Customer Reviews

Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana

5 star:		(94)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I read this book, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, awhile ago, and reread it again because of my enjoyment of it the first time, and it didn't let me down the second time around. The book kept my interest and gave me a new perspective on a few parts of Nirvana and Kurt. I have read other books, such as "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" and "Kurt Cobain" and a few other shorter biographies and compiled books. I know a great amount about our legeng, Kurt Donald Cobain, and yet I still love reading his biographies over and over, especially Come As You Are. CAYA takes you through Kurt's life, starting with Day 1. It leads you right through about 1993, very early 1994, and the new editions have an after-chapter about his death, although not nearly as much about the ending as we would have liked. A good thing about the book is the quotes. The biographer wrote the book based on a series of many interviews with Kurt, so Kurt says a lot. A possibilty of biasism is because of one theory. A bad review was written about Kurt and Courtney in Vanity Fair magazine, leading to trials about custody and having their new baby, Frances Bean, taken temporarily away from them, and making them turn in weekly urine tests. Kurt wanted to quickly create a "good, nice" buzz about him so the aftermath of the article would vanish. They wanted to protect Courtney's name, so they hired a biographer. The book may try to make Courtney seem better than she is. Read "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" afterwards and compare the Courtney in each book. For new Kurt fans, or un-Kurt-ly-educated fans, I would suggest this book, it is simple to read and extremely captivating.

Nirvana was a great band. This book is almost as good as the band itself. It is literally perfect when it comes to Nirvana.

Now, recently, another Kurt Cobain biography was released, "Heavier Than Heaven", by Charles R. Cross. While the book is good, it was written after Kurt's death, and most of the people paint a negative portrait of him, which is unfair, since Kurt cannot speak for himself. Also, most of that book seems to be the "Courtney Love is a wonderful person" story, as the author time and time again paints a wonderful picture of her. Is it any coincidence that Courtney was one of the main people interviewed for the book? Hmmmm......

With that aside, here is why, if you seek information on Kurt and Nirvana, that you should read this book and not "Heavier Than Heaven." It's real simple. It was written with Kurt. Whereas HTH was written with people who knew Kurt (who could make him any type of person they wanted to) CAYA is written with interviews with the man himself. That alone makes this the Ultimate Nirvana/Cobain book.

Aside from that, the book is very thorough and leaves few details out. It's probably the best bio on a musical group I've ever read. Intimate, up front, and candid. You can't ask for much more than that.

So, to sum it all up, if you're looking for a biography on Kurt Cobain, this is the book. If you're looking for information on Nirvana, this is the book. If you're simply looking for a good book to read, THIS IS THE BOOK!

I don't think I can recommend it any more than I have already.

Come as You Are was written before Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, so it isn't focused on the tragedy of it, rather on his life leading up to the event. Its a very candid look at his happy beginnings and how his life at home deteriorated and the refuge he found in music. Nirvana went though many drummers and musicians before finally settling on Dave Grohl. This book portrays Kurt like he was: a pained musician who didn't want nor know how to handle his sudden fame. Come As You Are is personal, funny, and intriguing. After reading it, I started thinking more about their music and the impact they made on the industry. Any fans of the band would probably love this, or even if you're not, it has an up close look at the music world of record labels, fame, fortune, touring, and all the work that goes into the production. Definitely worth reading. It also has some good photos.

Come As You Are is a valuable source of information on Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, not only for its in-depth coverage of the band's rise and early years of fame, but because it lacks the tone of hero worship and tragedy present in virtually all other post-1994 books about this group. Where later books never seem to step entirely away from the cloud Cobain's death at age twenty-seven cast over the short history of Nirvana, Come As You Are is often funny, always descriptive, and slants toward what looked at the time of its publication, to be an influential future for this ground-breaking trio. I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to know about the roots of the best band of the Grunge era.

Although Azzerand became friends with the band (espeically Kurt) in the course of the interview, it remains balanced, frank and netural. Too many of the Nirvana and.or Kurt Cobain books out on the market should be used as toliet paper, so I was really pleaserd to read this one.

I really felt for Kurt and Courtney through all of the legal procedings and got the impression that they were just like many other couples--excluding the rich rock star thing.

