NOVEMBER 1, 1994 – Nirvana’s “MTV Unplugged” performance was released as “MTV Unplugged in New York.” Two tracks not aired on the MTV Broadcast were included on the album, which showcased an acoustic performance taped at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993, a show directed by Beth McCarthy and first aired on the cable television network MTV on December 16, 1993. As opposed to traditional practice on the television series, the band played a setlist composed of mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by The Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly, and Meat Puppets, whose members Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined Nirvana onstage.
Nirvana had been in negotiations with MTV to appear on its acoustic-based show for some time. It was while touring with the Meat Puppets that Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain finally accepted. The band wanted to do something different from a typical MTV Unplugged episode for its performance. According to drummer Dave Grohl, “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.”
The group looked at Mark Lanegan’s 1990 album “The Winding Sheet” as a source of inspiration. Cobain and Lanegan had bonded over “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” a traditional song that Lead Belly recorded in 1944, and Cobain played guitar on Lanegan’s version. When it came time to do the “MTV Unplugged” special and feeling the spirit of the moment, the band would close out their show with their memorable rendition of the song.
Among the other ideas the band members came up with included covering David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” and inviting members of the Meat Puppets to join them on stage. Still, the prospect of performing an entirely acoustic show made Cobain nervous.
The band dedicated two days to rehearsals. The rehearsal sessions were tense and difficult, with the band running into problems performing certain songs. During the sessions, Cobain disagreed with MTV as to how the performance should be presented. Producer Alex Coletti recollected that the network was unhappy with the band’s choice of the Meat Puppets as guests (“They wanted to hear the ‘right’ names-Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos or God knows who”, Coletti recalled) and the dearth of hit Nirvana songs on the setlist. Upset, the day before filming was set to take place, Cobain refused to play. However, he appeared at the studio the following afternoon. Cobain was suffering from drug withdrawal and nervousness at the time; one observer said, “There was no joking, no smiles, no fun coming from him… Therefore, everyone was more than a little worried about his performance.”
Coletti remembered. “Kurt wasn’t happy with the way rehearsals were going; he didn’t like the way Dave sounded playing drums with sticks … He’s a heavy hitter, and the thing about Unplugged, especially with rock bands, is if the drummer doesn’t really, really get it under control and tries to play a rock show on a smaller kit, then it brings the show to a bad-sounding electric show instead of a good-sounding acoustic show.” Eventually, Coletti sent a production assistant to a local Sam Ash to get Grohl some wire brushes and sizzle sticks, which proved to do the trick.
Despite the show’s premise, Cobain insisted on running his acoustic guitar through his amplifier and effects pedals. Coletti built a fake box in front of the amplifier to disguise it as a monitor wedge. Coletti said, “It was Kurt’s security blanket. He was used to hearing this guitar through his Fender. He wanted those effects. You can hear it on ‘The Man Who Sold The World.’ It’s an acoustic guitar, but he’s obviously going through an amp.” Nirvana was augmented by guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston, who had been touring with the band. Cobain suggested that the stage be decorated with stargazer lilies, black candles, and a crystal chandelier. Cobain’s request prompted the show’s producer to ask him, “You mean like a funeral?”, to which the singer replied, “Exactly. Like a funeral.”
Unlike many artists who appeared on the show, Nirvana filmed its entire performance in a single take. Their fourteen-song setlist included a single song from its debut album “Bleach,” four songs from the 1991 album “Nevermind,” three tracks from the then-recently released “In Utero,” and six cover songs. The group shied away from playing its better-known songs; the only hit the band performed was the 1992 single “Come as You Are”. Ten songs in, Cris and Curt Kirkwood of the Meat Puppets joined the band onstage to perform three of their group’s songs with Nirvana. The set ended with a performance of a traditional song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” arranged by blues musician Lead Belly. This rendition has been regarded by many as one of the greatest live single song performances of all time. As The Atlantic critic Andrew Wallace Chamings described, “For the final line, ‘I would shiver the whole night through,’ Cobain jumps up an octave, forcing him to strain so far he screams and cracks. He hits the word ‘shiver’ so hard that the band stops, as if a fight broke out at a sitcom wedding. Next he howls the word ‘whole’ and then does something very strange in the brief silence that follows, something that’s hard to describe: He opens his piercingly blue eyes so suddenly it feels like someone or something else is looking out under the bleached lank fringe, with a strange clarity. Then he finishes the song.” After the band finished, Cobain argued with the show’s producers, who wanted an encore. Cobain refused because he felt he could not top the performance of that song.
I n an interview with Rolling Stone, Curt Kirkwood was asked about the band’s influence on Nirvana. He stated, “We’ll never know how much influence we had on Kurt because we can’t ask him that. We can ask Krist Novoselic, I guess. Musically — by the time we heard them — we were too far gone into our own thing. I think they immediately warmed my heart because I immediately felt some sort of spiritual kinship. They were one of the only bands I’d seen since the Butthole Surfers that I really felt was in the same ballpark as us nihilistically and aesthetically and spiritually.”
Initially, DGC asked the surviving members of Nirvana for something they could release to combat the deluge of bootlegs flooding the market. The band intended to release a double album featuring live performances from throughout their career with the addition of the “MTV Unplugged” special. But after having trouble emotionally investing themselves in the project, the surviving members opted instead to just release the “Unplugged” performance, turning it over to producer Scott Litt to oversee the record.
“MTV Unplugged in New York” was the first Nirvana album released following the April 1994 death of Kurt Cobain. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, and has become the group’s most successful posthumous release, having been certified 5x platinum in the United States by 1997. It also won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1996. The performance was released on DVD in 2007. “I think it’s a really important performance for Nirvana fans because I think it showed another side to them that unfortunately we never got to see again,” concluded “MTV Unplugged” director Beth McCarthy-Miller.
TRACKLIST:
1) About a Girl
2) Come as You Are
3) Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam (Eugene Kelly, Frances McKee)
4) The Man Who Sold the World (David Bowie)
5) Pennyroyal Tea
6) Dumb
7) Polly
8) On a Plain
9) Something in the Way
10) Plateau (Curt Kirkwood)
11) Oh, Me (Curt Kirkwood)
12) Lake of Fire (Curt Kirkwood)
13) All Apologies
14) Where Did You Sleep Last Night (Traditional arranged by Lead Belly)