On This Day – 18th November 1993: Taping of Nirvana’s ‘MTV Unplugged in New York’
On this day, 18 November 1993, the taping of 'MTV Unplugged in New York' took place, Nirvana's legendary appearance on MTV's Unplugged series. The performance would become a landmark moment in cultural history and a critical step in the band's musical climate and career. The performance at New York Sony music studios was released as the band's first live album on 1 November 1994. Tragically, the news of frontman Kurt Cobain's death would only be seven months after the album's release.
Before they became cultural juggernauts and the unofficial leaders of Generation X, Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic were friends in High School. It would be three years before the pair collaborated musically. The band went through several iterations before becoming Nirvana, including a stint as a Credence Clearwater Revival tribute act. Cobain has said he wanted Nirvana as it was nice and pretty, different from the names typically adopted by punk groups. Their first live performance as Nirvana took place on 19 March 1988 at Washington's Community World Theatre; on the flyer for the gig, Cobain decided to include all of Nirvana's previous band names.
Upon gaining traction within the local music scene, the group recorded their first demo in January 1988. Their first single, "Love Buzz", was released in November 1988, and the next month, the group released their debut album, ‘Bleach’. Both releases were via the revolutionary independent record label Sub Pop, notable for its involvement within the grunge era and its relationship with Nirvana; the group became the first band to sign an extended contract with them. The band were previously famed for their turnaround of drummers before they met Dave Grohl in 1990; after the meeting, the trio's connection was quickly forged.
In the same year, Nirvana shocked their fans by leaving Sub Pop to look for a major label deal; with the help of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Nirvana was signed to DGC Records. What followed Nirvana’s signing to the label would change the landscape of popular culture; the group's first major label album, ‘Nevermind’, was released on 24 September 1991. And from ‘Nevermind’ came the anthem, "Smells like Teen Spirit", which captured the apathetic nature of the era’s youth. Its ongoing presence on MTV and plays of the single’s music video skyrocketed Nirvana to mainstream success and spiked album sales to heady levels. ‘Nevermind’ would come to sell over 7 million copies in the US and 30 million globally and is often cited as the catalyst which ended Hair Metal's dominance within the music industry and charts.
Despite their mainstream fame, rumours of the band breaking up ran wild due to disagreements concerning royalty splits; Cobain eventually received a retrograde change to increase his royalties. The group's third studio album, ‘In Utero’, was released on 21 September 1993; it was recorded in 2 weeks and was followed by the band's final tour. During a European tour in 1994, Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, found the singer unconscious, and he was taken to hospital for a combination of prescription medication and alcohol. Subsequently, the rest of the tour was cancelled.
8th April 1994 is a date etched into the tragic tapestry of modern culture, the day the death of Cobain broke. Despite the band disbanding after Cobain's death, there have been some reunions, once which saw Grohl and Novoselic unite to play "The Man Who Sold The World" (a David Bowie cover); the performance was a nod to the band's MTV Unplugged appearance which Cobain originally sang.
Nirvana's appearance on MTV Unplugged aired a month after the taping on 18th November 1993; guitarist Pat Smear and cellist Lori Goldsmith joined the group. Nirvana's set was not exclusively acoustic, a break from the MTV Unplugged series tradition. Cobain insisted on using an amp and effect pedals; the equipment was hidden by a construction built by MTV producer Alex Coletti so that the traditional atmosphere provided by the series remained. Also, in a break of tradition was the chosen setlist. Grohl has recounted that he wanted to play something other than a standard rock show full of hits, which he had associated the series with before Nirvana's appearance on the show. Unlike most of the series' sets, the setlist consisted of many covers and lesser-known songs: one song taken from 'Bleach', four songs from 'Nevermind', three from 'In Utero', and six cover songs.
Also, setting their performance on the show apart, the band performed the set list of 14 songs in one take. Nirvana was also joined onstage for three songs by Cris and Curt Kirkwood from the Meat Puppets, much to the dismay of MTV executives and producers, who wished that the group chose more prominent names to share the stage with. During the taping, Cobain had a clear idea of the stage decoration; he asked for stargazer lilies, a chandelier, and black candles. Coletti would later recount how he remarked to Cobain about how it would look like a funeral, to which Cobain would respond with approval. The performance ended with a haunting cover of Lead Belly's version of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night" MTV urged the group to end with an encore, but Cobain argued that the song's performance was enough to end on the set and could not be bested.
The performance was initially released on 1st November 1994 via DGC and Geffen, other versions and formats of the performance would later be made available. It received shining critical reviews and commercial success, debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, and sold over 310,500 records, becoming the group's highest first week of sales. Many music critics and journalists noted the folk-rock element projected through the band's MTV unplugged performance; this new element is often speculated on if it was the new sound the band were striving for at that point in their career.