Pennyroyal Tea
Alexander S. Peak
In 2003, I was in my ſenior year of high ſchool at Eastern Technical High School in Maryland. That year, one of the projects on which I worked was a muſic video, ſet to the ſong “Pennyroyal Tea” by Nirvana.
I choſe this ſong for a variety of reaſons. For one thing, the ſong was written by my favourite band. For another, the ſong had been almoſt releaſed as a ſingle, but was taken off shelves due to the untimely death of the band’s lead ſinger, lead guitariſt, and primary writer, Kurt Cobain. Copies of this ſingle ſtill exiſt, and often go for $150 a copy.
The verſion releaſed on the ſingle was remixed by Scott Litt. Cobain choſe Litt due to his work mixing R.E.M.’s muſic.
Having choſen the ſong, I needed to chooſe what ſort of ſhots would appear in the video. The ſong, for me, had a ſtrong Autumn feel, and ſo I thought it beſt to have this reflected in the video. I alſo knew I wanted to have ſhots of Nirvana performing the ſong, as Nirvana had always, in the previous videos, been ſeen playing inſtruments. (This is even true of their rare Sub Pop video for “In Bloom.”)
I choſe to uſe ſtock footage from their 1993 Live & Loud concert, formed for MTV’s 2004 New Years celebration. I alſo choſe to inter-cut ſome footage that Kevin Kerſlake had ſhot but not uſed for the “Come As You Are” video, as well as other ſtock footage of the band from various documentaries or concert films.
Given the ſubject of the ſong, I alſo choſe to ſtick to the theme of a woman who drinks Pennyroyal Tea with the intent to abort her pregnancy thereby. It was my intention that the woman ſhould unfortunately die as a reſult of the herb, but conſidering it too corny to ſhow the actual death, choſe inſtead to ſymboliſe it through viſual metaphor. I therefore ſaw to it to ſhoot ſhots of a cemetery during autumn, as well as ſome other ſhots of an empty chapel.
Finally, I decided to burn a flannel ſhirt of mine and include footage of it burning, believing this to be a poignant metaphor for the death of grunge that, for many, coincided with the death of Cobain around the ſame time this ſingle would have been releaſed.
Unfortunately for me, all the footage that I had ſhot for this project was loſt, and I had to re-ſhoot the cemetery and flannel ſhirt ſcenes in the Winter, therefore altering the final product from that which I had enviſioned.
Ultimately, I got the footage I needed. The cemetery, inſtead of being covered in dead leaves, is covered with a foot or two of ſnow. Winter: the ſecond beſt ſeason viſually for this ſong.
I decided I liked the cough at the beginning of the In Utero verſion of the ſong too much not to include it, yet unfortunately it is not included on the Scott Litt remix. I therefore placed the originally-mixed cough in the video, followed by the remixed ſong.
Getting the band members ſynced with the ſong was alſo more difficult than I had originally ſuſpected, because the band played the ſong live at a different ſpeed than is found in the CD version. I ſynced it well enough, comforting myself with the premiſe that if any ſcene was not ſynced to perfection, this would not be of any great concern for the band or for Cobain in particular, who quite adored the punk æſthetic.
I mailed a copy to studentfilms.com and paid them the coſt required to hoſt the video for one year. The ſite had two verſions, a low-fi verſion (which was quite pixelated), and a high-fi verſion, which was of a much better quality.
Since I did not pay studentfilms.com paſt that firſt year, they took the film down, as they had every right to do. I remain pleaſed that it was one of the moſt-watched videos on that ſite.
But this is not the end of the video’s preſence online, for as it were, a gentleman on YouTube took it upon himſelf to upload the video. Unfortunately, it was the low-fi verſion.
Even more unfortunate is that the video no longer appears to be on YouTube.
I have a zip-disk ſomewhere with a QuickTime of the muſic video. If I ever find it, and figure out how to upload it to a computer, I will then upload it to YouTube for your viewing pleaſure. Until then…
