"Return of the Rat" is a song by the punk rock band Wipers, and is the first track on Wipers' 1980 debut album Is This Real?. Like much of the album, the song structure is circularly tight and catchy, containing a driving drum beat and choppy, distorted guitar riffs.
The song (and the band) grew in popularity after the grunge band Nirvana recorded a cover of "Return of the Rat" for a 1992 Wipers tribute record entitled Eight Songs for Greg Sage and The Wipers on Tim Kerr records. A different mix of the same recording appeared on the 2004 Nirvana box set With the Lights Out. For the tribute, Nirvana initially intended to include a cover of Wipers' song "D-7" (which also appears on With the Lights Out), recorded in late 1990 for a BBC session. However, the song had already been released by their record label, Geffen Records on the Nirvana EP Hormoaning in 1992. The label did not allow the release of the song under a different record label, so Nirvana ultimately recorded "Return of the Rat" for the compilation. "D-7" was also later included in some versions of the "Lithium" single.
Famous quotes containing the words return and/or rat:
“Compassion is frequently a sense of our own misfortunes, in those of other men; it is an ingenious foresight of the disasters that may fall upon us hereafter. We relieve others, that they may return the like when our occasions call for it; and the good offices we do them are, in strict speaking, so many kindnesses done to ourselves beforehand.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“It is restful, tragedy, because one knows that there is no more lousy hope left. You know you’re caught, caught at last like a rat with all the world on its back. And the only thing left to do is shout—not moan, or complain, but yell out at the top of your voice whatever it was you had to say. What you’ve never said before. What perhaps you don’t even know till now.”
—Jean Anouilh (1910–1987)