Allow me to make one thing perfectly clear right up front...while I love Pearl Jam and consider myself a big fan, I also don't have the kind of encyclopedic knowledge that I know some people have for the band. I can't honestly tell you how much of the material in this book, the little tidbits and snippets and nuggets of information from the band, their fellow musicians, and their friends is already known and how much of it is revelatory and new.
What I can tell you is my own impression of the book, and that's that this is a fantastic book that any fan will love. It is a great companion piece to the year-long celebration that has been PJ20. It begins with a great, long foreword by Cameron Crowe primarily about the role Pearl Jam has played in rock music and how they have managed to survive by, in his words, actively seeking less. There's a great note from Bono to Crowe that's quoted in the intro asking why Eddie won't just let the band release a summer album full of hit singles. This is followed by a short focus on each (current) band member (excluding Boom, who gets a bit shorted in general), which includes a very brief biography--essentially their birthday, where they were born, and a quick summary of their early musical resumé--and answers to a few background questions, the same questions asked of each member, about how they got started in music and what their earliest influences and most memorable experiences were. This is all pre-PJ information.
The book then jumps into the biography of the band, beginning with the years 1962-1989 and the evolutions of Green River, Shadow, Bad Radio, and Soundgarden. At this point the book is still largely a straight narrative by the author, with occasional quotes thrown in. These are accompanied by some great early pictures of the various band members. Once the book gets into 1990 the narrative style shifts into an emphasis on specific dates or general time periods ("last week of October," etc.) and more of a tale told by the band and its friends. Generally each time period, at least early on in the book, has a short description saying a major event that occurred at that time followed by at least one quote from a band member or friend of the band, which range from Chris Cornell to Ann Wilson to Dave Grohl, Pete Townshend, Ben Harper, and others. Some of these sound like they are contemporary reflections, while others sound like they are quotes from the time. Either way it works just fine. I found these quotes, again with the disclaimer above, to be very informative and exciting and at times funny, like when Eddie is describing how, without having met Mike, he tried to have Mike kicked out of the band during his first meeting with Jeff and Stone in LA prior to sending them his Mamma-Son demo tape, solely because he liked three-piece and four-piece bands better than five-piece. Later in the book these quotes become fewer and far between and the sections are more just a quick description of an event that occurred, although still informative.
As to the organization of the book, each chapter is a different year, from 1990 to 2010. Within these chapters are the aforementioned chronological narratives combined with, when applicable, special sections that highlight particular events. Mostly these are the stories and releases of the different PJ studio albums, but there are also sections on TotD, their Neil Young collaboration Mirror Ball, Roskilde, Lost Dogs, and Into the Wild. There is no 2011 chapter to describe the PJ20 events. Again there is a greater emphasis on the band's earlier years, with 1990 - 2000 taking up about 210 pages and 2001 - 2010 taking up about 120. Some of the chapters are pretty short, particularly the "non-album-year" ones. The book is absolutely filled with photos, either in the background behind the text, as full-page photos, multi-page photos, or small pieces that are stuck into blank space on the pages. And that's a great picture of Stone with Anthony Kiedis in drag at the beginning of Chapter 1999.
If you are a fan I think you will love this book. It is the band telling its story largely in its own words, and the insights and stories that come out of that are well worth the price. The photos often help to tell that story. If you want to see the band finally opening up about their own legacy, I have a feeling you'll see all that in Cameron Crowe's upcoming Pearl Jam Twenty film (I've got my ticket). If you want to read about it at your own pace and get a probably more detailed narrative than what the film will be able to show, then be sure to pick up this book. It is a great companion to the wild ride that has been Pearl Jam's first 20 years, and a worthy addition to your collection of PJ20 memorabilia.
If you have any specific questions about the book or its content, be sure to shoot me a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can. I didn't want to overload everybody with a really long review. Thanks!
