posted
Comment: I've been hearing about this a lot lately, and I apologize if this is old. The apparent "official" explanation for the song Polly by Nirvana:
"Polly" is based on an actual incident which occurred in Tacoma in June of 1987. A Fourteen-year-old girl returning from a punk show at the Community World Theater was kidnapped by a man named Gerald Friend (no relation to Lonn), who hung the girl upside down from a pulley attached to the ceiling of his mobile home and raped and tortured her with a leather whip, a razor, hot wax, and a blowtorch. She later escaped from his car when he stopped for gas. Friend was later arrested and eventually convicted and will likely spend the rest of his life in jail. Kurt's only embellishment to the story was the hint that the woman got away by fooling the rapist into thinking she enjoyed what he was doing to her.
I've looked high and low to find any newstories in archives to verify this, but all I could find was links to Nirvana song explanations and such, which leads me to believe this backstory was fabricated by someone a long time ago.
Did this really happen?
Posts: 36029 | From: Admin | Registered: Feb 2000
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I agree with the commenter. Googling for "gerald friend tacoma -polly" yields only three very random results. Only googling for "gerald friend tacoma" gives an interesting insight in languages though, but only around 70 hits as well, all of which, after a quick check, were worded like the mentioned text, or looked like a literal translation.
Since the incident should have taken place in 1987 it would be perfectly plausible that it did not get on the net simply for no net existing at that time. OTOH, such a very horrid crime surely would find its way into some documentary pages.
-------------------- Movie characters never make typing mistakes. Posts: 586 | From: Hamburg, Germany | Registered: Sep 2005
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Okay, I poked around using "nirvana polly tacoma story" and finally found someone mentioning Polly "Klaus", which was probably supposed to be Polly Klass - does that ring a bell?
However, Polly Klass was murdered in 1993, and "Nevermind" was released in 1991, so that rules out that possibility. Could it be that the song just grew in popularity after the murder, and that people retroactively attributed it to the case?
The wikipedia article thinks it might be inspired by a song called "Pretty polly" that dates back to the 1800s.
Everything else I've found is basically a regurgitation of the wikipedia article's blurb about the tacoma incident. Given that the various instances I found were near perfect copies of that, and none mention a last name or further details, I'm guessing it's made-up.
A few stories spice it up by saying it happened at the Community World Theater, which is a real location in Tacoma, but I think that's just to lend false legitimacy to the story.
-------------------- "You're all suffering from trauma because it was so boring in the womb!" Posts: 837 | From: Now LIVE from Arkansas! | Registered: May 2002
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There's another possible explanation. In the liner notes for "Incesticide" Kurt Cobain mentions being disgusted that a couple of 'fans' raped a girl while singing the lyrics to "Polly".
Maybe that's how the story got started?
Posts: 300 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Mar 2004
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If you don't mind, what exactly (or close to exactly) does he say, Will? I don't have that album and googling did nothing for me. If you don't have it around no biggie .
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by candy from Ron Mexico: If you don't mind, what exactly (or close to exactly) does he say, Will? I don't have that album and googling did nothing for me. If you don't have it around no biggie .
quote:Last year, a girl was raped by two wastes of sperm and eggs while they sang the lyrics to our song "Polly." I have a hard time carrying on knowing there are plankton like that in our audience. Sorry to be so anally P.C. but that's the way I feel.
Except for the typos it matches my copy of the album.
-------------------- "Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you." - C. G. Jung Posts: 243 | From: Marina del Rey, CA | Registered: May 2005
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Thanks, SchmooPie. I wonder where he got the information. Even if 2 guys wrote him a letter that doesn't necessarily mean it happened.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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I looked it up in The Crime Library (www.crimelibrary.com) and couldn't find anything. There was the 1977 case of Carol Smith who was kidnapped by a California couple as a sex slave that vaguely resembles the above case, but only vaguely. Beyond that, I didn't see much.
posted
I remember seeing a blurb about that liner note mentioned in a profile of Kurt right after he killed himself. That was the first thing that came to mind when I read the OP, and it made me think the story may have grown out of that.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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Funny, I always heard the song was about the rape of a mentally retarded girl. Posts: 1128 | From: New York | Registered: Oct 2003
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Where did you get the mentally retarded part from? Nothing in the lyrics indicated that to me, but I only looked them up just now.
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quote:Originally posted by Jack Dylan: Where did you get the mentally retarded part from? Nothing in the lyrics indicated that to me, but I only looked them up just now.
There was a notorious gang rape of a retarded girl here in the States (Glen Ridge, New Jersey, to be exact) not long before Nirvana hit it big. That probably wasn't the inspiration for the song, but it could be why some people make that association.
-------------------- Another lifetime I'd have fallen in love with you Swept away by my feelings, ashamed and confused But just now it's enough to be walking with you Let the mystery play as it will! -Lui Collins Posts: 2669 | From: Jouy en Josas, France | Registered: May 2005
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Just thought about it - I should probably post the article text as well lol
GUILTY VERDICT IN RAPE CASE Seattle Post-Intelligencer August 19, 1987 Author: The Associated Press Estimated printed pages: 1
Gerald Arthur Friend was convicted yesterday in Pierce County Superior Court of the kidnapping and torture-rape of a 14-year-old girl.
Prosecutor Tom Stratton said he would recommend an exceptionally long sentence for Friend, 49 (age), who was convicted in a similar attack 27 years ago. In the latest case, Friend was charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree rape in the attack that occurred over several hours late June 5 and early June 6.
Officials said the victim was a runaway who accepted a ride from Friend near the Tacoma Dome after she attended a rock concert in the area. When the girl tried to get out of the car, authorities said, she was handcuffed and abducted at knife-point to Friend's mobile home.
The victim testified last week that Friend tortured and repeatedly raped her with several objects in his mobile home. She said he blindfolded her and ran a propane torch close to her skin. She eventually escaped. Memo: Update Edition: FINAL Section: News Page: D1
Index Terms: ASSAULT SEX CRIME AGE COURT VERDICT Dateline: TACOMA Copyright (c) 1987, 2000 Seattle Post-Intelligencer (http://seattlep-i.com). All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Record Number: 8701220169
Posts: 16 | From: Tacoma, WA | Registered: Dec 2005
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gardenmarie, no one was saying that didn't happen, we're discussing whether this was the inspiration for the song.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote: I've looked high and low to find any newstories in archives to verify this, but all I could find was links to Nirvana song explanations and such, which leads me to believe this backstory was fabricated by someone a long time ago.
Did this really happen?
Sounds like the valitity of what happened was in question to me - also there were plenty of people above who had checked for news articles and crime reports and couldn't find it.
Posts: 16 | From: Tacoma, WA | Registered: Dec 2005
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I guess I got more caught up in the ensuing discussion, my apologies.
-------------------- Me: "He's 19? Uh oh, I bought him a beer." A: "You contributed to the deliquency of a minor in drag!" "Sweet spell check: keeping drunks off the radar since 1995."- IND GodRe-AnimateGreenPorkBush Posts: 3986 | From: Illinois, jealous? | Registered: Nov 2005
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