On A Plain Lyrics - Nirvana

Writer: Cobain, Kurt
Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing



Please Click here to submit the Corrections of On A Plain Lyrics

Please Click Here to Print On A Plain Lyrics

Thanks to ewitter@princeton.edu for submitting On A Plain Lyrics.
Not too high, not too low | Reviewer: Eddie Mac | 11/10/11

First, I can really appreciate what "Mary" wrote in regards to interpreting a song in your heart and for yourself rather than trying to pick it apart. This is the very reason I have never been a big fan of music videos. I can't tell you how many times I've watched a video for the first time after listening to the same song for months and saying to myself, " What the hell is this "? Because it is nothing like I interpreted to myself before seeing it. Honestly, music videos have ruined songs for me that I initially thought were great. Ofcourse there is always the exception(s). Some videos do kick ass! However, in my opinion Kurt was and probably always will be the best music writer because his lyrics are so personal. A few people wrote that this song was thrown together for the sake of filling space. There may be some truth to that but it doesn't make it any less exceptional than it is. See, I think Kurt suffered through most of his way too short life and it was through his pain he shined and created excellence. I can hear in his voice and his lyrics the raw emotion, the pain that comes with mental illness. I believe he was severely bi-polar and this song symbolizes one of the brief moments in life that his own personal battle subsided and he was actually "okay". I feel like while he was writing this song he was at peace, not to high, not too low, but "on a plain", level. At that moment there were no peaks or valleys just a wide open plain. For that brief moment he was alright. The drug abuse was merely a symptom of a much deeper struggle. God bless Kurt! "Empathy".

Eddie, MA

---

Nirvana | Reviewer: Andrew | 6/24/11

I know every generation thinks their music was the best. But, I am telling you, this was something special. I remember the first time my friend put me in his car-I was 15-and they said hey you gotta hear this. They cranked up Smells like Teen Spirit, and I was riveted. I didn't even know why, I just knew I felt it.

---

... | Reviewer: ibrahim | 4/25/11

i'm really just discovered nirvana and also unable to buy "heavier than heaven"(because i'm not in europe).but i think you dont have to write lyrics for hours to put meaning into them. watch "amadeus" movie. mozart was the greatest composer ever come to the earth and he wasnt writing his music down to the paper until he had finished.the great "requiem" made up this way...

---

nirvana | Reviewer: mimi | 2/18/11

Kurt Cobain is the best thing I've ever heard. His music has so much thought that it is a real pleasure just lying down and trying to catch the wave from the 90s and the style and influence which Kurt Cobain and Nirvana created. Since then there isn't a musician or a band who could follow their style which is really amazing to me because I really think that the unique times, music and styles come once in a life what makes it difficlut for people who whish they could copy something on which they will forever shit.

---

lol | Reviewer: Karley | 1/5/11

dave grohl said that watching kurt write some lyrics in 5 minutes and then performing them after made it hard for him to beleive that kurt put alot of meaning into them. i agree xD its just music lol

---

its really about... | Reviewer: Anonymous | 10/1/10

the song is means exactly what it says he cant think of any words.. he has been heavy on the drugs and the rest is about his mother and father divorcing. kurt was fustrated with recording all he wanted to do was go home and this song is all contradictions about his life and his feeling at this exact moment.

---

Art | Reviewer: Mary | 9/18/10

I have learned a thing or two....about artistic expression. What Kurt and the band wrote and played is simply that. Art. To pull it apart and try to divine motives......I dunno. Leave it be, interperet it in your heart, what it means to you. No one can ask him, and it does not matter. See, that's the real beauty. We are touched. The words in the songs communicate with somthing so visceral, so important to us.

I sure miss Kurt.

Be well. I love myself better than you. ~ Mary

---

drugs | Reviewer: 33llikgnik | 8/19/10

"drugs have done thing for us! if you don't believe me, I want you to destroy or erase all your music, because musicians who wrote great music, that enhanced our lives, were real fucking high"-Bill Hicks. he's rite! Kurt was high and he wrote this great song! RIP Kurt Cobain RIP Bill Hicks

---

Wonderfully meaningless | Reviewer: Kat | 7/31/10

Kurt Cobain said in an interview that he needed another song for the album "Nevermind" so he wrote this in like five minutes . It is completely random . Yes , there are many things it means , but there is not one meaninging . It is a bunch of random thoughts put together . He probably just wrote down whatever came to mind . NIRVANA FOREVER ! Oh and if i spelled something wrong im sorry . im using my phone to put this in and i live in a small town in tennessee so people here arent smart . sorry about my capitalization too .

---

Pretty songs. | Reviewer: breakherlegs | 7/20/10

"One more special message to go, and then I'm done and I can go home".
I'm pretty sure... 'home' is a referance to death in this song.
To the people who insist discussing the meaning of a song is pointless, actually, if you listened to the song 'In Bloom', you would not the lines about singing along and not knowing what the song meant. Kurt had 'special messages' to deliver, and disguised them in poetry.

But anyways. The first part is quite clearly about China White.
'I'm on a plain' could relate to heroin, too, but I think it's deeper then that. I take it as to that 'well-being heroin feeling', but that he was experiencing that on a day-to-day basis, even when sober. A sort of floating apathy of comfort.

The most interesting part is the bit about 'somewhere I have heard this before'... It's almost as if he were trying to get a message across that he did hear somehere, but the flashbacks are difficult to grasp and he can't quite figure out exactly what the memory entails.

On purpose, making the lines 'unclear' as he says because... well... it's not too good to make enlightening statements too publicly, if you know what I mean. ;D
'Oh, wrong meeting, that's the one we're having at the Docks tomorrow' -wink-.

But anyway, this is just my interpretation and I'd like to hope I wasn't just another of those that sing along to the pretty songs and don't know what they mean. :(

Pretty deep analysis, but I go deep. ;D

---

Reviews By Pages:   1    2    3    4    5   


The following area is only for review, if you want to submit the lyrics or the corrections of the lyrics, please click the link at the end of On A Plain Lyrics.

• Nirvana Biography
• Nirvana Albums
• Nirvana Lyrics
• Nirvana Gallery