Adding meaning to the Nirvana song Sappy: Fucked up Philosophy
Sappy is a brilliant, yet unreleased song by Nirvana. Kurt Cobain was never happy with the recording, therefore never used it in an album. Here are lyrics of the song:
And if you save yourself
You will make him happy
He’ll keep you in a jar
And you’ll think you’re happy
He’ll give you breathing holes
And you’ll think you’re happy
He’ll cover you with grass
And you’ll think you’re happy now
You’re in a laundry room
You’re in a laundry room
Conclusion came to you, oh
[Verse 2]
And if you cut yourself
You will think you’re happy
He’ll keep you in a jar
Then you’ll make him happy
He’ll give you breather holes
Then you’ll think you’re happy
He’ll cover you in grass
Then you’ll think you’re happy now
[Chorus]
You’re in a laundry room
You’re in a laundry room
Conclusion came to you, oh
The song is about Kurt’s Turtle, who was kept in the laundry room. Many people have created multiple meanings for the song, which you may read here and here. The song is about how Turtle is living life of a delusion, given a jar, breathing holes and food is a happy life. The owner of Turtle is also thinking that he/she is making the Turtle happy by giving him a life as a pet.
This Turtle/owner relationship can be extended as any relationship:
- Human/God relationship
- Wife/Husband relationship
- Husband/wife relationship
- Worker/Owner relationship
- Citizen/Government relationship
- and obviously Pet/Owner relationship
Philosophically speaking God is playing with humans like that, and humans are thinking that they are happy, and God is playing, well like God!
Interestingly Gurdieff, a great Russian philosopher explained how a Human Being should not die like a dog. He does not mean dog in a derogatory way. He means how when dog is given food, dog looks happy, when dog is patted, dog feels loved, and you as a human feel like the owner who can create happiness in the dog.
‘If you pet your dog a little and get it used to anything you please, it will become obedient and affectionate to the point of abasement’
What Gurdieff is trying to say, is that Humans should not live in a manner, that if someone praises you, you feel happy, and if someone shouts at you, you feel unhappy. We will park this thought for a while and go back to the song.
The next thing Kurt explains in the song is how Turtle gets to understand(Conclusion came to you) that it is in a laundry room within a jar. Then the Turtle as per Kurt, would bang its head against the jar, to get out of the jar, but it cannot. So the conclusion came to the Turtle that actually it is in a prison. Kurt has indicated, how Turtle is in the jar is “living in his own shit” — which it realizes!
Gurdieff probably is talking about the same issue, wherein we are like a dog, like a pet in a society and stuck in a religious belief. Gurdieff wants us to get the “conclusions” and us to get out of this pet mentality.
This can extended to a bad relationship, say for example, a woman is stuck with a man, and is happy on small things which the man is doing for her. But she continues to believe something is wrong, and one day “conclusions comes to her” and she wants to get out of the relationship. Sometimes this getting out as explained could be hurting oneself, even trying to commit suicide, as the lyrics say “And if you cut yourself”!
This state is what probably Kurt called Sad and Happy, therefore the song may be called SAPPY! So you think you are happy, but actually you are sad, and one day the conclusions will come to you.
Interestingly, Osho, one of the great Indian spiritual guru has said, conclusions comes to you, when you are on your death bed. That will be the biggest shock of your life, that you missed your complete life. He warns against living like a sleeping man, getting impacted by outside world and never getting inside oneself.
Kurt had written “And if you fool yourself, you will make him happy”. The key point here is how Osho and Gurdieff are saying that we are all fooling ourselves. This also means that we think we are making someone happy, may be God, may be religion, may be a husband, may be an owner, may be a manager and could be anything…
Do you think you are living like this? Have “conclusions came to you”? Are you Sappy?
RIP Kurt Cobain, who inspired a generation!
