I am buried up to my neck in
Contradictionary lies
I take pride as the kind of illiterature
I'm very ape and very nice

If you ever need anything please don't hesitate
to ask someone else first
I'm too busy acting like I'm not naive.
I've seen it all I was here first

Out of the ground
Into the sky
Out of the sky
Into the dirt



Lyrics submitted by justinjtp

Track duration: 01:56

"Very Ape" as written by Kurt Cobain

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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Very Ape song meanings
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61 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:It's about humanity at large. We say we love but do so only when it helps accomplished a personal goal. Pretending to know it all, we guarantee our own setbacks.
    Flag WeROneon May 15, 2013   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:"Out of the ground, into the sky" I think Kurt is saying that one day you can feel sad and depressed and the next you can feel happy and unstoppable.
    Any-whey the song is a an absolute masterpiece.
    Flagged thrashgrunge4lifeon December 10, 2012   Link
  • +4
    General Comment:at age 16 in my bedroom with a hand gun to my head had just about enough of this fucking life nirvana is playing in the background and just when i'm about to pull the trigger i hear
    "... if you ever need anything please don't hesitate
    to ask someone else first
    i'm too busy acting like i'm not naive
    I've seen it all i was here first ..."
    what it meant to me at that moment i'm gonna keep to myself (and its noway near to what some of you are posting here) but it did save my life
    i'm 34 now and have no plans to check out early.
    thank you Kurt for being there at the right time, i wish i could have been there for you man.

    any who, my point is, stop arguing about the meaning of songs and lyrics. get it the way you want to get it because none of you really knows true meaning of it and the only one who really knows what it means is no longer available for comments.
    Flagged muddywateron April 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:“Irony and cynicism were just what the U.S. hypocrisy of the fifties and sixties called for. That’s what made the early postmodernists great artists. The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates. The virtuous always triumph? Ward Cleaver is the prototypical fifties father? “Sure.” Sarcasm, parody, absurdism and irony are great ways to strip off stuff’s mask and show the unpleasant reality behind it. The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, “then” what do we do? Irony’s useful for debunking illusions, but most of the illusion-debunking in the U.S. has now been done and redone. Once everybody knows that equality of opportunity is bunk and Mike Brady’s bunk and Just Say No is bunk, now what do we do? All we seem to want to do is keep ridiculing the stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony’s gone from liberating to enslaving. There’s some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who’s come to love his cage.”
    ― David Foster Wallace

    The out of the ground, into the sky, out of the sky, into the ground part is telling how irony was used to debunk stuff for liberty's sake ("into the sky", and the eventual fall of irony as something liberating and more enfeebling ("into the dirt").

    I thought of this song when I ran into the quote. "take pride as king of illiterature" (irony is literary savvy and "hip"). School was also about the scene being full of one-upmanship.
    Flagged wtfjacobon February 23, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To me it seems to be about irony (although it uses irony itself) being "hip".

    “Irony and cynicism were just what the U.S. hypocrisy of the fifties and sixties called for. That’s what made the early postmodernists great artists. The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates. The virtuous always triumph? Ward Cleaver is the prototypical fifties father? “Sure.” Sarcasm, parody, absurdism and irony are great ways to strip off stuff’s mask and show the unpleasant reality behind it. The problem is that once the rules of art are debunked, and once the unpleasant realities the irony diagnoses are revealed and diagnosed, “then” what do we do? Irony’s useful for debunking illusions, but most of the illusion-debunking in the U.S. has now been done and redone. Once everybody knows that equality of opportunity is bunk and Mike Brady’s bunk and Just Say No is bunk, now what do we do? All we seem to want to do is keep ridiculing the stuff. Postmodern irony and cynicism’s become an end in itself, a measure of hip sophistication and literary savvy. Few artists dare to try to talk about ways of working toward redeeming what’s wrong, because they’ll look sentimental and naive to all the weary ironists. Irony’s gone from liberating to enslaving. There’s some great essay somewhere that has a line about irony being the song of the prisoner who’s come to love his cage.”
    ― David Foster Wallace

    An attempt at debunking irony being steeped in irony.
    Flagged wtfjacobon February 23, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think that "Contradicionary flies" were the redactors who published news about Cobain and Courtney, so Kurt gets buried up to his neck with the news.

    On "If you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask someone else first. I'm too busy acting like I'm not naive. I've seen it all, I was here first", Kurt says to dont ask the news who's telling the truth

    Well, that's my interpretation :)
    Flagged gasimoeson January 18, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think it's about people who believe they're inteligent just because of his age (like my grandpa)
    he's a moron but he feels more intelligent than the entire family just because he was here first... ._.
    Flagged danundergroundon August 11, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Does anyone else thinks this song is about Kurt´s struggle with fame? (Out of the ground Into the sky
    Out of the sky Into the dirt)his meteoric rise to stardom, his depression, how dissapointed he was (I'm too busy acting like I'm not naive I've seen it all, I was here first)
    And his low self-steem? (I am buried up to my neck in contradictionary flies) you know, like the people who isolate themselves trying to protect themselves yet hating themselves...
    Those are my thoughts.
    Flagged medton March 25, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I don't know if any of you know that Nirvana were sued by an Argentinian band called Los Brujos because the guitar riff of Very Ape is very similar to that of "Kanishka", a song by that band. Nirvana met this band when they were in Argentina and were very impressed by their music. In fact Los Brujos performed as support band previous to Nirvana's show in Argentina in 1992.
    Flagged MithrandirGreyPilgrimon July 28, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:THIS SONG FUCKING ROCKS
    except for the part that Kurt died
    Flagged Tailsfan2009on July 27, 2009   Link

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