Each day in November, I’m revisiting a song from the 90’s — a decade that was a sorta coming of age for me. In that span, I experienced high school, college and my time as a young single guy in New York City. It was a decade of ups and downs, and the music never stopped playing during that span. It was always there with me. #30DaysOf90sSongs
It seems a little obvious to kick things off with Nirvana. They are, after all, the band most people think of when they look back at the 90’s music scene. Grunge will be forever associated with that decade. While many call Neil Young the godfather of grunge, and many critics point to other genres and bands like the Pixies for heavily influencing it, Nirvana seems to be the band most people think of first. Before Soundgarden. Before Pearl Jam. Before anyone else. At the MTV Unplugged set in New York, Nirvana created what I believe was their most unassumingly grunge song: their cover of Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World”.
This is probably my favorite Nirvana track. Most cover songs help you to look forward with new interpretations or perspectives. But Nirvana helped many of us look back. Frankly, many Bowie fans didn’t even know about the song or the album of the same name that it came from until Nirvana covered it. The band helped music fans to discover a darker side to Bowie. While unplugged, Nirvana found a way to make it a true grunge dirge. The dark undertones and misery are felt in Cobain’s vocals. But what really sealed it is when he ran his acoustic guitar through a device called a fuzz box, which had a way of making his axe sound electric and distorted. It was grunge to the core despite the acoustic setting. Sometimes I even forget it’s MTV Unplugged. Truly a brilliant cover.
“For years and years I roamed. I gazed a gazeless stare. We walked a million hills. I must have died alone a long, long time ago.”