Buy nirvana unplugged series#

Unlike many artists who appeared on the show, Nirvana filmed the entire performance in a single take. It's an acoustic guitar, but he's obviously going through an amp.' You can hear it on 'The Man Who Sold the World'. He was used to hearing this guitar through his Fender. Coletti said, 'It was Kurt's security blanket. Coletti built a fake box in front of the amplifier to disguise it as a monitor wedge. Despite the show's premise, Cobain insisted on running his acoustic guitar through his amplifier and effects pedals. Like a funeral.' Nirvana was augmented by guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldston, who had been touring with the band.

Cobain's request prompted the show's producer to ask him, 'You mean like a funeral?', to which the singer replied, 'Exactly. Therefore, everyone was more than a little worried about his performance.'Ĭobain suggested that the stage be decorated with stargazer lilies, black candles, and a crystal chandelier. Cobain was suffering from drug withdrawal and nervousness at the time one observer said, 'There was no joking, no smiles, no fun coming from him. Producer Alex Coletti recalled that the network was unhappy with the lack of hit Nirvana songs in the setlist, and with the band's choice of the Meat Puppets as guests, saying: 'They wanted to hear the 'right' names - Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos or God knows who.' Upset, the day before filming, Cobain refused to play however, he appeared at the studio the following afternoon. During the sessions, Cobain disagreed with MTV as to how the performance should be presented. The rehearsals were tense and difficult, with the band running into problems performing various songs. Still, the prospect of an entirely acoustic show made Cobain nervous. Among the ideas the band members came up with included covering David Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold the World' and inviting members of the Meat Puppets to join them on stage. According to drummer Dave Grohl, 'We'd seen the other Unpluggeds and didn't like many of them, because most bands would treat them like rock shows-play their hits like it was Madison Square Garden, except with acoustic guitars.' The group looked at Mark Lanegan's 1990 album The Winding Sheet for inspiration. The band wanted to do something different from a typical MTV Unplugged episode for its performance. It was while touring with the Meat Puppets that Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain finally accepted. Nirvana had been in negotiations with MTV to appear on its acoustic-based show MTV Unplugged for some time. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and is Nirvana's most successful posthumous release, having been certified 5x platinum in the United States by 1997.

Unplugged in New York was the first Nirvana album released following the death of Kurt Cobain. In a break with traditional practice on the television series, Nirvana played mainly lesser-known material and cover versions of songs by the Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly, and Meat Puppets, whose Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined Nirvana onstage. The show was directed by Beth McCarthy and aired on the cable television network MTV on December 16, 1993.

Buy nirvana unplugged series#

The album features an acoustic performance recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993, for the television series MTV Unplugged. Unplugged in New York is the legendary live album by Nirvana released on November 1, 1994.