Cobain_ghost November 12th, 2005 05:35PM  
I don't doubt any of your credibility for a second, so I'm not going to argue with any of your points. I just wanted to add that I read Courtney Love's interview in Spin and she claims that it was written about her vagina. I thought about it for a bit and some lines really make sense and some really don't. for instance, "Broken Hymen," that says enough. "Meat-eating orchids" vaginas have often been refered to as "flowers" and hers just happens to eat his meat.

That's all I got.

anonymous December 18th, 2005 07:02PM  
The song Heart-Shaped Box speaks fairly simply about one's self-hate for compulsive attraction to female sexuality!

JoeyVal January 17th, 2006 03:34PM  
The term "Heart Shaped Box" means that there is no love inside that particular heart. It refers to something that's empty (not literally) in the shape of a heart. "Locked inside" means that he can't help how he still loves with all his heart yet the other heart is empty.

anonymous May 11th, 2006 05:36PM  
The truth is NO ONE realy knows what any Nirvana songs mean except Kurt himself. My interpretations are what I belive. I have no idea if it is anything like what Kurt thought but I is my way of seeing them. So we can all have our own Interpretation and we can't dismiss anyone elses.

P.S NIRVANA RULE

anonymous November 17th, 2006 04:04PM  
I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black

This refers to cancer patients on chemo therapy whose skin turns a blackish color during treatment.

Kurt_will_return December 9th, 2006 08:45PM  
A song Kurt wrote for Courtney. About the Heart-Shaped Box she sent him with a doll in it. She also sent him a poem that ended up being Doll Parts by Hole.


Doll Parts and Heart-Shaped Box go hand in hand.

Kurt_will_return December 11th, 2006 08:59AM  
This song was origanilly called 'Heart-Shaped Coffin' but dude who up there that says Courtney has nothing to do with it your wrong. The whole damn album is called In Utero which was one of Courtney's poems. Heart-Shaped Box/Coffin was written for her

anonymous December 20th, 2006 03:19AM  
I can understand the meanings of every nirvana song!!!..and albums as concept albums!

This song is about...the media, MTV, television, and the work world. Truely. The nevermind album is about persuing sex, losing innosence, and finding frustration in really never being happy. Like, Lithium he does, but then gets fed up toward the end. And then wants to trap and manipulate him/her in the song Polly (which was inspired by a newspaper article...but captures the appropriate feeling. It cycles over and over..in and out...just like teen depression, sex, and relationships in general. Guns are dicks...everybody...in reference to his likenings.
On the cover of Nevermind it shows a baby chasing a dollar bill...like "Okay, now you're alive, follow the dollar and die.

And THATS WHAT HEART SHAPED BOX IS ABOUT. It moves from the teen depression to adult depression. It's more in reference to Kurt being under the microscope of the media. So is Rape Me. They may have been inspired by acual events, but no ARTIST JUST REPORTS THE NEWS. THEY TELL THE TRUTH. THE TRUTH. THE TRUTH!!!! In this case, the heart shaped box is our television. It is also a settled marriage. "I wish I could eat your cancer" like "I would die for and with you." And you really do kill your self in a marriage...sad and touching, which is the contrast of it ...CONTRAST IS ART...Courtney and Kurt were both really smart, and she understood the challenges of marriage and defeating the self and succuming to selfishness.

The "She" in the song is the media. Looking at him when he's weak and focusing on his errors. Posing as an Orchid and hurting him. Reprters that come from a good child hood and make Kurt look black and bad. (Dave Chapelle's "Black Sheep" joke alludes to this also.) Him wishing that he could be there to exloit their struggles and faults (cancer) when they are bad. The Heart Shaped Box is the Meida's Eye. Our Television. Heart Shaped Box is our Television.

THE VIDEO- The beginning room where they wait is a quaint model of America's representation...or lack there of..of truth. A dead man being sustained by the economic stability of rasing and creating new children...making people get jobs where the rich are richer..also forcing people to go to church, not literally force, but it is usual for a parent to go when they have a new child and want to raise them in a perfect world. Anyways, There's a curtain with a little light being let in. The light represents... Truth...or Truth. (The concept, or the Grand Hidden Truth of society. Which krist opens at the end, and floods the room with light. Kurt told Krist to do this, probably because he was the most innocent out of them. and to show that nirvana was really telling the truth about things, which like I said, is the role of the artist. One can't preech it,as jehovah's whitness, but as Emily Dickinson says "Speack truth in slant". Kurt says "What do I think I think? Hate your enemies. Save Your Friends. Find Your Place. Speak the Truth." SPEAK THE TRUTH!!!)

