The origins of MTV Unplugged

Everyone, I am sure, has heard of Alice in Chains and Nirvana's unplugged albums, which launched the MTV unplugged stuff. Soon, everyone and their aunt was doing unplugged stuff.

Of course, the question is how did any of this originate?

Tesla, a middle-class band if ever there was one - 3 of the members drove trucks - was the first band to suggest an unplugged album. It was quite an experiment, but their album "5 man acoustical Jam" is, in my opinion, hard to beat. Playing acoustic is a true test of the ability of a band, and they pull it off superbly.

Tesla are often put in the same category as some of the far inferior hair metal bands - Poison, Motley Crue - now these bands wrote a couple of okay songs, but for sheer talent, Tesla was far and above anything else.

But then, if "It's my life" can have 32 million hits what do I know.

The thing to listen to is how the sound of the album is very organic, you can feel this stuff being played live. There is almost no hint of production, and indeed such was the case. This is as good proof as any as to how good the band was. Yet, because they had long hair, they were labelled a hair metal band and that music was crap wasn't it. Honestly this stuff really amazes me, how shallow people could get.

Plus, they wrote a song about the feud between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison. Some might say how could that be rock and roll, but the amazing thing is it is. I appreciate the chicks-drugs-booze songs but we need a few things different now and then.

Of course, it must rock, which "Edison's Medicine" does. Sample lyric:

"All that he saw, all he conceived,
They just could not believe.
Steinmetz and Twain were friends that remained,
Along with number three.
He was electromagnetic, completely kinetic,
"New Wizard of the West."
But they swindled and whined that he wasn't our kind,
And said Edison knew best.

You took a shot and it did you in.
Edison's medicine!
You played your cards, but you couldn't win.
Edison's medicine!"

Fun fact: Tesla's most popular song was, wait for it, yes a ballad, "Love song". The version of it on the acoustic CD isn't bad, but the original is a paint-by-numbers thing. Thus, if you only heard that song, which most people probably have, it isn't what they were about. Yet another instant of record companies muscling in.

And, they had a sense of humor, a great video that lists every cliche a rock video is subject to. That's all folks.