Customer Reviews

Kurt Cobain

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

If you need any proof that the representation of Kurt Cobain presented in this book is utter fiction, look no further than Jack Endino's website. Jack Endino, the man who produced so many of NIRVANA's early sessions and who remained a friend of the band, has condemned this book on his website. Endino was in particular very surprised at the stories culled from his sessions with the band. It seems that some "engineers" at the sessions were the sources some very outrageous substance abuse and rock star antics type stories. Well guess what? Those "engineers" do not exist, and everything they have described about those sessions is false, because Mr. Endino says so, and he was with the band the whole time. This book is trash, and I am astonished that some people apparently have not been able to figure that out for themselves. And while I do not endorse invading any person's private space (reading their diaries, or SELLING them to a publisher for $4 million), if you must read something, read the soon-to-be published book collecting Cobain's personal journals.

But don't take my word for it, see what Jack Endino himself had to say: [begin quote] "... recently someone sent me a photocopy of just two (!) pages (106 and 107) from Chris Sandford's book on Nirvana, entitled "Kurt Cobain". In it he describes the sessions for Bleach from the point of view of "Endino's engineer" and even an unnamed "second source at Reciprocal"; he describes Kurt putting lit matches in his mouth, spraying antiperspirant down his throat, pouring beer on the mixing board, taking "fistfuls of pills", etc, etc. Let me f*****g set this straight: this is pure fiction. In all the times I worked with Kurt I never even saw him drink a beer in the studio. His pre-Nevermind times in the studio with me were utterly normal; the band was there to work ... either [Sandford] made all this up (can't really see why he would want to) or better yet, someone else decided to take the gullible journalist for a ride, figuratively speaking ... I haven't read the rest of the book yet 'cause I don't want to spend the cash, but I hope for Kurt's (and his daughter's) sake that the rest of it isn't like those two pages I got. (Later note: It is. I've since read it. The whole book is full of equally outlandish nonsense. Sigh. OK, now extrapolate from how 100% fictional the two pages I know about are...) Seeing this kind of fiction printed about Kurt really bums me out. Look, all you potential book-writers, Azzerrad's done it already; the rest of you can just go home." [end quote] See [...] for more.

Let's not beat around the bush, this book is inaccurate fabricated garbage. Perhaps that was not entirely Sanford's fault, unlike Charles R. Cross later, he didn't have access to Kurt's journals etc, but he still appears to have made very little effort interviewing people and appears to have used mostly tabloids and newspaper articles as his sources; without carefully sifting through what was and was not fabrication. There in lies the problem, this book is filled with mythical fantasy tales regarding Kurt's actions.
Such fabricated examples are...
*Kurt spitting in a crew members face after being interupted giving a woman oral-sex backstage at a Saturday Night Live taping (while he was already in his Monogamous relationship with Courtney).
*Kurt practically attempting to rape a woman.
*Kurt kneeing Eddie Vedder in the groin backstage at a show.
As most Nirvana fans know, Kurt appeared on MTV's "Headbangers Ball" in a Yellow Gown with Krist Novoselic, after which the two jokingly flirted with each other. Nobody took it seriously. But OH NO, according to Sanford, Kurt was a serious cross dresser and was LEGITIMATELY flirting with Novoselic.
You get the idea. This book reads like the infamous 'Vanity Fair' article all over again.

It does at least have some nice photos, which is why i'm being generous and giving it 1 star.

But do yourself a favour, read Charles R. Cross's "Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain" for the real story of Cobain's life.

James B. Mills

Mr. Sandford provides relentless negativity regarding Cobain. I find myself feeling as negative as he portrays Cobain. You may want to avoid the misery of reading this book. At first I thought perhaps he was trying to discourage copycat suicides or behavior by ridiculing Cobain's existence, however he even manages to discredit Cobain's sympathy for terminally ill children. Perhaps Sandford should consider ridding the world of his foul observations of public figures for profit.

