THE UNCOOL by Cameron Crowe
The memoir of the legendary rock journalist, writer and director
🛑 Please note, this review contains references to drug use and suicide. Please proceed carefully.
If you are of a certain age, Cameron Crowe needs no introduction. By that, I mean you probably need to have been born before or during the 1970’s. If you fit that category, you’ll know Crowe’s work: cover articles in Rolling Stone on bands like the Allman Brothers and the Eagles. Films he wrote, like Fast Times at Ridgemont High (starring the burgeoning star Sean Penn) and Jerry Maguire. And the autobiographical film of his life as a prodigious kid in Southern California, Almost Famous, for which he won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
Or you can be like me, and know him because of the film Singles, with its association to Crowe’s friends and my favourite band, Pearl Jam.
The Uncool is Crowe’s first memoir about his life and career, and it’s a cracker. I am absolutely sure there’s another couple of memoirs in Crowe, should he choose to write them. At 15, he was writing for Rolling Stone magazine and hanging out with the biggest stars in rock music in the 1970’s.
The book has stories about some seriously weighty musical legends. David Bowie, the Eagles, the Allman Brothers, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell - just to name a few. The best thing about all the name dropping? It doesn’t feel like name dropping. Crowe tells these stories in a straightforward, unassuming manner - neither lionising many of these legends nor himself, but letting the stories and their characters speak for themselves.
There’s little in it that would send shock and awe through readers; quell surprise, rock stars do a lot of drugs. Crowe tells these behind the scenes stories without giving away secrets, and for that reason the memoir doesn’t feel like a cash-in on a decades long career nor a betrayal of trust or friendships.
The hero of The Uncool and of Crowe himself is, inevitably, his mother, Alice. A mighty, steadfast woman who took some convincing that her son’s rock’n’roll lifestyle was a legitimate choice (as opposed to her choice for him - law school). It’s clear Crowe was his mother’s biggest fan, even in her worst moments. Those came in relation to her relationships with Crowe’s sisters, Cindy (who became estranged from her mother and, for many years, her brother) and Cathy, who died by suicide aged 17.
Despite this, Alice is Cameron’s greatest cheerleader and was likely the reason that Almost Famous: The Musical made it to the stage for a successful run, such was Crowe’s fear that it would fail where the film had not.
As a fan of 90’s grunge, I was a touch sad that Crowe’s relationship with bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden were not touched on in The Uncool, but I am hopeful that there might be more to come from Crowe in the memoir space, as I am sure he would have recollections of those times that fans globally would appreciate.
I really liked the straight story telling of Crowe’s writing in The Uncool. It never feels like a bragging session, nor does he ponder the enormity of his career and the success he found at such a young age. Careers like Crowe’s simply don’t happen these days like they did fifty years ago, and we are poorer for it. I hope there’s more to come from Crowe. We need great story tellers now more than ever.
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