Nirvana - Ashamed To Be Human (1988)

In January 1988 a young Kurt Cobain took his band Ted Ed Fred into Reciprocal Studios to record some demos. The band were a trio at the time with Kris Novoselik already on board covering bass duties and The Melvins' Dale Crover helping out on drums. Jack Endino was the producer for these sessions, and I'm sure he saw something in the raw energy of Cobain's screamed vocals over the bass-heavy selection of riffs, as he sent copies of the demo to various record companies in the hope of getting them a deal. It's well known from Cobain's notebooks that he used to plan out the band's career in minute detail, proposing album titles, track listings, and even drawing basic cover art. Around the time of the demo, his idea of the debut album's title evolved from 'Humans Are Dumb' via 'All Humans Are Stupid' to eventually end up as 'Ashamed To Be Human'.

Track listing

01 Floyd The Barber

02 Mexican Seafood

03 Paper Cuts

04 Spank Thru

05 Downer

06 Pen Cap Chew

07 Aero Zeppelin

08 Hairspray Queen

09 Beeswax

10 If You Must

11 Mr. Moustache

12 Blandest

When 'Bleach' eventually surfaced in 1989 only three of these songs made the cut, although versions of the others have appeared on numerous bootlegs over the years. These versions are all from the master tape of the 1988 demo produced by Jack Endino, and could be what the debut album might have sounded like if someone had picked up that demo that Endino hawked around and decided to issue it as it was.