At first sight, this guide may seem somewhat esoteric, perhaps even nerdy, to the casual observer. This commentary is intended to explain the trends which can be inferred from the statistics, and thereby to elucidate the real value of the tables listed here.
When Leo P. Cailleteau first began this document, there were far fewer surfaced NIRVANA concerts, especially at the early and late extremes of the band's career. He realised that a compendium of the first and last known instances of songs would enable collectors to trace the development of songs, since the first performances were often before the recording of the album versions. These live versions may feature different song structures or lyrics. For example, early Territorial Pissings have different lyrics, while early Rape Mes feature a guitar solo rather than a bridge. This gives very valuable insight into how NIRVANA songs were written and arranged. Some songs may continue evolving even after the studio recording, for example Lithium acquired changes of tempo on the In Utero tour.
An arguably more fascinating aspect of NIRVANA's songwriting development that can be traced here is the order in which NIRVANA songs were written. This sheds much light on Kurt's influences and the direction in which he wanted to take NIRVANA. We must note, however, that some songs were written a long time before their live debut, a trend which was exacerbated by NIRVANA's attempt to stem the flood of bootlegs by not playing new material on the summer 1992 tour.
The dearth of live concert recordings until mid 1989 causes difficulties in pinpointing which songs were written when for Bleach, and it is more informative to note the dates of the different recording sessions. In "Come As You Are", Michael Azzerad notes that Polly had been written early enough to be available to be included on Bleach, and indeed a demo recording is circulating among collectors which confirms this, but there is no live recording from this era. That Cobain must have deemed Polly unsuitable for the album at this time demonstrates how Cobain was already ahead of his time and felt pressure to conform with the rest of the Sub Pop scene.
We can trace the origins of Nevermind from here: Imodium (Breed) was debuted in 1989, unsurprising since it is a typical grunge string-bend track, consistent with NIRVANA's style at the time. Chad Channing has said that Lounge Act was also apparently written at this time, but no live recording has yet surfaced to confirm this. The following year In Bloom, Pay To Play (Stay Away) were debuted and also recorded at Smart Studios by Butch Vig, with the remainder following over the next twelve months.
Even more interesting is to note which songs Cobain selected for Nevermind, which ones he held back for the subsequent album (In Utero), and which he discarded (on B sides and later Incesticide). Many In Utero songs were written in time for Nevermind: Dumb, Rape Me, All Apologies, Pennyroyal Tea and Radio Friendly Unit Shifter. Cobain acknowledged that Geffen exerted pressure, via Gary Gersh (A&R), to omit the new "melodic" songs to avoid accusations of "selling out". Songs such as Aneurysm, Even In His Youth, Dive, Sappy and Oh, The Guilt must have been considered less strong since they were not held back for later albums, and were instead released on singles or compilations.
In "Come As You Are", Michael Azzerad gives the impression that only three In Utero songs were Nevermind-era songs [Rape Me, Pennyroyal Tea, Dumb], but the discovery of the 1/1/91 session recorded by Craig Montgomery revealed that Radio Friendly Unit Shifter and All Apologies also date from that time. Both these songs evolved dramatically from these demo versions to the final ones as heard on In Utero. Azzerad's failure to mention this was either through ignorance (possible - the 1/1/91 session was apparently "lost" for a while) or deliberate obfuscation to make it appear that Cobain had actually written more than a few songs in 1992. So these five songs are clearly more similar (in terms of structure and dynamics) to songs on Nevermind. We can but speculate on precisely when the remainder of the album was penned.
The last performances also reveal much about the musical development of NIRVANA. We can trace the conflict between those songs the audience was expecting to hear and those the band wanted to play. Songs that Cobain did not like were dropped from concert setlists soon after they were written, for example Cobain claimed he was embarrassed by tourette's in interviews in late 1993, and indeed the song was only played a handful of times. After NIRVANA became famous, Cobain clearly felt under pressure to play popular songs live, so most Nevermind songs were played until the final show, and obscure songs were no longer played by the In Utero tour. Bleach-era songs were phased out gradually over the years.