Jesus in the video walking around is Kurt. Notice he's picking Poppies...heroine reference. And he is crucified by society. Who paid attention so much to his bads and not his goods. (Tupac makes the same allusion on his Makeveli album...where he says the crusifixion on the album cover is a reference to him being cucified by the media. Which is just what our world does to someone who speaks the truth. As Jesus, or the beatles, or John Lenon, or Tupac, or Nirvana...or even JFK, but later it serves to show how society should check itself and change.)

The KKK kid represents children who inherit the hates of their parents. You know, people who write great music are those who don't have a very good child hood to reflect on..only one of pain. Like Kurt, or Beethoven.

Notice when the kid is on the grass (off the path)and the angel notices her and stands upset...and the child gets scared. This is accurately showing what happens to people who are confused about upbringing and contemplate things a lot instead of being productive. ("The lunatic is on the grass...Remembering games, and daisy chains and laughs. GOT TO KEEP THE LUNIES ON THE PATH"-Roger waters, Pink Floyd...Kurt's showing the same idea, essentially.) Also, too much thinking makes one go insane and question reality...insanity is sometimes brilliance though, especially in Art. The angel is this economy with the name of God we set up. Fat as ever. Operating in a false reality. A set, if you will. Which it very much does look like a phony, small, repetitious set. And we are all suppose to be actors and hide ourselves in script. The angel reaches to embrace the birth of children...to keep Jesus alive.

The Kid also represents Kurt. I think Kurt was just really sensitive and wished he was never born. And let's be honest, most great artists are a bit girly and sensitive. That's how they write great songs. The child reaches to the cross to get help. (Kurt did accept Jesus at one time) Reaches to the children tree for power and innosence.(Probably why he had Francis...and Kurt wished he could just be Kid again or not be born.)
As her outfit becomes black ("I'm left black.") the room is shown again with no light and just her in black. CONTRAST!! And then Kurt takes her place to show they are the same.
When her heart begins bleeding, she is being looked up at...almost glorified...and inside that heart is nirvana. And the heart is a box that keeps them trapped. And they are constantly contrasting their postitions with each other. Emotions and representations of them. And differing ones from scene to scene in the box...deifferent stances and emotions of each person...down and up...shot to shot ART! All in a box. And He is staring right at us!!!!!!!!!!!! Go to Youtube.com and watch the video. Pause and just think. Let it play all the way through. And notice that when you are watching his percing look at the camera.. and he yells!!, he's yelling at you through the TV. He's in the TV yelling! In the Heart Shaped Box yelling. Like "Hey DO YOU FUCKING GET IT YET IDIOTS!!! MTV obviously doesn't!"

Notice how the whole video is on a soundstage set. This is commenting on the phony society we have set up. Believe me, it's the meaning! And How it is distracting and dilluding by hiding behind dead Jesus. A dead Jesus in everyone's face... and Truth, though available through the slight light in the curtains...is really covered up and nullified by dead Jesus and curtains...the set of reality.

We all can pull the curtains...just give it a chance. "Imagine"...by John Lennon...is basically the same Idea as heart Shaped Box.

And also, the songs melody is similar to "Paint it Black" by the rolling stones. Slower, more surreal, romanitc, and better recorded...but along the same lines as the stones song.

Please, I hope someone reads this and thinks about it. I know the other statements are right. The box and everything is true. And I think kourtney actually helped him right the song...lyrics and melody...vocal melody.

P.S. The Dollar on the hook on the cover of never mind is the umbilical noose. And look at the cover of In Utero. He's crawled back in the Unterus. (Of the woman, of the world, of the job, of society?) and then he killed himself. He hated his parents fighting so much that he made himself unborn. And killed popular music with him!

God DAMN IT!

-Danny

GildedGatsby@aol.com

anonymous January 23rd, 2007 04:34AM  
The whole song is about how Courtney has trapped him!
Verse one about how she trapped him on herion, and verse two how she trapped him into having a baby (both against his wishes)

Courtney is a Pisces and astrologically is a dominant sign (She eyes me like a Pisces when I am weak), She gave him a heart shaped box as a present when they first met, and he kept his drugs in it (I've been locked in your heart shaped box for weeks). Magnet tar pit is the actual drug, and "eat your cancer when you trun black", is about how she has made him feel as rotten as she was, ie, the drug addiction.

Verse two "meat eating orchids" is her labia, "cut myself on angel hair and baby's breath" - he was delighted to be a father even though he didn't want to be, "broken hymen of your highness" is a reference to the sexual power women hold over men, "throw down your umbilical noose so I can climb right back" - he is so fucked and trapped that he assumes the feotal position.