One other thing that jumps out, is the frequent and loud denunciation of anybody who is racist, sexist and/or homophobic. Few of the current big name bands inspired by Nirvana can claim such exemplarly conduct. Ditto for the modesty and admittance of imperfections and flaws.

This book is buy the far the best book of Nirvana you can find. From starting out in Aberdeen Washington to the being the greatest band ever. Michael Azerrad (author) tells the true story of Nirvana through interviews, photos, and early lyrics sheets. The band themselves (even Kurt) read this book and liked it so that's how you can tell these facts are real. First Azerrad talks about the early day with Aaron Burckhard, Dan Peters, Chad Channing, Dale Crover, and then eventually Dave Grohl. He also talks about the difficult process it took to record Nevermind and In Utero. Through Kurt meeting Courtney, Krist meeting Shelli, to Dave meeting Kurt and Krist. This book got everything you need to know about Nirvana. This book now includes a new chapter about Kurt's death and where the book left off. The beauty of this book is that Michael didn't get this information from Courtney so you know that all of this is true. All the information is through interviews and the people who were really there. This book is the book you need for Nirvana. This book is better from Charles Cross's "heavier than heaven", or "Nirvana: the day-by-day eyewitness chronicle" by Carrie Borzillo. I haven't read the new book "The Chosen Rejects" by Troy Smith and Kurt Thomas, but I still know this book is way better than any of those books. For any Nirvana fan, you will not be disappointed.

Imagine a book about Nirvana that contains more information than you ever dreamed of & once you finished reading it, you just had to read it again, & then again! Well imagine no more coz this is it! I am a HUGE Nirvana fan & I have ALOT of stuff on them & this is by far the best book I have on them! It contains information on Krist & (mainly) Kurt's childhood, their teens, their thoughts, becoming famous, meanings behind their songs, information on their albums, Kurt's funeral & a new final chapter that covers the last year of Kurt Cobain's life. If you like Nirvana then you simply MUST own this book.

The book suffers in the writing department. The author frequently repeats himself (sometimes on the same page), doesn't reconcile differences in interviewee's stories, isn't too concerned about details, and is frequently challenged by the basics of narration.

What he does have going for him is ACCESS: the book was compiled with the blessing and input of the band and those close to them. While this occasionally results in some manipulation on their part and Azerrad too often makes apologies for his friends (though he's never a mere shill and the book generally avoids hagiography), it also leads to a fairly frank and rounded portrait of Cobain and all his talents and demons. His death, which occurred after the initial publication of this book, imparts a haunting perspective on many comments that no doubt seemed very innocent at the time. I left the book feeling more convinced than ever that the world lost a truly creative and unique artist, a man of maddening contradictions, who could have blossomed in several interesting directions. I was surprised that in Azerrad's otherwise excellent final chapter (written post-suicide) he takes such a fatalistic attitude toward Cobain's demise, calling it inevitable and attaching more literal signficance to his suicidal ramblings than they probably deserve. In another mood (not so high, not so depressed) Cobain himself would likely have disavowed or even mocked much of what he wrote there.

Other books may do a much better job of synthesizing the career of Nirvana and offering perspective on their artistic contributions and on the life of Cobain, but if you're willing to do that work yourself and read between the lines a lot, this is the book that has the raw data. In that sense, it will always be an indispensible part of their legacy and our attempt to understand/appreciate it.

Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana, by Michael Azzerad is the most comprehensive and honest book that I have ever read regarding Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Compared to others such as Kurt Cobain,Who Killed kurt Cobain,etc. CAYA, is by far the best. It shows Kurt in a way that the other books different it portrays him like he really was I think, and given that Kurt helped Azzerad with the writing of the book just makes it better. I never put the book down, i read it in the duration of about two days every time and loved every single page. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who wishes to accumulate more knowledge regarding the band or to someone who already knows a lot and simply just wants an excellent read.

You won't be dissapointed if you read this book. You'll never want to stop. I recommend this book to everyone. Even if they don't like Nirvana, it was written very well. The nice thing about it is that Kurt Cobain actually sat down with Mike Azerrad to discuss the story line. This is a great book.