1270. Nirvana / MTV Unplugged in New York. 1994. 4/5

Nirvana had been the face of the grunge movement since they had crashed upon the music scene with their second album “Nevermind” in 1991, and had been riding the wave ever since. With the release of their third album “In Utero” in 1993 saw this trend continue, despite an album that was far from mainstream in content. The tour that followed this was their first of the United States for two years, and included the addition of Pat Smear as a second guitarist to increase the impact of their music.
In November of 1993 Nirvana agreed to record a performance for MTV Unplugged, which had been a popular addition to their music channels programming. Although the band had been negotiating to be on the program for some months, they also wanted to do something different from what most bands did when they recorded the show. Whereas other bands still wanted to be loud and energetic, Nirvana wanted it to be the intimate setting that the style suggested it should be, and to incorporate songs that suited the style that weren’t their own.
The band rehearsed for two days prior to the recording, that from reports were tense in all quarters, production, executives and band. Kurt had wanted to miss the rehearsals but eventually turned up, though the two days were said to be little fun for anyone with no humour or banter occurring during the sessions. The show was then recorded on November 18, 1993, and aired on MTV the following month.
How much would have happened following this had not Kurt Cobain taken his own life on April 8, 1994? Apart from the shock that was felt worldwide, it also led to this performance being rerun on MTV many times over the coming weeks. It also led to the record company announcing that a double album would be released, with one CD full of live performances of the band, and the other the entire MTV Unplugged performance. As it turned out, it was only a week later that this was canned, with the difficulty of the bands remaining members Krist Novaselic and Dave Grohl to be able to emotionally put together the live album cited as the reason. Instead, it was decided that just the MTV Unplugged performance would be released, as the final embodiment of what the band achieved in its short time together.

Given that there was a controversy at the time over the song choices the band made for this performance, one of the main features about this album is how well it all fits together. There may not have been the proliferation of hits that the executives had wanted, or that many fans of the band wanted. And though the and did incorporate cover songs in the performance, they are all terrific. Also, unlike most of the artists who performed on MTV Unplugged, Nirvana performed their entire 14 song setlist in one take, whereas other bands often did two or more takes of a song to choose the best performance.
Eight of the 14 songs are Nirvana songs. They open with the best known of the songs from their debut album "Bleach", the seminal "About a Girl", perhaps the ideal version of this track in the band's repertoire. This is then followed by their hit single "Come as You Are", thus allowed the performance (and the album) to begin with recognisable tracks to drag the fans in. There are three other songs from the band's best known album "Nevermind", "Polly", "On a Plain" and "Something in the Way". All three of these songs are well suited to the unplugged format, even "On a Plain" whose studio version is quite electrified and bombastic, and yet it translates well to this format. Of course, this is helped and improved by the fact that Kurt Cobain insisted on running his acoustic guitar through his amp and pedals, thus helping to create the Nirvana sound of his guitar even as an acoustic. A cheat code perhaps? Maybe, but the end result does allow the band to be who they are even in this setting. "Something in the Way" also sounds amazing on this recording. Joining these songs are three from their then current, and as it turns out final, album "In Utero". "Pennyroyal Tea" is promoted by Kurt's vocals without any other vocal backing, and sounds all the better here for it. The studio version sometimes gets drowned out by all of the instruments, but this version highlights his vocal which is superb. "Dumb" is a surprisingly good subdued version of the original studio track, while "All Apologies" comes towards the end of the set.
Beyond these Nirvana tracks, six others are played and mixed into the setlist. The cover of The Vaselines track "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam", which Cobain retitled "Jesus DOESN'T Want Me for a Sunbeam" for this performance, was the first, and is one of the songs here that probably divides fans of the band and the album the most. It's fine, but it is nothing outstanding, as a song or the performance. It is followed directly after however by one of the best tracks, the cover of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World". So good is this version, and so perfect is Cobain's vocal to Bowie's original, that I still meet people today who think this is a Nirvana song not a David Bowie song, and I've even had people say to me "wow, how good is Bowie's cover version of that Nirvana song?!" I mean, Cobain even says at the end of the song "That was a David Bowie song". It is one of the outstanding tracks of this album, and shows that the odd cover song in this environment can be a great thing.
Another of the butting heads episodes for this was Cobain's insistence that they cover three songs by the Meat Puppets, who had been supporting Nirvana on their current tour. But, not only did they cover the songs "Plateau", "Oh Me" and "Lake of Fire", they also had Cris and Curt Kirkwood join them on stage to help perform them. An interesting decision, another one that Cobain insisted on and got his way with. And the final cover was the last song of the performance, the traditional American folk song "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", again one that showcases Cobain's vocal rather than anything else, and one that he was so pleased with as a show closer that when the producers tries to insiste on an encore he refused, saying nothing could possibly top that as the closing song. There's no doubt that the band and his own popularity in the music world gave him the power to refuse things that most other bands would have had to accede to.

Kurt Cobain's death and the eventual demise of Nirvana as a result was a massive thing back in 1994. It's difficult to explain to anyone who wasn't around 30 years ago just how massive that news was when it was relayed around the world. And while the MTV Unplugged episode had been recorded at the end of the previous year and been broadcast, it suddenly got played a LOT on MTV, and then the eventual release of this album with the full set list was really what fans were after. It was a melancholy time when it was however. Listening to it at the time of its release was always tinged with the regret that we would have no more music from Cobain and the band, and that this was in fact the final memoir of a band that had influenced so much.
Like most people of my age I got this album on its release, and did indeed immerse myself in it for some months. It was interesting that the following year, the dreaded and best forgotten dark year of 1995, I was often asked if I was listening to too much Nirvana and if it might be invading my thoughts. I always laughed this off, because if anything Cobain's final fate was more than enough to turn me well away from that, and in fact listening to Nirvana at the time, and this album in particular, I found rather cathartic.
For my own tastes however, I would generally get nine songs in, and then change to another album. To me, "Something in the Way" was the perfect way to stop this album, and basically ignore the songs that came after it. The Meat Puppets songs never did anything for me, and the other two songs I could take or leave. And while I don't disagree with those people who wished for more of the bands songs to be played on this album, most of those would have been very difficult to pull off. I mean, why would anyone want to hear them play "Smells Like Teen Spirit" unplugged? I mean, that would be like hearing Metallica play "Motorbreath" and "Damage Inc" unplugged, a disaster I am sad to say I had to witness at one of their concerts in 1999... I still shudder when I think of it today...
Even though the MTV Unplugged formula had been around for a few years at this time, it was this performance that actually exploded the concept, and showed that super popular enigmatic bands could do this and not be seen as sellouts or of changing their own style to suit. Some bands of course were more suited to the format, and while this album is rightly hailed as one of the best of the unplugged features, it pales into insignificance against one that was released by another band from Seattle just two years later, one that had their own tragedies occurring around them such that Nirvana had. Again, that's a story for another day.