(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Thu 25 December 2025 16:38, UK
Anyone who considers themself to be a fan of Nirvana can probably claim to have heard all of the songs the band ever recorded as a group, and considering there are only three studio albums to their name, this doesn’t seem like something that would take a great amount of effort to achieve.
However, if you think that all there is to the grunge band’s output is Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero, then think again, as there are plenty of B-sides, standalone singles and studio outtakes that the even more obsessive fans can dip into if they feel as though they’ve exhausted the mainline catalogue of the group. Within these releases are some of Kurt Cobain’s finest works, with tracks like ‘Sliver’ and ‘Been A Son’ being separate from the full-length records, yet still standing out as masterful examples of the late guitarist’s songwriting.
But what to do when you’ve seemingly exhausted all of the band’s recorded output? Do you simply start again and hope that repeat listens serve you just as well as they did when first exposed to it, or do you go for one last rummage to see if you can uncover some even more obscure gems that you missed out on on your first voyage?
Where exactly do you start looking for these rarities, though? Is it worth going to the hassle of going full conspiracy theorist and playing the band’s records backwards to see if the band have hidden any songs in reverse, or are you going to rifle through a load of bootlegs and demo tapes to see if it’s possible to uncover a little more?
Well, neither of these is going to be necessary, as there’s a song that’s hidden in plain sight on the band’s seminal second album, Nevermind, so if you are wondering how exactly to find this secret track and the story behind its existence, read on.
Kurt Cobain of Nirvana pictured in the 1990s. (Credits: Far Out / Alamy)What is the secret track hidden on Nirvana’s Nevermind?
After the end of ‘Something In The Way’, the song that sits at the tail end of the record, owners of a CD copy of the album will notice that the timer will keep ticking over after the song has seemingly finished, playing out 10 minutes of silence, and, if you’re not too impatient to change discs, then after this pause, another song by the name ‘Endless, Nameless’ will begin to play.
However, this isn’t present on all CD copies of the album, and was omitted from the tracklist altogether initially, and only reinstated in this form on subsequent represses at the request of Cobain, who had always wanted there to be a secret track on the album.
Of course, this isn’t possible to be included on vinyl copies of the album, with ten minutes of silence being a large waste of space that would take up approximately half a side, so anyone who owned the record in this format would have been denied the opportunity to hear this rarity from the group.
For the longest time, this song wasn’t given an official name, and it was only when it reappeared as the B-side of ‘Come As You Are’ that it became widely known by its title. Given how it has appeared in other locations, this does mean that it’s not a complete obscurity, but many listeners would not have heard it in the context of Nevermind, depending on which version of the record they owned, or if they were too hasty with their desire to stop the album after the end of the final officially listed track.
Many other artists would utilise the capacity of the CD format to hide tracks after the final song, and some have even hidden songs within the pregap, requiring the listener to rewind manually from track one to hear a super-secret song. Regardless, this was still something of a genius move from Nirvana, and only the most dedicated listeners would have been exposed to ‘Endless, Nameless’ when they first listened to Nevermind.
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