Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana

by Michael Azerrad

Book Overview

The definitive biography of the revolutionary band Nirvana and its star-crossed frontman Kurt Cobain, hailed by Rolling Stone as "the first book] to comprehensively tell the band's tale from Aberdeen,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385471998
• Release Date: September 1993
• Publisher: Crown
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.1" x 0.8" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

Not a good condition

I purchased “good” condition but the pages are literally falling out of the book. The binding is trashed. This would fall more under “acceptable “.

Probably the best Nirvana book..

Come as You Are was written before Kurt Cobain's death in 1994, so it isn't focused on the tragedy of it, rather on his life leading up to the event. Its a very candid look at his happy beginnings and how his life at home deteriorated and the refuge he found in music. Nirvana went though many drummers and musicians before finally settling on Dave Grohl. This book portrays Kurt like he was: a pained musician who didn't want nor know how to handle his sudden fame. Come As You Are is personal, funny, and intriguing. After reading it, I started thinking more about their music and the impact they made on the industry. Any fans of the band would probably love this, or even if you're not, it has an up close look at the music world of record labels, fame, fortune, touring, and all the work that goes into the production. Definitely worth reading. It also has some good photos.

Refreshingly Honest

Although Azzerand became friends with the band (espeically Kurt) in the course of the interview, it remains balanced, frank and netural. Too many of the Nirvana and.or Kurt Cobain books out on the market should be used as toliet paper, so I was really pleaserd to read this one. I really felt for Kurt and Courtney through all of the legal procedings and got the impression that they were just like many other couples--excluding the rich rock star thing. One other thing that jumps out, is the frequent and loud denunciation of anybody who is racist, sexist and/or homophobic. Few of the current big name bands inspired by Nirvana can claim such exemplarly conduct. Ditto for the modesty and admittance of imperfections and flaws.

A captivating tale of Kurt Cobain...

I read this book, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, awhile ago, and reread it again because of my enjoyment of it the first time, and it didn't let me down the second time around. The book kept my interest and gave me a new perspective on a few parts of Nirvana and Kurt. I have read other books, such as "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" and "Kurt Cobain" and a few other shorter biographies and compiled books. I know a great amount about our legeng, Kurt Donald Cobain, and yet I still love reading his biographies over and over, especially Come As You Are. CAYA takes you through Kurt's life, starting with Day 1. It leads you right through about 1993, very early 1994, and the new editions have an after-chapter about his death, although not nearly as much about the ending as we would have liked. A good thing about the book is the quotes. The biographer wrote the book based on a series of many interviews with Kurt, so Kurt says a lot. A possibilty of biasism is because of one theory. A bad review was written about Kurt and Courtney in Vanity Fair magazine, leading to trials about custody and having their new baby, Frances Bean, taken temporarily away from them, and making them turn in weekly urine tests. Kurt wanted to quickly create a "good, nice" buzz about him so the aftermath of the article would vanish. They wanted to protect Courtney's name, so they hired a biographer. The book may try to make Courtney seem better than she is. Read "Who Killed Kurt Cobain?" afterwards and compare the Courtney in each book. For new Kurt fans, or un-Kurt-ly-educated fans, I would suggest this book, it is simple to read and extremely captivating.