Initially thought to have great crossover potential by their management, “Come As You Are” was intended be the main single on Nirvana’s second album, Nevermind. (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” was imagined as more for committed grunge fans.) However, the surprise success of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, which came to be considered their signature song, made this plan inconsequential. Despite this overshadowing, the song had good commercial success, peaking at 32 on the Billboard and 9 on the UK singles charts.

The song’s lyrics appear to have a foreshadowing tone given Cobain’s death by self-inflicted gunshot wound. However, in the context of the song they seem to be an ironic comment about people’s bad intentions.

Kurt Cobain spoke about the lyrics on Nevermind: It’s An Interview:

The lines in the song are really contradictory. One after another they are kind of a rebuttal to each line. It’s kind of confusing I guess. It’s just about people and what they are expected to act like.

The song’s distinctive guitar riff was heavily borrowed from Killing Joke’s song “Eighties,” a fact that made the band hesitate to release the song as a single. Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg told Rolling Stone:

Kurt was nervous about ‘Come as You Are’ because it was too similar to a Killing Joke song “Eighties”, but we all thought it was still the better song to go with. And, he was right, Killing Joke later did complain about it.

Despite their complaints, Killing Joke never filed suit against Nirvana.

The song also includes a rare extended guitar solo for Cobain, whose immersion in stripped-down punk aesthetics meant he didn’t often engage in musical self-indulgence. Producer Butch Vig recalled:

Kurt really did not play a lot of solos. This one is more of a melodic part based on the vocal melody. It’s not trying to show off pyrotechnics. It complements the melody of the song.

In Aberdeen, Washington, which is the birthplace of Cobain, he is commemorated by a sign which says “Come as you are”: