NR Essentials #4: Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York
 

Nirvana
MTV Unplugged In New York
1994, DGC Records

The chances are good that my connection to this record has a great deal to do with my age. I was in my early teens when this set aired on MTV, and it was a big fucking deal. Back then there was no YouTube. The night it aired I taped it on my VCR (remember VCRs?) and then ran the VCR into my stereo and copied the performance--sans commercials--onto a cassette tape. That cassette tape got a lot of play. And in fact, it wasn't until that neon memorax shit the bed that I finally bought the actual CD release a few years later that included some extra shiz not originally aired.

But even when I take away emotional attachments; even when I take away those confused adolescent evenings spent disecting the setlist to look for "cries for help that WE should have answered"--UNPLUGGED is a great fucking album. And in truth, there are very few live albums that are this good.

The fact that it's "unplugged" is almost the antithesis of what people knew Nirvana for at the time. Remember? And on top of that there were very few "hits" in the set. And what's stranger: there were a LOT of covers. Weird ones. Back then it was like, 'who the fuck are the Vaselines? who the fuck are the Meat Puppets? AND WHY WOULD KURT PLAY A DAVID FUCKING BOWIE SONG???"

There's tons of awkward moments throughout. And yet, I prefer the fuckup in the middle of "Pennyroyal Tea" to the LP version. And "Oh Me" kills me every time because it makes me recall the anictode that Michael Azarad brings up in COME AS YOU ARE of how Kurt played Courtney (I do believe they were once in love) the entire 2nd Meat Puppets album acoustic so that she'd understand why he loved it so much.

Most rock historians acredit NEVERMIND with being the most 'important' Nirvana record. Sure. And a lot of hipsters may side with IN UTERO for well... Albini, and the fact that it was far less mersh. But when all is done and said, I've spent nights listening to this album 3 or 4 times in a row. And there are very few albums that I can still do that with.

fuck nevermind. (mostly) fuck in utero. this and bleach are the most honest and raw things they ever did.

a note on bleach. i duno if anyone is as fanatical a reader of blastitude as i am, but i love that website, and pretty much they portray my exact taste in music (deep down a rock and roll/punk guy who is mostly disillusioned with the stale bullshit in rock these days and therefore has turned to more obscure "sound/noise not music" artists), and in larry dolman's top 100 records of all time, he had bleach in the 70's-80's i remember. he talks about how shitty the quality of the recording is, how kurt's voice was far from perfected, how it sounds like they can't decide if theyre gonna be huge rock stars or if theyre gonna be scratch acid, but then he goes on to ask, "then why is the best thing nirvana ever made?". i totally agree with that, by all technical/musical aspects, bleach is pretty garbage, its the honesty and rawness and purity of the recording that makes it such a landmark. o and he says something like, "under all that clustered feedback and lo grade recording techniques, the melodies and the incredible pop craftsmanship is there", also very true.

MTV Unplugged and Bleach are probably my favorites also.

My favorite release they ever did, slightly edging over In Utero. I've owned it since I was twelve and it still brings me on the verge of tears, as lame as that sound. Like batreleaser said, it's the most honest and raw thing they ever did. Also the only Unplugged session that doesn't suck imo.

unplugged is my fav behind in utero

i watched the DVD yesterday

like most nirvana albums, this is ok.

i bought the tape shortly after it was released, i think it was because i was constantly listening to in utero at that point.

some songs are great, especially the first and last songs. i do hate the guitar sound they got for kurt's guitar, though.

oh right, i also had a picture of the whole stage for this on one of my school notes holder dealies (don't know what they are called in english).

One accoustic song from Nirvana ( About a Girl ) : ok.
A whole record : boring .

i could never get into this record. even when i was a nirvana freak. bleach is my favorite record of theirs.

its ok. i like the meat puppets covers probably more than anything.

I could never get into this even when I kinda liked Nirvana. Found it boring. Most people I know in real life think this one is the best, I've noticed.

i taped this when they showed it on tv and watched every day for something like 3 months. nowadays though i like everything else they did a lot more than the unplugged set, i probably haven't even listened to it in about 9 or 10 years.
incesticide is my favourite.

Never understood the love for this record
sure its, pleasant, but it's a one off. it was never meant to be "a classic"
i've seen it in numerous "best of" wank lists and i just don't get it

I only like particular Nirvana songs, like School, Negative Creep, Scentless Apprentice, In Bloom, and others. Apart from the covers, Pennyroyal Tea is perhaps the only track on the Unplugged that I like.

OH WAIT, I'm thinking of another live acoustic recording of Pennyroyal Tea. The Unplugged version is garbage.

The MP tracks stand out on tis record.

I was a big fan of Bleach and liked the other Nirvana albums, but this just made me realise what an annoying twat Cobain could be.

And his voice is absolutely terrible on it.

I usually jack off to the sounds of guitars with holes in them.

But not this particular record.

The live set is the only thing of theirs I'm really into, to be honest - their version of Leadbelly's "How Do You Sleep At Night" kills bigtime.

