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Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain
Binding : Paperback
Author :
Publisher : Hyperion
Publication Date : 2002-08-21
Edition :
Number of pages : 432
ISBN : 0786884029
ISBN13 : 9780786884025
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1,199.00
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Editorial Review :
This is the first in-depth biography of the troubled genius Kurt Cobain. Based on exclusive access to Cobains unpublished diaries, more than 400 interviews, four years of research, and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobains life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, fortune, and the adulation of a generation.
This is the first in-depth biography of the troubled genius Kurt Cobain. Based on exclusive access to Cobains unpublished diaries, more than 400 interviews, four years of research, and a wealth of documentation, Heavier Than Heaven traces Cobains life from his early days in a double-wide trailer outside of Aberdeen, Washington, to his rise to fame, fortune, and the adulation of a generation.
What Other customer speak :
Customer Review1 :
This was a very informative and interesting biography about Kurt Cobain. Since I live in the Pacific NW and am familiar with Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle I felt very connected to things said about these locations and felt like I was there while reading this book. Kurts death/suicide was a great loss to the music community. After reading this book it makes me curious of how Courtney and Francis are doing now. It would have been nice to have more photos.
Customer Review2 :
Back when I was about 15, I fell hard for a bad boy named Jack. He was a plaid-sporting, guitar-toting grunge god and, of course, worshiped at the Nirvana altar. Yes, I admit it - the discovery of my favorite band for about 5 years stemmed from a schoolgirl crush. But that doesn't make it any less legitimate, in my opinion. Just like a I fell for Jack, I fell for Kurt. When you're 15 and everything that is pumped through the radios and mall speakers is top 4o, discovering alternative music is like someone pulling the wool OFF your eyes. I couldn't believe that there was all this amazing music out there that I had never even heard of!
Okay, back on track. So I as I hankered to learn everything I could about Nirvana and impress Jack, I stumbled upon a book called "Heavier Than Heaven". I figured a biography would be a treasure trove of knowledge! And I was right, it was! But it was so much more, too!
Kurt Cobain is revered as a god in most music circles. He knocked Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, off the #1 spot in the Billboard Chart for god's sake! Even if grunge is not your thing, you still respect him for revolutionizing the music scene. However, "Heavier Than Heaven" brings Kurt Cobain back to earth and knocks him off his pedestal so to speak. And that's my favorite part.
Cross gives you a pretty clear idea of Cobain's life and why he ended up the way he did. He shows you that Kurt was a real person, with real feelings and relationships. I loved seeing him rise from the obscure to the infamous. If you were like me, a Nirvana fan in high school, or are one now, or even just want to find out more about the revolutionary state of the early 90's music scene, I definitely recommend "Heavier Than Heaven" by Charles Cross.
Customer Review3 :
A solid, well-researched and competently written book that paints a sympathetic portrait of Kurt Cobain as a deeply disturbed young man with enormous natural talent for music and for making art. Ambitious and lazy, sensitive and callous, self-centered and self-loathing, Cobain was a bundle of contradictions. By the end of reading this book you can't help but feel sorry for him: He was a certifiable weirdo as well as a genuine rock and roll genius, one who openly sought the fame and fortune that likely helped destroy him.
Between his drug abuse and the demands of the music industry and his own dark psyche, Cobain seemed doomed once Nirvana's Nevermind started to blow up. This book traces his life in a straight ahead fashion and the farther in you read, the sadder it gets. Here's a man who came up in the world feeling unloved and carried that feeling to his grave, despite the fact millions were deeply moved by him and what he could do in a song (including me).
One major complaint I have about Heavier Than Heaven is that its portrayal of Courtney Love is so tame and gentle you have to wonder whether Cross was writing this book with her cooperation or if he was writing it in fear of her.
Second, where the hell is Dave Grohl? With one half of the Nirvana's most famous rhythm section basically absent from this book, it's hard to be confident you're getting the whole deal here on what Cobain was really like. His lack of inclusion - or lack of cooperation - is a shame and a glaring omission. Krist Novoselic is interviewed extensively and comes off as soulful and decent, while Cobain's close friend and drug buddy, Dylan Carson, comes off as both thoughtful and unapologetically subterranean.
This is a good book. But a better one should be written someday and maybe it will, but only when people around Cobain care a little less about legacy and more about presenting a greater historical truth. Cross could write this book. The question is, will those who can tell it let him do it?
Customer Review4 :
This book is often touted as the "definitive" Cobain biography. While it is certainly the one with the highest profile, there are several major faults with it.
Author Cross had undoubtedly had the most access out of any Cobain biographer to both Cobain's belongings (journals, home movies, private recordings, etc.) as well as several key figures in Cobain's life. The problems with this are twofold:
1) Much of that access came about as a result of Cross writing the book with the permission and oversight of Courtney Love. Many of the Cobain family members Cross spoke with were still receiving disbursements from the Cobain estate, which is controlled by Courtney Love. Now, unlike some (not all) Nirvana fans, I'm not a rabid Courtney Love hater. The problem I DO have with the amount of control Love exerted over the book is that the information undoubtedly went through the Love filter as to how events were perceived. That is just leaning too heavily on one person's version of events.
2) Just because Cross HAD said access to so much (then) private Cobain material DOESN'T mean Cross is somehow able to know with certainty what Cobain was thinking and feeling, and this is something that is explicitly stated at more than a few points in the book. Cross doesn't know exactly what Cobain did on the day that he died, much less what he thought. Nobody does.
