Throwback Thursday: Nirvana MTV Unplugged
Vampire Weekend’s latest MTV Unplugged performance immediately brought back to memory perhaps the most famous show of the series, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York for this Throwback Thursday. The show was recorded November 18th, 1993 and was the first Nirvana record released after Kurt Cobain’s death in the spring of 1994. The show is shrouded by an eerie atmosphere, Cobain was going through drug withdrawal and the set is designed much like a funeral.
The performance was reaired many times on MTV after Cobain’s death, and the album sold 5 million copies in 1997. We’ve chosen their cover of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold The World.” This performance best shows Cobain, and Nirvana’s, range in songwriting and performance, they could thrash or play affected acoustic music. Plus it was my first exposure of Bowie’s song, and like any good cover song, it expands upon the original and creates a new meaning for the song.
How does Vampire Weekend’s performance compare? Is it a good comeback for the series?
- Kevin McCaul
It’s a good comeback, yes. Glad to see the show back…. Glad in general that MTV might, well, play some music every now and again…. as long as it doesn’t interfere with Jersey Shore.
However, being in my late 20s I shudder to compare the two bands (Nirvana and Vampire Weekend). Nirvana pioneered and defined a genre – at a time when Bell Biv Devoe and Marky Mark were at the top of the charts – whereas Vampire Weekend is probably a flash in pan that owes most of their notoriety to family connections. (A good band, don’t get me wrong, but the frontman is related to a music industry heavy hitter…. probably hence their impossibly meteoric rise.)
Yeah, it’s nice to have unplugged back… but to compare Vampire Weekend to Nirvana or any of the other acts that have been on unplugged is a little bit of a stretch. I’ll be willing to bet that in 15 years, Vampire Weekend will be remembered the same way Jesus Jones or any other one hit wonder will be. Barely.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/?id=1629185