"MTV UNPLUGGED": The 15 best episodes - Rolling Stone

Of Jay-Z obviously Nirvana, via McCartney and Oasis ... Back on the best episodes of the legend MTV Unplugged show

December 16, 1993, MTV unveils the Nirvana program for the first time.

15 - Rod Stewart

Eric Clapton Unplugged's shocking figures have pushed many other veterans artists to book their own program on MTV.Bob Dylan has largely failed with his (his acoustic concerts at the Supper Club at the same time were infinitely better), but Rod Stewart took up the challenge spectacularly.Not only did he find his former group companion for faces and Jeff Beck Group, Ron Wood, but he has carefully chosen several of his best times, including "Have I Told You Lately" and "Reason to Believe".This concert reminded many fans of the start why they loved it and has become his best -selling album for years."Reason to Believe" went around the radios, which gave a huge projo on his career at the time.

14 - Kiss

Kiss was at the lowest when the idea of an UNPLUGGED was discussed in 1995.They were reduced to playing acoustic sets during their own fans conventions, and after seeing Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart relaunch their careers with aplugged, they tried the blow.MTV insisted to bring back the original members Peter Criss and Ace Frehley so that the event is worthy of interest, a condition that Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have accepted with great apprehension."I heard stories about the deterioration of Peter's game, writes Stanley in his book Face The Music.But there was an exciting and surreal feeling of nostalgia in the room when they entered."This concert finally paved the way for the huge reunion tour, which took place the following year (and the many tours to come).

13 - Oasis

Oasis was well advanced in his support tour (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?When he agreed to record a concert for MTV Unplugged at the Royal Festival Hall in London.It was a rare chance to see the group outside a stadium or a festival, but shortly before the start of the show, Liam Gallagher withdrew due to a "sore throat".Most groups would never think of giving a concert without their main singer, but his brother Christmas simply took the thing lightly and decided to take the microphone.To make the evening even more surreal, Liam decided to sit in the public and disturb her own group throughout the concert.There has never been anything like in the history of rock.And this is probably the first time that Noel realized that he could do it all alone.

12 - Paul McCartney

After having moved away from industry for a decade, Paul McCartney began in 1989 a long tour that takes him to stadiums around the world.But these were great shows with little soul and, at the beginning of 1991, he wanted to do something completely different.Unplugged was an opportunity to seize.This intimate concert ignores most of his obvious hits in favor of covers like "Good Rockin 'Tonight" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" mixed with less known songs of his solo career, like "Every Night" and "That Would Be Something»».The highest point, however, is a surprisingly tender interpretation of "and i love her".It remains the final version outside the original of the Beatles.The concert was released in CD in the summer of 1991 under the title UNPLUGGED (The Official BOOTLEG), the first in a long series of official UNPLUGGED albums.

11 - Lauryn Hill

At the time, three long years had passed since the release of Lauryn Hill's first album, The Missucation of Lauryn Hill, when she went on the stage of MTV Unplugged.She had a ton of new songs, but she had just learned to play the guitar and was clearly not in a position to present them to the public."Whoever has ears can hear that there are only three agreements played on each song," said an anonymous framework for industry at Rolling Stone in 2003.I saw him with a room full of professionals, and someone said: "I want to jump out of the window" ".She is an artist who fights against a torn throat, the crushing weight of the expectations of the industry and his own fragility.Putting all this available to the public has been an act of incredible courage and Lauryn Hill delivered the most atypical, raw, that has ever seen the light of day.

10 - Neil Young

Neil Young was already playing unplugged concerts long before MTV invented the concept.But his first attempt to participate in an episode at Ed Sullivan Theater in New York in December 1992 was a full fiasco.Although he brought together the Stray Gators of Harvest and Harvest Moon, he was simply not satisfied with his performance, and ended up leaving the show and going out on the street, leaving the producers and the public perplexes.He returned and offered the public his first performance of "Last Trip to Tulsa", but he hated the show and refused to broadcast it.Two months later, they were trying to universal studios in Los Angeles.The list of songs is very different, with the song "Stringman" and a bewitching solo interpretation of "Like a Hurricane" at the barbarism organ.He let MTV broadcast this song.

9 - Alicia Keys

There have not been many major episodes of UNPLUGGED in the 2000s.But in 2005, Alicia Keys contributed to the return of the series with a breathtaking show to the Brooklyn Academy of Music.She then only had two albums, and therefore called on Adam Levine to sing "Wild Horses" of the Rolling Stones and Mos Def, Common and Damian Marley for "Welcome to Jamrock".What nobody knew at the time was that Keys almost brought Bruce Springsteen to play with her 1973 classic "New York City Serenade"."I was about to cry," she said.Our program did not agree.It was a huge disappointment for her.If they had managed to do it, it would have been one of the great moments in the history of aplugged.

8 - Hole

Less than a year after the suicide of Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and his group played a Unplugged concert to promote their album Live Through this.It was a courageous decision because she aroused comparisons with the Unplugged concert by her husband, which was already legendary.Courtney LOVE struggled on "Doll Parts" and "Miss World", she also resumed "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, with disconcerting ease.Finally, she took up the piece of Nirvana "You Know You’re Right", but changed the lyrics into "You’ve Got No Right".See the widow of Coban try to overcome an unimaginable loss on stage, a moment necessarily very moving.

