![\"Nirvana](\"https:\/\/faroutmagazine.co.uk\/static\/uploads\/1\/2023\/06\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
While there are plenty of episodes in the \u2018MTV Unplugged\u2019 series\u2014from acts as varied as Kiss and Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and Rod Stewart\u2014one of the most famous is undoubtedly Nirvana\u2019s 1994 edition, which was filmed in New York only a few months before frontman\u00a0Kurt Cobain\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
Spread out among their own stripped-back songs, Nirvana incorporated a couple of covers into their set, as well, most famously playing Leadbelly\u2019s arrangement of the traditional song \u2018Where Did You Sleep Last Night\u2019 and David Bowie\u2019s song \u2018The Man Who Sold the World\u2019 from his 1970 album of the same name.<\/p>\n
With Cobain taking the lead guitar part in the latter, he plays the song\u2019s iconic riff throughout without issue (despite using an acoustic guitar so drenched in overdrive and reverb that it sounds almost indistinguishable from a fuzzy electric instrument, pushing the \u201cUnplugged\u201d concept to its absolute limit). However, he fumbles the first few notes of the solo that closes out their rendition. While the mistake is noticeable\u2014and surprisingly sloppy, considering the three-note solo should have been easier to play than the riff he nailed consistently throughout the song\u2014it doesn\u2019t derail the momentum of the performance in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n
And although their Bowie cover has become one of the most famous and favoured performances from their short but explosive career, not everybody was completely blown away by it.<\/p>\n
When asked by the\u00a0NME<\/em>\u00a0in 2011 whether he took any inspiration from Nirvana\u2019s cover for his own version of the song as part of the David Bowie\/Mark Ronson tribute band Cybernauts, Joe Elliott replied, \u201cI didn\u2019t take much from Kurt\u2019s version because God bless him, he\u2019s not very good at lead guitar \u2013 he misses a few notes\u201d.<\/p>\n First working with guitarist Phil Collen in the\u00a0glam rock group Def Leppard\u00a0and later on in the Cybernauts, Elliot knew that his longtime guitarist wouldn\u2019t be likely to make the same mistakes on the song that Kurt Cobain did, adding that \u201cPhil was never going to let that happen\u201d.<\/p>\n Bowie didn\u2019t seem to mind about the missing or fumbled notes in Cobain\u2019s solo but did take exception with the younger fans who didn\u2019t realise that he had, in fact, written the song two decades earlier.<\/p>\n After performing \u2018The Man Who Sold the World\u2019 live in the years following Nirvana\u2019s famous cover, Bowie recalled encountering \u201ckids that come up afterwards and say, \u2018It\u2019s cool you\u2019re doing a Nirvana song\u2019. And I think, \u2018Fuck you, you little tosser!’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While there are plenty of episodes in the \u2018MTV Unplugged\u2019 series\u2014from acts as varied as Kiss and Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and Rod Stewart\u2014one of the most famous is undoubtedly Nirvana\u2019s 1994 edition, which was filmed in New York only a few months before frontman\u00a0Kurt Cobain\u2019s death. Spread out among their own stripped-back songs, Nirvana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-celebrity"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1.webp",1140,855,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-300x225.webp",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-768x576.webp",768,576,true],"large":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-1024x768.webp",1024,768,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1.webp",1140,855,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1.webp",1140,855,false],"jnews-360x180":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-360x180.webp",360,180,true],"jnews-750x375":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-750x375.webp",750,375,true],"jnews-1140x570":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-1140x570.webp",1140,570,true],"jnews-120x86":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-120x86.webp",120,86,true],"jnews-350x250":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-350x250.webp",350,250,true],"jnews-750x536":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-750x536.webp",750,536,true],"jnews-1140x815":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-1140x815.webp",1140,815,true],"jnews-360x504":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-360x504.webp",360,504,true],"jnews-75x75":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-75x75.webp",75,75,true],"jnews-350x350":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-350x350.webp",350,350,true],"jnews-featured-750":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1-750x563.webp",750,563,true],"jnews-featured-1140":["https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Nirvana-Kurt-Cobain-MTV-UnPlugged-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855-1.webp",1140,855,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Newssoccer","author_link":"https:\/\/newssoccer.uk\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Blog<\/a> 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