Well, here’s some cool news. Paramount has added 50 classic episodes of MTV Unplugged to its streaming service. Some of these episodes haven’t been officially available to watch for over 20 years.
For those not aware, back in the 1990s and early 2000s MTV featured music and wasn’t just a zombie channel showing endless reruns of Ridiculousness. One of the channel’s most popular shows was MTV Unplugged. This was a live concert series that brought in different artists and bands and had them play their music using a minimal amount of instruments and tech. And now Paramount+ has added a ton of classic MTV Unplugged episodes, including famous performances by Nirvana and Alice in Chains.
As noted in a press release by Paramount, many of these Unplugged episodes “haven’t been available in 20+ years.” Sure, you could find some of the most famous ones on YouTube in various levels of quality, but most were much trickier to find and the versions floating around online looked and sounded terrible. So it’s really nice to have a large chunk of music history accessible again. Well, accessible if you have Paramount+. I have the service because I love Star Trek and Survivor, and I rewatch Frasier. If you ask nicely I’ll share my account with you.
One of the Unplugged episodes added to Paramount+ features the infamous 1996 performance by Oasis. That episode almost didn’t happed because days before the event, Liam Gallagher reportedly complained of a sore throat. And when the band finally showed up an hour before taping, he was apparently very drunk. Noel Gallagher, his brother, ended up singing the entire show on his own. This episode existed in some low-quality forms online already, but now you can watch a pristine version of this famous concert that almost wasn’t.
Beyond Unplugged, Paramount+ has also added a ton of VH1 Storytellers episodes, too. This was a similar show to Unplugged, but even more stripped down and with the artists talking more about their lives or the origins of their songs in between numbers.
Now, excuse me, I’m going to listen to Nirvana’s performance of The Man Who Sold The World again.