7 - Mariah Carey

In the summer of 1992, Mariah Carey released two albums that sold very well, but she did not promote them with a lot of concerts, which caused rumors that she was bad on stage.To put an end to this, his label organized an Unplugged show at the Kaufman Astoria studios in Queens.The concert includes tubes like "Vision of Love" and "Emotions" as well as a cover of "I’ll Be there" by the Jackson Five, sung in duet with the chorister Trey Lorenz.The show has been so successful that MTV has released it for years and that the radio has adopted the version of "I’ll Be there".Even today, Trey Lorenz remains a key element of his stage group and they continue to sing "I’ll be there" together.

6 - LL COOL J / A Tribe Called Quest / de la Soul (1991)

At the start of the show, several artists participated in each episode.And the biggest success in this series was an episode entitled Yo!Unplugged Rap, which featured LL Cool J, Mc Lyte, A Tribe Called Quest and Soul.It was MTV's first attempt to integrate hip-hop into the unplugged universe, and it was a huge success.The highlight of the show was the song "Mama Said Knock You Out" by LL Cool J, who taught to all young Americans never carry white deodorant when they play shirtless on national television."People have teased me about the deodorant for years, but I love it," he said in 2010."It was raw!It was mean!At least you know that I couldn't.»»

5 - Eric Clapton (1992)

La ballade « Tears in Heaven»» d’Eric Clapton – inspirée par la mort tragique de son fils Conor, âgé de quatre ans – est apparue pour la première fois sur la bande originale du film Rush avec Jennifer Jason Leigh, sorti en 1991.But the version we remember the most was recorded during its MTV Unplugd concert.The death of his son put the guitarist in a naturally fragile state of mind, but he put all his pain in music and delivered a performance that was a great success when he was released on CD. En plus de « Tears in Heaven»», une reprise de « Layla»» de Derek and the Domino a également été jouée à de nombreuses reprises.

4 - Alice in Chains (1996)

Alice in Chains had not played a single concert for two and a half years when he went on stage at the Academy of Music in Brooklyn on April 10, 1996. La grave dépendance à l’héroïne du chanteur Layne Staley a rendu impossible la promotion de leur disque éponyme sorti en 1995, mais ce soir-là, il a pu oublier ses problèmes et se consacrer à sa musique, livrant des interprétations acoustiques inoubliables de « Rooster»», « Down in a Hole»», « Over Now»» et d’autres classiques d’AIC.Oddly, it was the guitarist Jerry Cantrell who had the most difficulty ensuring the concert, because he had eaten hot dogs earlier in the day and suffered from food poisoning.

3-Jay-Z (2001)

A few months after the release of The Blueprint, Jay-Z filmed a special program of UNPLUGGED at MTV studios in New York.He invited the roots to accompany him. Ils ont apporté une incroyable énergie live à des chansons comme « Big Pimpin'»», « Can I get A …»» et « Hard Knock Life»», les réinventant complètement.Mary J. Blige est venue chanter « Can’t Knock the Hustle»» et Pharrell l’a rejoint pour « I Just Wanna Love U (Give It Me)»».It’s a whole new way to discover Jay's catalog, and the ultimate example that any kind of music can work on stage with the right group and the right arrangements.

2 - Pearl Jam (1992)

Pearl Jam was just starting to make himself known when they recorded their Unplugged program at the Kaufman Astoria studios in Queens on March 16, 1992.They had just finished an exhausting European tour and had little time to prepare."We are literally descended from the plane from Europe, spent the whole day in a Caverneux recording studio in New York, and recorded the concert the same evening," said bassist Jeff ament.The group later clarified that he would have liked to have more time to set up a newly arranged set, as Nirvana would do it at the end of the following year, but that remains an amazing glimpse of a group that just beginsto become aware of your own power.

1 - Nirvana (1993)

UNPLUGGED is not the last concert of Nirvana.A week after the end of the concert, they resume their in utero tour, then went to Europe at the start of the following year for two months of additional concerts.But in many ways, the concert looked like their farewell to the world.The atmosphere was dark before they even entered stage, Kurt Cobain having insisted that the scene was dismal, decorated with lilies and black candles. Accompagné du guitariste de tournée Pat Smear et de la violoncelliste Lori Goldston, le groupe a laissé de côté presque tous ses succès au profit de reprises comme « The Man Who Sold the World»» de David Bowie, « Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam»» des Vaselines et pas moins de trois chansons des Meat Puppets, où ils ont été rejoints par Cris et Curt Kirkwood eux-mêmes. Au début du concert, Kurt a livré une interprétation glaçante de « Come as You Are»», répétant la phrase « no, I don’t have a gun»» en serrant les dents, un moment qui est devenu très difficile à regarder à la lumière des événements ultérieurs. Le spectacle se termine par « All Apologies»» et une reprise de « In The Pines»» de Lead Belly, qu’ils ont renommé « Where Did You Sleep Last Night»».