"Dive" is a song by the Americanrock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It was released as the B-side to the band's second single, "Sliver" in September 1990. The same version was re-released as the opening track on the compilation album The Grunge Years in 1991, and again on the Nirvana rarities compilation, Incesticide, in December 1992.
Origin and recording
"Dive" was first recorded in the studio in the spring of 1989 at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. The session was produced by Evergreen student Greg Babior, and was the band's only studio session with second guitarist Jason Everman, who was credited on their 1989 debut album, Bleach, but did not play on it. The session also resulted in a cover of the Kiss song "Do You Love Me?", which was released on in 1990. However, this version of "Dive" remained unreleased until its appearance on the Nirvana box set, With the Lights Out, in November 2004. "Dive" was performed for the first time live on May 26, 1989 at the Lindbloom Student Centre of Green River Community College in Auburn, Washington. On November 1, 1989, it was recorded along with "About a Girl" and "Love Buzz" for the VPROradio showNozems-a-Go-Go at Villa 65 in Hilversum, Netherlands. A second studio version was recorded by Butch Vig, who later produced the band's breakthrough album, Nevermind, in April 1990 at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin. This version was released twice by the band's then-label, Sub Pop, first as the B-side to the "Sliver" single in September 1990, and then on the compilation album The Grunge Years in June 1991. In December 1992, it was re-released by DGC Records, whom the band had signed with in 1991, on the Nirvana rarities compilation, Incesticide. As with the "Sliver" single, it appeared back-to-back with "Sliver," but was the album's opening track. The final live performance of "Dive" was at the James A. Rhodes Arena in Akron, Ohio on October 31, 1993.
Composition and lyrics
Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad described "Dive" as possessing "the best elements of Bleach - the grinding guitar sound, the high, desperate growling vocals, the deliciously laden riff" and wrote that "it was pop music, but very, very heavy pop music." Journalist Gillian G. Garr theorized that had "Dive" not been included on the "Sliver" single, it may have been re-recorded for the band's September 1991 release Nevermind, since it predicted that album's sound with its fusion of punk, metal and pop. Author Chuck Crisafulli described the song as having the "thick, dirty guitar, menacing bass and vocals of intermediate agony" that characterized the still-new "grunge" genre at the time. According to Garr, the song's lyrics feature a braggadocio absent from other Nirvana songs.
Release and reception
The "Sliver" single was first released on 7-inch vinyl in the US in 1990 by Sub Pop. The initial run of 3,000 copies was pressed on black, marbled blue, or clear pink vinyl. It was released on CD single, 7-inch vinyl and 12-inch vinyl in the UK in 1991 on the Tupelo record label. According to the 2001 Cobain biography Heavier than Heaven by Charles R. Cross, Cobain's future wife, Courtney Love, was impressed with the song upon hearing the "Sliver" single for the first time, calling it "sexy, and sexual, and strange and haunting," and describing it as "genius." In 2015, "Dive" was ranked at number six on Rolling Stone'sNo Apologies: All 102 Nirvana Songs Ranked list, with Maura Johnston calling it "a tense and furtive pop song in spite of itself." In 2017, it was voted eight on Rolling Stones's reader's poll of non-album Nirvana songs.
