People think Nirvana is the gold standard when it comes to MTV unplugged and grunge. It's not, it's Alice in Chains and how they have 0 Grammys and not in the Rock Hof is beyond me.
I used to think Nirvana was the unplugged standard and then I listened to Alice in Chains. There is no competition Alice in Chains is blows Nirvana out of the water. When comes Grammys Nirvana were industry darlings and wrote bubblegum that sounds edgy. Alice in Chains didn't, they wrote songs about war, break ups, dealing, and addiction. Also not being in the Rock Hall of Shame is a badge of honor at this point. If you were not liked by the press you are not getting in. Look how long it took for Rush to get in. And they did it mainly so people would stop complaining.
Tremendous tone he got there. Also the production/mixing of this Unplugged album is phenomenal, everything sounds full, especially the mighty BASS. Eargasm for bass lovers.
@@stefanodegerome5586 That's exactly what makes it sound fretless. Chorus on bass was very common in '90s production. It's all over Nirvana's Nevermind, for example. Andy Wallace almost always puts chorus on the bass to make it sound wider and give it more movement.
"Love the candles, the blue lighting." No one really knew if Layne Staley would show for the gig. No one knew that he'd dyed his hair pink. They had to scramble to redo the stage lighting to account for the pink hair. I've read that the candles were a last minute addition.
Lane himself showed up with all the candles and told them it's the only way he'd do it is if it was dark with candle lighting. Possibly because his eyes were sensitive to the light, he was deep into a heroin addiction. Possibly he just liked the mood it created and found it better to sing with. In any case, he showed up with candles pushing for the dark set.
I know what you mean . This EP felt like it was written to be the soundtrack to the worst point in my life and every song i could have used to do the talking for me to explain what i was going though and how i was feeling about it. Nutshell is a important and close to my soul song that not only was a time date stamp for such hard times but mirrored them in every word and every note . Such a sad yet impactful song that ive played in place of spilling my emotions out on the table and my words where not needed to get my point across.
This is the best MTV Unplugged, in my opinion, although Nirvana's is great too. There are so many tracks in this performance worth checking out. Also, doing a listen to Jar of Flies in its entirety is worthwhile as well. It's a perfect album, imo.
@@rome8180 To each his own 🤘🏼 They're all good in my book. But we are both talking when unplugged WAS what it was supposed to be. Soon as I saw LL Cool J (who I do like), it just lost something to me.
@@shannonbrock5971seeing how nobody knew if Layne was going to show up since he was deep into heroin at that time and hearing lyrics like I fight this battle all alone and I feel better dead. Yes it’s haunting and sad
So glad you decided to do this song and particularly this version of it. Everyone is doing their own part and the use of the acoustic is fantastic. Thank you!
I became a musician because this era of music made me feel things i didnt even understand yet. Its real. Its authentic. It touches you. Im not sure we've had such soulful music since. I know ive never felt as powerful a gravitational pull. Early Smashing Pumpkins & Alice in Chains with Layne, are the emotional foundation of my musical self. Its of a time and timeless at the same....time.
@@phantom9813 They are for me. AiC is my favorite band from the late 80s and 90s and 2nd most favorite band ever behind Steely Dan. Blind Melon is my second most favorite band of the 90s behind AiC.
I want everyone in this particular comment thread to know that you are my people. Also, it's a pretty surface level cut, but listen to "Soup" by Blind Melon. It's fantastic.
