Cameron Crowe's first interview was with Che Guerera, someone his mother knew when she was head of the local community college's Spanish Cultural Center. Crowe was in high school at the time and would graduate at the age of fifteen, but got his start at the San Diego Free Press paper, The Door. He did a lot of interviews over the years until he was fifteen, and got published in Rolling Stone Magazine. Over the decade of the seventies, he wrote articles on Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Elton John, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, the Almond Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, and the Who. In 1970, he bought two tickets to see Elvis and two tickets to see Derek and the Dominoes for seven dollars. His mother took him. She was completely against rock n' roll. Neither knew what to make of Elvis's concert, where he played for a total of 48 minutes, most of which he was just making noises or letting the audience sing for him. After seeing Derek and the Dominoes, Crowe's mother changed her mind about rock music.
Crowe interviewed Bowie twice: the first time in the mid-seventies, when Crowe followed him for 18 months to "hold up a mirror" to Bowie; the second time was in 2006, when Bowie was clean and sober and a different man who remembered nothing about those 18 months. He interviewed the Eagles twice: once after the release of their first album, when they were just starting out and didn't want to kill each other; the second time was when Hotel California came out, and they hit their peak lyrically and musically. He describes Frey and Henley as The Odd Couple, with Frey as the messy one and Henley as the uber clean one. When he interviewed Led Zeppelin, it was a hard interview to get, as Jimmy Page turned down all interviews, especially from Rolling Stone Magazine. He had a hard time with the Almond Brothers, too. Duane had just died, and Greg wasn't talking to anyone about it. This ungettable get would earn him his first cover story and byline.
Crowe delves deep into his life and his oldest sister's suicide when he was young and trying to be a bridge between his other older sister, Cindy, who had a hard time getting along with their mother. He had a close relationship with his mother, who was the person everyone called to talk to because she was such a good listener. While his mom was proud of his accomplishments, she still wanted him to become a lawyer like his grandfather. When Crowe won the Oscar for best screenplay for Almost Famous, his mother told him that it wasn't too late to become a lawyer. Crowe writes about the movies Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Almost Famous, and the musical Almost Famous. He spent a year attending a local high school to write the screenplay for Fast Times.
I know I shouldn't have been as amazed as I was at how wonderful this book was, considering he has been writing his entire life. It is one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. He really makes you feel as though you are there, experiencing the seventies through the music. The seventies were a unique decade that won't come again. It's the soundtrack of Crowe's youth. He makes sure that his movies have the music that defined his life and left emotional memories. This was the golden age of Rolling Stone Magazine. If you're a fan of music from the seventies, this book is a must-read. He captures the essence of these artists at various stages of their careers. It's a backstage pass to a time that will never be again.
Quotes
My sister had too much pride to lie
well.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 14)
Why should we talk about the weather?
There's nothing we can do about it. What about world hunger?
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool, p 39)
I understand your music. It's better
than ours.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 51)
I always felt that a favorite song has
a mind of its own. It arrives just when you need it, and that arrival
memory remains for the rest of time. Every time you hear the song,
you can remember the feeling, like you're reading a diary entry. It's
one of music's great gifts.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 84)
American bands break up. British bands
stay together. We're going to defy that theory.
Glen Frey quoted in Cameron Crowe's
book The Uncool p86
He arrived like a talented character
actor enters a movie with a secret behind his eyes.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 109)
The only thing that was almost as good
as a Who concert was what happened at a Who concert.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 173)
I had an early cassette and listened
with headphones, lugging my boom box on the cold streets of Chicago.
Wet slushy snow was on the ground. For a Zeppelin fan who grew up in
the desert, trust me, this was a heavenly way to first hear Physical
Graffiti.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 201)
I was learning that to be clever you
first had to be sophisticateed.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 201)
He was seeking period. The problem was
none of it could last. Particularly on a diet of milk, red peppers,
and cocaine.
Cameron Crowe on David Bowie in The
Uncool ( p 214)
The next morning, we made promises to
get together soon, but it was no great surprise that we were one
Christmas card away from falling out of touch.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 225)
Skinny,
a little underfed, with a look in their eyes like they knew a few
secrets. No one wore jeans like them either.
Stevie
Nicks on Frey and Henley in Cameron Crowe's The Uncool p 235)
Stevie
was recently single and eager to make new friends like the Eagles'
Don Henley. Lindsey was dating a friend of mine, Kathy Nelson.
Christine was dating Beach Boy Dennis Wilson. John McVie was
heartbroken. Mick Fleetwood looked on, knowing it had all been
captured in the songs.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 239)
Sometimes
the truth is so blinding you don't even see it.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 250)
Every
life was an epic tale if you knew where to look.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 257)
I Every life was an epic tale if you knew where to look.
Cameron Crowe (The Uncool p 257)
I must have tried to write about that very specific, very epic pain a
thousand times or more. It's that moment when the trap door of love
opens, and you go tumbling downward. The breakup scene that comes
closest is in Say Anything...when Diane Court breaks up with Lloyd
Dobler in his car. In my case, Molly's breakup gift wasn't a pen; it
was a rare checkerboard UK edition of Elvis Costello's debut album,
My Aim Is True. When someone breaks up with you that well. Believe
them.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 259)
The
drummer knew Sinatra's set of hand signals, visible from behind.
Though they'd still never officially met, he and Sinatra had learned
their own musical shorthand. One night, the drummer finally asked his
road manager if he could be introduced to Sinatra. The road manager
declined his request. “Frank has met enough people.”
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 273-4)
Theater
actors are different from movie and TV actors in an important way.
Sometimes in directing in film, the actors will want to give
less...The actors in our musical were always anxious to find ways to
give more.
Cameron
Crowe (The Uncool p 278)
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