5 Against 1 by Kim Neeley - Reactions!

Cartwright

First time poster, long time reader, even longer time PJ fan.

I've known for a while that all the fans slagged this book and for that reason I never read it. The other day I said f#%k it (can u swear in this forum?) and bought it.

I thought the opening few chapters about the seattle punk scene was too long, I didn't give a shit who was in who's band throughout the 80's, the green river stuff was... bah! once the mother love bone stuff got going the book got going. While I knew most of the early days of PJ story I still found it very interesting.

I really really hated the Blood chapters. They felt really out of place. Everything was PJ related then suddenly it stops and becomes all about Eddie's childhood (as seen through the eyes of his estranged step-father). wtf? I don't care about his mother getting pregnant while she's not married, I don't care if Peter and Ed became good friends. It was like Peter Mueller used the book in an attempt to tell his side of the story, that's he's the good guy here, fuck off!

Once it got back on track with PJ's story it got better, though info on the Vitalogy and No Code albums was pretty lean. I didn't mind the book. I've heard it compared to that '96 Rolling Stone article on Eddie, but where that was a witch-hunt I thought this was pretty fair (most of the time).

I think Eddie's portrayal in the book would be pretty accurate. I like Eddie as much as the next guy but let's face it, he probably was like that. That's not a bad thing, that's just how he was. And the book gives quite plausible reasoning for his action. My perception of Eddie after reading the book was exactly the same as it was before reading it: Great singer, great lyricist, cool guy.

I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on the book (I know it's been out forever and everyone's probably forgotten it) but what did u guys think?

red mos

I love that book. I read it in 2 days, I couldn't put it down but then again I had a huge cast on my foot from surgery that summer of 2003! LOL.

I do agree that the chapter about Ed's childhood was a tad long and got kind of boring after awhile when Peter was telling the story, but I understand why the info was put in there.

I understand the pre pearl jam history being there, it's kind of required and a good prelude for a build up to the rest of the story. I do wish they had made the no code- yield era longer, but the main focus of the book was during their mainstream years when they were in the eyes of the media non stop.

There is rumored to be a dutch book on pearl jam that explains the latter years from no code to riot act I think. It is written in danish though. (Is that their language?, I apologize if that's not what it's called, I don't mean any insult at all. ). That book was rumored to have an English version printed in the U.S. but I'm not sure if that has happened yet.

Overall, outstanding book, just a little long winded in some areas during Peter's story telling.

In My Dreams

Welcome Cartwright.

I've always thought if I found it at a thrift shop or garage sale or the library, I would read it. After reading this board for the past few years, I've learned a lot. So I was never anxious to look for it.

I know that is not the answer you were looking for but I just had to post

And yes, you can say fuck on this board

JP2026766

Cartwright wrote:

First time poster, long time reader, even longer time PJ fan.

I've known for a while that all the fans slagged this book and for that reason I never read it. The other day I said f#%k it (can u swear in this forum?) and bought it.

I thought the opening few chapters about the seattle punk scene was too long, I didn't give a shit who was in who's band throughout the 80's, the green river stuff was... bah! once the mother love bone stuff got going the book got going. While I knew most of the early days of PJ story I still found it very interesting.

I really really hated the Blood chapters. They felt really out of place. Everything was PJ related then suddenly it stops and becomes all about Eddie's childhood (as seen through the eyes of his estranged step-father). wtf? I don't care about his mother getting pregnant while she's not married, I don't care if Peter and Ed became good friends. It was like Peter Mueller used the book in an attempt to tell his side of the story, that's he's the good guy here, fuck off!

Once it got back on track with PJ's story it got better, though info on the Vitalogy and No Code albums was pretty lean. I didn't mind the book. I've heard it compared to that '96 Rolling Stone article on Eddie, but where that was a witch-hunt I thought this was pretty fair (most of the time).

I think Eddie's portrayal in the book would be pretty accurate. I like Eddie as much as the next guy but let's face it, he probably was like that. That's not a bad thing, that's just how he was. And the book gives quite plausible reasoning for his action. My perception of Eddie after reading the book was exactly the same as it was before reading it: Great singer, great lyricist, cool guy.

I'd like to hear other people's thoughts on the book (I know it's been out forever and everyone's probably forgotten it) but what did u guys think?

I pretty much agree with you on your comments. Yeah, they went a little bit too long on the intro to the Seattle punk scene stuff, and they spent too much time on Ed's childhood/family issues. But overall, I found it a good read

DownStockholm

red mos wrote:

.............
There is rumored to be a dutch book on pearl jam that explains the latter years from no code to riot act I think. It is written in danish though. (Is that their language?, I apologize if that's not what it's called, I don't mean any insult at all. ). That book was rumored to have an English version printed in the U.S. but I'm not sure if that has happened yet.
.............

Danish is the official language in Denmark..
The language in the Nederlands is called the dutch language or something like that..

dane

red mos wrote:

There is rumored to be a dutch book on pearl jam that explains the latter years from no code to riot act I think. It is written in danish though. (Is that their language?, I apologize if that's not what it's called, I don't mean any insult at all. ). That book was rumored to have an English version printed in the U.S. but I'm not sure if that has happened yet.