The Unplugged show in 1996 is so heartbreaking to watch because he was deep in his heroin addiction (and yes, I know he was doing other drugs on top of Heroin). His liver was damaged from the years of drug use and he knew it. He was just high enough to do the show to deal with the withdrawal symptoms and so he didn't get dope sick. He was such a ghost of himself during Unplugged. (Of course, Jerry had food poisoning) All Jerry saw when he looked over at Layne was his best friend was going to die soon due to the path Layne had chosen for his life. That show was filmed in April 1996, premiered in May 1996. They did four shows with KISS in June-July 1996, after which Layne survived an overdose and became a recluse. After that, it was a 6-year-long slow suicide. On Unplugged, Scott Olson was the second guitarist. He was there to boost the guitar sound on the stage. Layne was better Live than the studio version. LOVE HATE LOVE live at the Moore in December 1990 is UNTOUCHABLE PERFECTION performed live by a rock band. Other rock bands should strive to have a live performance that perfect. Layne Staley's vocal range can run rings around any other grunge singer in my opinion. Layne could sing the phone book and never hit a wrong note. Even at the end of his life, with no teeth and a lisp, his voice, wit and humor were all still there. Layne's voice and vocal range were so powerful he did NOT need auto tune or pro-tools until he lost his teeth and had a lisp around 1998, and even then he still killed the vocals. (He started losing his teeth in 1995 due to grinding) Barrett Martin (who played with Layne in Mad Season) said that when he stood to the side of the stage, he could hear the sound of Layne's vocal resonance come out of Layne's body LOUDER than it did coming out of the speakers, Layne's voice was that powerful. I'm in the camp of No Layne/No Chains, because no matter which singer you put up there to sing those songs, it'll only be a cover. Layne had a unique voice you cannot replicate or replace. A lot of those songs were great because Layne pretty much wrung his entire soul out singing them, others were personal to Layne and to have someone else sing those, the songs lose their meaning because the new guy didn't go through the ordeals those songs are inspired by. William DuVall singing THEM BONES on the 2006 reunion tsunami gig.... William DOES NOT have the power in his voice that Layne had especially for that song. Maynard James Keenan could get remotely close to Layne's vocal range for that song (and many others). And Maynard would have the reverence for Layne's memory, he was friends with Layne, he KNEW Layne, had a history with Layne, and saw what Layne went through from Lollapalooza 93 until Layne became a recluse. Besides, Maynard already had 3 bands going on, why not join a fourth band? He had tried rehab 13 times, but he could never completely give it up. He tried quitting cold turkey on two of the last attempts at rehab, but neither one worked either. Mad Season is made up of Mike McCready of Pearl Jam, Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees, and John Baker Saunders and they all went through rehab. They all got together and dragged Layne out of his condo, got him excited about doing ABOVE album, thinking if he was creative he wouldn't want the drugs, and for the length of time it took to do that, Layne was excited about the project, but it didn't curb his drug habit. Layne wrote the lyrics to the songs he sang on the ABOVE album (minus the John Lennon cover song I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier) and he drew the cover art for the album. NUTSHELL was about how magazines like FOR EXAMPLE Rolling Stone only reported on Layne's addiction as if that were the only thing that defined the band as well as Layne's depression. Rolling Stone magazine has some unknown thing to do with the Hall of Fame, and after what Rolling Stone did to Layne and the band in the 1996 The Needle and the Damage Done article ("Oh no, it will be about the music" "Oh yeah, the band's picture will be on the cover" turns out it was only Layne on the cover and the article focused on Layne's addiction -- which Layne DID NOT want to happen -- and everything going wrong internally with the band.) that pissed off AIC management and the entire band to the point they threatened to kick the writer, Jon Weiderhorn's ass over it. I don't see Rolling Stone chomping at the bit to vote AIC into the Hall of Fame. Although if they do finally get in with William as the singer and NOT Layne. I'm going to be pissed. As far back as late 1992, Rolling Stone has personally had a bone to pick with Layne Staley, even though I can name a dozen bands who wrote about drugs in their lyrics that Rolling Stone never cared to target before or after Layne came along. Layne’s mentioned Rolling Stone hounding him in passing to Riki Rachtman during the New Orleans episode of Headbanger’s Ball in late 1992 when Layne and Mike Starr tour New Orleans and a Voodoo museum with Riki back