That Pause In The Lyric

I just picked up some new tunes, one of which was a Leonard Cohen tune as covered by Nirvana on their MTV Unplugged Show, "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?"

There's something unsettling that takes place during Kurt Cobain's performance during that song

We all know that Kurt Cobain shot himself in the head with a shotgun

If you've seen the Unplugged show, and the Cohen song in particular, there's a short pause in the last line of the lyrics at the end

"I'll Shiver..........The Whole............(Takes audible breath
Night.....through"

Now, in the video, Cobain's expression changes in the lyric between "The Whole.................Night..Through."

When Cobain breathes, his expression suddenly looks like someone's face would when they've put the gun in their mouths and then pull the trigger

But with Cobain, it also looked like he wanted to change his mind, but knew it was too late to pull the bullet back in the gun

It's always the most compelling part of Cobain's Unplugged performance that night, that pause in the lyric