Product Description

Kurt Cobain filled dozens of notebooks with lyrics, drawings and writings about his plans for Nirvana and his thoughts about fame, the state of music and the people who bought and sold him and his music. More than 20 of these notebooks survived his many moves and travels, and have been locked in a safe since his death. His journals reveal an artist who loved music, who knew the history of rock, and who was determined to define his place in that history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60205 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Review
'Don't read my diary when I'm gone,' begin this alternately - or perhaps simultaneously - compelling and juvenile journal. Of course Kurt didn't mean it. Why else keep a diary? Indeed, in the very next line, he says, 'I'm going to work now. Please read my diary. Look through my things and figure me out.' The sense of self-importance mingled with self-loathing pervades these 20-odd (sometimes exceedingly odd!) notebooks. Here was an artist who loved music, who knew the history of rock, and was determined to secure his place in the pantheon, even if he had to blow his brains out to do it. The hand-written, ring-bound pages are filled with crossed-out drafts of songs, set lists, drawings, writings about his plans for Nirvana, his thoughts about fame, the state of music (it sucked), heroin addiction (that sucked too), the people who bought and sold him and his music (they sucked), and, touchingly, lists of his favourite songs and bands (Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Gang of Four, the Stooges and so on) which at least reveal a side we can all relate to. Frankly, the spidery scrawl is a bit wearing on the eyes, but printing the ramblings of a smackhead in legible typeface might have revealed it for the banal navel-gazing it is. 'Words suck,' says Kurt. 'I mean, everything has been said.' But he says it anyway, just in case. Occasionally, a barbed arrow strikes its mark. But then what does the strike rate matter? If you're a Nirvana fan, you're going to buy it. If not, there's probably a real-life Donnie Darko living next door who would appreciate it (it's even got a black cover). The last word belongs to Kurt: 'I made about five million dollars last year.' Oh well, might as well shoot yourself then. (Kirkus UK)

About the Author
Kurt Cobain was the singer and lead guitarist of Seattle-based rock group Nirvana. He committed suicide in 1994.

Customer Reviews

Dilemma..
I bought this book right after it came out. I read it during moments snatched from days and nights of a lot of academic work. When you open the book, it warns you 'not to read the diary when I (Kurt Cobain) am gone..' but my curiosity got the better of me. I read on to find a rather articulate and meticulous person (who else will make a checklist for every stop of the tour bus that includes 'check oil' and 'check tyres'?) quite different from the drugged persona that means a rock star to you and me. A chronicle of the way Kurt Cobain changed over time, it makes you wonder about 'success' in general and 'rock star success' in specific. Curiously there can be deep introspective moments but that was just my experience.

Strangely enough just around that time, we were discussing the changing concept of copyright in network economics. Besides I am deeply interested in privacy technologies and the social debate around it. In all, I experienced a terrible dilemma with this book - by buying this, was I aiding and abetting privacy violation (even posthumous) or copyright violation (since these are not Courtney Love's diaries so how could she publish them???).. Any guesses?

Read it only if you can deal with the conflicting emotions that rightly overcome you when you read someone's diary without their knowledge or consent.. 4 stars for the depressing times this caused me, when I could least afford the time..

NOT A GOOD PHOTOCOPY
Who knows how many millions the publishers paid Kurt Cobain's estate for his journals - for they sure didn't spend much more on editorial costs. Admittedly, it's a nice big lavish book - but basically this is just a collection of photocopied pages torn out of Cobain's spiral notebooks. Apart from a short note at the back of the book saying these were either draft letters or letters that were never sent, there is no biographical content about the origin or dates (Cobain himself never dated his diary pages) that shed any light on the entries. Sure you get the picture from Cobain's outpourings - frustration before fame, frustration with fame etc. But unless you're a fan of Nirvana, you'll have to read one of the Cobain biographies to find out more about the band's story for yourself. But then, this is for fans - isn't it? Scribbled drafts of some of the most famous song lyrics - like Smells Like Teen Spirit - with all the scored out deletions and doodles on the page only empower the image of the grunge icon. And that's exactly why the photocopied pages appear as they were written; just jottings, really, in Cobain's fast and furious handwriting, which is almost illegible at times. A typed book would have shown up just how ordinary the writing is - just a guy letting off some steam, trying to keep a record. It wasn't meant to be literature. With any journals - particularly a dead famous person - the power of the prose is in the subject's thoughts at the point in their life they were at when they put the words down on the page, especially if it was before they found fame. Now wouldn't it have been better if the publishers had added some editorial content with the text - or Cobain's estate had provided some private photos? Even in death, it seems, you can't get cooler than Kurt Cobain.

Is this right?
I guess only Nirvana fans are reading this, hence the 5 stars. If you don't have much knowledge of Nirvana or Kurt Cobain, then this book will feel out of context. That's not a criticism of the book, because here we have a collection of personal notes by Kurt, to himself, without chapter headings, introductions or even dates.

Certainly it is without question an interesting read, and you will get something out of the experience of reading it. And nowhere else, are we 'privileged' enough to read such explicit and personal information.

But this review comes with a warning. Kurt Cobain was awash with contradiction. This book makes you question your beliefs about him, and it would be easy to assume an honesty in his writing that would lead to the conclusion that KC was manipulative and calculated - that his sincerity was a front. The ambition and drive for success that he so often mocked, is reflected from his very thoughts.

5 stars because I feel privileged to have this information available to me, that it appears uncensored, that we get a little closer to one of our most prolific artists in living memory.

Let me end on one final concern. Throughout reading this book, and now with its poignant remarks stored in my mind, I continue to wonder whether it was right to read it. Have we betrayed him, have we sold him out?