then. There were other magazines and "reporters" BEFORE 1996 that hounded Layne over his drug addiction. Rolling Stone wasn't the only rag mag to do it. Spin Magazine and many other tabloid music mags only wanted to focus on Layne's addiction. It's why they stopped doing interviews for the longest time, and after the 1996 Rolling Stone interview, they closed ranks and as far as I know, while Layne was alive they never granted another interview. They DID do Rockline in 1998 (Layne called in while Jerry was promoting his Boggy Depot solo album) and 1999 (when the band was promoting Nothing Safe and the Music Bank box set). But for the most part, they closed ranks around each other. MTV (and the music industry) has more or less blackballed Layne (and yet, they laud over Kurt Cobain every April 5th, because Kurt was the "face of grunge", meanwhile Layne gets a "by the way"). The Grammys went so far as to invite Jerry, Mike, and Sean to the Grammy show in 2003 and then refused to put Layne's picture up in the memorial of the musicians who died in 2002. (Or they "forgot" to) which pissed Jerry, Mike, and Sean off and they walked out on the show. Even though the music industry would like to have written him out of history, Layne DID exist. He was on this earth for 34 years. In that time he wrote songs that gave a normal person insight into the mind and journey of an addict. The pain and depression he endured to write the most brutally honest lyrics a musician could write concerning his feelings on his own addiction, his depression, and the tumultuous relationship with his former fiancee Demri. The emotional and physical strength he had to perform those songs live when all he wanted to do was curl away and lose himself in the drug haze I can’t imagine what it was like for him. He was hounded by the press about his addiction. He was ridiculed for his addiction. The music industry blackballed him for his addiction. The Grammys forgot about him when he died. As far as MTV and music rag mags like Rolling Stone were concerned he’s just another addicted singer. They don’t want to acknowledge his contributions to music. Layne Staley WASN'T just some rock star junkie. HE DESERVED BETTER than what he received from the people around him who he thought mattered. He wrote about drugs, his addiction, what he was feeling and what he was going through with maturity and knowledge well beyond his years. He didn’t deserve to be turned into tabloid cannon fodder by the press. I remember a show in London on February 26, 1993 where a reporter who was based in London wrote about a concert they did in another part of Europe and got Mike Inez confused with Mike Starr. Layne got on the microphone between them finishing HATE TO FEEL and beginning ANGRY CHAIR and said, "I want to say um, I want to say hello to the guy who wrote the review on the show a few weeks back. You’re in London - an enemy. I want to introduce our bass player, MIKE INEZ, not Mike Starr, you fucking idiot! Fuck that prick! Fuck the press! We’re not playing for the fucking press, all right?” "Layne was just an incomparable talent. He was like a fucking myna bird. Any accent or sound or voice, he could just immediately repeat it. He just had a gift. And I’d like to think that I have a bit of a gift myself. One of the funniest descriptions I’ve ever heard, and I don’t know that it’s true, but it just sounds fucking great, was we sound like “the satanic Everly Brothers.” Together we were kind of a two-headed monster. It added a lot of depth to the material the way we worked together." -- Jerry Cantrell (Noisey, June 7, 2018) My Top 20 AIC songs... Love Hate Love (Live at the Moore, December 1990...Layne Staley in his prime and is UNTOUCHABLE PERFECTION performed live by a rock band. All other rock bands should strive to have a live performance this perfect), Man in the Box (Live at Weedsport, NY 1991 - the Layne’s Pissed Version...though the original version may be better to react to, because Weedsport was during Clash of the Titans tour where Slayer fans were giving the band crap and Layne got pissed and changed the lyrics), Bleed the Freak (Live at the Moore, December 1990), It Ain’t Like That (if you need a video use Singles Pro Shot video), Queen of the Rodeo (Live in Dallas, TX 1990), Real Thing (Live ANYWHERE), Them Bones, God Smack (Live at Hollywood Rock, 1993), Grind, Again, No Excuses, Brush Away, Frogs, Sludge Factory (During MTV Unplugged 1996, Layne screwed up the 2nd verse like 8 times, though the show only included one of those times), What the Hell Have I, God Am, Got Me Wrong, Swing On This, Social Parasite, We Die Young
I got called out in a different comment section for calling this Layne's swan song...I know they went on to perform four more shows after this (opening for Kiss), and performed on Letterman...but I still contend that this feels more final than anything else. I know he struggled on for six more years, but the desperation and acceptance of his fate permeates this performance...its incredibly sad.
