Review Summary: Shiver the whole night through....
MTV Unplugged is a farewell note that it is, all at once, heart wrenching, brilliant, and an open summation of Kurt Cobain’s torment and talent. A blend of old Nirvana songs and covers of Cobain’s favourite artists (The Vaselines, David Bowie, The Meat Puppets, Lead Belly), MTV Unplugged is such an open display of emotion and pain that it is impossible to listen to without being moved.
Opening with the applause of a modest crowd of delighted fans and Cobain, showing his chronic shyness and self-consciousness, quiet, awkwardly murmurs “This is off our first record...most people don’t know it.”
The first track is one of the album’s best: the dark, wretched, glowering About A Girl, in which Cobain hauntingly prolongs the ‘I do....’ like it’s a confession to a wicked act. The deathly cold solo is what defines this as a top song.
The famous riff of Come As You Are receives a delighted welcome from the crowd; it’s the only song that had been a previous hit on the album.
Jesus Doesn’t Want Me For A Sunbeam is the album’s first cover song: “a rendition of an old Christian song...but we do it the Vaselines’ way,” Cobain says softly, with the hint of a grin. It does sound like a hymn you would find in a country church with the delightful shine of Krist Novoselic’s accordion.
Pennyroyal Tea, with its drowsy verses and pushed chorus, isn’t as good as the In Utero version. Dumb, however, with a nice groove and livelier delivery, is probably better than the studio effort. This is the first song in which cellist Lori Goldstein, who was touring with the band, can be heard prominently. She delivers brilliantly and contributes some wonderful emotion throughout the album.
I have always found Polly too disturbing to listen. Anyway, the MTV Unplugged version is nigh on identical to the Nevermind version. The smart cynicism and teenage exasperation of On A Plain is as good as the studio version, and the crowd gets into it.
Something In The Way, with Lori’s cello pushing and pulling more than ever, sounds as excellent as the Nevermind version, but it lacks the contrast to the rest of the album that served it so well on its release.
Nirvana are joined onstage by the two brothers from Meat Puppets: Curt and Cris Kirkwood. Their gregarious confidence starkly contrasts Kurt’s quietly conversed crowd interaction. Together, they perform three standout tracks: Plateau, with its chilled side-to-side riff (in which Cobain holds some brilliant low notes) the Old Testament style Lake Of Fire and the subtly painful Oh, Me, with a line so ironic you can’t help but smile sadly: “Would you like to hear my voice sprinkled with emotion?”
Coming towards the end, and climax, of the album, is All Apologies. Exceeding the self hatred of Dumb and the internal pain of the Meat Puppet’s set; All Apologies is the saddest song on the album. About the regret he felt for everything he became, couldn’t be and never would be, Cobain’s pain in the chorus line “Married....buried” is difficult to listen to, and impossible to not feel some emotion over.
All Apologies and About A Girl may be the biggest hits and, pure and simple, the best songs off the album. But nothing at all can match Where Did You Sleep Last Night, the most powerfully harrowing song on one of the most powerfully harrowing albums of all time. A cover by Cobain’s “favourite performer...our favourite performer” Lead Belly, Where Did You Sleep Last Night is a complete summation of Kurt: about a man who uncovers his wife’s infidelity, staggers out into the night, deep into a freezing, black forest and kills himself. Listening to this masterpiece, it is undeniable to think that Kurt knew he was going to die. With the beautiful, mournful groans and cries of Lori’s cello and the deafening whisper of the riff, this is stunning even before the final two minutes.
A romantic would love to think the Kurt decided, spur of the moment, to give it everything he had. He roars out the lyrics with no constraint, just primal emotion. His agonised howl is absolutely chilling, and when he holds the final note of SHIIIVVEERR, he stands alone on the stage.
A short breath, perhaps to compose himself...
“The whole....NIGHT.....THROOOUUGHHH.....”
MTV Unplugged is amazing. Listening to it, you wonder how nobody could see Kurt, whom the performance is all about, and his descent into the abyss of his depressive misery. Absolutely chilling, touching and unforgettable.
