![]() Among the set list, only " Come As You Are" could be considered a major hit for the band. Unlike a lot of their peers, Nirvana didn't view this as a "greatest hits" show, instead opting to go deeper in choosing cuts and including a number of cover songs, something that didn't exactly sit well with the network. The disc featured a more stripped back sound and it should be noted that both Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic made guest appearances on the Lanegan disc. As Dave Grohl stated, "We'd seen the other Unpluggeds and didn't like many of them, because most bands would treat them like rock shows - play their hits like it was Madison Square Garden, except with acoustic guitars." Instead the band looked at Mark Lanegan's 1990 album The Winding Sheet as a source of inspiration. But the band wasn't exactly keen on replicating what had been done by others before. The production staff finally built a case for the amp that made it look like a monitor, and it's incredibly hard to spot even after knowing it's there.Nirvana, who had released their In Utero album just two months prior to the taping, had been pursued by the network for what would definitely be considered a coup for the show. I can give him what he wants." But I saw it was an issue. I guess it was Earnie, saying, "Look, he really wants his Fender amp on stage." And I was like, "Dude, it’s Unplugged." And he was like, "Oh, but his reverb." And I said, "We have all those effects. Producer Alex Coletti discussed the nightmare that this created for MTV, who at the time really believed the acoustic aspect of the show - as opposed to the big name acts - was driving viewership: He also ran the guitar through a few different effects pedals, which can most notably be heard on the band's cover of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World." The guitar was run through an amp (either a ' 60s Fender Twin Reverb or Bassman) that the production team actually hid on stage. You don't have to be a gearhead to realize Nirvana's MTV Unplugged in New York is hardly "unplugged." Everyone used acoustic guitars, and Kurt Cobain's guitar, a Martin D-18E, was outfitted with electric pickups as well as a tone and volume knob. The stories behind the album won’t change the way it sounds, or the way it makes you feel, but they do add a new layer of meaning to the performance. In the weeks leading up to the show, the band was breaking up, producers were freaking out, and Cobain was doing his best to stay clean. The narrative that Nirvana's Unplugged album is "Kurt Cobain’s final goodbye" is too suggestive and hyperbolic, but the stories behind the filming provide a new and interesting lens through which the performance can be seen. No one in Nirvana knew that Cobain would take his life only a few months later, but that’s the way audiences contextualized the recording. ![]() They were tired of playing the hits, and they wanted to give their fans something special.Īfter Cobain’s passing, the Unplugged album took on the grim tone of a funeral - each song was suddenly a dirge that signaled the singer’s fate. The group, their friends, and MTV producers have spoken at length about the concert, and they’ve noted that while the band was falling apart at the time, they were having a blast. The performance, recorded on November 18, 1993, has been called “personal" and “raw,” but it’s just Nirvana doing what they do best. In hindsight, the show mirrors Cobain’s life, one that was complicated by mental health issues and substance dependency. ![]() It was a lark, an afterthought, something recorded in roughly an hour that the band didn’t plan to release. It was ultimately Nirvana’s final album, giving fans one of the most unbelievable Kurt Cobain performances, as well as a strange foreshadowing of Cobain’s passing. Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York was never meant to be a big deal.
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