Man, one of the coolest things about your videos is how you try to get the bass tone of the bassists you are reviewing. It's I guess a small thing, but I don't see a lot of other reviewers who bring an instrument to the show, put in the extra work and research to get these tones. I just wanted to say that effort hasn't gone unnoticed and is appreciated.
This comment made my day, and I'm glad you noticed! I do try my best on each one, especially if I have a general idea about the band's tonality. Some of the blind reactions I can't, but surely go back after the video and do a little EQ / FX in post to get it in the ballpark. I think it helps translate better for the viewer. Cheers, and thank you again!
Many fans know this but jar of Flies was self produced, written and recorded in just one week. After the Lollapalooza tour the members returned home to find that they were evicted after not paying rent., so they moved into the London Bridge Studio in Seattle and this album ended up happening. According to Cantrell the band didn't have any planned tracks before the session began. They mostly just wanted to test out their chemistry with new bassist Mike Inez. They never intended for the music they created during this time to be be released, but the label heard it and really liked it, so Jar of Flies happened. It's still a 31 minute album which is really close to being a regular non EP release. A band under any other circumstance would just throw together a junk song or something and make it a regular release, but they essentially created an album when they had no intentions of even creating an album. One of the best songs on the album is Rotten Apple, but it's a 7 minute song, which is why they never released it as a single.
Every time I see and hear this, with Laynes performance and the lyrics... I dont understand how there isn't a stunned silence from the crowd. Just... a timeless performance.
Music has been entertaining people for thousands of years. It truly can paint a picture on how the musician feels, their perspectives and thoughts. Many times you have to listen to the lyrics, for us non-musicians it's cool to have someone explain all that to us in the form of the bass. We may enjoy the bass, lead guitar, drums, but we just think it sounds good, or cool, Low End, you do great on breaking it down for us and giving us a deep perspective and feel of the bass in the songs.
Man, I gotta say thank you for breaking down how the writing in this song creates so much emotion and how it was played. Now I understand why this song has always meant so much to me. I’ll be learning this song tomorrow. Thank you thank you thank you. You’re video analysis of such great songs is always amazing!
Just may be one of the greatest performances that i have ever watch live or well for original release.. watching this brings up so many emotions for me from different points in my life.. i love and hate this song for what it does for me.
Love this video. Nuthsell is a perfect song. My favorite chord is C9 hahaha which is the basis of this song, and I think it's also Jerry's favorite chord. Rotten Apple is an amazing song from Jar of Flies with great bass notes. Thank you
The bass sounds so good in the mix and Inez looks like he's having a lot fun during the set. I watched the full show for the first time in a long time last year and almost immediately went out and bought an acoustic bass.
This is Layne at his funeral giving his own eulogy and it crushes me. That aside, your analysis and explanation was not only insightul but also truly helpful in helping understand why I am feeling what I feel when I hear it. Thanks again.
The thing that makes this my favorite record of theirs is that it wasnt supposed to be a release. It was just studio time booked with their new bassist. It was so good they released it.
