From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah is a live album by Nirvana, released on October 1, 1996. It features live performances recorded between 1989 and 1994. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling nearly 159,000 copies in its first week of release.
It spent 25 weeks on the chart and became the band’s sixth platinum album in the US since 1991. It was ranked ninth in Rolling Stone‘s 1997 critics’ poll of the top 10 albums of 1996.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah was the second Nirvana album released following the death of vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain in April 1994. It was compiled primarily by bassist Krist Novoselic, who also wrote the album’s liner notes.
Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl had originally intended to release a live album in 1994 to accompany what became MTV Unplugged in New York in a two-disc set originally titled Verse Chorus Verse (which had also been a working title for the band’s final studio album, In Utero, as well as the title of two Nirvana songs).
However, Novoselic and Grohl reportedly had a difficult time working on the album so soon after Cobain‘s death, and the album was compiled, but never mixed. The original track list featured several songs not present on From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah: Serve the Servants, Dive, Rape Me, Sappy and Territorial Pissings, and different versions of the overlapping songs, other than Negative Creep and Scentless Apprentice.
The album’s title refers to the Wishkah River in Aberdeen, Washington, where Cobain claimed to have spent nights sleeping under the Young Street Bridge as a teenager (as referenced in the song Something in the Way, from Nevermind). This claim has since been refuted by Novoselic, who said:
“He never lived under that bridge. He hung out there, but you couldn’t live on those muddy banks, with the tide coming up and down. That was his own revisionism.”
Tracklist:
- Intro (recorded by Craig Montgomery at the London Astoria, December 3, 1989)
- School (recorded by VPRO-TV in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at Paradiso, November 25, 1991)
- Drain You (recorded by Westwood One at Del Mar Fairgrounds, CA, December 28, 1991)
- Aneurysm (recorded by Westwood One at Del Mar Fairgrounds, California, December 28, 1991) Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic
- Smells Like Teen Spirit (recorded by Westwood One at Del Mar Fairgrounds, California, December 28, 1991) Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic
- Been a Son (recorded by VPRO-TV in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at Paradiso, November 25, 1991)
- Lithium (recorded by VPRO-TV in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at Paradiso, November 25, 1991)
- Sliver (recorded by Craig Overbay at the Springfield Civic Center, Springfield, Massachusetts, November 10, 1993)
- Spank Thru (recorded by Stereoral at Il Castello Vi de Porta, Castello 41 Rome, November 19, 1991)
- Scentless Apprentice (recorded for MTV Live and Loud by Scott Litt at Pier 48, Seattle, December 13, 1993) Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic
- Heart-Shaped Box (recorded by Craig Overbay at the Great Western Forum, Los Angeles, December 30, 1993)
- Milk It (recorded by Craig Overbay at the Seattle Center Arena, January 7, 1994)
- Negative Creep (recorded by Andy Wallace at the Paramount Theatre, Seattle, October 31, 1991)
- Polly (recorded by Craig Montgomery at the London Astoria, December 3, 1989)
- Breed (recorded by Craig Montgomery at the London Astoria, December 3, 1989)
- Tourette’s (recorded by Fujisankei Communications International, Inc. in Reading, England at the Reading Festival, August 30, 1992)
- Blew (recorded by VPRO-TV in Amsterdam, Netherlands, at Paradiso, November 25, 1991)
- Untitled (various concert outtakes and stage banter on side 4) Vinyl edition bonus track
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain: vocals, guitar
Krist Novoselic: bass guitar
Dave Grohl: drums (except on “Polly” and “Breed”), background vocals on “Drain You”, “Aneurysm”, “Been a Son”, “Sliver” and “Heart-Shaped Box”
Chad Channing: drums on “Polly” and “Breed”
Pat Smear: rhythm guitar on “Sliver”, “Scentless Apprentice”, “Heart-Shaped Box” and “Milk It”, background vocals on “Sliver” and “Heart-Shaped Box”
Production
Scott Litt, Craig Montgomery, Craig Overbay: engineering
Bob Ludwig: mastering
Shauna O’Brien, Diane Stata: production, production coordination
Andy Wallace: engineering, mixing on tracks 3, 4, 5, 10, 12, and 13
Krist Novoselic: liner notes
Robert Fisher: design
Lisa Johnson, Kevin Mazur, Charles Peterson: photography
Mark Kates: photography
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994).
