(Book). Nirvana is one of the most influential bands in rock history, and even now, nearly 20 years after Kurt Cobain's death, the reverence in which they are held is undiminished. Books have been written about Nirvana before, but they tend to concentrate on the band's superstar period and Kurt Cobain's demise, while skating over the early years. In Entertain Us , Gillian Gaar redresses the balance by examining in forensic detail the band's rise to fame, and their first album, Bleach . Drawing on archive material and interviews with many key people in the story, she traces Nirvana's formation, its early recordings and many personnel changes, and the arrival of Dave Grohl to complete the familiar three-piece line up. By critiquing every song the band recorded in this period, tracing influences and unpicking complex relationships between band members, associates and record labels, Gaar gets to the heart of a compelling story.
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Gillian G. Gaar is the author of several books about music, including Return Of The King, She's A Rebel: The History of Women in Rock and Roll, Green Day: Rebels With A Cause and The Rough Guide To Nirvana. She has also written for Mojo, Rolling Stone, Record Collector, Goldmine, and the Experience Music Project museum, among others. She lives in Seattle, the home of grunge.
Gillian G. Gaar is a Seattle-based author. Her first book, She's A Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll was published in 1992. In addition to her own books, she has appeared in various anthologies, including The Nirvana Companion, Trouble Girls: The Rolling Stone Guide to Women in Rock, Goldmine: The Beatles Digest (volumes one and two), Best of the Beatles Book, The Stranger Guide To Seattle, Music: The Little Black Book, 33 1/3 Greatest Hits Vol 2, A Survey of American Culture, and various editions of The Scribner Encylopedia of American Lives. She was editorial assistant for Krist Novoselic's book From Grunge To Government: Let's Fix This Broken Democracy!
She was also a project consultant/liner note writer for Nirvana's box set "With The Lights Out." She has written for numerous magazines, including Rolling Stone, Mojo, Q, Goldmine, The Seattle Times, The Stranger, Option, and No Depression, and was a senior editor at Seattle music paper The Rocket.
She has also written liner notes for collections by Laurie Anderson, Judy Collins, Heart, Pat Benatar, Paula Cole and Mat Kearney, among others.
Excellent book. I enjoyed the in depth information about the bands early years considering almost everything else focuses more on the years following the release of Nevermind.
This is a great and well written documentation of Nirvana's early days. Very detailed information on shows, recording sessions, etc... previous to the global success of Nevermind.
This may be the best book written about the band. The author really has an in-depth knowledge about the events, shows, sessions, and stories she describes in this book. She does a great job pointing out the inconsistencies in different people's recollections on dates and minute details before returning back to what's actually important - the story itself. If you're a hardcore Nirvana fan, you may think you have heard all the same-old stories before. Well, Entertain Us seems to assume that you're already fairly familiar with these guys and presents a fresh look at the beginning of the band's career as well as filling in a lot of gaps left by previous publications. The great things about this book are its flow and accuracy. Gaar doesn't get hung up on things that nobody cares about, like a lot of authors do in band biographies. She also doesn't do much assuming - if any at all. Best of all, the entirety of the spotlight DOES NOT get shed on Kurt. There is an extremely pleasing amount of stories about the quirks and blunders of the rest of the band and crew here as well. If you are a Nirvana fan in any way, do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
