Come As You Are Lyrics Meaning

Some very interesting interpretations here, good reading.

I've always considered it a heroin song, if I am perfectly honest. The overall sound/tone is incredibly dreamy and 'smacked-out' to me - like a grunged-up Lou Reed. There are definite references to heroin too. The main ones:

Mud: simply slang for heroin, specifically the gloop that forms after cooking and which is drawn into the needle.
Bleach: Used for cleaning/disinfecting needles (which is allegedly why the album Bleach was named so).

I am definitely feeling the relationship thing many have mentioned, but it is incredibly common for heroin users to form relationships with either imaginary entities, the ritual of 'shooting up' or the paraphernalia used (see anything by William Burroughs – someone Kurt admired very much). To this end I think “Come As You Are” is explicitly about Kurt's relationship with the needle and his musings on it. I know a lot of my own writing focuses on such things. If you smoke cigarettes I'm sure you've stared at one in wonder before. If you have done other things, likewise.

When interpreting songs I first try to figure their general meaning/feeling and then inject myself into them, so forgive me if what follows is simply my projection.

“Come as you are,
As you were,
As I want you to be.”

Kurt was fond of this technique and many write him off as simply playing with words for cool affect. However, taken in the context of a man staring at a needle, I think a definite meaning reveals itself. I'm not sure if the needle is speaking to him or he to the needle - I'm not even sure it matters.

“Come as you are” - in the now. This is saying to me, “I won't judge you”
“As you were” - in the past. To a purer state, I favour childhood as an interpretation (as in Pink Floyd's “Comfortably Numb”)
“As I want you to be” - in the future? The promise of creation of identity? Could also simply be “Come, as I want you to be” meaning I want to make you alive/let you experience things.

“As a friend,
As a friend,
As an old enemy.”

The needle is his friend and his enemy.

“Take your time,
Hurry up,
The choice is yours,
Don't be late”

There is so much this part can mean and it would be an essay in itself. The ritual is so, so important in the preparation, cooking, drawing and shooting of heroin and I think it could refer to this. It could also be about time between relapse, the promise of regressive/progressive trips, the memory of those first moments after shooting (something incredibly quick yet slow).

“Come doused in mud,
Soaked in bleach,
As I want you to be”

This is the clincher for me and my reference point in my interpretation. The needle is filled with heroin (doused in mud) and soaked in bleach, it simply cannot mean anything else in my eyes. Anything else I will concede.

“As a trend,
As a friend,
As an old memoria”

Believe it or not, heroin was fashionable and 'trendy' back in this day. Memoria is a very peculiar word here as it is Latin and, while translated as memory, has a very particular context in which it is used. A memoria, as I understand it (long time since I studied Latin), is a recollection of an argument. Staring at a needle may bring all his old excuses flooding back.

Then we have the legendary gun part:

“I swear I don't have a gun”

I like the interpretations here on that – essentially that I am open and bear no grudge to you. You also shoot a gun, so that could be some fancy use of words. Has he given in and shot up? Is he in denial? A gun is also a way of smoking heroin (you dip a cigarette into it and smoke it that way). Very unlikely, but maybe he has been slowly easing back into heroin use through smoking it and has reached the stage where he wants to inject. He may be justifying it in the terms of “I don't have the means to make a gun”.

The video is very interesting too. Water is a massive theme with the pool and the waterfall down the stairs. We see a baby floating (with borrowed imagery from the Album cover, which I'm going to assume is simply for promotional purposes i.e. The dollar bill), the band floating, a dog looking up to the deluge with a collar on. The dog I find interesting because it risks drowning if it enjoys the water for too long. Along with the baby we see sperm so I think we're dealing with a regression to a very early stage here. Again it just screams “Comfortably Numb” to me, a song which shares some very common themes with this.

“There is no pain you are receding
A distant ship's smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.
When I was a child I had a fever,
My hands felt just like two balloons.
Now I've got that feeling once again
I can't explain, you would not understand
This is not how I am.”