Now, of course all of the songs are popular in the Nirvana and rock canon, but at the time only “Come As You Are” was a single. The set list contains six covers among its fourteen songs.
When Kurt Cobain and his bandmates finally agreed to do the show, it was on their terms.
The show aired regularly from 1989 to 1999 with guests ranging from Mariah Carey to Eric Clapton, from Shakira to Alice in Chains. There was a lot of ill will surrounding Nirvana’s participation in MTV’s Unplugged series. The first lines of Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged Live in New York are spiteful. Like Freddy Mercury’s majestic “The Show Must Go On,” or Johnny Cash’s heartbreakingly defiant “Hurt,” there is no way of listening to Unplugged in New York without invoking death it’s in every note, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a masterpiece.Happy 25th Anniversary to Nirvana’s live album MTV Unplugged in New York, originally released November 1, 1994. We’ve seen Iggy Pop sell insurance and John Lydon sell butter, but it doesn’t make “Lust for Life” or “Pretty Vacant” sound any less vital. Writers like to speculate about the mediocre music he would have inevitably gone on to produce as a middle-aged grunger, but to describe Cobain as a grunge musician is like calling John Lennon an icon of Merseybeat, and whatever would have transpired it wouldn’t have changed one single note of this performance. “Legend” status engulfed him the second the news of his death spread. People have argued before about the validity of the praise heaped upon Cobain. When Novoselic picks up the accordion in “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam” alongside Lori Goldston’s gorgeous cello, it creates the prettiest noise the band has ever made. Previous glimpses of this stripped down splendor can be found on the studio versions of “Polly” and “Something in the Way,” but it really comes through here. Kurt’s method had often been to tear a hole in the middle of the beautiful melodies and chord progressions that seemed to come so naturally to him.
This is Nirvana without the noisy adrenaline and anger, closing in on a something sweet. There is no way of listening to Unplugged in New York without invoking death, it’s in every note, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a masterpiece.ĭespite this tense air, when the band members do play together they sound inspired. As it ends Grohl shouts out “That was really great!” Kurt responds, “Shut up.” It’s a sore moment revealing a singer uncomfortable in his own skin, through addiction and depression, and a friend who seems to only want him to pull through. Kurt goes on to play the very personal song alone with his eyes closed. At one point Kurt passively tells Grohl to not play on “Penny Royal Tea,” saying, “Am I going to play this, alone?” Dave immediately understands that it’s not a question but a command and lays down his brushes on his snare: “Do it alone.” Grohl then nervously turns to guitarist Pat Smear, asking, “Do you have a smoke, Pat?” Dave Grohl sits quietly throughout, with only a stripped-down kit and a pair of brushes to protect him from Kurt, who repeatedly spins around on his chair and glares at the drummer over hunched shoulders. Even Kurt’s closest allies seem wary of him. He later told the producers to make sure it was edited in because, “My manager tells me I need to smile more.” It’s a rare glimpse of humor from an agitated and prickly soul. At the end of the first song Kurt looks at the camera and gives a gnarly forced smile. Watching the video of the performance only heightens the effect. It’s not an album you put on twice in one day, and listening to it through can be a draining experience. While intimacy was an intended part of the concept (Clapton’s delicate “Tears In Heaven” was given a second life by his Unplugged rendition), parts of the Nirvana set at Sony’s Hells Kitchen studio feel so personal it’s awkward. Of course, this isn’t how Cobain approached the opportunity, choosing to play six obscure covers (three with relatively unknown act the Meat Puppets, who joined Nirvana on stage) and only one real hit, “Come As You Are.” He requested the set be dressed as a funeral with Stargazer Lilies and candles, and willfully ignored the crowd's frustrated shouts for requests: “You want me to play ‘In Bloom’ acoustically?!” Old, established acts like Springsteen and Clapton used it as chance to have some fun reworking old favorites and make some money without having to write new songs. Acoustic guitars hadn’t been as popular since the folky early ‘60s. The stripped-down MTV franchise was a big success at the start of the ‘90s.
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