My favorite Nirvana record is LIVE FROM THE MUDDY BANKS blah blah. Though Bleach and Incesticide are cool too.

I could quite happily listen to any Nirvana record apart from this one.

Interesting range of opinions on this record so far.

as in 'Good' or as in 'bad'
i'm sorry i'm not too hip with street speak

i'm always suprise at how many Non Nirvana fans (and people who dislike decent music) love Unplugged. It seems to cross boards

now it's correct.

I haven't listened to Unplugged for a long time, It got overplayed by MTV at every april 5th. Picking up favorite Nirvana album is hard but I have to say noisy, rocking and poppin' Bleach. But every album is a masterpiece, my all time favorite group.

There were these two songs I loved on it .. Plateau and Lake of Fire, to be exact. Both Meat Puppets songs, right?

right

I never liked it and I love everything else the band did. This seemed forced and unnatural despite their effort to include worthy covers. The covers don't live up to the originals at all though, and it has damaged a great Bowie song that everyone under 35 seems to think it's a Nirvana original now.

In Utero trounces all over this because it feels like the band doing what they really did well. If liking it because it sounds awesome and has the best developed songs makes me a hipster, so be it, but the definition of "hipster" just got pretty questionable upon my inclusion!

After that Bleach, though it should have been an e.p. ("Paper Cuts", "Negative Creep", "Love Buzz", "Blew", "About a Girl", and "School" would really have been enough). This is still my favorite phase of the group and the one I experienced live many times in tiny clubs, I just always felt like the first record was padded beyond the brilliant songs listed above to make it full length.

I prefer Incesticide to Nevermind, but the later is still a good record and decent representation of the band if you throw out the obvious concession of "Come As You Are".

My feeling is the band was just too young to be doing a live acoustic set and having it come off as anything but "The boss told us to do this..." If Kurt hadn't killed himself, after as many albums as they already did and just as much time in between them, it might have been time to consider an acoustic live venture. Or maybe a while longer after that.

Sonic Bebs - As in "this song is ace"

punkaspoo - thank you for correcting my stupid error. "How Do You Sleep At Night" is of course by John Lennon. :o :o

mmmm
i used to LIKE it.
now i find a bit boring. I loved Plateau, i thought it was beautiful, but hey it's a cover!
i agree with the "My boss told me to do that" feeling of it all.
stiill a landmark for lots of people.


as for the other LPs, i love In Utero and Muddy Banks. They are my faves.
Nevermind wasa groundbreaking LP at the time, it still sounds REALLY powerful and the songs are really excellent in their own way. A tad too polished? myeah but i don't actually care that much you do get a punk feel at the end of the day.
Bleach? mmm not my favorite. I think it's good and has excellent standout tracks but i also agree with the" it should have been an ep" vibe.

by the way i never listen to Nirvana
I haven't for huh about 6 years maybe..
time to let it spin

Yeah, but I love it. And I've always been a huge Nirvana fan?

hahaha. It's all good man. I love IN UTERO as well. So I guess it's hip to be square?

This is better than Nirvana

wow Kurtwannabe.
this sucks.
Green day sucking Dave Grohl's cock.

Actually it's a trick statement since that is pretty much a Nirvana track.

Honestly, though, still a catchy tune even though its a style rip off.

Lyrics suck, though.

Well, the song had been around for at least 50 years before Leadbelly recorded it, and prior to Nirvana's version, was usually known as "In The Pines" or "Black Girl".

i totally disagree, i much prefer the second side of that record, sifting and big cheese are two of my favourite nirvana songs

In Utero and Unplugged are probably my favorite releases by Nirvana. His lyrics actually made sense on in utero.

yeah i love it too, i just meant that people who dont like Nirvana like this album but none of the others. So its like the SuperNirvana record that can join hands between the ravers and the rockers and bring peace and harmony to us. Or something.

In Utero sucks. Easily the worst Nirvana songs ever on it. All Apologies, Heart Shaped Box, Rape Me, Tourettes are all offensively terrible. The only songs I really think are strong are Very Ape and Scentless Apprentice...

And what's all this lyric talk? Who cares about lyrics? They're passable and sometimes funny, usually ridiculous, but always interesting.

In Utero's my favourite. It just sounds the best to me and i can agree with atsonic park about the bad songs but the bad songs on In Utero are the best of their bad songs (and they did some bad songs)

Incesticide then Bleach then Nevermind

When I said "lyrics suck" I was referring to the Pagoda song.

It definitely does sound the best.. from a production standpoint.

Imagine Nevermind with In Utero's production. That'd be crazy.

I feel In Utero was too much of... I dunno, it sounded like they wanted to keep their fans but also wanted to appeal to the people who thought they sold out with Nevermind. I used to love it when I was a kid; it's the first album I ever got actually. But nowadays it's pretty boring.

"SCENTLESS APPRENTICE" is my favorite Nirvana song, though (besides Marigold, also from the same sessions).

When I was talking about lyric talk, I was referring to "His lyrics actually made sense on in utero."