Cross [the author] took the name "Heavier Than Heaven" from a tour Nirvana did with the band Tad in the UK. The lead singer, Tad Doyle, was very obese; the name which was thought up by the tour promoters, was meant in part to poke fun at the inaccurate idea that Tad alone weighed more than all of the members of Nirvana put together. I finished reading the biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven written by Charles Cross, just in time for what would have been his 41st birthday. My conclusion?Kurdt (that’s how he liked to spell it) was a jerk!

I finally got to visit Seattle in the summer of 2007. I was visiting my college friends in Vancouver and we planned a weekend roadtrip to take in “Rain City”. One of our first stops when we arrived was the Experience Music Project (EMP), a museum in Seattle dedicated to the history and exploration of popular music. EMP is especially famous for its permanent exhibition, the Northwest Passage, which is dedicated to the history of music in the Pacific Northwest, including bands from the grunge music genre, and the life and work of Jimi Hendrix. EMP has also held various exhibitions on other popular music acts, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and Kurt Cobain. The museum is also famous for its Guitar Gallery, dedicated to the history of the guitar, and its massive sculpture entitled Roots and Branches, made largely out of musical instruments, especially guitars. It was such a great experience to get to see EMP and learn all about the history of Seattle music. The part of me and my friends’ trip that excited me the most, however, was getting to see the house that stands at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard E., the house where, on 5th April 1994, Kurt Cobain would take his own life. Even his marriage with Courtney Love and the birth of their daughter Frances could not save the great lonelier from his depression. He had several overdoses within a few years. He had to postpone concerts as he was not able to perform due to his health problems. This frustration led to two albums Incesticide (1992) and In Utero (1993). The albums were financially successful projects, but many people considered them to be quite failing. I had never asked you to make me care about you but it happened - against the hype, against the odds - and now you are in my imagination forever. And I figure you're in heaven too. But how exactly does it help you now, to know that you, too, were once adored?" Dit schreef de Canadese auteur Douglas Coupland in een brief aan Kurt Cobain, net na zijn dood in zijn essaybundel "Polaroids from the Dead". Ook al vond ik deze bundel van één van mijn favoriete auteurs (die eer dankt hij bijna enkel en alleen aan zijn cultboek "Generation X") wisselvallig van toon en flets geschreven, is deze brief lang blijven hangen. Samen met het verhaal "The German Reporter", voor de volledigheid.

In the first place, it is necessary to mention some facts about the book itself. The book was published in 2001, the year of 10 th anniversary of Nirvana’s album Nevermind. The writer pointed out in the beginning of his book that his goal was “to honor the story of his [Cobain’s] life … without judgment” (Cross x). I try to imagine what I would have done if the idol of my own teen years, Tori Amos, had committed suicide while I was in the midst of using her music and voice as a resonator for my young soul. I would probably have sobbed in grief silently under my bed covers with her album on repeat, or maybe I would have smashed her cds on the street in effigy at the betrayal. Whatever the physical actions, I know for sure that the piercing and torturous scream in my head would have been: Originally published in 2001 and with a well-written update added to bring it up to date, this is a well-researched book by an author who was around for many of the events at the time. Charles Cross spent 4 years researching, and interviewing 400 people for this book. So you can tell it’s pretty thorough. He tells us how Cobain’s time being famous, from his first album coming out to his death was less than 1000 days. That’s pretty heart-rending to think about. It does a good job of filling out the picture from his beginnings in Aberdeen through growing up and finding success. A lot of focus on his songwriting and touring, practices and time spent making albums. Meeting and marrying Courtney Love and becoming a father. And of course, you know how the story ends, yet it still grabs you. This is a really good book for Nirvana fans. My thanks for the advance electronic copy that was provided by NetGalley, author Charles R Cross, and the publisher for my fair review. This book was very well put together. So many biographies can feel as if the writer is taking liberties or injecting their own personal views on the subject into the text, but this didn’t feel that way for most of this book. The very notable exception to this being that the author presumed to know details of the final minutes of Cobain’s life; something no one but Cobain could possibly know. Other than that, this book was very well researched! Tour promoters don't need a specific, coherent meaning for phrases. They just need something that sounds cool. Since the phrase never entered a wide usage, there is no specific meaning outside of a particular context.

