Customer Reviews

Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music

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I am one of the musicians that is featured in this book. I am proud to be a part of it. Greg has captured the essence of what it was like in Seattle, during those early and formative years, before everything caught fire. This book doesn't have a boring moment in it. It's told by the people who lived through this, in their own words. If you're a fan of Seattle music from the 90's, then this is a must read. Yianni Bacolas - [...].

As someone who is a HUGE fan of the entire movement and genre, I'd like to say that, Yes...."Grunge is Dead," and it ended with the passing of Layne Staley on April 5, 2002.

Having said that, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this very well-written book about the Seattle scene, whose music captivated a generation and inspired many bands to follow suit. One only has to listen to all the Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains-inspired bands out there to realize that what happened in Seattle during the last decade of the 20th century was incredibly special and real. It is obvious that Greg Prato did his research on this subject and managed to get most of the movers and shakers of the period to cooperate.....

Perhaps the best part for me is the chapters on Alice in Chains, my favorite band to break out of that scene. Although at times painful to read, I am grateful that I finally got a glimpse into what actually happened to Layne Staley. It is at once brutally frank, honest and empathetic, and brought me to tears. The book was worth purchasing for the Layne Staley story alone! I only hope that Prato will consider writing a future book on Layne's beautifully tragic life.

If you're into the history of Pacific Northwest rock, and you've seen the 1996 documentary Hype! (and if you haven't seen Hype! then what are you waiting for?!? Go get it now!), then think of this as a decade-later follow-up, only greatly expanded, both in perspective by the years that have elapsed since the craze subsided, and in breadth by the greatly increased number of interviewees.

There are a lot of names in common between this book and Hype!: off the top of my head, there's Jack Endino, Art Chantry, Charles Peterson, Susan Silver, Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman, and some of the more loquacious superstars such as Eddie Vedder and Kim Thayil. Yet Prato digs a lot deeper than Hype!'s producers did, his best find probably being Nancy McCallum, Layne Staley's wise, spiritual, yet fiercely funny firecracker of a mother. There are some major absences, the two most noticeable probably being Chris Cornell and Dave Grohl. But Prato has found enough "behind the scenes" personalities to more than fill in the gaps and tell the whole story, as complete as you could expect it. This is in contrast to Hype!, which completely omitted both Alice in Chains and Courtney Love (though to be fair, reading this book gives you the impression that Cantrell and company would have been way too strung out to participate in that movie even if they had wanted to), and which made the Sub Pop duo of Pavitt and Poneman look, shall we say, more "put together" than they actually were.

I'm something of a student of Seattle history, and before reading this book I read Fred Moody's Seattle and the Demons of Ambition: From Boom to Bust in the Number One City of the Future, and I'm glad I did. Except for the foreword and a brief summary blurb at the beginning of each chapter, Prato adds zero context or commentary of his own to the book--if one of his interviewees doesn't say it, it's not in the book. As for Moody, despite being a longtime native of the region, he wasn't any kind of insider to Seattle's music community, and he doesn't interview anyone in it. But his book does a brilliant job exploring the cultural and historical context of Seattle in the '90s, not only of the grunge phenomenon but many of the other home-grown Seattle phenomena that entered America's national consciousness during that period: Microsoft, Starbucks, the Mariners' 1995 championship run, Amazon, etc., as well as showing the subtle interconnections between them. The coda of Hype! is a title card that reads "YOUR TOWN IS NEXT." The implication is that what happened in Seattle in the late '80s and early '90s could just as easily have happened anywhere else. As Moody's book makes clear, that isn't true, on the contrary there was a unique confluence of geographical, climatological, political, psychological, artistic, and cultural factors which made Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains and the rest of these bands possible.

It's said that there are only a finite number of plots in the world. In terms of stories about musicians, I would argue that there are only two. The first is the arc from rags to riches to ruin to redemption, the same story you see in any given musician biopic of the week. In terms of Seattle grunge history, with its endemic drug and alcohol use, there was certainly no shortage of ruin. And there were three milestone fatalities, all of which Prato probes extensively: Andrew Wood, lead singer of Malfunkshun and Mother Love Bone, who died just before grunge hit the national scene; Kurt Cobain, who died right at the height of the world's grunge mania; and Layne Staley, who died after most people stopped caring and the airwaves were dominated by fourth-wave wannabe dreck like Creed and Nickelback. Also explored are the deaths of riot grrrl luminaries Stefanie Sargent and Mia Zapata. I have to admit, when I went back to watch Hype! I got a chill when I noticed that one of 7 Year Bitch's members was wearing a small tribute to Sargent; and of course watching footage of Zapata touted as an up-and-comer, knowing what her fate was shortly afterward, is just surreal.

In creating this book Prato conducted over 100 interviews, then broke them into paragraph-long chunks and interleaved them, grouping them by theme and ordering those themes roughly chronologically. The result is a chaotic tapestry of voices and subjects that are often hard to discern from one another. Yet through this chaos runs one common thread, one involving Mark Arm and Jeff Ament. This thread comprises what I would say is the other possible plot in a story about musicians: the tension between staying true to one's impulses as an artist regardless of popularity, and "selling out" to commercialism.

In any accounting of the history of grunge, the band Green River is always given as one of the seminal influences, and perhaps THE seminal influence for the whole trend. Green River was Mark Arm on vocals, Steve Turner and Stone Gossard on guitars, and Jeff Ament on bass. If those names sound familiar, it's because Arm and Turner went on to become somewhat famous by founding Mudhoney, and Gossard and Ament went on to become REALLY famous by founding Pearl Jam. There was tension in Green River whether the purpose of the band was to continue putting on the edgy, energizing live shows it was known for, or to buckle down and start putting out more commercial music. The two halves of the band couldn't see eye to eye, and the story goes that the last straw for Ament was when Arm boorishly dissed a new band that Ament and Gossard really liked.

