Much like an abstract painter, he mixed seemingly unrelated thoughts and images in the hope of finding elusive truths about himself and others. The music: As a writer Cobain seemed to mistrust straightforward narratives. Instead, he generously used the time to play three songs by one of his favorite bands, the Meat Puppets, and brought Curt and Cris Kirkwood from the Puppets on stage during the songs. While Cobain’s swipes at Rolling Stone and MTV might come across as just bratty posturing, Cobain, from the moment he began playing in bands, was conscious of being part of a new rock generation - and not repeating what he often saw as mistakes and compromises by earlier rock heroes.Ĭobain was so independent that he didn’t play some of his biggest hits, including “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” on the “Unplugged” session.
#NIRVANA UNPLUGGED DVD RELEASE TV#
This is a television show.” And sure enough, the songs were re-arranged in the edited version of the performance that was shown on MTV - and the joke about it just being a TV show was omitted. After chatting with band member Krist Novoselic about apparently having a couple of songs in the wrong order, Cobain smiles and tells Novoselic, “Let’s just play them back-to-back. Similarly, he takes delight at one point in the “Unplugged” taping in putting MTV in its place during the December 1993 taping. In a famous Rolling Stone cover photo, his T-shirt carried a wisecrack about Rolling Stone’s ties to the corporate rock culture. But he looked for ways to mock the institutions along the way. The back story: Though Cobain was contemptuous of corporate rock vehicles such as Rolling Stone magazine and MTV, he was practical enough to go along with them because he knew it would help his band sell millions of albums. While Nirvana’s studio albums, “Nevermind” and “In Utero,” remain the essential samples of Cobain’s energy and art, there is an intimacy and gentleness about his performance in “Unplugged” that may be the best glimpse of Cobain the man. I’ll never forget the words of one man in his 40s when I asked him if Cobain meant anything to him: “They ought to pass out shotguns to all the rest of. The rest of the city, however, seemed indifferent, even hostile to Cobain and the young corps of musicians.
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