Nirvana: Unplugged.
Between this album and a high school friend, Dave, I came out of my shell. Granted, I was trapped within it, writhing because of such a sudden awakening, but without them both, who knows what horrors lay ahead?
That sounds so dramatic, but I am a sensitive person raised in a horribly insensitive world. It's even worse in small town America.
I had recently met Dave and we went to his house after a Lumberjack football game and he took a shower while I picked up his acoustic guitar and was strumming away.
(Brief guitar-playing history: I come from a musical family. I'd played viola since fifth-grade, I have recordings of my brother and I goofing around on my dad's guitar at the ripe age of 2. My brother, dad, mom, grandma, aunt, and stepdad all play. I knew relatively little about the technical aspects of what I was doing and the only song I knew was "house of the rising son," but for some reason I had been playing quite a bit lately)
Anyway, Dave saw I was curious, wrote out a few tab sheets, and I was on my way. This was the first album that I delved into. I haven't revisited it in its entirety in quite sometime, so here we go. "About a girl," "come as you are," "Jesus edoesn't want me for a sunbeam," "the man who sold the world," and "pennyroyal tea" have relatively low emotional resonance for me (tracks 1-5, respectively), but track 6 is when we start getting somewhere.
"Dumb" and "Polly" were both huge inspirations for learning chord changes quickly. So darkly beautiful and I have Dave to thank for introducing me to this stuff. My brother wouldn't have ever listened to this, so I quickly connected with my step-brother stylistically, and he was quick to introduce me to modest mouse, foo fighters, camper Von Beethoven, built to spill, and various other northwest, post-grunge bands. I couldn't stop listening to alice in chains and tool for the next three years, however, so a lot of his guidance was lost on me (sorry Alan).
It was strange listening to a band a couple of years after the impetus and person most directly responsible for their sound/aesthetic has committed suicide. It all brought a lot of rage, sadness, impotence, despair, fear, love, and many other things to the fore. I briefly flirted with suicide. It's laughable now.
After a few more songs with little emotional ties, the holy trifecta starts. Meat puppets' "lake of fire," my favorite nirvana song ("all apologies"), and leadbelly's "where did you sleep last night" round out the album. The sheer emotion of the final track is as epic as any iron maiden or old Metallica solo.
References
Music
- Unplugged, Nirvana, 1994.
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Location:Fox Hollow Rd,Eugene,United States
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