This book is a must for Nirvana fans who are interested in reading a brutally truthfull account of Kurt Cobain, the man, and the tragic, brilliant life. While most books cover only the superficial aspects of Nirvana and Cobain,(Come As You Are) feeding you a selective, sugar coated, image, I was thrilled that the book included Cobains frailties, contradictions, and defects, as well as his briliance, and benevolece, making Cobain more human and accesible. Christopher Sandford provides the unflattering details that other books would rather ignore, such as Kurt's attempeted rape a woman, his bi-sexuality and sexual deviancies, his deliberate efforts at mainstream succes, his pulic support of feminism and punk while privately having alliegiance only to himself, his rampant drug abuse, and rock star vanities. The book provides a complete account of Kurt Cobains life, from before his birth, his childhood, all the way through his death. The book searches for deeper meaning beyong the superficial surface, like documenting that Kurts drug depedance began in childhood. This book may displease alot of Nirvana fans because it may clash with thier nice and sensitive guy image of kurt feuld by the media, which is only one side of this comlex man. Others may feel that it is too negative, but I feel the Sandford simply reports what other self-cecored, sycophantic books have failed to report and gives a more balaced, unbiased account of one of my heroes, and my favorite musician. This is by far my favorite Kurt Cobain book, and after reading it I felt I understood Kurt better than ever.

This man met me for half an hour under the pretense of "research." He wrote or recorded nothing, yet quotes me heavily, with doozers such as comparing Kurt to Mick Jagger. What????? I couldn't even pull that one out of a hat. Well, turns out he wrote a book about Jagger, so had to pull him in somehow. Nothing but a pack of lies. If I could give it no stars I would. Please give this one a pass. And if I ever run across this creep again....

I was hoping this would be a definitive biography on the late rock icon, since one has not been written since his death. I was amazed at how much of the book relied on 'sources' & 'witnesses' to fill in crucial moments in Cobain's life. Although the author claims certain parties did not want to reveal their true identities, it comes off more a work of fiction & lies. The author also compared Cobain to another rock icon, Jimi Hendrix, to the point where the book came off being a partial biography of him as well. I don't have the space to fill all the wrongs in this book, but over half of his behind the scenes details of Kurt's life are totally off. A lot of it is just plain putrid, slanderous nonsense. Kurt Cobain meant a lot of things to a lot of people, & I am still awaiting the day that an honest, dignified account of his life is written. I am not saying he was a saint or without fault, its just that something needs to be written that does justice to the guy.

Although this work does contain some insights into the life of Kurt Cobain, it's repetitive, often self-contradictory, and far too long for the amount of information presented. Many quotes appear without attribution, while others are used over and over again too re-emphasize tired points. Sandford makes frequent analogies between Cobain and Jimmy Hendrix which seem to serve more as a vehicle for the author's extensive knowledge of latter than to contribute to an analysis of the former's life. Other potentially interesting inquiries are ignored (e.g. surprisingly, to me at least, members of the band R.E.M. pop up several times as friends and likely musical collaborators of Cobain, yet there is no discussion of how the parties knew each other, what the context of the relationship was, etc.) On the whole it seems that the author was faced with limited cooperative sources and was forced to over use this material and augment it with filler and speculation to complete the book.

Hi. I didn't really like this book. It wasn't based on facts it was more like 'well we think this and....' It also portrayed all the negative things about his life and death. It has some interesting pictures in it though. Some I didn't like. Example one of a tabloid magazine about Frances. Some pictures were good though. Overall I don't recommend reading this book.

When I purchased this book I thought I'd get a change to read about Kurt Cobain. I was wrong. All I got to read was how the author felt about Cobain. The book made me angry, because it was so badly written. The overall mood was very negative and it swelled in Cobain's drug addiction and in his mood swings. I was glad when i finally finished this book, it was pain reading it and I just wanted to throw it across the room and never touch it again, so don't waste your time like I did.