![]() ![]() Some early versions reference “Joe Brown’s coal mine,” referring to a Georgia governor from around that time. Any time there were more than three or four songs to be sung, ‘In the Pines’ was one of them.” Its origins are likely with black communities living near the southern Appalachian mountains during the late 1800s. I don’t ever remember not hearing it and not singing it. Dolly Parton herself said of it, “the song has been handed down through many generations of my family. However “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” wasn’t written by Lead Belly. He was imprisoned twice, for murder and attempted murder respectively, before being “discovered” by folk music archivists who released his music, leading to a career of performing and recording in New York City. He grew up in Louisiana and traveled throughout the South, learning songs through oral tradition. Nirvana was officially covering Lead Belly, who’s versions of that song include “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and “Black Girl (In the Pines).” Lead Belly was a folk and blues musician who lived between the late 1800s and the mid 1900s. ![]() Then, for the last word, the music comes back and he powers through.Ī few months later Cobain died and that song, the last recording of him, played on repeat. In the last line of the song the music stops and he sounds emotional, like he’s struggling to get any sound to come out. In November of 1983 Nirvana closed out their MTV Unplugged performance with the song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” The lyrics are dark- “his head was found in a driving wheel/but his body was never found” and Cobain’s singing is tender and heavy. Learn more about MoPOP's Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses+ for contests, the latest news, and behind-the-scenes content, be sure to follow us on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.By Logan Guthrie-Silbert Lead Belly courtesy of the John Reynolds Collection Both instruments can be seen in the Nirvana gallery as well as the set list that Cobain personally had resting on his music stand that night. Although Smear played the instrument, it was personally owned by Novoselic. Two of the instruments from that performance are the Guild acoustic bass which was played by Krist Novoselic and the Buck Owens American acoustic guitar which was played by Pat Smear, who was the band's rhythm guitarist and touring guitarist from September 1993-April 1994. The band didn't even do an encore because Cobain stated backstage that there was no way he could top what had just transpired, and that's probably a fair assumption considering the magnitude of his performance. The band dazzled the audience with unique versions of their own material in addition to a few covers, including David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World." The pivotal moment came at the end of the show during a cover of "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" during which Cobain gave a spine-tingling rendition that no one can forget. ![]() Nirvana's performance was nothing short of amazing that night. It seemed as if the show would be doomed, and MTV expected a complete disaster. To the studio's shock it was the Meat Puppets, who weren't exactly topping the charts with any hits at that particular moment. When it was mentioned that there would be a couple of special guests at the show, MTV assumed it would be a prominent figure like Eddie Vedder or Tori Amos. It was void of many of the band's hits instead focusing on more unique selections, and MTV executives were extremely disappointed to learn that there wouldn't even be an acoustic version of the band's breakout hit, "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Cobain didn't think it would be a successful attempt, plus the band had stopped performing the hit at many of their shows because audiences had come to expect or demand it. The MTV executives were upset upon seeing a preview of the band's set list. Rehearsals had been extremely stressful and miserable at times, and the tension was at a very high level for the band.Ĭobain wasn't the only one with apprehension about the evening's performance. Kurt Cobain faced a challenging situation during rehearsal and taping because he was suffering from withdrawals from his addiction, plus he was extremely nervous about the show so nervous that he wouldn't even allow his wife Courtney Love and their 15-month-old daughter, Frances Bean, to be in the building that evening. The highly-anticipated performance came only two months after the release of the band's final studio album "In Utero" and immediately became a defining moment in Nirvana's career. On November 18, 1993, Nirvana performed at MTV studios in New York for a legendary acoustic performance that would air as part of the MTV Unplugged series. Get a feel for what the mood was like among band members and production crew while behind the scenes at Nirvana's spine-tingling performance for MTV Unplugged in New York. ![]()
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