FEATURE:
No Plateau
Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York Performance at Thirty: The Pinnacle of the Legendary Series?
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A long-running…
IN THIS PHOTO: Nirvana during the taping of MTV Unplugged at Sony Studios in New York City on 18th November, 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
and legendary T.V. series, MTV Unplugged has seen some historic performances through the decades. There are articles like this that and this here that rank the best sets/performances. Maybe it is going to have the same top-placed performance, so I wonder whether it is contentious at all to ask if Nirvana’s 1993 set was the finest of all?! Maybe not. It does seem to be the best for a number of reasons. Apart from the fact it was the final T.V. appearance featuring Kurt Cobain (he died by suicide in 1994), it was almost the final live appearance of Nirvana - as I believe they played live in 1994. You could tell this was the end of the road for a genius lead and peerless songwriter who was being crushed by fame and demons. Nirvana’s iconic set from New York surely holds the crown (even though others say that Pearl Jam, Paul McCartney, and Mariah Carey have turned in something even more special). It is a great series that sees many artists do something radically different to what we are used to! Take that down and stripping away the layers. Even though Nirvana did plug an acoustic guitar into an amp to get an electric sound, they were at their most restrained and un-electric. That said, the final number in the set, a cover of Lead Belly’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night Is wracked with pain and startling rawness.
On 18th November, 1993, Nirvana taped a performance for MTV’s Unplugged series. The plan was to air it a month later. Kurt Cobain, dressed in a cardigan and appearance sheepish and a little humbled through the set, was joined by his bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, plus guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston at New York’s Sony Music Studios. Rather than a hits-filled set and obvious cuts, Nirvana chose some lesser-known material to record – this included covers of songs by Lead Belly, David Bowie, Meat Puppets, and The Vaselines. Their MTV Unplugged in New York album was released after Cobain’s suicide in 1994. Today, it ranks as one of the greatest live albums ever. Thanks to this website, you can see the cast and crew of that spellbinding set thirty years ago:
NIRVANA
Kurt Cobain (vocals, acoustic guitar)
Krist Novoselic (bass, accordian, acoustic guitar)
Dave Grohl (drums, backing vocals, acoustic bass, acoustic guitar)
Pat Smear (acoustic guitar)
Lori Goldston (cello)
Cris Kirkwood (acoustic bass, backing vocals)
Curt Kirkwood (acousticguitar)
crew
Alex Coletti (producer)
Scott Litt (sound engineer)
Beth McCarthy (director)
John Duncan (guitar technician)
Mike Dalke (drum technician)
Jim Vincent (guitar technician)
I want to come to some articles and reviews of that stunning and unforgettable day that Nirvana taped this unplugged performance - one that ranks alongside the greatest live sets of all time. I am going to bring in a review that mentions some background leading up to that 18th November, 1993 taping. MTV provided some backdrop and background twenty years after that performance, in 2013:
“On November 18, 1993, after months of negotiations and two days of rather tense rehearsals, Nirvana headed to Sony Studios in New York to record their episode of "MTV Unplugged."
At the time of the taping, the series had already played host to legends like Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, and experienced unprecedented success with the release of Eric Clapton Unplugged, an album that sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and won six Grammys, including Record, Album and Song of the Year. "Unplugged" had also served as a showcase for the era's highest-profile acts -- R.E.M., Boyz II Men, Pearl Jam, etc. -- and proven to be a safe space for established artists like Mariah Carey and L.L. Cool J to shake things up.
In short, by 1993, "Unplugged's" legacy was already secure. But when Nirvana's episode aired that December, it was clear to everyone that the show's history needed to be re-written immediately. With their stripped down, steely set, staunch refusal to play hits like "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and sonorous covers of songs most had never heard (quick show of hands: how many Vaselines fans we got out there?), Nirvana had turned what many considered to be the defining performance of the "Unplugged" era. And twenty years later, that assessment still holds.
Of course, in the months following that initial broadcast, the legend of "Nirvana: Unplugged" only continued to grow. Kurt Cobain took his life in April 1994, making the show one of Nirvana's final televised appearances, and his death fundamentally changed the way the performance was viewed. From the funereal floral arrangements (stargazer lilies) Cobain himself picked out to adorn the stage, to the staggering final stanza of Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" -- where he yowls, gasps and all but gives up the ghost -- it was impossible to view the show as anything less than otherworldly; more than just a final performance, it seemed to be a final farewell.
Nearly seven months after Cobain's death, DGC would release Nirvana: MTV Unplugged in New York, an album that not only sold more than 6 million copies in the U.S. (making it the band's most successful posthumous effort) and won a Grammy, but was named one of "the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" by Rolling Stone and one of "The 50 Greatest Live Albums" by NME. It's legacy, much like the performance itself, is now set in stone”.
