It’s worth remembering and repeating: Unplugged was never meant to be Nirvana’s final statement. Recorded in New York on 18 November 1993, five months before Kurt Cobain’s death, it was the first of three tapings in three days that week for MTV. “I think the next day, we did Stone Temple Pilots,” series producer Alex Coletti tells Apple Music. “And Tony Bennett the day after that.” Almost immediately after the band had finished, a production crew was tearing the set down, including the black candles and white Stargazer lilies that would later give viewers the feeling that they were watching a living funeral. “It should all still be sitting there,” Coletti says of the set. “It should be preserved in glass. But we didn’t know at the time—we moved on.”
It’s impossible at this point to divorce the recording from images of Cobain, from the mythology of the night. (The cardigan he wore, still unwashed since the performance, just raised $334,000 at auction, making it the most expensive sweater ever sold.) The live album wouldn’t see release until nearly a year later. “We used it as a way to mourn Kurt on air,” Coletti says of the show. “We’d aired it so often that year it was a shock that the album sold so well. Everyone had seen it.” But on its own, Unplugged remains one of rock’s great live albums, as well as a glimpse of Nirvana at their most naked and idiosyncratic.
They’d upended the hopes and expectations of the network by electing to play anything but the hits, “Come As You Are” being one exception. (“I was never going to talk them into ‘Teen Spirit’,” Coletti says.) Instead, they came armed with covers and deep cuts and guests that definitely weren’t in rotation. This wasn’t just the world’s biggest band at the moment, but one of its loudest and most dissonant, too. And yet, there was Krist Novoselic, swapping his bass for an accordion (his first instrument) to reimagine The Vaselines’ “Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,” itself a parody of an old children’s Christian hymn. Dave Grohl, whose outsized drumming had concerned Cobain and the producers ahead of the performance, played with brushes for the very first time, showing total control as the drums kicked in on Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”. Cris and Curt Kirkwood—of the influential but often overlooked Arizona psych-punk outfit Meat Puppets—sat in for luminous readings of not one but three of their own songs. Cobain had promoted underground artists he loved before, by famously wearing their T-shirts onstage (see: Flipper, Daniel Johnston and, under said cardigan that night, Frightwig), but “Oh, Me” had never been (and likely never will be again) played to a nationally televised audience of millions. “I feel like it’s this great mixtape they made for their fans,” Coletti says. “To say, ‘Hey, this is who we are.’”
For as otherworldly as the final moments and last gasp of Lead Belly’s “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” are (“Like a werewolf,” Neil Young reportedly said after first seeing its performance. “Unbelievable”), Cobain’s originals here are every bit as chilling. From the Lennon-esque swing of “About a Girl” to the bloodletting of “Pennyroyal Tea” and the poetic thrum of “All Apologies”, not only did his work hold up fine without the noise and feedback—it shined. Few songwriters or bands could have made that transition feel so natural, and Cobain—always one to keep the world at arm’s length, guessing—feels as close here as he ever would. But if Unplugged has proven to be one of our lasting memories of him, it’s due, in large part, to the warmth and clarity of it all: every scream, every chorus, every shift in mood or grain of humour between songs. This was not meant to be goodbye, but something else. You don’t need to see it to believe it.
