This distortion-heavy song is based partly on a family who kept their kids locked up in the attic of their house in the band's hometown of Aberdeen, Washington. Kurt Cobain wrote it after reading the story in the news. In a 1989 interview, he explained that he actually knew one of the siblings: "His brother and sister were locked in a house and abused by their parents for years. They were treated as dogs for the first five or six years of their lives."
This is the only Nirvana song that mentions the word "nirvana" in the lyric - Kurt Cobain utters it a few times after the first verse and again at the end. In a 1989 UK radio interview, Cobain said the tune was written before the band actually called themselves Nirvana, and the lyric most likely inspired the name.
"Paper Cuts" is part of Nirvana's 1989 debut album, Bleach. Dave Grohl wasn't in the band yet; Chad Channing was their drummer. It got little attention when it was released, but after Nirvana broke through with their next album, Nevermind, it sold well over a million copies.
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