So - the song is about the power struggle within the relationship - she always has to be in control - Kurt is emtionally weak and fragile, she knows this and takes advantage of it, he hates himself and her for being so weak.

Fucking brilliant lyrics! This should be awarded some kind of literal accolade or honour.

I saw them at Reading Festival in '92. I had just turned 19 and at my first festival and was completely blown away by it. Who would have known it would be his last British gig.
Well done you fucking mad bastard!

Ally Ross

anonymous January 31st, 2007 01:50PM  
I think that the guy two comments before me nailed in right on the head.
I agree with it all. Some people may look at it and say that these lyrics were looked into too much, and that Kurt was just a heroin addict with pshycotic thoughts.
But Kurt was actually that deep.
He said he was sick with people, and had been for a while. Do you think that someone as brilliant as him, and as deep as him would just TELL you the message?
No.
He wanted you to look for a message.

And Kurt also said that he didn't write songs as personally as people thought. I mean, sure the messages in the song/video are personal, but they're not specifically aimed at HIS life and HIS condition. His songs were generalizations of his opinions and outlooks on life.
So no. I don't think this song had anything to do with Courtney fucking Love.

Bitch.

anonymous February 2nd, 2007 11:29PM  
Maybe the video and lyrics have different meanings.

anonymous February 12th, 2007 12:50PM  
to the person above who said that Courtney was a pisces was wrong, Courtney was a cancer, Kurt was actually a pisces

anonymous February 20th, 2007 05:22AM  
I think most of you are correct
I feel it's about obviously Courtney and Kurt
and how Courtney introduced Kurt to heroin, which made him mentally ill, but he was addicted, "forever in debt to your priceless advice"
i feel its also about Courtney giving Kurt a heart shaped box full of trinkets, but her treating him with disrespect, interference and just not being that great to him, making him feel trapped like the trinkets inside her heart shaped box, "I've been trapped inside your heart shaped box, four weeks"
also adding to that I feel that it's about how cruel she was, and that her heart was fale, it looked and was shaped like a heart, but it was filled with nothing but want and not need.
it also about the sexual and mental difficulties Kurt and Courtney shared.

anonymous February 23rd, 2007 03:54AM  
According to wikipedia.com, Courtney Love wasn't the one who introduced Kurt Cobain to heroin.

I like the idea of this song being general. It makes more sense, because I hear Kurt didn't like the media or fame. Then why would he write and sing about his personal life for all to hear and know?

JLB March 27th, 2007 06:48AM  
It's definitely about Courtney Love and sex.

anonymous April 3rd, 2007 05:33PM  
This song is about when Courtney was having an affair on Kurt with someone from the Smashing Pumpkins, she kept a heart shaped box which had letters from Courtney's affair relationship and Kurt obviously found out.

anonymous April 12th, 2007 07:33PM  
hey dude that was a nice explanation and it makes sense... but the music video has pretty much NOTHING to do with the song at all... It's entirely about a wierd dream he had, and he made the video exactly like his dream...
he may have added some subtle things which hint at your explanations,, ,but the main idea of the video is his dream (with subtle undertones)...

anonymous April 24th, 2007 09:09AM  
Personally, I think this song is about abortion.

Like the heart shaped box is the uterus (heart shaped coffin would have worked even better) and the lyrics are coming from the fetuses point of view.
Read through the lyrics, it makes sense.

Thats just my opinion, though.

anonymous May 19th, 2007 02:09AM  
The song is about abortion seriously. Listen to the lyrics "umbilical noose" and the flower comment is true vaginas are compared to flowers a lot. The song was called Heart Shaped Coffin at first, but that was too obviously about abortion.

anonymous June 17th, 2007 06:07AM  
Courtney owned a heart shaped box, which she kept love letters from her x, smashing pumpkin singer, Billy, in. Kurt found the box and locked himself up for weeks reading the letters. He became obsessed.

It's also his passive aggressive feelings about their unexpected pregnancy, which he didn't know how to deal with.

And for those of you who think the song has anything to do with religion, you're wrong! Treatments are usually written by the producer/director of the video and approved by the record company. The artists' rarely have a say in the concept. A lot of videos are simply pretentious and random designed to draw the viewer in, and usually have nothing to do with the true meaning of the lyrics written by the artist. This is a ploy to sell more records.

Read the lyrics again and you will get a better understanding of what was really going on - it is that simple.

This is not hearsay!
Respectfully.