![]() He spent hours running over the basslines in “The Man Who Sold the World” because he was positive he was going to screw up. Krist Novoselic had never touched an acoustic bass guitar until just a few nights before the taping.Dave had never played with brushes before that night. It was only after an MTV producer gave him a set of brushes (wrapped in Christmas paper, no less) that the problem was solved. During rehearsals, Dave Grohl had a very hard time keeping his playing to an appropriate volume.Such a…well, you know.Ī couple of random facts about the recording of this album: It was a band in their prime, light-years beyond so many of their contemporaries.Īll I could think of the promise and the talent we lost with Kurt. And suddenly, we were shown a master class in live performance. The world had spent seven months trying to come to terms with why Kurt did what he did. I remember being very, very angry when I heard Nirvana Unplugged for the first time when it was released on November 1, 1994. One hundred and thirty-nine days later, he’d be dead. “How am I gonna beat what I just did?” he said. The producers wanted one, but Kurt refused. If you’ve seen the video, you’ll know that he opened his eyes and stared down the camera as his voice cracks with emotion. The last song in the set was a cover of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” Listen to how Kurt moves up an octave with the last line, taking the song to an astonishing emotional level. Only one genuine hit made the cut: “Come As You Are.” “All Apologies” had just come out on In Utero a few months earlier but had yet to become the major hit that we know it today. (For reference it took Stone Temple Pilots more than four hours to record their Unplugged.) ![]() It was as close to perfect as anyone could ever get. ![]() Fourteen songs in about 54 minutes, all in a row, no breaks, no retakes. Nirvana performed their Unplugged set in one take. Which makes this next bit all that more amazing. People were genuinely concerned that the evening was going to be a disaster. What we see and hear is Kurt on a shitload of Valium. On top of the usual withdrawal symptoms were his chronic gastrointestinal issues. His drug issues were out of control and he’d been trying to come heroin. On the day of the taping–Thursday, November 18, 1993–Kurt was blitzed. That explains why “The Man Who Sold the World” hardly sounds like it was played on an acoustic guitar. His amp was hidden in such a way that it looked like a monitor. Although the premise of the show was that all the performances were entirely acoustic, Kurt insisted on running his acoustic guitar through an amp and effects pedals because this was the way he was used to hearing the music. (The producers ended up using a mix of real and fake lilies.) Still, they pushed forward. The studio was ordered decorated per Kurt’s instructions with a crystal chandelier, black candles, and stargazer lilies, a flower that was extremely hard to source that time of year. The group wasn’t used to performing acoustically and thought they sounded terrible. Nirvana rehearsed for two days with members of the Meat Puppets, guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldstone filling out the lineup. “My rules or nothing.”ĭesperate to nail down the show, MTV gave in. Rumour had it that overtures had already been made to people like Tori Amos and Eddie Vedder. They wanted assurances that hits like “Smells Like Teen Spirit” would make the set. And Kurt got to choose the special guests. The studio had to be decked out in a certain way. It would not be an acoustic version of Nevermind. Nirvana must have complete control over what songs they played. The rest of the band, of course, went along with him. He’d been moving into the realm of more quiet compositions and an acoustic set has been recently added to Nirvana’s live show. To him, Nirvana was a loud and raw punk rock band and not an outfit suited for quiet performances.Įventually, though, Kurt was strong-armed into accepting the gig, perhaps after convincing himself that this was the sort of artistic challenge he needed. Besides, Kurt wasn’t sure he or the band could pull it off. The idea of regurgitating their hits acoustically did not appeal to anyone. No one in Nirvana was a fan of the Unplugged shows they’d seen. ![]() I say “finally” because the negotiations to get Nirvana to agree to appear on the show were fraught with complications. 54th Street to set up for a taping of MTV’s popular Unplugged series. It was a Thursday when Nirvana finally moved into the newly-opened Sony Music Studios at 460 W.
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