By Kendra Hibbert
November 29, 2002
The Land of Music Biography is a happy place full of hard drugs, easy women and legendary excess. The story of a Rock Star is a cautionary tale full of lessons about life no one ever seems to listen to, since all good legends of rock seem to repeat the same mistakes again and again, no matter how many “Price of Fame” segments they see on VH1’s BEHIND THE MUSIC. This week, I’m taking a look at two generations of Rock n’ Rollers (and incidentally, two generations of heroin addicts) starting with Kurt Cobain’s JOURNALS and Bill Wyman’s ROLLING WITH THE STONES.
Kurt Cobain was (like all good rock stars) 27 when he commit suicide with a self-inflicted gun-shot wound to the head. When NIRVANA was first starting out, the music industry was still worried about home taping, the internet was a tool used exclusively for Trekkies locked in the Kirk vs. Picard debate and the term “alternative music” still meant something. All of these historical facts are evident when browsing through the low-tech, very personal journals of the man who would be King of Grunge.
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This book is a collection of Cobain’s writings literally ripped out of his notebook – all in his original handwriting, all with his various notes scrawled into the margins (though conveniently, the publishers have provided a typed transcription of some of the harder-to-read notes in the back). There’s no suicide note included, neither is there any juicy gossip about Courtney Love or anything about their child, Francis Bean. Of course, since it was Ms. Love who handed these private journals of her late husband to a publisher, one might assume that she conveniently left out any incriminating info about her or their child from those notebooks she provided. There’s only one mention of either of them in the diary and it’s a relatively benign reference, although in it, Cobain does admit to having a heroin addiction and explains that both he and Love kicked the habit together by locking themselves in a hotel room for a weekend. If you’re looking for any more insight into their controversial marriage or dirt on how the couple met or whether Kurt had problems with Love, you’re looking in the wrong place, my friend.
Most of the journal entries come from early in Cobain’s career while he was still a struggling musician, his teenage angst in full swing. These early diary entries are filled predominantly with words like abortion and rape and kill - except when he’s talking about music. Then Cobain lapses into a kind of hero worship that is focused and thoughtful. Bands that meant something to him like SONIC YOUTH, MUDHONEY and most obviously THE MELVINS (whom he discusses the most in these journal entries) are written about with passion and knowledge. It’s pretty obvious from what he writes at this time that the only thing that mattered to him from this young age was getting high and listening to music.
This is a very private look into the mind of Kurt Cobain (or as he called himself, “Kurdt”) though there’s nothing specifically fascinating about what he writes in these books.
Truthfully, this could be any disaffected teenager’s notebook filled with the regular bored/angry youth stuff – violent comics with Evel Knievel and Soupy Sales, jaggedly drawn-out high-school-math-class-doodle style beside pages of notes for a driver’s test beside notes for a possible NIRVANA video on the same page as a recipe for his Mom’s Sea Shell Shrimp Salad -- late night bitter ramblings about the world (some in which he admits to being high while writing them) which eventually gain more focus. As the bitter teenager grows into the bitter Rock Star, his hatred of the world in general is directed more toward the media and the mass marketing campaign he’s an unwilling participant in. He’s still angry, but he’s angry with a purpose. There are, along the way, a couple notes of interests – a letter to his father who was absent most of his life, and the first draft of a note to Dave Foster, the first drummer of NIRVANA, firing him from the band. The most interesting facet of this book is the pages of the notebook themselves. The rough aesthetics of the torn pieces of notebook paper and illegible scrawl are irresistibly interesting to look at. It makes the reading of this book a voyeuristic pleasure as if you just found this notebook lying around and are the only one who will ever get to read the private thoughts one of the biggest icons of the 90s.
This is a book that would make a great gift for really big fans of NIRVANA or Kurt Cobain. For everyone else, it’s interesting as a kind of curiosity – something to have lying around the house as a conversation piece for when guests come over. There are no great insights into anything in Cobain’s life or music or the Seattle Scene that you can’t find anywhere else, but there are a lot of intriguing moments in this book that allow the reader to glimpse into the private thoughts of a disillusioned rock star whose mind was very much like the slacker generation he spoke for.
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Thirty years before NIRVANA smelled like Teen Spirit, the ROLLING STONES were speaking for their era of forgotten youth with long hair and sloppy clothes and a bad boy image that, in today’s standards, would be considered cleaner than ‘N Sync. Bill Wyman was one of the original ROLLING STONES. He was there through most of their infamous times and fortunately kept a diary of those times, along with a collection of photographs and memorabilia that he has now brought together, in his book ROLLING WITH THE STONES.
The book is not just a history of the band but a history of Rock ‘n Roll - the influences, the key players from the early years and the musicians who inspired the next generation of Rock Stars like the BEATLES, ELVIS and the STONES themselves. This book, packed with pictures, starts with the toddler-to-teen years of each one of the key members of the band taking a look first at the Second World War, its effect on England and its influence on how each of them were brought up. Included are not only photos of the band but pictures of some of their contemporaries – John Lennon and Paul McCartney for example, and some photos and interviews with their idols as well, such as Muddy Waters and Little Richard and quotes from fans all over the world.
This is the quintessential coffee table book – full of interesting facts and crazy anecdotes from the original bad boys of rock. Insight straight from the source on events like the infamous urination incident at a Midwestern U.S. gas station, what went wrong at Altamont and background info on the various arrests the members of the band went through. Interspersed between these ROLLING STONES specific stories are side articles on the styles, clubs, people and fads of the time.
This is every ROLLING STONES fan’s dream book – a pictorial and literary history of the band – plenty of quotes, plenty of interesting and crazy facts, plenty of insight into the various members who have come into and out of the band over its 40+ year history. I found occasional problems with the way this book was laid out, with side articles falling sometimes between successive pages about the history of the band, making it difficult to follow the narrative. But who cares, when there are so many pictures to look at – rare never-before-seen glimpses of the band members in personal moments that are a part of Wyman’s private collection. When you pick it up you can read a little or a lot. This is a classic coffee table book that would make the perfect Christmas gift not only for ROLLING STONES fans but for those interested in the history of Rock and Roll in general.
Next Column:Though I’m usually reluctant to get into anything overtly political, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the biggest thing in books right now, which is Bob Woodward’s BUSH AT WAR. To counteract this conservative look at the U.S. Pres, I’ll be comparing it to Michael Moore’s STUPID WHITE MEN in an effort to maintain a façade of journalistic objectivity. Be here in two weeks to see if I succeed.
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