By Jermey Grimes
Content Note: This article contains mentions of death and suicide and as such, may be disturbing to some readers.
April 8th, 1994, an electrician hired to install security lights ended up discovering a tragic discovery-which would make headlines the next day. Nearly 30 years later, the suicide of Kurt Cobain is still a matter of myth and debate. 7 years prior to his death, Cobain formed the band Nirvana, within the year they would be a national sensation. With Kirst Novoselic on bass, Dave Grohl handling drums, and Kurt shredding guitar riffs and singing, the band defined Grunge rock and sent the genre soaring into popularity. After years of playing heavy, erratic, grunge music to crowds of thrashing, mashing, men and women, they wanted to shift to something a little calmer. They were offered the opportunity to calm down when they were given a chance to perform on the up-and-coming MTV Unplugged TV series. MTV Unplugged gave hit artists a chance to perform away from studio settings, and focus on more down to earth, unfiltered, “natural” performances. Before Nirvana, they featured people like Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, and even LL Cool J. After Nirvana, they had other Grunge greats Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam, but no performance offered the haunting atmosphere that Nirvana’s did. In one night, Nirvana created a legendary show, and a funeral for a man that hadn’t even died yet. From the set to the setlist, Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York would serve as a final grand sendoff from Kurt Cobain, a swan song, and a performance for the ages.
The first time I watched Nirvana Unplugged, I was struck by the design of the set. Drapes hung from the ceiling, white lilies scattered across the stage, black candles on Victorian stands, and an ornate chandelier hovering over everything. It only brings one thought to mind: whose funeral is this? Cobain had a hand in this, asking for the flowers and candles. In an interview for Guitar World, Alex Coletti, the producer for the show, said he asked if Cobain meant for it to look like a funeral, and he did. The white lilies especially provide this sense of the macabre, often being used as funeral flowers. The candles mixed with the studio lights create a sort of dissonance; discomforting, cold, blue rays harshly contrasted with the warm, radiant light of the candleflame. The spirit of the band was pretty good, despite the decor. Between songs, they joke amongst themselves. During the songs, however, Cobain stares distantly or looks at music sheets in front of him. A note of interest is the movement on stage: people changing instruments, guest performers appearing mid-show, and people disappearing offstage when not needed. The only person to stay on stage the whole night was Cobain, performing solo on “Pennyroyal Tea.” It almost feels like everyone is visiting Cobain.
The setlist is interesting as well. A point of contention between Nirvana and MTV officials was the lack of “recognizable” Nirvana songs: no “Teen Spirit,” nor “In Bloom,” not even “Heart-Shaped Box.” The biggest song on the list was “Come as You Are,” standing as the second song of the night, and played with no introduction. Another oddity was the sheer number of covers; six of 14 songs are covers, including a David Bowie song. They covered two songs by the band The Meat Puppets and featured the Kirkwood brothers who founded said band. But there’s more than covers; the lyrics of the songs are overwhelmingly dark.
Six songs make direct mentions of death, with two others focusing on feelings of not belonging, and two others featuring mentions of abuse. The most damning of all is the final track, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” a song that has always been about death and grieving. The song itself is a traditional folk song, from unknown origins. Cobain attributes his inspiration to Leadbelly, an American folk musician from the early 1900s. This is the second cover of the song that he had a hand in, the first being a slow and ominous collaboration with Mark Lanegan, vocalist for the Screaming Trees (another inspiration for Nirvana). The song is about a widow retreating into pine forests after her husband was killed, presumably in some kind of accident. The lyrics are cold, and ominous. The “pines” are described as a place where “the sun never shines” and where the widow shivers the whole night “where the cold wind blows”. The lyrics are vague enough to interpret the pines as either a literal forest, the pits of grief, or suicide.
In the final verse of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” Cobain pauses for a brief moment and delivers a chilling stare into the audience. His expression seems almost desperate, as if he could see an encroaching finality that no one else could. Five months later, he was found dead in his home, having committed suicide via gunshot to the head. The MTV Unplugged show was a sort of swan song for Nirvana, and by extension, Cobain. A final act of defiance. No heavy guitar riffs, no mosh pits, only music and expression. It was a show unlike anything Nirvana ever did (or any other band, for that matter). In one night, they created a pure display of musical and artistic prowess and left that as the last note for Nirvana. The album version of the performance was the last major release from Nirvana, coming out seven months after Cobain’s death. In the following decade after Cobain’s death, various demos would be released and eventually culminate in a compilation of demos and other recordings called “With the Lights Out,” but it was just a compilation of songs, an echo of the dead. But if that is an echo, MTV Unplugged is a full-blown scream, angry, scary, and beautiful all at once.