rhythm section of Novoselic and Grohl kept its parts simple; Grohl stated it was "an unspoken rule" to avoid unnecessary drum fills, while Novoselic said he felt his role was about "serving the song". During the choruses, vocalist Cobain and drummer Grohl harmonize while singing "He's the one/Who likes all our pretty songs/And he likes to sing along/And he likes to shoot his gun/But he knows not what it means". The song's intro reappears at the end of each chorus. Lyrics According to the 1993 Nirvana biography Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad, "In Bloom" was originally written about "the jocks and shallow mainstream types" of the underground music scene the band began to find in their audience after the release of their 1989 debut album, Bleach. As Azerrad points out, the song's lyrics "translated even better to the mass popularity the band enjoyed" following the breakthrough success of their second album, Nevermind. "The brilliant irony," Azerrad wrote, "is that the tune is so catchy that millions of people actually do sing along to it." English journalist Everett True suggested the song may also have addressed the band's discomfort with being part of the grunge movement of the early 1990s, saying that "I assumed it was directed towards the fans who would show up at concerts with signs saying Even Flow [a Pearl Jam song] on one side and Rape Me – I think – on the other: the fans who did not understand there was a point of difference between Nirvana and other Seattle bands or media representations of grunge. I've always associated the song with [In Utero single] Rape Me. Like they're a pair." In his biography of Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven, Charles R. Cross asserted that the song was a "thinly disguised portrait" of Cobain's friend Dylan Carlson. Release and reception Originally Cobain wanted to release In Bloom on a promotional EP as well as their first major label debut single after signing with DGC, for the then-second album sessions with Sub Pop, entitled Sheep. The EP would've been titled NIRVANA Sings Songs of the Vaselines, the Wipers, Devo, & Nirvana. "In Bloom" was released as the fourth and final single from Nevermind on November 30, 1992. The commercial single was only released in Europe, while promotional copies were released in the United States. The 12-inch vinyl and CD versions of the commercial single featured live