Kurt Cobain described this song as "About people, and what they're expected to act like." The lyrics are intentionally contradictory and confusing, with one line rebutting the next: "As a friend, as an old enemy" "Take your time, hurry up"

The chords in this song are a slowed down replica of Killing Joke's 1985 song "Eighties." The songs were so similar that Nirvana considered holding off releasing the song as a single. Killing Joke considered legal action, but when Kurt Cobain died, they decided not to sue. ("It's a short f--king life, mate - we could be going fishing or something sensible," lead singer Jaz Coleman explained). Dave Grohl is a big fan of Killing Joke and helped them out by playing drums on their 2003 self-titled album.

In this song, Cobain sings over and over, "I don't have a gun." Less than three years after the song was released, he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head. This was an eerie turn of events, but it's unlikely that Cobain had suicide on his mind when he wrote the lyrics. The gun could be a reference to a time when Cobain's mother got mad at her husband (Kurt's stepfather) and threw his guns in a river. Cobain says he recovered some of them, sold them, and used the money to buy his first guitar when he was 15.