Like a Junkie to Heroin...
It all started around Christmas time. My mother-in-law got me a $50 gift card to Amazon.com. I was like, "Hmm...well I'll just get me a couple of books, read them, and be done with it."
Wrong. The one thing about me is that if I start reading a book, I get terrible. I have to just keep reading and reading until I'm done. A 400-page book in two days is nothing. Well, I got onto Amazon and found out you can get books dirt cheap if you buy them from wholesalers, so I loaded up. My passion: rock biographies (my dream would be to be a rock biographer).
Then, just as I was finishing the books up around the second week of January, Jaime and I got another Amazon gift card from our credit card company. So the whole damn process started over again.
Here are the books that stole away my time and a brief thought on each.
1. Whores: An Oral Biography of Perry Farrell and Jane's Addiction by Brenden Muller.
Fantastic book about a band that I think is one of the greatest bands of the era. The thing that makes the reading so kick-ass is because it's from members of the group, their friends, and other people that were on the scene in LA back in the Jane's Addiction heyday.
2. Don't Try This at Home by Dave Navarro and Neil Strauss
I like this one, but out of all of the books I read, this is probably the least favorite out of all of them. Navarro is an egotistical little bastard but when you can play guitar like he can, I guess he has the right. Basically just a journal-like look into a year of his life. Some cool-ass photos (including one of a strung-out ass Anthony Kiedis).
3. Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross
I love this book. It's one of the best rock biographies of that I have ever read and I have read a ton of them. It is a fast read and it gives great insight into the scene back then of the last important rock band. Oh, Johnson (if you're reading this), Cobain is not overrated like I saw that you wrote you bastard!!!!!
4. Scar Tissue by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman
This one isn't bad. The only thing that drove me crazy is how Kiedis would always talk about all of these women that he'd met and talk about how they were "the one" then the asshole would end up cheating on them, relapse on heroin, then find another chick. Okay Anthony, we get it, you are a rock star and you can pull some ass. And you did a buttload of drugs.
5. The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band by Motley Crue
All I have to say is this is a bad mofo. These guys were legends of being party animals. Buy it, it will make any drinking or other problem that you have seem pretty damn minor.
6. Slash by Slash and Anthony Bozza
A hell of a cool guy, that Slash was. He is one of my favorite guitarists of all time who was in my favorite band of all time. I like this book because Slash just presents his point of view on how things went and doesn't go after Axl too much. He just tells the stories and let's you form an opinion. Definitely worth the money.
7. W.A.R.: The Unauthorized Biography of W. Axl Rose by Mick Wall
LIke I said on the Slash review, GNR is one of my favorites of all-time and Axl is maybe the most charismatic frontmen ever, second only to my man Jim Morrison. WAR does a good job trying to explain why Axl is the way he is (which is a colossal asshole). Oh, and Mick Wall, the author, was also immortalized in the song "Get in the Ring" where Axl threatens to kick his ass. That is covered in the book as well.
Well folks, there it is. Seven books, a little under two months. I even took a two-week break because I figured it was "becoming a problem".
You will all be glad to know that I have no more Amazon gift cards, I still managed to do some household duties during this binge, and that my family still loves me.
I stand behind my comments on Cobain. Though it puts me in the same group as Ted Nugent, who, after shooting some pheasants begins a long rant about how "that's what you use a gun for, Kurt" and "if you wanted to kill yourself so badly, Kurt, you could have just called me up and I would have done it for you and shown you how a real man uses a shotgun". Yeah, the Nuge does get a bit over the top, but let's face it, I don't think that Nirvana would be relevant anymore if Kurt hadn't offed himself. If you want a band with balls and skills from that period that remains relevant, then talk about Radiohead or something. To say Nirvana is the last "important band" is bullshit in my opinion.
Radiohead did not change the face of music. They were a good band and have some really good songs, but they are not a "great" band. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but to me, Nirvana was the last band to really bring it musically.
While death does tend to make people look more favorable on contributions that deceased stars have made, I don't think that's the case here. God only knows what they would have done in the 10+ years since Kurt's death, but it would have been interesting. Then again, I've always said that some people just are not meant to get old.
You're a very good person to talk music with Ben, you are very smart and know a lot of bands, but I'll argue this bitch until I'm blue in the face.
Hello my friends :)
;)