Fantastic breakdown as usual, and this just happens to be my favorite Alice in Chains song. I didn't realize this was the last time Layne performed this song, that makes it even more poignant and haunting. Also, I wouldn't unsubscribe if you brought out an acoustic guitar, but I don't consider myself just a bass player. I know bassists can get funny about that kind of thing 😆
After you talk about the call and response and me being a recovering addict is almost feels like Mike and Layne are talking to each other and expressing there pain. Jerry is trying to keep it upbeat for the most part. That's how I feel
One of my favorite bass lines. Ever. You talked about how this song makes us feel…..as a Gen-Xer bands like AIC defined our generation. Seeing a fallen icon like Layne do this song is a summation of my generations struggle. Many people my age in the 90s had such optimism that we would change the world, that we would right the wrongs of previous generations. We hoped to take the core of the social movements of the 60s a step further and turn the system on its edge. But, I feel as my generation has aged, we have lost our way & our will, as many do when life sneaks up on them. We feel defeated and even ashamed. My point being, this song always reminds me of Gen X and its ideals fading out, much as we lost so many of our musical heroes in the 90s, and honestly this song makes me sadder than any other. But I still listen all the way through whenever it comes on.
The bass is just killer, both tone and the choices Inez made, Jerry of course and Layne, God rest his soul, and Mike Star as well. But Sean Kinney set the time, the level, and just killed it here. Its very difficult to play drums like this, subtle but right there. This show was magic
The first album featuring Mike Inez was "Jar of Flies" but the first material he recorded with Alice was 'What The Hell Have I' and 'A Little Bitter' that dropped about six months before "Jar of Flies". The strength of those two songs perpetually had my brother (and fellow fan) and I wondering what an EP's worth of material would have been like if the band had that in them back then rather than just the two songs. Regardless I'm grateful for all that we do have by Alice.
This is my favorite mtv unplugged. It’s so good but haunting seeing Layne in this knowing what he was going through. The bass is what makes this song so good with the acoustic tone and the way he fills in with those bass fills.
Old school fan from back in the late eighties of these guys. I’ve heard their music referred to as beautiful music to die to.. the music to me at least reflects the time in the Pacific Northwest.
Love me some AIC! thanks for the video, Mark. Kinda bummed you didn’t dress up for the Halloween thriller video 😂 did you do any costumes for Halloween night?
Appreciate it man! Ha, I wanted to dress up but just ran out of time, so threw in some fun editing and sound effects for the intro 😅 -- next time! We set up a full band in my garage each year and play Halloween-themed songs - my neighborhood loves it!
I Stay Away has always been a personal favorite of mine but as far as their self titled goes.. Over Now would probably have the best bass lines to analyze, tho it’s admittedly one of my least favorite songs. Rain When I Die's bass lines are also great
Probably the most interesting song bass-wise from Nirvana Unplugged is their cover of The Man Who Sold the World. That one is difficult because the entire performance is just so subdued and the Krist is just kind of hanging out in the background. The BEST performance, though, is their cover of Leadbelly's Where Did You Sleep Last Night? because its really haunting knowing that Kurt died a couple of months before Unplugged was released.
Besides the best bass tone ever, what really stands out to me about AIC Unplugged is how every instrument has it's own place in the mix and respects the other instruments' places in the mix.
I don’t know why, but as time goes on, I feel most sad for Jerry in this. He’s having to finish phrases due to Layne’s lost teeth, wonder if they’ll play again, think about him as a brother who Layne took in. Some sadness in life makes sense, but this one doesn’t. Jerry, you are appreciated more than you know ❤ And great channel, you make things seem simple for the bassists who haven’t picked one up in a while! 😂
Not an AIC fan at all, but I’ve always enjoyed this performance since I first come across it. Something chilly and eerie about it, maybe as people say, Layne kind of knew his days were coming to an end.
