The term Unplugged has come to refer to music that would usually be played on amplified instruments such as an electric guitar or synthesizer but is rendered instead on instruments that are not electronically amplified, for example acoustic guitar or traditional piano, although a microphone is still used. The show featured musicians performing unplugged versions of their electric repertoire.
Many of these performances were subsequently released as albums, often featuring the title Unplugged. The underlying concept behind the Unplugged series has been attributed to the popularity among musicians of a variety of informal musical performances on stage, film, television and record in earlier decades. The casual "in-the-round" sequence in Elvis Presley 's Comeback Special , and The Beatles ' informal studio jams documented in the film Let It Be were both precursors of the "Unplugged" concept, though they were neither conceived nor promoted as such at the time they occurred.
The direct inspiration for the series came in the decade immediately preceding the creation of the MTV program. The catalyst was a series of highly publicized "unplugged" performances that occurred in the late s and early s. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Log In. To help keep your account secure, please log-in again. You are no longer onsite at your organization. Please log in. For assistance, contact your corporate administrator.
Arrow Created with Sketch. Calendar Created with Sketch. It happened to Nirvana, in one of those once-a-decade package deals. Post Nevermind , the trio became one of the most cloned acts of the era, but the second X-generational acts who sounded most like them were least capable of tapping into their primal, Stooge-like thrust. It was a sort of musical inbreeding programme resulting in a whole slew of tattooed, short-trousered yokels, a gob-smacking number of whom lucked into platinum discs.
They didn't do anything to change the songs; they just basically plugged in acoustic guitars instead of electric ones. There was no way we were going to try to pull off Smells Like Teen Spirit with f--king acoustic guitars. It wouldn't work," said Grohl. I think that's what made it so special; it wasn't just acoustic versions of Nevermind.
Much to the chagrin of the MTV producers, the band refused to play most of their biggest hits — although many of the songs on the album went on to become hits in their own right. They mostly performed covers — songs by the Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly, and Meat Puppets — as well as acoustic renditions of tracks from the band's third album In Utero , which had just been released. In all, they ended up playing one song from their debut album Bleach , four songs from 's Nevermind , three tracks from In Utero , and six covers.
Their landmark album Nevermind had generated a string of unforgettable hits, they were headlining festivals, and In Utero was getting rave reviews. Still, the band didn't have high expectations for the Unplugged recording. We weren't used to playing acoustic. We did a few rehearsals and they were terrible.
Everyone thought it was horrible. Even the people from MTV thought it was horrible. Then we sat down and the cameras started rolling and something clicked. It became one of the band's most memorable performances. It was unlike the band to be nervous, but Cobain was so unnerved by the taping that he asked only people he knew to line the front row, and he didn't want his wife Courtney Love or their daughter in the studio.
You and Janet and everyone I know? During the dress rehearsal, Cobain was reportedly very unwell, suffering from a mix of gastrointestinal problems and withdrawal from heroin, and was vomiting bile and blood.
With the performance fast approaching, someone suggested that the MTV producers find him some "medicine. For the MTV Unplugged series, bands went stripped-down acoustic — but that wasn't entirely true for Cobain, who insisted on putting his guitar through his trusted Fender Twin Reverb amp and an array of effects boxes.
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