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Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York (1994)
There are times where I'm proud to say that I never got into Nirvana until well after Kurt Cobain's suicide in April 1994. Before anybody thinks that I was sucked into the "just another tragic celebrity, now let's pay attention to them!" vacuum, keep in mind I didn't give a flying frakk when Cobain died. Hell, I still avoided Nevermind and all of the MTV memorial tribute specials like the plague in the months after. It wasn't until my friend Charlie told me to borrow Nevermind and at least give it a try that I started to pay attention. Towards the beginning of my freshman year of high school I had come around, and about that time MTV started playing the videos to "All Apologies" and "About A Girl" from the band's MTV Unplugged performance. I was never able to catch the re-runs of the entire show, which kind of annoyed me, but then I heard that they were releasing the entire show on CD, so I waited for that to come out. I got the CD for Christmas that year, and the moment I got it the album became one of my all-time favorites. The acoustic remakes of their original material all work pretty well, especially Cobain's solo take on "Pennyroyal Tea", but I was intrigued by all the songs I didn't know. Keep in mind at this time my knowledge of David Bowie was pretty weak, plus I had never heard of the Meat Puppets, Leadbelly, or the Vaselines. (Yes, I know... I'm lame. Wee wee wee...) The cover of Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World" really impressed me, and even weirder than that my Dad , an ardent fan of Bowie's pre-80's work, was impressed by it as well. The set in the middle featuring the Meat Puppets' Kirkwood brothers as well as three of their songs off of II are still fantastic, and it still chills me a bit to hear Curt Kirkwood's proclamation of "long live Nirvana!" after "Lake Of Fire". The ending couplet of "All Apologies" with Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" is still one of the best endings to an album I have ever heard, especially with Kurt's pained wails at the climax of "Last Night". This is still a classic album, and always will be.
Give It A Try:
"The Man Who Sold The World"
"Pennyroyal Tea"
"Lake Of Fire"
"All Apologies"
"Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"