Tracklisting
| Position | Title |
|---|---|
| Yo! Bum Rush The Show (1987) | |
| A1 | You’re Gonna Get Yours |
| A2 | Sophisticated Bitch |
| A3 | Miuzi Weighs A Ton |
| A4 | Timebomb |
| A5 | Too Much Posse |
| A6 | Rightstarter (Message To A Black Man) |
| B1 | Public Enemy No.1 |
| B2 | M.P.E. |
| B3 | Yo! Bum Rush The Show |
| B4 | Raise The Roof |
| B5 | Megablast |
| B6 | Terminator X Speaks With His Hands |
| It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (1988) | |
| C1 | Countdown To Armageddon |
| C2 | Bring The Noise |
| C3 | Don’t Believe The Hype |
| C4 | Cold Lampin’ With Flavor |
| C5 | Terminator X To The Edge Of Panic |
| C6 | Mind Terrorist |
| C7 | Louder Than A Bomb |
| C8 | Caught, Can We Get A Witness |
| D1 | Show Em Whatcha Got |
| D2 | She Watch Channel Zero?! |
| D3 | Night Of The Living Baseheads |
| D4 | Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos |
| D5 | Security Of The First World |
| D6 | Rebel Without A Pause |
| D7 | Prophets Of Rage |
| D8 | Party For Your Right To Fight |
| Fear Of A Black Planet (1990) | |
| E1 | Contract On The World Love Jam |
| E2 | Brothers Gonna Work It Out |
| E3 | 911 Is A Joke |
| E4 | Incident At 66.6 Fm |
| E5 | Welcome To The Terrordome |
| E6 | Meet The G That Killed Me |
| E7 | Pollywanacraka |
| E8 | Anti-Nigger Machine |
| E9 | Burn Hollywood Burn |
| E10 | Power To The People |
| F1 | Who Stole The Soul? |
| F2 | Fear Of A Black Planet |
| F3 | Revolutionary Generation |
| F4 | Can’t Do Nuttin’ For Ya Man |
| F5 | Reggie Jax |
| F6 | Leave This Off Your Fu’kin Charts |
| F7 | B Side Wins Again |
| F8 | War At 33 1/3 |
| F9 | Final Count Of The Collision Between Us And The Damned |
| F10 | Fight The Power |
| Apocalypse 91… The Enemy Strikes Black (1991) | |
| G1 | Lost At Birth |
| G2 | Rebirth |
| G3 | Nighttrain |
| G4 | Can’t Truss It |
| H1 | I Don’t Wanna Be Called Yo Niga |
| H2 | How To Kill A Radio Consultant |
| H3 | By The Time I Get To Arizona |
| I1 | Move! |
| I2 | 1 Million Bottlebags |
| I3 | More News At 11 |
| J1 | Shut Em Down |
| J2 | A Letter To The New York Post |
| J3 | Get The F— Outta Dodge |
| J4 | Bring Tha Noize |
| Muse Sick-N-Hour Mess Age (1994) | |
| K1 | Whole Lotta Love Goin On In The Middle Of Hell |
| K2 | Give It Up |
| K3 | What Side You On? |
| K4 | Bedlam 13:13 |
| L1 | Stop In The Name… |
| L2 | What Kind Of Power We Got? |
| L3 | So Whatcha Gone Do Now? |
| L4 | White Heaven/Black Hell |
| L5 | Race Against Time |
| M1 | Aintnuttin Buttersong |
| M2 | Live And Undrugged (Pt. 1 & 2) |
| M3 | Thin Line Between Law & Rape |
| M4 | I Ain’t Mad At All |
| N1 | Death Of A Carjacka |
| N2 | I Stand Accused |
| N3 | Godd Complexx |
| N4 | Hitler Day |
| He Got Game (1998) | |
| O1 | Resurrection |
| O2 | He Got Game |
| P1 | Unstoppable |
| P2 | Shake Your Booty |
| P3 | Is Your God A Dog |
| P4 | House Of The Rising Son |
| Q1 | Revelation 33 1/3 Revolutions |
| Q2 | Game Face |
| Q3 | Politics Of The Sneaker Pimps |
| R1 | What You Need Is Jesus |
| R2 | Super Agent |
| R3 | Go Cat Go |
| R4 | Sudden Death |
Apple Music
Release Images
Release Information
| Key | Value |
|---|---|
| Format | 1× Vinyl LP |
| Label | Def Jam Recordings |
| Catalog Number | 06007 534 087-8 (0) |
| Discogs URL | Public Enemy - 25th Anniversary Vinyl Collection |