1987/1988 Cobain Residence, Olympia, WA
September, 1989 Music Source Studios, Seattle, WA
October 26, 1989 BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, UK (
John Peel Show)
April 2-6, 1990 Smart Studios, Madison, WI
May-June, 1991 Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA
November 9, 1991 BBC Maida Vale Studios, London, UK (
Mark Goodier's Evening Session)
January 10, 1992 MTV Studios, New York, NY (
MTV 120 Minutes)
November 18, 1993 Sony Music Studios, New York, NY (
MTV Unplugged)
A setlist in
Come As You Are list a song called "Cracker". This is believed to be an early version of "Polly" that's a lot slower than the more known
Nevermind version. The setlist also features the titles "Sad" and "Seed". Kurt labelled these 3 songs as 'mellow, 4-track shit'. So far there has been no real proof that "Cracker" is actually the early "Polly" version, but it seems reasonable.
On
Incesticide the song is found as "(New wave) Polly" - this version is a lot quicker than the original.
Kurt is credited with writing "Polly" on
Nevermind while Krist and Dave are credited with helping on
Incesticide.
The lyrics are based on a true story from 1987. It's about a 14 year old girl who was abducted by a man and driven around in his van. The man then tortured and raped her. The only chance she had of escaping was to pretend to come on to him and persuade him to untie her. 'That's what she did, and she got away. Can you imagine how much strength that took?'.
The MTV Unplugged version features Lori Goldston on cello.