The iconic performance Kurt Cobain never liked: “We’ve played that song a lot better”
Most artists don’t care to see themselves on film that much. Although it’s nice to be able to have a document of a group in their prime, that just invites the artist to look over at their work and see how many slip-ups they made and where things could have gone a bit better. It’s always about improving one’s craft, but when Kurt Cobain played on MTV Unplugged, he thought ‘All Apologies’ was far from the greatest thing they had done.
Then again, Nirvana’s Unplugged performance seems more like a part of rock and roll folklore at this point. The MTV show was known for artists taking multiple passes at their songs before they were happy with them, but the grunge icons went through the entire show without missing a beat, even sprinkling in versions of songs by David Bowie and a jaw-dropping cover of Lead Belly’s ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night’.
But that didn’t mean that the show didn’t have problems. When working through the song ‘Pennyroyal Tea’, Cobain grew increasingly frustrated that the sound wasn’t working and eventually played the entire song by himself when it came time to air the show, giving a bit of a break for something far more intimate.
The band’s next album, In Utero, hadn’t been available to the public for that long, but Cobain had something special with ‘All Apologies’. Whether he knew that he was on a dark path towards self-harm, hearing him singing about his inner turmoil almost sounds like him signing off his career, complete with a melody that would have fit perfectly on any Beatles song.
When asked about whether the song was going to be put out as a single, Cobain wasn’t that thrilled to hear that their acoustic version was getting acclaim, telling MTV, “It was going to be the next single. I don’t think it’s the best performance from the Unplugged thing. That’s just my opinion, but I don’t think it was that good, really. We’ve played that song a lot better before. But I see what you mean. It could work really well acoustically.”
It’s almost impossible to pick a favourite from the performance since it should really be taken in as a whole, but hearing Cobain sing one of the most low-key songs of the night is one of the most natural performances he has ever given. After testing his limits on a handful of Meat Puppets songs, this is him embracing his tunefulness.
By the time it breaks down to the final mantra at the end of the tune, Cobain almost seems like he’s completely drained, almost like he knew that his time was short as he sang those last lines. Compared to what happened that night, though, it’s easy to see where a song like this could get lost in the shuffle.
But when considered part of the album, the acoustic version does the song justice a lot better than what they captured on the final version of the track on In Utero. Steve Albini’s production makes everything sound like Nirvana playing the song in the room, but nothing has ever sounded more raw than hearing them embrace their vulnerability like this.
