“MTV Unplugged in New York” (1993)
So we’re cheating a little with this entry—it’s a TV concert after all—but we’d argue that its iconic status and its quality earn it a place on our list. Hard to believe now, but back in the early 90s the entire “unplugged” concept—a live, acoustic set from an ordinarily electric band—was a novel and interesting one. Equally hard to believe is that 20 years ago, music television was an important part of the zeitgeist, and when MTV cottoned on to the “unplugged” idea, they sought out a number of big name bands for the format: none bigger, in November 1993, than Nirvana. Kurt Cobain and co., however, didn’t exactly play ball. Coming off the release of the confrontationally uncommercial In Utero, they refused to play a standard, hit-heavy set list and instead performed minor songs and covers of David Bowie, Lead Belly and The Vaselines, as well as some work by the Meat Puppets (a band whose name might have been invented to unsettle network execs), whose members joined the band on stage. MTV didn’t much like the result, but it aired anyhow—and then six months later Cobain killed himself, and the downbeat performance, for which Cobain had requested stage decorations of lilies, “like a funeral,” became talismanic for bereft fans (and immensely profitable for MTV, which began airing it practically on a loop). It’s a damn good show, though, despite the slightly soppy, soft-focus staging and shooting: there is something undervalued about watching a show where neither the cameras nor the musicians are leaping around like madmen. The recording was directed through multiple cameras and without interruption by Beth McCarthy-Miller, a live TV maestro who went on to direct eleven seasons of “Saturday Night Live.” And, at the risk of sounding like a weepy teenager in jeans ten sizes too big, the whole concert is sort of symptomatic of Cobain’s approach to music: gentle, heartfelt and basically misunderstood by an establishment that wanted him to shut up and play the hits in an easy, commercially viable way. The fact that it subsequently became an enormously lucrative album and film after Cobain’s death is not very surprising, really, but it doesn’t take away from the quiet excellence of Nirvana’s performance here.
From the Playlist to your playlist: “The Man Who Sold The World,” then a relatively unknown Bowie tune; the Lead Belly closer “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” after which the band refused to do an encore, not believing they could top their performance of the song.
