- Hardcover: 400 pages
- Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd (6 Sep 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340739371
- ISBN-13: 978-0340739372
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.8 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 114,287 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The art of Nirvana's Kurt Cobain was all about his private life, but written in a code as obscure as TS Eliot's. In Heavier than Heaven Charles Cross has cracked the code, and this definitive biography is an all-access pass to Cobain's heart and mind. It reveals many secrets, thanks to 400-plus interviews, and even quotes Cobain's diaries and suicide notes revealing an unreleased Nirvana masterpiece. At last we know how he created, how lies helped him die, how his family and love life entwined with his art--plus, what the heck "Smells Like Teen Spirit" really means. (It was graffiti by Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna after a double date with Dave Grohl, Cobain, and the "over-bored and self-assured" Tobi Vail, who wore Teen Spirit perfume; Hanna wrote it to taunt the emotionally clingy Cobain for wearing Vail's scent after sex--a violation of the no-strings-attached dating ethos of the Olympia, Washington, "outcast teen" underground. Cobain 's stomach-churning passion for Vail erupted in six or so hit tunes like "Aneurysm" and "Drain You".) Cross uncovers plenty of news, mostly grim and gripping. As a teenager, Cobain said he had "suicide genes" and his clan was peculiarly defiant: one of his suicidal relatives stabbed his own belly in front of his family, then ripped apart the wound in the hospital. Cobain was contradictory: a sweet, popular teenage athlete and sinister berserker, a kid who rescued injured pigeons and laughingly killed a cat, a talented yet astoundingly morbid visual artist. He grew up to be a millionaire who slept in cars (and stole one), a fiercely loyal man who ruthlessly screwed his oldest, best friends. Cross, the co-author of Nervmind: Nirvana, the definitive book about the making of the classic album, puts numerous Cobain-generated myths to rest. (Cobain never lived under a bridge--that Aberdeen bridge immortalised in the 12th song on Nevermind was a tidal slough, so nobody could sleep under it). He gives the fullest account yet of what it was like to be, or love, Kurt Cobain. Heavier than Heaven outshines the also indispensable Come As You Are. It's the deepest book about pop's darkest falling star. --Tim Appelo
Review
‘Superbly researched and harrowing...The squalor is ghastly but the sheer sadness of Cobain's brief life is beautifully conveyed here. Cross has painstakingly accumulated a wealth of telling detail’ (Robert Sandall, Sunday Times )
‘Cross’s research is impeccable...HEAVIER THAN HEAVEN is, or should be, the last word on Kurt Cobain.’ (Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph )
‘I was very glad to read this biography, the result of four years' research and 400 interviews, not to mention the sainted Kurt's police and medical records AND his unpublished journals. I was in hog heaven all the way through - in a caring, wistful way, of course.’ (Julie Burchill, Guardian )
'Cross's portrayal of a shy but prodigiously gifted child, in artistic as well as musical terms, is a joy to read' ( Observer )
‘The secret here is that Cross was allowed unprecedented access to Cobain's world; his diaries, artworks and most significantly the people who surrounded him. Cross may vividly depict the seemingly inevitable demise of a rock star but he also successfully conveys just what all the fuss was about in the first place.’ ( The List ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
‘Cross’s research is impeccable...HEAVIER THAN HEAVEN is, or should be, the last word on Kurt Cobain.’ (Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph )
‘I was very glad to read this biography, the result of four years' research and 400 interviews, not to mention the sainted Kurt's police and medical records AND his unpublished journals. I was in hog heaven all the way through - in a caring, wistful way, of course.’ (Julie Burchill, Guardian )
'Wins immediate entry into the rock lit pantheon. Five stars'
( Q Magazine )'Cross's portrayal of a shy but prodigiously gifted child, in artistic as well as musical terms, is a joy to read' ( Observer )
‘The secret here is that Cross was allowed unprecedented access to Cobain's world; his diaries, artworks and most significantly the people who surrounded him. Cross may vividly depict the seemingly inevitable demise of a rock star but he also successfully conveys just what all the fuss was about in the first place.’ ( The List ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sad account of one man's descent into opiate psychosis.,
By
This review is from: Heavier Than Heaven: The Biography of Kurt Cobain (Scepte 21's) (Paperback)
Charles Cross's popular biography of Kurt Cobain is alarming reading. I read Michael Azzerad's Come As You Are back in '94 and remember an acutely different tale. Azzerad was fortunate enough to have had extensive interviews with Cobain, unlike Cross, and his book is strikingly disimilar to this.Ultimately, I think Cross's account is the more accurate of the two. It is also somewhat different in tone, being a biography of Kurt Cobain, not Nirvana. Cross pulls no punches, and his book is the better for it. Cobain's duplicity as recorded here is astonishing. This is a compelling account of a man who desparately sought fame and recognition, who invented a history for himself barely worse than his actual past and, inevitably, this is a story of serious drug abuse. The second half of the book - detailing the years 1991 to 1994 - is overwhelmingly concerned with Cobain's addiction to heroin. Contrary to popular belief, the singer was rarely clean for more than a few weeks during the last three years of his life. This is not light reading; it is the painful account of a young man's weakness and mental decay. Throughout the book, Courtney Love is respectfully portrayed by Cross as a loving wife and supporter of Cobain. No doubt this is true in some respects, but you get the impression Cross backed-off detailing much of Love's character. In return she provided him with access to Kurt's diaries, some entries from which are published here. It was a reasonable trade-off, I suppose, but not terrific journalism. Interesting and often horrific, Heavier Than Heaven is a valuable biography for its honesty, and the only essential piece of writing on Cobain so far. Recommended.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating, emotional, thought-provoking,
This review is from: Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (Hardcover)
This book was very informative, and I learnt a lot of things about Kurt Cobain that I never knew before. It was sad to read about how he felt like he didn't belong anywhere, and had a lot of turmoil involving his family. It brought a smile to my face when I read that Kurt used to like sledding down a hill near his home as a child, but as the book went on it became sadder and sadder because of his downwards spiral in life. The suicide was written in such deal and with such care that upon finishing the book I was in tears, and I wasn't the only one - so was one of my friends who has also read the book. I would recommend this book to anybody who has an interest in Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, or just music in general as it is a fascinating insight into what made him the legend that he is today. A fitting tribute to a man who changed the face of music forever.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The definitive biography of a rock legend,
By
This review is from: Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain (Hardcover)
I bought this book from Amazon a few weeks ago. I read it in three days! Once you start reading you don't want to stop. After all the rumours and gossip it was good to finally find out about the 'real Kurt'. Charles Cross does an excellent job putting over the struggles in Kurt's life, and the demons he couldn't control. This is helped by Cross having access to the journals/diaries that Kurt wrote in his short lifetime. Like everyone else I had formed opinions in my head about Courtney Love, after reading all the rubbish that had been written about her. But this book reveals the truth about her. I believe by the end of this book you, like me, will have a new found respect for Courtney Love. You will also feel sympathy for Kurt as he battles the various demons that he fought for so long and hopefully go back and listen to all the great music he and Nirvana made in the short period they were around. Kurt's memory will never die, and nor will Nirvana's music, maybe Kurt was right: it's better to burn out than to fade away.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Film, Television & Music > Music > Rock & Pop
- Books > Biography > Theatre & Performance Art > Theatre
- Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Rock & Pop > Styles
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
