Nirvana

 

Cobain by Editors of Rolling Stone Paperback from Little Brown & Company

Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
by Michael Azerrad
My favorite book about Nirvana. For one thing, it doesn't sensationalize, but it doesn't gloss anything over. Having been active in the Seattle music scene throughout Nirvana's obscurity, fame, and demise, I can vouch for the accuracy of its description of the music community in the late '80s and early '90s and Nirvana's role. And being in a band that's currently climbing the ladder, I appreciated the many lessons this book has to offer about the workings of the recording industry. 
Best of all, because this book was written before Cobain's death, it is not tinged with the "isn't this tragic" attitude that permeates many books about Nirvana and Cobain. Instead, the book is vibrant with the energy, excitement, and passion that swept local musicians the day "Nevermind" was released, local audiences in the months after, the U.S, and--lest we forget--the world, during Nirvana's more-than-15-minutes of fame. Amazon.com
Paperback: 336 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.92 x 9.08 x 6.16 
Publisher: Main Street Books; (September 1, 1993) 
ISBN: 0385471998 
 

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross The art of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was all about his private life, but written in a code as obscure as T.S. Eliot's. Now Charles Cross has cracked the code in the definitive biography Heavier Than Heaven, an all-access pass to Cobain's heart and mind. It reveals many secrets, thanks to 400-plus interviews, and even quotes Cobain's diaries and suicide notes and reveals an unreleased Nirvana masterpiece. At last we know how he created, how lies helped him die, how his family and love life entwined his art--plus, what the heck "Smells Like Teen Spirit" really means. (It was graffiti by Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna after a double date with Dave Grohl, Cobain, and the "over-bored and self-assured" Tobi Vail, who wore Teen Spirit perfume; Hanna wrote it to taunt the emotionally clingy Cobain for wearing Vail's scent after sex--a violation of the no-strings-attached dating ethos of the Olympia, Washington, "outcast teen" underground. Cobain's stomach-churning passion for Vail erupted in six or so hit tunes like "Aneurysm" and "Drain You.") Cross uncovers plenty of news, mostly grim and gripping. As a teen, Cobain said he had "suicide genes," and his clan was peculiarly defiant: one of his suicidal relatives stabbed his own belly in front of his family, then ripped apart the wound in the hospital. Cobain was contradictory: a sweet, popular teen athlete and sinister berserker, a kid who rescued injured pigeons and laughingly killed a cat, a talented yet astoundingly morbid visual artist. He grew up to be a millionaire who slept in cars (and stole one), a fiercely loyal man who ruthlessly screwed his oldest, best friends. In fact, his essence was contradictions barely contained. Cross, the coauthor of Nevermind: Nirvana, the definitive book about the making of the classic album, puts numerous Cobain-generated myths to rest. (Cobain never lived under a bridge--that Aberdeen bridge immortalized in the 12th song on Nevermind was a tidal slough, so nobody could sleep under it.) He gives the fullest account yet of what it was like to be, or love, Kurt Cobain. Heavier Than Heaven outshines the also indispensable Come As You Are. It's the deepest book about pop's darkest falling star. --Tim Appelo - Amazon.com Hardcover: 400 pages ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.22 x 9.56 x 6.46 Hyperion; ISBN: 0786865059;

Godspeed: The Kurt Cobain Graphic by Barnaby Legg, Jim McCarthy, Flameboy, Peter Goddett, James McCarthy Paperback from Omnibus Press

Guitar World Presents Nirvana and the Grunge Revolution
(Paperback)

Kurt Cobain
by Christopher Sandford
Too many rock books--particularly those about the recently, luridly dead--are hastily assembled from clippings and feature only the most superficial assessment of the artist and music in question. It's a pleasure to report, then, that veteran music journalist Christopher Sandford has produced a solidly researched and coherently argued portrait of Nirvana's front man. The author doesn't flinch from the ugly aspects of Kurt Cobain's personality and lifestyle, nor is he wholly admiring of the music. This critical perspective ultimately makes Cobain more human and his 1994 suicide more tragic. Amazon.com
Paperback: ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.12 x 8.31 x 5.51 
Publisher: Carroll & Graf; ISBN: 0786703946; (October )

Kurt Cobain: The Cobain Dossier
by Martin Clark
Paperback from Plexus Publishing

Kurt Cobain & Courtney Love: In Their Own Words
by Nick Wise, Kurt Cobain
Paperback from Omnibus

Never Fade Away : The Kurt Cobain Story
by Dave Thompson
Mass Market Paperback from St. Martin's Press
1994

Nirvana: The Albums
(Paperback)

Nirvana - Unplugged in New York
(Paperback)

Nirvana in Utero for One Voice and 1.2 Guitars With Transcription Words
by Nirvana
(Paperback)

Teen Spirit: The Stories Behind Every Nirvana Song
by Chuck Crisafulli, Craig Crisafulli
(Paperback)

Nirvana
by Steve Gullick, Stephen Sweet
(Paperback)

Nirvana in New York
(Paperback)

Nevermind : It's Only Rock of Ages (featuring Def Leppard and Nirvana)
by Sal Nudo
(Paperback)

Nirvana: The Day-By-Day Eyewitness Chronicle
by Carrie Borzillo
(Paperback)

Who Killed Kurt Cobain?: The Mysterious Death of an Icon
by Ian Halperin, Max Wallace, May Wallace
Paperback from Citadel Trade

 
 
 

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