Scan barcode
takumo_n's review against another edition
5.0
If you read this not knowing too much about Kurt and the people that were around him, it is a five star biography. If you already did your homework, don't even bother.
dustysummers's review against another edition
5.0
Danny Goldberg, Nirvana’s long time manager brings another dimension to the legend / myth of Kurt Cobain with an intimate account of their personal and business relationship.
cowboydan's review against another edition
5.0
A great insight to how ambitious Kurt was, which was both a good and bad thing. Bad because of how negatively it affected him, which is understandable after the terrible consequences of the Vanity Fair article. But, I think a lot of people have a negative view of pop music and this book shows how excellent Kurt and Nirvana were at bringing great rock to the world on a mass scale and how popular music can be amazing. Good insight into the business and creative process side of Kurt with lots of genuine emotion, respect and heartfelt connection between Kurt and Danny.
iszys's review against another edition
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Suicide
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Racial slurs and Homophobia
xfajardo's review against another edition
4.0
Esperaba un recuento más a fondo de la persona de Cobain, siendo que esto lo escribe quien fuera su agente y lo que me topo es una crónica de su tiempo con Kurt desde la óptica de un fanboy.
Creo que lo más interesante es que da algunas buenas anécdotas sobre los momentos más emblemáticos en el estudio de la banda.
Creo que lo más interesante es que da algunas buenas anécdotas sobre los momentos más emblemáticos en el estudio de la banda.
ashleyholstrom's review against another edition
4.0
Danny Goldberg’s Serving the Servant is a moving reminiscence of his relationship with Kurt Cobain. The book starts out with a lot of music industry corporate mumbo-jumbo—he was Nirvana’s manager, after all—but later he begins working with Kurt more as a friend than an executive, and it gets more sincere. Earnest. Kind. Human.
tonybosco's review against another edition
3.0
It had potential..
The first 2/3 read like a Wikipedia page. I suspect John Silva would be able to fill in many of blanks encountered here. I grew tired of reading other people’s accounts, largely already known, about the past.
The book redeems itself once the Vanity Fair interview is discussed. From that point forward, the book is engaging and provides many unknown details without devolving into a gossipy tabloid. My main gripe is that it took so long to hit its stride.
The last third of the book is essential for Nirvana fans, but those same fans will likely be uninterested in the early chapters.
Oh, and Danny, Ozzy doesn’t have “famous” tattoos of ‘love’ and ‘hate’ on his hands. The tattoo on his hand is literally OZZY — Kurt and Dave were paying homage with the same exact thing. How something so easily verifiable slipped by the fact checkers, I’ll never know.
The first 2/3 read like a Wikipedia page. I suspect John Silva would be able to fill in many of blanks encountered here. I grew tired of reading other people’s accounts, largely already known, about the past.
The book redeems itself once the Vanity Fair interview is discussed. From that point forward, the book is engaging and provides many unknown details without devolving into a gossipy tabloid. My main gripe is that it took so long to hit its stride.
The last third of the book is essential for Nirvana fans, but those same fans will likely be uninterested in the early chapters.
Oh, and Danny, Ozzy doesn’t have “famous” tattoos of ‘love’ and ‘hate’ on his hands. The tattoo on his hand is literally OZZY — Kurt and Dave were paying homage with the same exact thing. How something so easily verifiable slipped by the fact checkers, I’ll never know.
neilsarver's review against another edition
2.0
There's nothing new in this, which is very disappointing. I wasn't expecting, or hoping for, dirt or exciting gossip, but some insight would have made this a valuable addition. For me, that didn't feel like it was here.
Mind you, [a:Goldberg|178993|Danny Goldberg|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] spends a fair amount of time defending the decisions involved in bringing Kurt Cobain and Nirvana to the mainstream. I understand that with a narrative that "punk/indie genius was lured onto a major label and into the MTV fold and the demands of fame killed him" being popular, his defense that Kurt and company were major forces in the choice to bring themselves into the mainstream.
Ultimately, however, he introduces a dichotomy in the form an idea he quotes [a:Everett True|60736|Everett True|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1256260954p2/60736.jpg] as stating that there are two kinds of punk rock. There is the [a:Jello Biafra|10732|Jello Biafra|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1309464750p2/10732.jpg]/[a:Ian Mackaye|486258|Ian Mackaye|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357116608p2/486258.jpg] school in which one forms an alternative community parallel to the mainstream or there's the version in which one joins the mainstream and subverts it from the inside.
Nirvana's philosophy was the latter, which they argued for in nearly every interview they gave, so the argument that this was their intention and that Goldberg and those around him were working diligently to get them what they wanted is a solid point. Unfortunately, I'm also not sure Nirvana is a good case study for that philosophy working. Once they themselves were gone, the subversion was gone, it seems to me, and once we pass the recording of In Utero, Goldberg never takes up the thread again, and certainly not in terms of the legacy left behind. This is not meaningless, as much of the first two-thirds of the book are dedicated to discussing this point.
This might have been a solid memoir in the immediate aftermath of Kurt's death, but it feels woefully inadequate for a book with two and a half decades to reflect on these memories and the questions raised by all of it.
Mind you, [a:Goldberg|178993|Danny Goldberg|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png] spends a fair amount of time defending the decisions involved in bringing Kurt Cobain and Nirvana to the mainstream. I understand that with a narrative that "punk/indie genius was lured onto a major label and into the MTV fold and the demands of fame killed him" being popular, his defense that Kurt and company were major forces in the choice to bring themselves into the mainstream.
Ultimately, however, he introduces a dichotomy in the form an idea he quotes [a:Everett True|60736|Everett True|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1256260954p2/60736.jpg] as stating that there are two kinds of punk rock. There is the [a:Jello Biafra|10732|Jello Biafra|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1309464750p2/10732.jpg]/[a:Ian Mackaye|486258|Ian Mackaye|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357116608p2/486258.jpg] school in which one forms an alternative community parallel to the mainstream or there's the version in which one joins the mainstream and subverts it from the inside.
Nirvana's philosophy was the latter, which they argued for in nearly every interview they gave, so the argument that this was their intention and that Goldberg and those around him were working diligently to get them what they wanted is a solid point. Unfortunately, I'm also not sure Nirvana is a good case study for that philosophy working. Once they themselves were gone, the subversion was gone, it seems to me, and once we pass the recording of In Utero, Goldberg never takes up the thread again, and certainly not in terms of the legacy left behind. This is not meaningless, as much of the first two-thirds of the book are dedicated to discussing this point.
This might have been a solid memoir in the immediate aftermath of Kurt's death, but it feels woefully inadequate for a book with two and a half decades to reflect on these memories and the questions raised by all of it.