Five against One by Kim Neely Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Five against One
Book Review: Open your eyes, this book is NOT the "unvarnished truth"
Summary: 1 Stars
It's a shame that so many of the reviews here are by people who have confused negativity with the truth. Neely's book is not well researched, nor is it especially accurate. All of her sources were slanted against the band, and I noticed a number of factual errors in the text. Maybe someday someone will write a bio of Pearl Jam that tells the real story, but this isn't it.Book Review: Poorly Written, Biased Book
Summary: 2 Stars
This book is tabloid journalism at best. It reads like the author conducted long interviews with only two sources--PJ's bitter second drummer and Eddie Vedder's estranged step-father. Both clearly had an ax to grind. The rest of the book seems like a distillation of many press clippings.
What's more, I don't even enjoy Pearl Jam's music as much as I did during the early 1990s, so I'm not a overzealous fan trying to protect the band's legacy. I simply wanted to read a well-balanced, well-written account of Pearl Jam's history. Skip this book. Reading it was a waste of time.
Book Review: Slam biography attempting to cast a bad light on Eddie Vedde
Summary: 1 Stars
When I bought the Five Against One book, I was really looking forward to getting some insight into Pearl Jam...not the dirt on the band members, but information that a fan would like to know...."Why did Dave Krusen leave the band?" "How was 'Ten' recorded?" That kind of information. And while Kim Neely's book offered some of that perspective, the majority of it deals with Eddie Vedder, and the things she says about him are NOT flattering. Five Against One is reminiscent of the article Rolling Stone did on Eddie in its November '96 piece, "Inventing Eddie Vedder: Pearl Jam's Mystery Man." Ms. Neely uses a lot of "confidential" and "anonymous" sources, along with some of her own opinions (appearantly she spent a lot of time with the band in its early days....funny that she doesn't interview them anymore) to build up Eddie Vedder as an egomaniacal jerk, more interested about his image than his music. While the book starts off well, discussing the events that led up to Pearl Jam's forming and shedding light on Stone Gossard's and Jeff Ament's history, it ends up as a slam, and is taken by fans (or at least by this one) as an attempt to discredit an amazing group of musicians. If Pearl Jam is more interested in its image than its music, then they sure as hell fooled me....Book Review: THE finite Pearl Jam biography
Summary: 5 Stars
This book deliver the most unbiased, complete history of the band possible. It takes you through the history of Seattle, their backgrounds, influences, everything! You learn the motivation behind countless songs. Kim Neely's words leave you with an intimate knowledge of the band. This book is a must for the true fan!Book Review: Thanks for the info reviewers
Summary: 2 Stars
I've recently redicovered Pearl Jam, and wanted to read more about them. Although I saw in a review of antoehr PJ book to look to this one for the "real truth", well from the big PJ fans that the full story can't be found here either. And maybe that's good. Let the guys play music and have some privacy.