DGC 24727
Producers: Nirvana and Scott Litt
Track listing: About a Girl Come as You Are / Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam / The Man Who Sold the World / Pennyroyal Tea / Dumb / Polly / On a Plain / Something in the Way / Plateau / Oh Me / Lake of Fire / All Apologies / Where Did You Sleep Last Night
November 19, 1994
1 week
Almost a year to the day after Nirvana recorded an MTV Unplugged special, the audio souvenir from the show topped The Billboard 200, becoming Nirvana’s third No. 1 album, and a fitting tribute to a band whose end came too soon.
On April 8, 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead from a self-inflicted shotgun blast to the head. Cobain, like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, died at the age of 27. MTV paid its respects by airing Nirvana Unplugged repeatedly in the days following Cobain’s death. Several of the songs featured in the performance, taped November 18, 1993 at Sony Studios in New York City, took on a haunting new meaning. In “Come as You Are,” originally featured on Nevermind, Cobain sings, “And I swear I don’t have a gun.” In Utero‘s “Pennyroyal Tea,” given a stark solo reading by Cobain on the Unplugged disc, includes the lyric, “Give me a Leonard Cohen afterworld/ So I can sigh eternally.” Even Nirvana’s choice of covers was eerie. In “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam,” originally by the Scottish group the Vaselines, Cobain sings, “Don’t expect me to die for you.”
Yet the death references and Cobain’s unhappiness were nothing new. In Utero was originally to be titled I Hate Myself and Want to Die, but the title was scrapped, because the title track, which later ended up on the 1993 Geffen compilation The Beavis and Butt-head Experience, didn’t fit the mood of the album.
For Unplugged, Nirvana was joined by second guitarist Pat Smear, best known as a member of the Los Angeles punk band the Germs (whose frontman, Darby Crash, was another rock ‘n’ roll tragedy, dying of a heroin overdose in December 1979). Also on hand during the taping was cellist Lori Goldston. Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl played his kit with brush to fit the soft mood of the set.
Instead of performing only his own songs, Cobain opted to showcase some of his favorites. Along with “Jesus Doesn’t Want Me for a Sunbeam,” Nirvana performed David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” Leadbelly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” and the Meat Puppets’ “Plateau,” “Lake of Fire,” and “Oh Me.” On the latter three tracks, originally on 1984’s Meat Puppets II, Nirvana was joined by Pups Curt and Cris Kirkwood, a guest spot that boosted the Arizona band’s career.
MTV Unplugged in New York kicks off with “About a Girl,” a Beatle-esque track from Nirvana’s 1989 Sub Pop debut album, Bleach. The band’s acoustic approach may have helped them connect with those initially put off by the sheer power of their electric approach. Either way, by the time Unplugged was released, it was clear that Nirvana had changed the face of rock ‘n’ roll. For proof, one need only to look at The Billboard 200 the week MTV Unplugged debuted at Number One. At number five was Smash by the punk band Offspring, on the independent Epitaph label, a record that likely would never have charted if not for the path blazed by Nirvana.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of November 19, 1994
1. MTV Unplugged in New York, Nirvana
2. II, Boyz II Men
3. Murder Was the Case, Soundtrack
4. Youhanasia, Megadeth
5. Smash, Offspring