That band: Jane's Addiction.

Perhaps due to Prato's editing, the rivalry between Arm and Ament isn't noticeable at first. Yet by halfway through the book it becomes really apparent, until finally the two of them are openly taking potshots at one another. And it is hilarious. For the record, I don't know these two, and for all I know the whole "rivalry" thing is just a running joke that they're both in on (and given recent reunions of Green River, this is quite possibly the case). But they really kick up some sparks.

Now, whether Mark Arm is right, and rock just means making an ass out of yourself on stage and who cares if you make any money out of it, or Jeff Ament is right, and rock is putting out melodic, solidly-produced albums that everybody loves, that's an individual choice that you'll have to make for yourself. For my part, I own every album that Pearl Jam ever put out, whereas Mark Arm's voice sounds to me like an off-key caterwauling that you couldn't pay me to listen to, so you can probably figure out which one of the two I agree with.

The last thing I want to say about this book is to keep your guard up regarding its factuality. As I said, Prato just allows his interviewees to tell their own version of things without any editorializing of his own. This also means that there is zero fact-checking going on, and the unreliable narrator could rear its head at any time. And if you read closely you'll notice that at certain points the interviewees outright contradict each other. This is perfectly natural: if someone is telling a story, there's nothing to stop them from embellishing it to aggrandize themselves, or make it a better story. They may recount something incorrectly because it was told to them incorrectly, or they simply misremember what happened. Such lapses don't make the story bad. They're just part of human nature.

In summary, this book is amazing, both for all of the stories it tells and all of the amazing little factoids you pick up along the way. If you are at all interested in rock music, '90s pop culture, or the Pacific Northwest, then this is a must-read.

This book takes a unique look into the world of grunge. No, it does not start in the early 1990s, but the 1970s--showing where the artists and fans of the time traced their roots in music. This book does focus on Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, and Pearl Jam (the big 4 of the grunge scene in Seattle) but also looks at other groups such as Melvins, Screaming Trees, Mudhoney, and much more! The reason this book is unique--it is almost entirely made up of interviews from band members, fans, band managers, record producers, girlfriends, parents of the bands discussed. If you liked the music of the time, or just appreciate music in general, this is a must buy!

I think that it is the best "grunge"-related book that you could find. No invention, no guesswork, - only the words of people who really know what they talk about. Absolutely authentic - you just feel it. It took me one night to read it to the end - I couldn't help to stop and to go to bed :)
I love the fact that there is a lot of information not only about "the big four" (Alice In Chains, Nirvana, PJ, Soundgarden), but also about less, as to say, "commercially successfull" bands, and also about the bands which gave inspiration to so called "grunge".
There are a lot of music, and there are personal stories of people you are interested in, too. Sad ones and absolutely hilarious ones.
I want to mention that people who like Layne Staley, should read this book - you will find the story of one of the best rock singers ever, respectfully and frankly told and collected.
Buy it, you won't regret.

As a late 30-something, the whole "Grunge Era" breaking into the mainstream coincided with me breaking out from high school to college, and that music became the soundtrack of my life. GRUNGE IS DEAD really brought those songs, bands, and whole era back to life. While Greg Prato covers everything from its origins to its collapse, the real meat is the late 80s-early90s heyday when the music of the Pacific North West surged out across the land and changed the landscape of Alterntive Rock forever, the golden years before before people started dying.

That's kind of the story of any scene though. It's like a great party that you never want to end, but know deep down it has to at some point if it's to become one of those mythic moments in time that people will talk about for years to come, that younger generations will envy, and wish they could have been a part of it. The Grunge era is a Rock Myth, its participants, legends.

Grunge Is Dead is an outstanding summation of a brief moment in time whem music did change the world.

Whenever a banal form of music saturates the world (hmm I guess thats all the time) hopefully something will come along to counteract it. Heavy metal, punk, new wave all had their time with some of the best bands continuing on to this day. Grunge was the same, and Greg Prato has, through extensive interviews, presented a history of the Seattle scene, from obscurity, to world domination, to fall. Thankfully he hasn't just gone the most obvious route and focused on the sacred cow of Nirvana, but covered some of the other incredible bands like Soundgarden (BadMotorFinger has to be one of the best albums from this time), Alice in Chains, Mudhoney and Pearl Jam. This is an honest look at the scene, warts and all and Prato has discovered some great stories, not to mention some sad ones (the interviews with Layne Staley's mother are very touching). Very readable and consistently engaging, Grunge is Dead is a more than worthy addition to the history of Seattle music.

Since I was one of the folks tapped early-on to contribute my stories from the front line of what it has been like to be part of the Seattle Music Scene, I know Mr. Prato put in many thankless hours of research for his book. With gingerly care and surgical precision, he has compiled an essentially "fib-proof" documentation of word-for-word quotes---real stuff that REALLY happened to REAL people! It's like he took all of our singularly bland "amusing stories" and "clever quips" and cooked them in some kind of magical crock-pot to create an ACCURATE, IMPORTANT, exciting journal about Seattle's often mis-represented musical past.

FINALLY!--a guy who got it right! This is a book that almost could've written itself, if it weren't for the fact that a good percentage of us "musician types" don't really have the kind of neccessary work ethic to see such a monumental task through. Oh!--and thanks, Greg. That title to the book is music to my ever-ringing ears. BSE

A great read. I never read a book twice but this one has compelled me to read it again. Its so full of information. I can see mine growing ragid because of the use it will get in the future.

The Grunge Era might be over, but the music still lives on. Learn all about it, and the bands that really made the grunge era happen! This book is very informative and the oral biography format was a good choice. I wish Novoselic, Grohl and Chris Cornell were available to contribute!