That was a joke, right!?
Ah well, even if it wasn't, don't worry about it. Ed has made the same language mixup.
I think the book you're refering to is "I Pearl Jams fodspor" (In the footsteps of Pearl Jam) written by danish journalist and long time friend of the band Henrik Tuxen.
It follows the band from 96 up till now. It's main focus is the Roskilde accident, the victims and especially Ed and Stone's meetings with the families afterwards.
Henrik Tuxen is currently trying to find a publisher willingly to take the risk and publish the book in english.

knitted

dane wrote:

That was a joke, right!?
Ah well, even if it wasn't, don't worry about it. Ed has made the same language mixup.
I think the book you're refering to is "I Pearl Jams fodspor" (In the footsteps of Pearl Jam) written by danish journalist and long time friend of the band Henrik Tuxen.
It follows the band from 96 up till now. It's main focus is the Roskilde accident, the victims and especially Ed and Stone's meetings with the families afterwards.
Henrik Tuxen is currently trying to find a publisher willingly to take the risk and publish the book in english.

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=250908
i find the current lack of an english translation of this book extremely frustrating.

Joostone

the book is allright, but the eddie's childhood chapters are unforgivable.

This is a true story:

'4,5 years ago I was in Australia for a couple of months, luckily PJ played there on the Riot Act tour. At day I hung around the arena with some other fans, all hoping to see the band arriving for the soundcheck. One day they did, they talked to us and signed our cd's etc. One girl had this Kim Neely book and handed it to Jeff so he could sign it. Which he did, not only he signed the book on the first page he also wrote a friendly message to that girl, and then he took that big black marker to cross out the name Kim Neely everywhere he could see it. We all laughed about it.

Cartwright

a lot of the stuff dave said I took with a grain of salt as well. i love dave, i think he was the best drummer for the group but, i'm not sure what year it was published, 98 maybe, he still sounded bitter... On the other hand, there was an equal amount of times I was saying 'right on dave, enjoy it, fuck those other guys'.

Anon

They needed a better proofreader. It's BREECH delivery, not BREACH as published.

Sprunkn7

I read it because I had to, I'm a Pearl Jam fan. I was closely watching where all the information was coming from. There are always at least two sides to every story...In this book there was probably about 20 different views. Who to believe?

Niko80

its a cool read and I have to say there were times in the book where I was feeling with dave. eddie was obviously hard on him.

The thing that bothers me the most is that Eddie relied on Stone to fire Dave. Seing how this hate towards dave was 99% an eddie thing, he should have stepped up and finished the job himself. Instead he acts like a baby and puts the burden on Stone's shoulder. I bet Stone didn't like that one bit!

nutmeg81

picked it up in boston bookstore after years of tryin to get it in ireland!

aye the seattle scene info was a bit too much.....

all the info on ed's childhood was overly analysed....

vitalogy and no coed eras covered too quickley.....

maybe give it 4.5/10!

dane

knitted wrote:

http://forums.pearljam.com/showthread.php?t=250908
i find the current lack of an english translation of this book extremely frustrating.

It's all about the money. Tuxen wrote to me that he couldn't find a publisher that saw any profit in the book and that international payments would be a problem(?)
Hope he finds a solution, 'cause it's an interesting book.

faithful2you

Cartwright wrote:

a lot of the stuff dave said I took with a grain of salt as well. i love dave, i think he was the best drummer for the group but, i'm not sure what year it was published, 98 maybe, he still sounded bitter... On the other hand, there was an equal amount of times I was saying 'right on dave, enjoy it, fuck those other guys'.

I think anyone would have been a little bitter about how it happened. My opinion of the whole Dave - firing situation (from what I know, but only a handfull of people really know)...is Dave could have been a lot worse about it. You really didn't hear much from him bashing the band in the media or anything. Maybe it would have been different if it had happened in the days of the internet. But I'm sure he recieved and still recieves some nice royalty checks for Vs. and Vitology.

Kushikushun

Joostone wrote:

the book is allright, but the eddie's childhood chapters are unforgivable.

This is a true story:

'4,5 years ago I was in Australia for a couple of months, luckily PJ played there on the Riot Act tour. At day I hung around the arena with some other fans, all hoping to see the band arriving for the soundcheck. One day they did, they talked to us and signed our cd's etc. One girl had this Kim Neely book and handed it to Jeff so he could sign it. Which he did, not only he signed the book on the first page he also wrote a friendly message to that girl, and then he took that big black marker to cross out the name Kim Neely everywhere he could see it. We all laughed about it.

Great story Joost!
Sorry, I havent been online on 'Dutch Ramblings' a lot....I will, I promise

locked

the lightbulb story was pretty cool..

and , what a shock!.. Eddie is human like the rest of us...!

Who can blame him for wanting a Keith Moon Like drummer (aka Jack Irons) being such a Who fan.

After reading that book, I re-focused on Dave A's drumming and it IS a little one dimentional compared to Jack and Matt C.

Everyone gets all upitty until they consider that Matt Chamberlain played on Ten ...and not Dave A...

My two cents..

Stone Irons

locked wrote:

Everyone gets all upitty until they consider that Matt Chamberlain played on Ten ...and not Dave A...

Actually Dave Krusen played on Ten. Matt Chamberlain only did a month of touring for the band in the summer of '91.

faithful2you

Stone Irons wrote:

Actually Dave Krusen played on Ten. Matt Chamberlain only did a month of touring for the band in the summer of '91.

Yeah....Krusen quit the band becasue of girlfriend problems! How do you think he felt?!?!?!?

Army & Navy

Awful, awful book..High school journalism at best.

When will someone a great biography on this band - that covers the interesting period between VS & Riot Act...The band nearly broke up, but got through it and made it out the other side. Not very common these days...

However doubt it will happen - The band are private, and there's no way Gossard is going to admit what he thought about Vedder from the VS period through to Yield. They obviously didn't get on...

locked

Stone Irons wrote:

Actually Dave Krusen played on Ten. Matt Chamberlain only did a month of touring for the band in the summer of '91.

me bad..
That's what i meant to type..