The 500 - #313 - MTV Unplugged In New York - Nirvana

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

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Album: # 313

Album Title: MTV Unplugged In New York

Artist: Nirvana

Genre: Alternative Rock, Grunge

Recorded: Sony Music Studio (Live) - New York

Released: November 18 , 1993

My age at release: 28

How familiar was I with it before this week: Very

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, #279 - moving up 34 spots

Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Pennyroyal Tea (Selected by my brother (in-law) and Nirvana fan, Dan

Earlier this year, the Grade 7 students and I spent some time discussing leadership. I kicked off the conversation with a fascinating, three-minute TED talk video, featuring musician, author and entrepreneur, Derek Sivers.

Sivers speaks on the topic of "How To Start  A Movement '', while a grainy video of a young, shirtless, dancing man begins playing on a screen behind him. Although unseen, it seems likely that the "dancing man" is at a musical performance, gesticulating wildly and comically.

Eventually, he is joined by his "first follower" and it is here that Sivers advances his notion that "the first follower is actually an underestimated form of leadership in itself. It takes guts to stand out like that. The first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader."

As the video continues, two more people join the duo and are immediately embraced as equals by both the dancing man and his first follower. Quickly, they are joined by four more and suddenly there is a tide of recruits. "This is the tipping point", states Sivers, "as more people join in, it's less risky. So those that were sitting on the fence before, now have no reason not to. They won't stand out, they won't be ridiculed, but they will be part of the in-crowd if they hurry."

By the end of the video, less than three minutes after being introduced to our shirtless, dancing man there are literally hundreds of people participating. Sivers makes his final point:

"Leadership is over-glorified. Yes, it was the shirtless guy who was first, and he'll get all the credit, but it was really the first follower that transformed the lone nut into a leader. So, as we're told that we should all be leaders, that would be really ineffective."

I have used this video with students for more than a decade and it provides a wonderful launching pad for rich discussions about their interpretation of, and comfort with, leadership. Invariably, a student will ask a key question:

"What do you call someone who doesn't want to lead or follow?" 

I love this moment, because it organically transitions to a conversation about "The Contrarian". Instead of framing this reluctant individual as an antagonist or adversary to progress, I instead offer examples of people who took a contrary stance that propelled them to greatness:

• Former World Boxing Champion Muhammad Ali's decision to abstain from participation in the Vietnam War, despite its resultant heavy fine, potential jail time and a ban from boxing.
• India’s Mahatma Gandhi's opposition to tyranny through non-violent protest.
• Astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus risking death by contradicting the Catholic Church's 15th Century belief that the earth, not the sun, was the centre of our solar system. 

Although not on the same scale, MTV Unplugged in New York is a ready-made example of a contrarian spirit.

Nirvana guitarist and singer Kurt Cobain

In 1993, Nirvana was the biggest band in the world. The three-piece alternative rock group from Seattle, Washington, were Kurt Cobain (guitar, vocals), Krist Novoselic (bass) and Dave Grohl (drums). Their second studio release, Nevermind, (#17 on The 500) had been selling over 300,000 copies weekly since its release two years earlier. It had also transformed the world of popular music. The hair-metal and stadium rock of the late 80s had been replaced by grunge. In a nutshell, grunge is a musical sound (murky, punk-influenced, and bleak), an attitude (cynical and non-conformist) and aesthetic (loose flannels, androgynous oversized shirts often cobbled together from thrift shops).

Nirvana is typical grunge apparel ]
(l-r Cobain, Novoselic & Grohl)

MTV (Music Television) was also wildly popular in the 1990s and their Unplugged Series had enjoyed tremendous success. The popular series showcased well-known artists performing their greatest songs in a stripped-down acoustic format. These were then released as audio versions which sold briskly, generating massive profits for the network.  The biggest, Eric Clapton's 1992 Unplugged performance,  sold 26 million copies worldwide.

All this information is important context. It can't be understated how monumental the Nirvana performance was to the world and how important it was to the executives at MTV -- executives who had not factored in the difficult and contrary nature of this cynical, frustrated group, who were on the verge of breaking up permanently.

• Cobain was struggling with a heroin addiction, and rehearsals had gone poorly. There was grave concern that the performance would not meet expectations. The day before filming, Cobain refused to play as he struggled with symptoms of withdrawal.
• The band rebuffed executive requests to play their biggest hit, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and instead peppered their set with lesser-known songs written by other artists including an obscure Scottish alternative rock band, The Vaselines.
• The band had teased an appearance by special guests and speculation among the fan base was rich. Would it be one of the group's famous colleagues from the Seattle music scene? Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam or perhaps Chris Cornell from Soundgarden? No. It was another obscure band from Arizona, The Meat Puppets. Moreover, Nirvana chose to play three songs from that group's second record, Meat Puppets II, ostensibly promoting it more than their own recent release, In Utero.

Meat Puppets II by Meat Puppets

• Although his amplifier was slightly disguised on-stage, Cobain broke with Unplugged tradition by performing the David Bowie song The Man Who Sold The World as an electric performance.
• After being denied permission to play their controversial song Rape Me, the band slipped in an even more disturbing song, Polly. This track, from their album Nevermind, is about a 1987 incident in Tacoma, Washington, where 14-year-old was abducted, raped and tortured with a blow-torch. The unidentified girl, named Polly, but only in the song, escaped. Her captor is still serving a life sentence.

Portion of the article from the Spokane Chronicle

• Finally, when asked to return to the stage for an encore, the band flatly refused.

However, despite their contrarian approach to this recording, the performance received critical acclaim. Tom Hibbert of Q Magazine raved about the record, saying; it "possessed a ragged glory", while Rolling Stone writer Barbara O'Dair called it "stirring and occasionally brilliant" with "spare and gorgeous spots everywhere".

It was also a commercial juggernaut, selling over 310,000 copies in its first week, a record for Nirvana. It would go on to be certified 8x platinum (8 million copies sold) in the United States, with millions more sold world wide. It received a Grammy Award in 1994 and sits on The 500, at position #313 -- the only Unplugged record to make the list. After all, sometimes a contrary stance can launch you to greatness.