It is a bit of a cliche of celebrity, but Kurt Cobain really was an incredibly contradictory personality. Part of the fun of Heavier Than Heaven is trying to take all of the evidence, presented in amazing detail by Charles R. Cross, and trying to piece together what kind of person he was. One of the themes most prevalent throughout the Biography of Kurt Cobain was that you can achieve almost anything if you keep at it. You can achieve almost anything because Kurt’s record tops the charts, he becomes famous worldwide, and he never listened to anyone who said he couldn’t do it. Since this biography was writen based in interviews (Dave Grohl and Kurt's mother notably stayed out), there is a lot of subjectivy here. Sometimes, I think the author took too much liberties in his assumptions. Cobain and Hendrix had many things in common- they both were left-handed guitar players, both died at 27, had four-year musical careers and had battled drug addiction. They also both lived in Seattle, a city with one of the most notable music scenes in the world. I asked Cross if he felt enough had been done to honour both men in Seattle. “The answer is no. The city should honour them more. In the UK, they’ve got their blue plaques; we should have something like that here”. Naast zijn kindertijd en jeugd, getekend door de scheiding van zijn ouders en door het opgroeien in Aberdeen, word je deelachtig aan de weg die Kurt Cobain aflegt richting roem en de dikke miserie die daar in zijn geval mee gepaard gaat. Een paar van zijn liefjes passeren de revue, tot hij bij Courtney Love eindigt. Dat het verhaal over de relatie met de frontvrouw van Hole veel genuanceerder is dan het beeld dat de pers na de dood van Kurt ophing, spreekt voor zich. Mooi ook om te zien hoe andere artiesten en groepen waar ik als tiener en prille twintiger naar opkeek, het privéleven van de zanger in- en uitschuiven: Mark Lanegan, Axl Rose, Sonic Youth en last but not least, Billy Corgan, om er maar een paar bij naam te noemen.vanHorn, Terri. "Cobain Book Shows Singer's Life 'Heavier' Than Most Imagined". MTVNews.com. September 10, 2001. Charles R. Cross heeft zich voor zijn boek gebaseerd op meer dan 400 interviews en had inzage in massa's authentieke documenten, waaronder correspondentie en dagboeken van de zanger. Hoe hij uit die verscheidenheid aan bronnen zo'n consistent en uitgebalanceerd verhaal kon puren, is mij een raadsel. En hij doet dat zonder enig waardeoordeel, maar eerder als een bevoorrechte getuige, een versl Kurdt was charismatic, drawing people into his life with his sincere kindness and empathy as well as the siren song of his art. Finalmente diré que la historia de un hombre no es solo la historia de sus más íntimas inclinaciones, miedos y sentimientos; también es la historia de la generación que lo rodea y la herencia social de sus precedentes; así que la historia de un hombre viene a convertirse en la historia de todos, Kurt creció donde no quería y tuvo que luchar por sobrevivir sin lograr nunca adaptarse a un entorno que ni el entendía ni lo entendía a él; Kurt cambio las cosas, pero no fue fácil su lucha y al final dejo mucho dolor y sangre en el camino. ¿Entonces qué es lo más importante, la meta o el camino? Maquiavelo diría que la meta, Lewis Carroll que el camino yo les diría que no se, al final los cuerpos siempre terminan en el atolladero, entonces dejemos volar un poco las almas que es lo único que nos queda. Bytheway. Buku ini cukup rinci nyeritain kisah hidup Kurt Cobain. Tentu beserta Nirvana n keluarganya. Pokoknya semua yang dirasa pernah ada hubungan dengan Kurt, dituangkan secara kronologis di buku ini. Si penulisnya melakukan 400 wawancara selama empat taun dengan orang-orang yang pernah bersinggungan jalan dengan jalan hidup Kurt, sebelum buku ini akhirnya jadi. Jadi ya setidaknya buku ini bisa lah dijadiin gambaran awal mengenai kisah kehidupan Kurt.