Lithium
by Nirvana
- 122
- BPM
- G major
- Key
- 9B
- Camelot
- 68
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Butch Vig recorded "Lithium" twice. The first time was in April 1990 at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, during sessions meant for a second Sub Pop album. That release was dropped after drummer Chad Channing left, and the eight-song session circulated as a demo tape that drew major labels to the band.
Vig tried again in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, for Nevermind. The early attempts failed. The band kept speeding up. After one bad take a frustrated Kurt Cobain gave up and started playing "Endless, Nameless", which ended up as the album's hidden track. New drummer Dave Grohl took Vig's advice and played with a metronome. It made "Lithium" the only track on the album recorded to a click. The quiet verses and loud chorus were also hard to balance, Vig said. The distorted guitar came from a Big Muff fuzzbox through a Fender Bassman amplifier, and the verse vocals were done in two takes.
Cobain described the lyrics as a fictional account of a man who turns to religion after his girlfriend dies. As the third single from Nevermind, it reached number 64 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 11 in the United Kingdom and number one in Finland.
Lithium runs at 122 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.97 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 492 ms. It is in G major, Camelot 9B, which shares its notes with E minor and mixes cleanly with C major and D major.
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