So Alice in Chains released 3 EPs during the Lane years all three of them came out a month or two before an LP. The first was We Die Young containing the title track, It Ain’t Like That, and Killing Yourself. The first two would end up on Facelift but Killing Yourself never ended up on an LP. Number two and my personal favorite is Sap which has Brother, Got Me Wrong, Right Turn, Am I Inside, and Love Song. And finally, everyone's favorite Jar of Flies which has Rotten Apple, Nutshell, I Stay Away, No Excuses, Whale & Wasp, Don’t Follow, and Swing on This. AIC’s LPs are amazing but you need to listen to their EPs. When Lane was alive the EPs are where he truly wore his heart on his sleeve Jerry did as well. With Lane writing about addiction and fame with No Excuses and Nutshell. And Jerry writing about his strained relationship he had with his siblings growing up with Brother. Oh and if you want a Nirvana suggestion I can't think of better one then Polly.
I know there aren't many AIC covers that are worth reacting to, but check out PLUSH's Sirius XM live version of Down in a Hole. The bass player Ashley Suppa's father, Mike Suppa was involved in the original AIC and it is one of the best covers ever of that song.
appreciate this reaction.. i came to "Grunge" 3 decades late,, and the accuracy, the clarity of the video makes this look as if it were last week, not in any way a musician but i do love good music..
This is the only second time I’ve heard someone touch on the unsettlement this music creates, or as I’ve also described it, the notes gives you this unresolved feeling, something is…missing, but it feels right to sit in the melancholy state.
There are many many references in the lyrics of the Layne era that are seeming to describe or narrate an unavoidable and tragic end. At the time we listened to him and thought it was just his style. Only those that were really close to him will know. Such a huge loss. Never even got to see him live, the one show I went too, they pulled out. (supporting Metallica, Milton Keynes UK. 1993)
I found this kind of late and i dont know if you will see it but a little fun fact, the reason his bass says friends dont let friends give friends haircuts is because metallica was in the front row right after they cut their hair
This was the exact song that made me want to buy and learn to play a guitar, and then later also bass and ukelele. It's so hauntingly beautiful, and also so relatable at certain times of my life. It really stands out amongst the rest of their catalogue. I also have a huge love for Over Now, which was the last song on their last studio album. Almost like it was the band's outro to their career with Layne, especially with "Taps" being played in the intro. Like they knew Layne was soon to be their fallen soldier. So sad, really. Also, damn, that's a wide neck.
Mike Inez carries the songs on Jar of Flies with his sublime bass lines. He knows exactly what to play and how to complement Cantrell's riffs without stepping on them.
I just think it's so cool he inverted almost every chord in this song with his note choices. What a way to change up the feel, but not compete with any of the guitar work.
All those hipsters scoring views from ''first time'' viewing Nutshell and crying how good it is or being a singing coach/ and there is this guy.. Thanks dude!
I dig the acoustic into chorus pedal sound and I really dig how they mixed this unplugged performance. There are a lot of sections where bass is panned to one side and Jerry’s guitar is on the other. In theory it seems like something that might not work but It made for a really intimate sound while spreading the stereo image in situations where a single guitar and bass would both be mono.
Thanks, guys! Do you think this would be better than "Lounge Act"? I don't think I've heard either before. I know the few usual Nirvana hits, but not much else.
The self-titled album has quite a few that would be great for you to cover. I’d give it a listen and see what gives you the feels. The songs Again, God Am, and Sludge Factory are some in there that I like the most.
To read more about AIC, I highly recommend Alice in Chains: The Untold Story by David de Sola. It's not only a very thorough and well-researched look into AIC, but I also learned a lot of the early days of grunge. After reading it, I listened to AIC in an entirely different way, and experienced their music differently. It was very enlightening.
Nice analysis. Cheers for that! And you're right. For me, AIC was different because it felt like we were very much mourning the guys in this band for years before Layne passed, then Mike of course. Even at the height of their popularity we were sort of drowning along with so many of these unbelievably poignant songs. I loved it, personally. I'm generally a happy dude, and still.
AIC Unplugged was amazing, even with Layne being as sick as he was. He already had lost teeth which caused him to lisp and made him very self concious, but his voice is one of those you can always identify in a song. One of a kind.