I am going to come to one review now. So many people have interpreted the MTV Unplugged in New York album as a suicide note. Feeling that Kurt Cobain knew that this would be one of the last times he was on a stage. Rather than it being a standalone performance from a band who would go on and record other albums and do lots of gigs, it was an unexpected finale in some ways. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:
“If In Utero is a suicide note, MTV Unplugged in New York is a message from beyond the grave, a summation of Kurt Cobain's talents and pain so fascinating, it's hard to listen to repeatedly. Is it the choice of material or the spare surroundings that make it so effective? Well, it's certainly a combination of both, how the version of the Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" or the three covers of Meat Puppets II songs mean as much as "All Apologies" or "Something in the Way." This, in many senses, isn't just an abnormal Nirvana record, capturing them in their sincerest desire to be R.E.M. circa Automatic for the People, it's the Nirvana record that nobody, especially Kurt, wanted revealed. It's a nakedly emotional record, unintentionally so, as the subtext means more than the main themes of how Nirvana wanted to prove its worth and diversity, showcasing the depth of their songwriting. As it turns out, it accomplishes its goals rather too well; this is a band, and songwriter, on the verge of discovering a new sound and style. Then, there's the subtexts, as Kurt's hurt and suicidal impulses bubble to the surface even as he's trying to suppress them. Few records are as unblinkingly bare and naked as this, especially albums recorded by their peers. No other band could have offered covers of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World" and the folk standard "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" on the same record, turning in chilling performances of both -- performances that reveal as much as their original songs”.
Pitchfork also detail some of the facts and background of Nirvana’s triumphant and simply unforgettable MTV set in November 1993. The pressure and celebrity that followed the band that year. Having released their third and final studio album, In Utero, earlier in 1993, all eyes were on them. Few could have predicted they would not only perform unplugged for MTV; it was also a set of rare covers and surprising moments:
“By the time Nirvana recorded their performance for MTV Unplugged in November 1993, they were the biggest band in the world. Not that they looked like it. Dave Grohl in his turtleneck and ponytail, Krist Novoselic wrangling his giant, borrowed bass, Kurt Cobain struggling to act relaxed in a room filled with people who thought he was a prophet.
Of course, that was the point of Unplugged, and, in a way, of Nirvana: Even after Cobain got famous, he tried, often painfully, to seem normal. A month or so after Unplugged was taped, he bought a black Lexus, but was so mortified by it—and mocked so thoroughly by his friends—that he returned it within a day. “This is from our first record,” he mutters before “About a Girl.” “Most people don’t own it.” Never mind the five million people who had bought the one that came next.
PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
Cobain was reportedly miserable before the taping, worried the band didn’t have the grace to pull off something so subtle. “We’re just musically and rhythmically retarded,” he’d told Guitar World in the wake of 1991’s Nevermind. “We play so hard that we can’t tune our guitars fast enough.” As few as 24 hours before Unplugged, he was considering having Dave Grohl sit out because he thought Grohl’s drumming would overpower the rest of the band. For musicians whose sound was so essentially electric, the idea of playing acoustic—or, as it came to pass, in a subdued, semi-amplified state—wasn’t just like going on stage naked, but amputated. Afterward, Cobain reportedly complained to Unplugged programmer Amy Finnerty that the audience must not have liked it because they were so quiet. “Kurt,” she said, “they think you are Jesus Christ.”
MTV had started hosting “Unplugged” in 1989 as a way to package famous artists in comparatively approachable contexts. (The name alone—“Unplugged”—conjured an imagined utopia where music was nothing more than the spontaneous expression of people in a room.) You’d come in, strip down, show your fans the heart bleeding under the armor. Between 1991 and 1993, guests of the show included middlebrow alternative acts like Elvis Costello and R.E.M., legacy artists like Eric Clapton and Paul Simon, and contemporary pop stars like Mariah Carey. A few hair metal bands came through in an attempt to be taken seriously, as though the lust of teenage girls was not serious enough. The day before Nirvana filmed their set, the show’s guest was Duran Duran.
As with all creative endeavors, Cobain seemed eager to strip the charade of its artifice and do something he perceived to be real. At the very least, he hadn’t clawed his way out of Aberdeen, Washington to let Nirvana become Mr. Big. He’d ordered the stage to be decorated with black candles and stargazer lilies, a funereal scheme routinely invoked as a premonition of his suicide, when in actuality it had more to do with his penchant for twisting conventional beauty into something grotesque. A treatment for the “Rape Me” video documented in his diaries called for lilies and orchids—“ya know, vaginal flowers,” Cobain wrote—to be shown blooming and withering in time-lapse, as though incapable of retaining pageant posture for more than a few seconds. Cobain himself regularly appeared in torn dresses and smeared makeup, storming through performances with the fury of a shattered debutante, more Sunset Boulevard than Black Flag. And what were Nirvana’s best songs but demonstrations of how the most corrosive blasts of noise could turn into lullabies fit for a T-Mobile ad? If you buy flowers, you already know: nothing stinks quite like a big, sweet bouquet of lilies.
