Comprehensive Cobain

Cobain on Cobain – Interviews and Encounters – Edited by Nick Soulsby (Chicago Review Press)

There are quite literally dozens and dozens of books, e-books, photo books and more that have been penned about Kurt Cobain and Nirvana. Most of them saw the light of day after Cobain’s untimely passing at the age of 27 and at the seeming height of his popularity. With all of those tomes piled up on bookshelves, one has to wonder; do we need another Cobain book?

The simple and short answer is probably not; the longer answer is if it is the lovingly compiled and utterly exhaustive work entitled, Cobain on Cobain – Interviews and Encounters, edited by FOB (friend of band) and confidant Nick Soulsby then the answer is yes.

Soulsby does a masterful job with curating a dynamic and diverse range of interviews that allows Cobain to tell the band’s story in his own words. There is a level of intimacy that this brings to the story that Soulsby weaves together. By removing the speculative nature of so much post-demise music journalism about Cobain, it leaves in place a raw, emotional, and seemingly legitimate take on things Nirvana.

The fact that Soulsby made such of concerted, complete-ist, run at this; gather a wide range of print, broadcast and even foreign language interviews, elevates this to a new level of being in-depth.  While admittedly not a huge Nirvana fan, I did find this book’s comprehensive nature to be all the more intriguing even to the casual fan.