I gazed a gazely stare at all the millions here…
Following on from Sorrow‘s appearance in this same poll a few days ago, (05.23.2011 NEWS: SORROW IN GIBSON’S TOP 50 BEST COVER VERSIONS)
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Kurt Cobain?s affection for this title track from David Bowie?s 1970 album was palpable when Nirvana performed it during the band?s MTV Unplugged appearance.
In Nirvana?s hands, the song took on a warmer hue than the Bowie original, although the band was careful to preserve the mystery at the heart of the song.
Cobain?s faithful rendering of the haunting riff ? which had originally been played by the great Mick Ronson ? was transcendent. ? Russell Hall
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Under normal circumstances I guess that would be quite impressive. However, seeing as how SPIN magazine had the very same track at #1 in an identical poll a couple of years back, (
Check out that original SPIN news item for an amusing quotation from DB regarding his own mid-nineties live performance of the song.
On a related note, Nirvana;s original drummer, Chad Channing, reckons he turned Kurt on to The Man Who Sold The World in the first place…here’s a bit from a piece by Greg Prato over on
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“There was the one David Bowie record, The Man Who Sold the World, which I bought this copy of the record, because it had a little poster in it. I think in a music store in Boston. And I bought some blank tapes – we were at somebody’s house, and I put the record on tape, and put that in the player and started playing that.”
“Those guys were like, “Whoa! That’s a trip, what’s this? Well, I think Krist [Novoselic] heard it before…I know Kurt [Cobain] hadn’t though, because he asked me who it was, and I said, ‘This is David Bowie'”
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You can read the full thing