Thurston once said that the album Dirty was made in response to touring with Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr in 1991. He claimed that the band felt like it was competing night after night to hold their own against the two up and coming super bands. Being that Daydream Nation and Goo both took influence from Dinosaur Jr, it also safe to say that Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr also evolved themselves as a result to playing with Sonic Youth. "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" and pretty much the entire In Utero album is a good example of the Sonic rubbing off onto Nirvana.
"Purr" is such a song that takes away from that experience. It has a melody, a verse/chorus and even something that resembles a guitar solo using a very nasty sounding flanger! Pretty cool huh?
This was one of the earliest songs written for Dirty. It was debuted in 1991, probably during the Goo tour. "Purr" is a great example of the band showing its punk rock roots. The riff is simple and the song comes together with a very cohesive three chord change up. The beginning starts off almost like a Dammed song. Steve Shelley rocks the hell out of those drums, which is something new for the Dirty album. I always wondered why this one never got as much play. It was played during the Dirty era, but has not been touched since. I always looked at it as a show closer.
1 comment:
I love this song. Second best song on Dirty. There's an acoustic version floating around somewhere that I've heard before.
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