3 Acoustic Songs From the 1990s That Actually Rock

The creators of MTV Unplugged understood the power of a great acoustic performance. Even the loudest songs are often written on an acoustic guitar or piano before being transformed in a recording studio with dense arrangements. But some of the heaviest tracks from the 1990s were recorded with acoustic guitars, and are equally as powerful, if not more so, than their electric counterparts. I wonder what the “plugged in” versions of these three acoustic bangers would have sounded like.

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“Brother” by Alice In Chains from ‘Sap’ EP (1992)

When Alice In Chains entered the studio to record “Would?” for Cameron Crowe’s 1992 film Singles, the band recorded another batch of songs, some of which ended up on the stopgap EP Sap. “Brother” features guitarist Jerry Cantrell on lead vocals, but the track gets its biggest lift from Heart’s Ann Wilson, who backs Cantrell with her iconic voice. Two years later, Alice In Chains released Jar Of Flies and became the first band to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with an acoustic EP.

Pictures in a box at home
Yellowing and green with mold
So I can barely see your face
Wonder how that color taste.

“Breaking The Girl” by Red Hot Chili Peppers from ‘Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ (1991)

While holed up in a supposedly haunted mansion with producer Rick Rubin, the Red Hot Chili Peppers reinvented their sound and recorded their first masterpiece, the blockbuster Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Though “Give It Away” and “Under The Bridge” have long defined the album, “Breaking The Girl” and its psychedelic folk rock showcases an entirely new side of the Funky Monks. The track reaches its heaviest moment when drummer Chad Smith leads the rest of the band in thunderous percussion overdub. The clanging metals mimic a broken relationship, the moment when a couple reaches the “twilight of love.”

I don’t know what, when, or why
The twilight of love had arrived.

“Disarm” by The Smashing Pumpkins from ‘Siamese Dream’ (1993)

Billy Corgan said he wrote the lyrics to Siamese Dream on a typewriter, and if a line made him cringe, he’d keep it. He wanted to be as exposed as possible, and “Disarm” reads like a diary entry, making it one of the album’s most emotionally charged tracks. Corgan addresses his parents, with whom he had a tumultuous relationship as a child. He sings, “The killer in me is the killer in you, my love,” and Corgan’s bitterness became something that fueled many Smashing Pumpkins hits.

Photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns