When most people think of the band Nirvana, they probably think about “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are”. Not many would think about “Beans”, which is an acoustic track released in 2004 on the With The Lights Out box set along with many other demos from Nirvana. The song is a far departure from the typical Nirvana sound, featuring only Kurt Cobain and a guitar. The song may have been recorded on a 4-track tape recorder, and sounds very thin. The sound of the recording is very harsh and you can hear a lot of static in the track. You can also hear room noise in the recording, and there are bits of silence left into the recording in between verses. It almost sounds to me like the guitar and vocal were recorded on the same microphone at the same time, which may have been an intentional effect.
To my understanding, there were two main versions of the song released, one on the With The Lights Out box set from Nirvana, and another on Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings, which was released posthumously in 2015 under Kurt Cobain’s name. There are differences in the releases, with the version released under Nirvana featuring an intro that the Cobain version does not have. The intro features two pitch shifted voices arguing and then a loud high-pitched feedback effect similar to a “piep kick” like you could find in a Unicorn on Ketamine song. The Nirvana version is higher pitched and faster, probably a result of speeding up the tape when recording. The Nirvana version seems more produced than the Cobain version, with an extra “warbly” effect on Cobain’s voice throughout the track, especially towards the end. The Cobain version is a quieter track overall, and seems generally less produced.
Nirvana With The Lights Out release of “Beans”:
Kurt Cobain Montage Of Heck: The Home Recordings release of “Beans”: