I was listning to Nirvana Unpluged, and the song “Plateau”. This is one of those songs that I cant get the meaning of. Does anyone know what that song is about.
Espesaly the line…“Nothing on top, but a bucket, and mop, and a elastrated book about birds”. I would love to know the meaning of this song. I like Nirvana, and I hate it that Curt killed himself. He could have been one of my heros, but I do think that in away his suicide made his music.
Part of the trickiness to trying to find the meaning is that Kurt didn’t write it 
It’s a cover, the song was originally done by the Meat Puppets
My take was always that the plateau is inner peace.
“Many a hand has scaled the grand old face of the plateau
Some belong to strangers and some to folks you know
Holy ghosts and talk show hosts are planted in the sand
To beautify the foothills and shake the many hands”
Many people try for inner peace, but not everyone can get it (thus not everyone has scaled the plateau) The Holy ghosts and talk show hosts, and the fools who are stuck in the sand of the foot hills.
Holy ghost = blind faith
Talk show host = loud obnoxious recruiters to their own faith
Especially the latter shake the many hands, they meet and speak with everyone on their quest for inner peace, but they are really just an obstacle.
Bucket and the mop cleanse you when you reach the top. Illustrated book about birds = knowledge of birds, the symbolic freedom (Free as a bird), thus it’s kind of like enlightenment.
The last verse,
“Many a hands began to scan around for the next plateau
Some said it was in Greenland and some in Mexico
Others decided it was nowhere except for where they stood
Those were all just guesses, wouldn’t help you if they could”
People will usually look for more. There maybe somewhere else, or there maybe where you are.
But in the end, you have to figure it out yourself.
Those were all just guesses up there, now find your own meaning 