Best books on the band?

Red Mosquito75

I really feel like reading agood book. I haven't read one on pj yet so ithought It would be good to read one on the greatest band ever. Can I say that without pissing off beatles fans. Any thoughts on the best pj books?

MissPennyLane

i have Five Against One. I like it alot. it was a good read..i don't know what other PJ books are out there besides that one...

Red Mosquito75

Yeah i thought that would be a good one. do they sell it here?

LukinFan

pg305420 wrote:

Yeah i thought that would be a good one. do they sell it here?

check out amazon

randallanddarcy

I have all, or nearly all, of the books and the band. I can tell you without reservation they all complete and utter shit.

There's one called 'None too Fragile' that's a total hack job. Steer well clear of this cut 'n' paste visual nightmare. Even the band members in the photo's are mis-captioned :roll:

There was a large format book released many years ago written by Allan Jones of Melody Maker Magazine (RIP-not Allan, Melody Maker!) It was a bit thin but an interesting read (at least he'd personally interviewed the band for his magazine a few times). I can't remember the name of it though. (Most of my stuff is in storage, as I live overseas). I remember Ed said that Paul Simon looked like a 'bald baby eagle' in it, which made me laugh.

Mick Wall's biography (forgot the title to that one, too), was good in the mid '90's when it first came out, but since the band has been more transparent and less mythological about their history since 2006, Mick's book is now inaccurate and very much cut 'n' paste.

I know there's more, but like I say, my shit's all in storage, so I can't remember what else I have. '5 Against 1' is the only decent read, but it tells you more about EV than you really need to know, and the only people Kim Neely could interview specifically for the book were people with a grudge of some kind against the band, so even that book should be approached with an open mind and a critical eye.

Hope that helps.

demetrios

LukinFan wrote:

pg305420 wrote:

Yeah i thought that would be a good one. do they sell it here?

check out amazon

Also Chapters.ca!

PJ

I'm currently 3/4ths of the way through 5 against 1, and I must say it is a very interesting read and from the looks of it, one of the better books on the band out there. I recommend it!

Feiraco

As user randallanddarcy writes, Mick Wall's book Pearl Jam was pretty good in the mid-1990s. I think the first edition was published in 1994 and the death of Kurt Cobain is just mentioned. The book goes in a chronological order, and more than half of the book handles the pre-Eddie era. In the pre-internet era the book was a fine source for gathered information. But having more sources available now, the book has a lot of dates, song titles etc. wrong. I think that the latest edition is of 1996, and I wonder if a lot was added. I hope several errors were fixed. But if your focus is on the 'grunge-years', it's still a fine read!

Niko80

5 against 1 is good. As mentioned it does give the band some heat. If the critisism is deserved or not can be discussed, but as a book about the band and the life on the road it performes very well.

demetrios

Check out "The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music : Grunge Is Dead by Greg Prato. Great timbits from all the member's of Pearl Jam, wicked photos i've never seen since before. I cool shot is on page 330 where Ed hangs ten on a muddy wave, Lollapalooza '92. Check out the outcome.

elwayvedder

the guys over at pearljamonline wrote a book but its not available in English. Was hoping to read that just out of curiosity.

Feiraco

Is this the full overview of books?
* Brad Morrell, Pearl Jam: The Illustrated Biography (1993)
* Mick Wall, Pearl Jam (1994)
* Allan Jones, Pearl Jam - The Illustrated Story (A Melody Maker Book) (1995)
* Joey Lorenzo, Pearl Jam: Live (1995)
* Brad Morrell, The Story of Pearl Jam (1997)
* Kim Neely, Five against One: the Pearl Jam story (1998)
* Martin Clarke, Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder: None Too Fragile (1998)
* Charles Peterson, Pearl Jam: Place/Date (1999)
* Martin Power, Dark Corners - An Illustrated Biography (1998)
* Lance Mercer, 5 X 1: Pearl Jam Through the Eye of Lance Mercer (2006)
* Pearl Jam vs. Ames Bros (2007)
* PJ20 (2011)

KV4053

I bought an extra copy of PJ20 (used) and cut it up to read as a "paperback" on the beach.

All other books are shite

Feiraco

Did anyone read this book of Jo-Ann Greene?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Pearl-Jam-Super ... =pearl+jam

aennil

Don't waste your time on Five against One. It is good to write critical journalism and be skeptical, but that book seems like a PJ-tabloid magazine, where every little thing get blown up into big dramas. And every chapter ends in this weird way, as on the peak of the drama.
You can probably find a lot of interesting stuff in the book, but i got really annoyed by the tone it is written in.

jlaustin

demetrios wrote:

Check out "The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music : Grunge Is Dead by Greg Prato. Great timbits from all the member's of Pearl Jam, wicked photos i've never seen since before. I cool shot is on page 330 where Ed hangs ten on a muddy wave, Lollapalooza '92. Check out the outcome.

Just finished that one, also check out Everybody Loves Our Town: The Oral History of Grunge by Mark Yarm. I thought they both were really good.

TJ25487

If you haven't read PJ20 then you are missing out. IMO. The best parts are the introspective rehashes of the making of each record. One could make a short book of just that. So good.

jumbojet

TJ25487 wrote:

If you haven't read PJ20 then you are missing out. IMO. The best parts are the introspective rehashes of the making of each record. One could make a short book of just that. So good.

PJ20 is the book of the books.

Ozzie

I concur - got PJ20 the book at Christmas, and so far it is awesome!

hamma

Read all encompassing trip.

red mos

I have five against one. It's a pretty good read.

erikdees

I really like PJ20. It is written from year to year and every album has it's own few pages with some nice info. Could have been more. I have books about the Beatles, The doors and Nirvana that have stories on every song. Song by song.
Back to PJ 20 apart from handeling the albums it further has a day by day walk through the year. Telling something about every note worthy event. It alot of cool pictures. It is a bit pricy, but well worth it. I'm reading it for the second time and in between the first and the second read I have used it to look up info alot of times.

I agree that None to frigile isn't the best book.
Pearl Jam by Mick Wall is a good read and it has a nice Seattle family tree.
The Allan Jones book is fun as well, it has photo's as well which is rather limited in the other one.
Both cover only the earlier years. PJ 20 is more complete as it is newer and covers the band until Backspacer.
The Mick Wall book and the Allan Jones book are easy to fing for a lower price, but like I said PJ 20 is well worth the money.

fox_mulderX

aennil wrote:

Don't waste your time on Five against One. It is good to write critical journalism and be skeptical, but that book seems like a PJ-tabloid magazine, where every little thing get blown up into big dramas. And every chapter ends in this weird way, as on the peak of the drama.
You can probably find a lot of interesting stuff in the book, but i got really annoyed by the tone it is written in.

My biggest issue with the book is how in depth it went into Ed's life and not the other members.

TheGMan

Going to very belatedly check out PJ20 based on the advice in here. I had forgotten I had read Five Against One, which maybe says something in itself.

PJammin'

I read Five Against One a long time ago. I remember being very intrigued with the book. However, I really don’t know how accurate it is.