The setlist, submitted to MTV without concession or explanation, contained six covers and no hits other than “Come As You Are,” a point of contention so contentious that Cobain was still threatening to cancel the performance a day before it taped. (“He did it just to get us worked up,” Finnerty said. “He enjoyed that power.”) Three of the six covers were originally by then-tourmates the Meat Puppets, an Arizona band that, like Nirvana, ventured to create a world that collapsed the distance between brilliant and dumb, ordinary observation—“the sun is gone, but I have a light”—and cosmic insight. The performances are creaky, intimate, eerily temperate for a band known to explode. On first hearing their cover of Leadbelly’s “In the Pines” (here titled, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”), Neil Young reportedly compared Cobain’s voice to a werewolf’s: neither dead nor undead, but beyond. I get it. Unplugged makes me feel like Nirvana could fill my body with arrows and I would still keep walking”.
I am going to round off soon. Maybe ask if there is any other performance from the MTV Unplugged series that could rival Nirvana’s for impact and legacy. Maybe not. That being said, there are a few that deserve their own standing ovation and acclaim. Mariah Carey springs to mind. So too does Björk. In 2017, GRAMMY provided ten deep facts and titbits about Nirvana’s staggering unplugged session in New York:
“More than two decades after its release, Nirvana's performance on MTV's "Unplugged" still stands as a convincing testimonial to Kurt Cobain's unmistakable musical genius and enigmatic charisma.
Recorded less than five months before his death at the age of 27, the telecast and subsequent album capture the Seattle trio at its creative and commercial peak. Cobain and bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic had already become internationally recognized as the godfathers of grunge, which was as much a marketing construct as it was a musical movement. But with their "Unplugged" performance, the band netted an even broader audience while performing in the more intimate Sony Studios in New York rather than the arenas they'd begun headlining.
Cobain would not live to see the 1994 release of the MTV Unplugged In New York album, which debuted at No. 1 and went on to win a GRAMMY for Best Alternative Music Performance. (Among the albums it bested was Grohl's Foo Fighters debut.) But his artistic spirit lives on in what many consider to be one of the greatest live albums ever.
Following are 10 lesser-known facts about the album and performance that marked the premature end of a promising career.
1. Six of MTV Unplugged In New York's 14 tracks are covers, and mostly obscure ones at that.
While David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World" was familiar to mainstream audiences, Nirvana also used the telecast to bring attention to esoteric personal favorites such as the Vaselines' "Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam" and Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night." The group was also joined onstage by Chris and Curt Kirkwood for three songs by their band, the Meat Puppets.
2. According to producer Alex Coletti, MTV had been hoping for guest artist appearances from the likes of Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos.
In a 1995 Guitar World interview with GRAMMY.com contributor Alan di Perna, Coletti recalled how "everybody's eyes lit up" when he told the network that Nirvana would be bringing along some special guests. "But when I said 'the Meat Puppets,' it was kind of like, 'Oh, great. They're not doing any hits, and they're inviting guests who don't have any hits to come play. Perfect."
3. Other than "Come As You Are," the band refused to play their own hits.
MTV tried its best to convince Cobain and the band to incorporate "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and other well-known Nirvana material into the set, but to no avail. "We knew we didn't want to do an acoustic version of 'Teen Spirit,'" Grohl later said of the band's breakthrough single. "That would've been horrendously stupid." When prompted by an audience member request, Cobain asked, "How are we supposed to play 'In Bloom' acoustically?"
4. Cobain had an especially good reason for turning down one audience member's request.
"I don't think MTV will let us play that," he responded when someone called out for the song "Rape Me." The network had, in fact, previously banned Nirvana from playing the song during the band's performance at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.
PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
5. The black candles, white lilies, chandelier, and draperies were all Cobain's idea.
The darkly atmospheric stage set, as seen on the album cover, seemed to take on added significance when the network repeatedly rebroadcast the band's performance after Cobain's death on April 5, 1994. But even before the taping, some on the set found it ominous. When Coletti asked Cobain about the décor, the singer confirmed that he meant for it to look like a funeral.
6. Rehearsals for the show went so poorly there was talk of Grohl not performing at all.
"[Rehearsals] didn't sound good," according to Grohl, who admitted he was struggling to attain a lighter touch on the drums. "Any time you have a band that's so electric and try to unplug them, there's always a lot of challenges, creatively," explained "Unplugged" director Beth McCarthy-Miller. Plus, she pointed out, "Dave [played] drums like Animal from 'The Muppet Show.'"
