You Know You're Right Lyrics

Lyric discussion by kittysixx 

Cover art for You Know You're Right lyrics by Nirvana

Whether this song was an indication of Kurt's suicide is something that no one can be certain of. Because there will always be the question of 'Did he really kill himself or was Courtney to blame?' I myself don't believe she was responsible for his death. But I do think she contributed to the one of the many possible reasons of why he killed himself.

Anyway. To me, this song marks rock bottom for Kurt. I think that when he wrote this, he was at the end of his tether with everyone and everything.

The first part in this songs seems to be blatantly directed at Courtney Love. "I will never bother you. I will never promise to I will never follow you. I will never bother you."

'I will never bother you. I will never promise to' It would make sense that Kurt probably wrote this song after Courtney and himself had had an argument or had split up or whatever. Where he says 'I will never promise to' is like he's saying he won't promise that he will never bother her, because he knows he will.

'I will move away from here. You won't be afraid of fear' For someone with such a depressed and troubled mind, not to mention half pie scattered from the drugs, the lyric 'I will move away from here' seems like he was referring to suicide. As in, not to move from one town or city to another. But move away from everything permanently. The following lyric 'You won't be afraid of fear' supports this. (It sounds as though he is talking to himself at this point in the song.) If you guys have ever read 'The Kurt Cobain Journals' and watched different interviews with Kurt, you will know that he was always afraid of his music becoming mainstream like everything else and afraid of the grunge scene that he had created dying out. (Another thing that supports this was when Kurt quoted a lyric from a song called Hey,Hey,My,My (Into the Black) by Neil Young on his suicide note, stating: "It's better to burn out than to fade away.") It seems he decided it was better to end his life than to be around to watch his music and fans someday fade away.

Where he says "No thought was put into this. I always knew it would come to this" Is either referring to his split up with Courtney or a hint as to him thinking about his plans for suicide. Like, he might be saying there was never any thought put into him committing suicide, yet he always knew it was going to happen someday.

Where he says "Things have never been so swell." When he sings 'Things have never been so swell' you can hear a tone of stupidity when he says 'SWELL'. Which therefore seems like he's being a little sarcastic when he's saying 'Things have never been so swell' which obviously seems like he's only joking/pretending that things are so great.

Where he says "I have never failed to fail" This lyric is kind of self explanatory. He obviously thinks that he fails in every situation no matter what he does.

Where he starts yelling 'PAIN' over and over again, it seems as though this is the only thing that he is feeling, is pain. Judging by the tone of anger and grunt that it is sung in and the amount of times it is repeated.

Where he says "It's so warm and calm inside. I no longer have to hide" This lyric comes after him screaming 'PAIN' repeatedly. It seems as though he wrote it this way to show how from one minute he can be depressed and angry to being warm and calm the next minute. I believe this was definitely due to drug use. He would've been feeling down and depressed, he'd have his fix and feel calm and content. And like he has to no longer hide from all the bullshit that brings him down. So really, I think that when he screams 'PAIN' he's referring to the pain of being sober and having to deal with everyday life without any artificial happiness.

Where he says "Lets talk about someone else. Steaming soup against her mouth" Where he says 'Lets talk about someone else' it seems as though he's kinda saying 'Okay enough of me and my feelings, because they don't even matter. Let's talk about Courtney and about something that isn't even important.' Possibly. I myself still try to think of what that specific lyric could mean. It's a bit weird.

Where he says "Nothing really bothers her. She just wants to love herself" Is quite self explanatory if you know of Courtney Love. Lol. It seems as though he is saying that nothing really bothers her, nothing really matters to her, all she wants to do is love herself.

And finally when he says "You Know You're Right" I think it is the most difficult lyric of the song to try and figure out if your a deep thinker and over-analyzer like me ><

I think he's either saying You know You're right towards society. The media. Courtney. And everyone who is always telling him what to do. What he's doing wrong and what he should be doing. As in, he knows their all right but he doesn't want to listen or he doesn't agree with them.

Or he could be saying You Know You're Right to himself. Trying to convince himself that he is right in his own mind within a world full of wrong.

To be honest, I think that there are so many possibilities of what all of Kurt's lyrics truly meant to him compared to what we think they might've meant.

When you realize that these words came from the mind of someone who was deeply depressed, scattered on drugs and was hardly ever in a clear state of mind and yet he still managed to make all of his lyrics have meaning, that is an absolutely amazing musician.

I also thought I'd just share my thoughts on why things ended the way they did. I truly believe that Kurt didn't end his life because he was depressed. He ended his life so that his music and the name of 'Kurt Cobain' and 'Nirvana' didn't fade away or end up forgotten. So that in years to come, people still appreciated and had love for the music that he made.

And look now, 18 years gone and still one of the biggest, most loved and appreciated bands in the world. If he failed at everything else, that's one thing he succeeded at.

:)

My Interpretation

When he says "Lets talk about someone else. Steaming soup against her mouth" I think he is trying to change the subject when he says the "Steaming soup against her mouth" line. Only trying to help since you couldn't figure it out. Thanks. (:

A lot of good facts and ideas in your interpretation. One thing that I don't think I read in your analysis is the fact that Cobain had a vicious stomach ailment that kept him in near constant pain--except, of course, when he used heroin. The pain factor likely contributed to his suicide.

I agree about Courtney being a factor and that it would be impossible to blame her solely for his death. She was probably a nightmare to be married to ("buried" sang Kurt in "All Apologies"), but with his addiction, depression, and physical pain, he had many other factors...

@kittysixx I've wondering what the meaning of the title of this song could mean for a while now... and I think I finally figured it out

You know when you're down or depressed you always have that voice in the back of your head telling you that you're worthless or even that you should take your own life. But somehow you push yourself to keep going and have this strange hope that everything will be alright one day... I think the words 'you know you're right' refer to when you get to that point when you no longer have hope and just quit fighting for you...