Serve the Servants

Written in 1992, "Serve the Servants" was the only In Utero song that had never been recorded as a demo by the full band prior to being recorded for the album. As Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic remembers, it was brought to the studio "pretty much done" by Cobain.[3] The album was recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.

The first live performance of "Serve the Servants" was on April 9, 1993, at the Bosnian Rape Victim Benefit show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California. It was performed, along with "Dumb," at Nirvana's final television appearance, on February 23, 1994 in Rome, Italy for the RAI television show, Tunnel. The final live performance was at Nirvana's last concert, on March 1, 1994 at Terminal Einz in Munich, Germany.

Journalist Gillian G. Gaar described "Serve the Servants" as "a straight-ahead rock song, arguably the most straightforward song on In Utero," and noted that its steady volume was a departure from the frequently-used "soft/loud Nirvana dynamic."[3] Author Chuck Crisafulli wrote that the song was among the most "rock n' roll" tracks the band ever recorded and provided an energizing and satisfying opener to the album, which immediately dispelled rumors that In Utero would be excessively abrasive and unlistenable.[4]

The song's autobiographical lyrics address both Cobain's struggles with fame and his family life.[3] The opening lyrics, "Teenage angst has paid off well, now I'm bored and old," were a commentary on Cobain's public image, and his life as a celebrity since the unexpected success of Nirvana's second album, Nevermind, released in September 1991.[3][5] The lyric, "If she floats then she is not a witch like we had thought", was an attack on the media for its perceived misrepresentation of Cobain's wife Courtney Love, vocalist and guitarist of the American rock band Hole, comparing her treatment to a witchhunt and the practice of subjecting women accused of witchcraft to a public ordeal by water.[4]

In his 1993 biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Michael Azerrad stated that Cobain sent a personal and direct message to his father with the lines, "I tried hard to have a father/but instead I had a dad/I just want you to know that I don't hate you anymore/There is nothing I could say that I haven't thought before".[6] However, Cobain stated that the lines were included at the last minute and that "they just happen to fit really well".[6] Author Charles R. Cross, in his 2001 Cobain biography, Heavier Than Heaven, also described these lines as bitter lyrics aimed at Cobain's father.[7] The last line of the chorus "that legendary divorce is such a bore" refers to Cobain being tired of his childhood being plumbed for deep meaning.[4]

According to the April 2000 edition of Spin, at one point during Cobain's memorial vigil in April 1994, the song was being "blasted" from the loudspeakers while "an estimated 5,000 kids poured over the fountain, plugging up the spigots, lifting their middle fingers to the skies and howling with gleeful rage."[8]

In April 2015, Rolling Stone ranked "Serve the Servants" at number 14 in their list of the top 102 Nirvana songs.[9]

In 2017, Love named "Serve the Servants" as one of her favorite Nirvana songs, also mentioning the In Utero songs "Heart-Shaped Box" and "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle", and the Nevermind song "In Bloom."[10]

The song's title is referenced by Nirvana's manager Danny Goldberg in the title of his book Serving The Servant: Remembering Kurt Cobain, to be released in 2019.[11]