Breed

I've always thought this one was real clear. It's a guy having doubts about settling down and starting a family with a girl. He's into her, but he doesn't feel that they have to "breed", or "plant a house", or "build a tree". She's like "We could do all three". He doesn't dig it.

"In the four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail"

"Cobain desired the maternal comfort of a traditional relationship, which Vail regarded as sexist within a countercultural punk rock community."

I'd bet money this song is also about Tobi Vail.

We don't have to breed We can plant a house We can build a tree I don't even care

could be about how you can do things however you want, and it doesn't have to be the way society expects you to do them

I kinda agree with 4xeno about how the guy in the song is desperate to stay with the girl.

We don't have to breed We can plant a house We can build a tree I don't even care

breedind, planting a house, and building a tree all have to do with starting a family, and when he says i dont even care, hes saying that the women can make the choice (She said She said She said). THis also fits in with the fact that Kurt was a feminist.

A good thing about these songs is that people tend to find own meanings from them.

To me, it's about the fears of growing up, what happens after graduation, employment and marriage. Sounds like he's not ready to have a kid. The fears of moving forward, with seemingly-dazed lyrics, which is a nice touch. "We can plant a house, we can build a tree..." It's the confusion that comes along with it.

Great song. I'm going to college myself, and I'm feeling, well, I dunno. I'm afraid, I guess.

It's not about a comprehensible story or a comprehensible description of feelings, but more of a direct expression of a feeling and concept without a definitive story. Everyone's free to find a unique meaning or feeling from it that they can relate to.

I'm quite sure that this song is about his toxic relationship with Tobi Vail at the time. It almost sounds as if he's desperate to get her back - saying things like "We don't have to breed. We can plant a house, we can build a tree." Almost like he's offering all the things she wanted at the time but wasn't too sure if Kurt was the one she wanted to settle down with.

However, Nirvana songs can always be misinterpreted and over-analyzed to an extreme. Many people have their own interpretations on Kurt's writing pieces. It's a brilliant song and definitely one of my favourites on Nevermind.

In Kurt Kobain's suicide letter, he was talking about how he doesn't even feel the music anymore, like he's just writing it, and it has no feeling or meaning- maybe alot of his songs... don't mean anything?? It's possible. Drugs and depression will do weird shit to people. I'm not saying that his songs DON'T mean anything... but it's always a possibility.

One of my favorites. I think it's more about having to choose between what you want, what you're told to want, and what you can't have. I think it's about a hard decision to make, when you realize what's impossible.

I also agree there might be something to "desperate to stay with someone", but I think its' more desperate to get with someone," the start of a relationship, not the continuation:

"Even if you have Even if you need I don't mean to stare, We don't have to breed. We can plant a house We can build a tree I don't even care We could have all three. . .

This seems like "I don't care, I'll do whatever you want, just accept me."

Besides, think about it. "We could have all three" This is actually very subtle, adn I think shows some of the meaning. Count it off. House is one, tree is two, thus breeding/children would be three. THe speaker offers the house, offers the tree, and offers not to have children, but then goes back on the last one. Very subtle, very cool.

BTW: the song itself, the lyrics, have nothing to do with Tad Doyle or hte band TAD, just the orginoal title, Immodium. For Kurt Cobain, a lot of times, teh song title came last. His annoyance with Doyle's digestive problems on the tour brought about the title, "Immodium" from a medicine Doyle was trying to use to control it. WHen the title was changed, as evidenced by the simple title, a word mentioned in the song, "Breed" he probably didnt' ahve a title in mind for hte song.

I think essentially it's saying that just because she's a girl and she's hot doesn't mean you have to treat her as a sexual object. She can be just your friend, or you can fuck and have her be your friend. Essentially it's a very feminist song and the opposite of the friend zone myth.

"We don't have to breed We can plant a house We can build a tree I don't even care We can have all three"

Nobody on this sight seems to get these lyrics so from an English Education Major's these lyrics, like all of Nirvana's is very symbolic. Planting a house means starting a family. By saying that your planting a house it's a way of saying that the house or family as a house is a living, breathing, and growing thing. Building a tree on the hand feeds off of the era in which the song was written in which all was about technology, so building a tree is a way of saying that every thing is being produced for finacial gain, even nature is being manufactured. The lyrics are presented in such a way as that the writer is at a crossroads in his life and he can't chose a direction. The lyrics are filled with the words "she said" which leads me to feel as though the undiciding man is being pushed by a female, be it a girlfried, a wife, a mother, or just a friend, to make this dicision. The desision is whether he wants to Plant a house, Build a tree or all three. In my oppinion the third choice is "We don't have to breed." Which means that he could chose not to start a family (plant a house) or buy into the finacial gain of building a tree.