Has anyone read "Nirvana" by Everett True?

doog

I was considering buying this book last night at Border's, but i put it back. I thought i'd ask for some feedback from people here first. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

norm

I've only read "Heavier Than Heaven". It was a good read.

SLH916

I read it and found it to be a good read, and if you are a Nirvana fan, you will find it especially absorbing. True is a huge, huge fan, and it shows.

If you cared about Kurt Cobain, reading almost any biography is pretty upsetting. His life was a real mess, and it is painful to delve into the details. Sometimes I think that maybe it's better to listen to the music and not know too much about the artist, but I'm a reader, and I can't seem to stop myself.

As far a biographies go, it isn't as objective as it should be. True tends to excuse Kurt for a lot of truly nasty behavior. If you are a Pearl Jam fan, which I wasn't when I read the book, he continues Kurt's tradition of dissing their music and seems to take pleasure in dissing Eddie in particular.

ScotInAmsterdam

I just finished it and really enjoyed it. It does indeed feel like the true story,

catefrances

SLH916 wrote:

As far a biographies go, it isn't as objective as it should be. True tends to excuse Kurt for a lot of truly nasty behavior. If you are a Pearl Jam fan, which I wasn't when I read the book, he continues Kurt's tradition of dissing their music and seems to take pleasure in dissing Eddie in particular.

i've read everett true, but not this book. yes he does show a certain disdain for pearl jam.
i like his writing. i think that it is not such a bad thing for biography to be non objective. i think when one writes on a subject that one loves, that has to show through. otherwise what is the point? i like personal insight when i read a biography. if you have an anecdote why not share it? why not say why you thought a band was the greatest band in the world? if you truly believe it. why not call people on their bullshit?

SLH916

catefrances wrote:

i've read everett true, but not this book. yes he does show a certain disdain for pearl jam.
i like his writing. i think that it is not such a bad thing for biography to be non objective. i think when one writes on a subject that one loves, that has to show through. otherwise what is the point? i like personal insight when i read a biography. if you have an anecdote why not share it? why not say why you thought a band was the greatest band in the world? if you truly believe it. why not call people on their bullshit?

catefrances,

Are you a big Nirvana fan? You can feel how much pain True was in watching Kurt self-destruct. Both Kurt's physical and emotional pain are pretty well described. Music itself just wasn't enough of a refuge for him as it seems to have been for Eddie.

catefrances

SLH916 wrote:

catefrances,

Are you a big Nirvana fan? You can feel how much pain True was in watching Kurt self-destruct. Both Kurt's physical and emotional pain are pretty well described. Music itself just wasn't enough of a refuge for him as it seems to have been for Eddie.

as a matter of fact nirvana are my favourite band and have been since the early 90s. what has that got to do with anything? i have read everett's thoughts of kurt cobain before. for me it was about someone who knew kurt(and courtney fort hat matter) telling the story with that in mind. someone who knew what the fuck he was talking about. and someone who knew the pain kurt was in. someone who went beyond the 'oh poor poor kurt can't handle fame' bullshit. it pisses me off no end when people compare kurt with eddie vedder and point out that eddie managed to handle his success where kurt couldn't. two different animals as far as i can see.
and when you have eddie vedder commenting that he thought he would have gone first, well that just turns my stomach. were we suppose to commiserate with eddie? were we suppose to say, 'oh hang on a minute where's eddie's head at? better keep an eye on him'

SLH916

catefrances wrote:

as a matter of fact nirvana are my favourite band and have been since the early 90s. what has that got to do with anything? i have read everett's thoughts of kurt cobain before. for me it was about someone who knew kurt(and courtney fort hat matter) telling the story with that in mind. someone who knew what the fuck he was talking about. and someone who knew the pain kurt was in. someone who went beyond the 'oh poor poor kurt can't handle fame' bullshit. it pisses me off no end when people compare kurt with eddie vedder and point out that eddie managed to handle his success where kurt couldn't. two different animals as far as i can see.
and when you have eddie vedder commenting that he thought he would have gone first, well that just turns my stomach. were we suppose to commiserate with eddie? were we suppose to say, 'oh hang on a minute where's eddie's head at? better keep an eye on him'

I didn't mean to offend you. I only asked because I felt that True's book would be especially meaningful to those for whom Nirvana's music was particularly special.

I don't know anything about Eddie Vedder's comments. I have been listening to Nirvana for 16 years but Pearl Jam for only a few months, so I've read much more about Nirvana and Kurt Cobain than Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. At the time of Kurt's death a lot of the press coverage compared Kurt to Eddie Vedder. Since they were both living in Seattle and Kurt had spoken out so openly about Pearl Jam, I guess that was a natural thing to do. With a few notable exceptions, there was tremendous sympathy for Kurt. My memory of the time was that Eddie Vedder was routinely portrayed as a whining, disingenuous jerk.

I guess what it comes down to is that since we are unlikely to meet the artists that create the music we listen to, their personalities don't really matter as much as the music itself and what we as individuals take away from it.

Once again, I am sorry if I offended you.

catefrances

SLH916 wrote:

I didn't mean to offend you. I only asked because I felt that True's book would be especially meaningful to those for whom Nirvana's music was particularly special.

I don't know anything about Eddie Vedder's comments. I have been listening to Nirvana for 16 years but Pearl Jam for only a few months, so I've read much more about Nirvana and Kurt Cobain than Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam. At the time of Kurt's death a lot of the press coverage compared Kurt to Eddie Vedder. Since they were both living in Seattle and Kurt had spoken out so openly about Pearl Jam, I guess that was a natural thing to do. With a few notable exceptions, there was tremendous sympathy for Kurt. My memory of the time was that Eddie Vedder was routinely portrayed as a whining, disingenuous jerk.

I guess what it comes down to is that since we are unlikely to meet the artists that create the music we listen to, their personalities don't really matter as much as the music itself and what we as individuals take away from it.

Once again, I am sorry if I offended you.

oh for sure, it's all about the music.
you didn't offend me, i was a little defensive this morning.
i would definitely read true's book on nirvana if i came across it. probably mostly cause i couldn't help myself. and now that i know it's out there i'll keep an eye out.