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Nirvana Acoustic Cover
By Peter | December 6, 2009
Nirvana is clearly one of the great alternative rock bands of the late 80s / early 90s. They produced so many classic tracks, but their short history was tragically ended in ‘94 with the death of Kurt Cobain.
They are of course famous for their brand of rock music (think “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Something In The Way). However, they performed several of their own acoustic songs and covers. One of the stand-out covers they performed was an acoustic cover of Lead Belly’s version of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.”
If you don’t know who Lead Belly (wikipedia.org) is: His real name was Huddie William Ledbetter, and he was a folk singer and songwriter during the first half of the 20th century He led somewhat of an interesting life, being sent to prison and a chain-gang, from which he was able to escape. His music was no doubt influenced by his intense life experiences.
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night” (also known as “In The Pines” and “Black Girl”) was recorded several times by “Lead Belly” decades before Nirvana covered it. The song wasn’t actually written by Lead Belly, and is a traditional American Folk song from the 1800s. However, Lead Belly’s version differs slightly in musicality to various other versions from around that time. The song has been performed by dozens of musicians over many years – notably Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and The Grateful Dead.
Nirvana started playing the song in the early ’90s after Cobain was introduced to the track by Mark Lanegan. Probably the most famous version of this acoustic cover was on Nirvana’s performance on MTV Unplugged from 1993. This version also appears on the band’s MTV Unplugged album. Another version of the track (a solo home demo of Cobain) is available in the boxset “With The Lights Out”.
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