "grandma take me home" might be taken from how he was always moved from house to house between his relatives when he was growing up.
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