Revealed: The Nirvana-Boston Connection

This clip from the UK Reading Festival in 1992 reveals that Nirvana were well aware of the similarities between the guitar parts in Smells Like Teen Spirit and Boston's More Than a Feeling. It also shows that Kurt had a sense of humor about himself. Kurt leads the band into Boston's FM radio staple before launching into Smells Like Teen Spirit.

Sounds Like Teen Spirit recounts that the guys in Nirvana thought that the guitar pattern in Smells Like Teen Spirit sounded "so much like Louie Louie or a Boston riff" when Kurt first played it for them. How ironic that the crunching riff that introduced most of the world to Nirvana and changed the course of pop music in 1991 had its roots in Boston's AOR classic.