It is a useful book in terms of viewing the overall scope and landscape of Cobain's short life. Regarding the basic chronology of known events and facts, Cross is in tune with the general account of who, what, where and when. As for why, it is this point that Cross takes a bit of what is clearly Love-influenced license at times, and this is the single largest trapping Cross and the book fall into.
Customer Review5 :
i felt like i was inside on kurt cobain's life while i was reading this book.... i never imagined his other side
Customer Review1 :
This was a very informative and interesting biography about Kurt Cobain. Since I live in the Pacific NW and am familiar with Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle I felt very connected to things said about these locations and felt like I was there while reading this book. Kurts death/suicide was a great loss to the music community. After reading this book it makes me curious of how Courtney and Francis are doing now. It would have been nice to have more photos.
Customer Review2 :
Back when I was about 15, I fell hard for a bad boy named Jack. He was a plaid-sporting, guitar-toting grunge god and, of course, worshiped at the Nirvana altar. Yes, I admit it - the discovery of my favorite band for about 5 years stemmed from a schoolgirl crush. But that doesn't make it any less legitimate, in my opinion. Just like a I fell for Jack, I fell for Kurt. When you're 15 and everything that is pumped through the radios and mall speakers is top 4o, discovering alternative music is like someone pulling the wool OFF your eyes. I couldn't believe that there was all this amazing music out there that I had never even heard of!
Okay, back on track. So I as I hankered to learn everything I could about Nirvana and impress Jack, I stumbled upon a book called "Heavier Than Heaven". I figured a biography would be a treasure trove of knowledge! And I was right, it was! But it was so much more, too!
Kurt Cobain is revered as a god in most music circles. He knocked Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, off the #1 spot in the Billboard Chart for god's sake! Even if grunge is not your thing, you still respect him for revolutionizing the music scene. However, "Heavier Than Heaven" brings Kurt Cobain back to earth and knocks him off his pedestal so to speak. And that's my favorite part.
Cross gives you a pretty clear idea of Cobain's life and why he ended up the way he did. He shows you that Kurt was a real person, with real feelings and relationships. I loved seeing him rise from the obscure to the infamous. If you were like me, a Nirvana fan in high school, or are one now, or even just want to find out more about the revolutionary state of the early 90's music scene, I definitely recommend "Heavier Than Heaven" by Charles Cross.
Customer Review3 :
A solid, well-researched and competently written book that paints a sympathetic portrait of Kurt Cobain as a deeply disturbed young man with enormous natural talent for music and for making art. Ambitious and lazy, sensitive and callous, self-centered and self-loathing, Cobain was a bundle of contradictions. By the end of reading this book you can't help but feel sorry for him: He was a certifiable weirdo as well as a genuine rock and roll genius, one who openly sought the fame and fortune that likely helped destroy him.
Between his drug abuse and the demands of the music industry and his own dark psyche, Cobain seemed doomed once Nirvana's Nevermind started to blow up. This book traces his life in a straight ahead fashion and the farther in you read, the sadder it gets. Here's a man who came up in the world feeling unloved and carried that feeling to his grave, despite the fact millions were deeply moved by him and what he could do in a song (including me).
One major complaint I have about Heavier Than Heaven is that its portrayal of Courtney Love is so tame and gentle you have to wonder whether Cross was writing this book with her cooperation or if he was writing it in fear of her.
Second, where the hell is Dave Grohl? With one half of the Nirvana's most famous rhythm section basically absent from this book, it's hard to be confident you're getting the whole deal here on what Cobain was really like. His lack of inclusion - or lack of cooperation - is a shame and a glaring omission. Krist Novoselic is interviewed extensively and comes off as soulful and decent, while Cobain's close friend and drug buddy, Dylan Carson, comes off as both thoughtful and unapologetically subterranean.
This is a good book. But a better one should be written someday and maybe it will, but only when people around Cobain care a little less about legacy and more about presenting a greater historical truth. Cross could write this book. The question is, will those who can tell it let him do it?
Customer Review4 :
This book is often touted as the "definitive" Cobain biography. While it is certainly the one with the highest profile, there are several major faults with it.
Author Cross had undoubtedly had the most access out of any Cobain biographer to both Cobain's belongings (journals, home movies, private recordings, etc.) as well as several key figures in Cobain's life. The problems with this are twofold:
1) Much of that access came about as a result of Cross writing the book with the permission and oversight of Courtney Love. Many of the Cobain family members Cross spoke with were still receiving disbursements from the Cobain estate, which is controlled by Courtney Love. Now, unlike some (not all) Nirvana fans, I'm not a rabid Courtney Love hater. The problem I DO have with the amount of control Love exerted over the book is that the information undoubtedly went through the Love filter as to how events were perceived. That is just leaning too heavily on one person's version of events.
2) Just because Cross HAD said access to so much (then) private Cobain material DOESN'T mean Cross is somehow able to know with certainty what Cobain was thinking and feeling, and this is something that is explicitly stated at more than a few points in the book. Cross doesn't know exactly what Cobain did on the day that he died, much less what he thought. Nobody does.
It is a useful book in terms of viewing the overall scope and landscape of Cobain's short life. Regarding the basic chronology of known events and facts, Cross is in tune with the general account of who, what, where and when. As for why, it is this point that Cross takes a bit of what is clearly Love-influenced license at times, and this is the single largest trapping Cross and the book fall into.
Customer Review5 :
i felt like i was inside on kurt cobain's life while i was reading this book.... i never imagined his other side
Customers who bought this also bought :
Journals
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain
Nirvana: Unplugged In New York
Cobain Unseen
Journals
Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana
Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain
Nirvana: Unplugged In New York
Cobain Unseen