7. Nirvana's "Unplugged" performance was considerably more unplugged than most, but Cobain used some electric tools.
While Grohl toned down his drumming with brushes and percussion, Cobain strummed his '50s Martin acoustic guitar. However, Cobain insisted on running his guitar, featuring two electric pickups, through the "security blanket" of a Fender Twin Reverb amplifier, which yielded a distorted sound on "The Man Who Sold The World." Meanwhile, Novoselic contributed acoustic bass and accordion and touring guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston rounded out the lineup.
8. Cobain's iconic green cardigan worn during the "Unplugged" taping fetched more than $140,000.
The vintage Manhattan cardigan was sold via auction by Julien's Auctions in 2015. While its worth was estimated at $60,000, the five-button sweater — a blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra — was snapped up for a final bid of $140,800.
9. Geffen Records initially planned to release Nirvana's "Unplugged" performance as part of a double album package called Verse Chorus Verse.
The idea was to combine the "Unplugged" performance with live material from throughout the band's career. But the project was quickly shelved once Grohl and Novoselic realized how emotionally overwhelming it would be to go through the tapes.
10. At his manager's suggestion, Cobain asked producers to include shots of him smiling.
Unfortunately, they could only find one, which can be seen at the end of "About A Girl," and which came through gritted teeth.
(Bill Forman is a writer and music editor for the Colorado Springs Independent and the former publications director for The Recording Academy”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images
Let’s finish off with this article, that explores the legacy of MTV Unplugged. This idea of a Grunge band doing something like MTV Unplugged in 1993 was quite brave and non-commercial. Maybe something that would have put some fans off. Perhaps there was this myopic belief that Grunge and Rock bands could not go acoustic or translate what they do by filtering and turning down the noise by adding something richer and more harmonic. Contemporaries of Nirvana followed and produced some real wonders:
“Alice in Chains’ 1996 Unplugged is another example of a show that turned out great despite low expectations. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell had food poisoning and singer Layne Staley was in poor health as a result of his heroin addiction, which lead the group to not being able to perform live together in over two years. So, the pressure was on. Yet, the result is a contender for their best release. The unplugged versions of ‘Down in a Hole’ and ‘Rooster’ didn’t differ much from the album versions, but gained more depth from the intimate live setting.
Also from 1996 is Oasis’ Unplugged, is significant due to the absence of Liam Gallagher performing on stage. Noel Gallagher explained at the beginning of the show that his brother had a sore throat however, according to an interview with Noel, Liam was actually ‘shit-faced’ when the band walked out, so Liam wasn’t able to join them. Noel had to manage without him, singing his own songs without his brother for the first time. This was possibly the first time Noel realized that he didn’t need Liam and that he could stand on his own, making this one of the most important performances in the band’s career. It’s worth mentioning that Liam Gallagher is responsible for the newest addition to the MTV Unplugged catalogue, which premiered in September.
For artists of a previous generation such as Eric Clapton, Unplugged was a way of breathing new life into their established career. In 1992 it seemed like Clapton had passed his zenith, but iconic songs like ‘Tears in Heaven’, and ‘Layla’ made his Unplugged the best-selling release of the series to date.
Pearl Jam will be releasing their 1992 session for the first time on vinyl for Record Store Day’s Black Friday on November 29th. It features seven songs, almost all from their debut album, including ‘Black’, ‘Alive’, ‘Even Flow’ and ‘Jeremy’.
All these years later, MTV Unplugged still holds a lot of weight in the music industry. It remains relevant and necessary in an industry, which is ever more dominated by technology. Unplugged allows artists to showcase their talent and to connect with audiences on a more personal level”.
Fans of other artists may argue their corner when it comes to that ‘definitive’ MTV Unplugged performance. As it is thirty years ago on 18th November that Nirvana’s set was recorded, I wanted to mark that occasion. I did not see it when it first aired. Maybe a few years ago was when I saw it in full for the first time. I can only imagine what it must have been like for those in that space watching this incredible band produce a live performance that will live in their minds for the rest of their lives! I can only get a sense of the sort of tingles and atmosphere that they would have felt! Many would agree it is the ultimate and untouchable best, yet others may share different views. I can see credit and merit to every one of those great Unplugged sets. It is a chance to see an artist maybe step outside of their comfort zone and bring something new from their songs. Whether you see Nirvana’s 1993 set as the very best or not, many will spotlight it in the coming days (as it is almost thirty). Every opinion is valid, though one cannot deny that the Seattle band’s hypnotising, cultural significant and, sadly, haunting set has gone…
DOWN in the history books.