I had been waiting for this book for over two decades. There is no one I admire more than Cameron Crowe – the humble guy who cut his teeth writing for Rolling Stone and Creem magazine as a teenager and then became a screenwriter and director by creating movies that shaped pop culture and my youth: Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, and Almost Famous. He interviewed some of the biggest names in rock and roll and then wrote real, relatable characters and gave them one hell of a soundtrack. Crowe’s fingerprints were already all over the music industry and then he had the guts to write an autobiographical love letter to music and his family with Almost Famous – for which he won an Oscar. Years later it became a musical and broke every Old Globe Theatre record which where it all started for Crowe as a boy in San Diego. “And so it was that I returned to our old neighborhood with a musical about our old neighborhood.”
Writing about your own family is tough and it takes gumption to put your own story out there. But that is exactly what sets Crowe apart. The mild-mannered young journalist was gracious and kind but he didn’t get where he is today by being passive. Even though he was incredibly young at the beginning of his career (the access to musicians in the 70s was almost unbelievable) he fought hard for his interviews – especially for the ones with artists who avoided journalists – and went by the “the answer is always no unless you ask” mantra which is how a pro does it. That is journalistic bravery. Also, the genuine yearn to learn more about your subject is inherent to successful journalism. Additionally, and this is part of the 70s being a different era, he was able to write for music magazines and record companies at the same time. There is no way anyone could get away with that now.
Now back to the book. The Uncool is everything I wanted it to be. Crowe tells the detailed stories of all the people he worked with, interviewed, toured with, and met along the way. He is a big deal but it’s like he doesn’t know he’s a big deal. While they are both autobiographical, this biggest difference between this book and Almost Famous (the film) is that the author delves much deeper into his childhood and family life in the book. In the movie, we learned that his mother was a tough cookie but The Uncool brings a whole other level of information regarding her idiosyncrasies. Unlike his sisters, Crowe was very close with his mom (even though she was definitely a piece of work) and many chapters start with one of her quotes. Even with all of her quirks, she clearly understood the power of listening which proved to be an important skill for Crowe as well. We also learn about the devastating loss of his sister Cathy – who the book is dedicated to – and his relationship with his father. Losing Cathy changed the Crowe family forever – a tragic situation made even more heartbreaking because, at the time, mental illness wasn’t as talked about or understood as it is today.
My Favorite Kind Of Writer
Reading books written by journalists is the best. Journalists understand and appreciate other journalists because it’s a specific kind of writing that can only be fully comprehended by someone who has been in the business for a long time. “Any journalist will tell you. Sometimes you hear something so quotable that you can see the words in print in real time, right before your eyes. The room changes when deep truths are being spoken, when raw honesty is in the air.” That happens to me all the time. It’s out of this world.
Crowe’s background is unique because, later in his career, he ends up meeting, interviewing, and/or having a friendship with some of the bands and artists he saw perform as a child – including Bob Dylan. Other fun childhood anecdotes include when he won tickets to see Elvis Presley (who inexplicably danced around and did karate poses instead of singing during the show) and when he took his mom to see Derek and the Dominoes. In addition to showing an early love of music, these experiences laid the groundwork for his career. “Now, this was a real rock concert, still one of the best I’ve seen…I can still feel that night, the private thrill of a committed audience linking up with a committed performer. Clapton was on fire, and everyone knew it. That night, my schoolteacher mother succumbed to the power of rock and roll.” That was a big deal considering rock and roll was banned from his house when he was really young! Another essential experience for Crowe was his first big interview which happened to be with Cesar Chavez who he met because his mom invited the activist to speak in one of the college classes she taught at San Diego City College. Even then he knew that, when interviewing someone, it is important to listen and to not always cut in with a personal anecdote. “I loved the process.”
In his early days, Crowe was looking for connections with like-minded music writers. As a teenage journalist, he found his people and doing so informed his entire career. His writer superpower was and still is his ability to interview and listen. He mentions both skills several times throughout the book. In fact, Rolling Stone’s regular feature called “The Rolling Stone Interview” was his favorite. And, of course, there was his relationship with Lester Bangs who helped keep Crowe’s writing and time spent with rock stars in check. Bangs is one of my favorite characters in Almost Famous because he is over-the-top but also right about a lot of the opinions and advice he conveys to young Crowe.
Rock Stars Have Kidnapped My Son
By his late teens, Crowe had already been on the road with and written about Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, and the Allman Brothers, and had interviewed so many others who are now legendary artists. “There was a lot to learn from Glen Frey’s surefooted confidence. His enthusiasm was infectious. You wanted to be on his team.” As we know from Almost Famous, his mother didn’t want him to miss too much school or be gone from home for too long. She also always reminded him not to take drugs. “It was all happening. And I didn’t want to go home.” I wouldn’t have wanted to go home either.
His stories are incredible and we know it’s all legit because he was professional, wrote down and recorded everything, and was sober. For example, his interview with a few-drinks-in Krist Kristofferson is so good it sounds made up. “The more I didn’t speak, the more he enjoyed our conversation.” Here is something journalists always keep in mind: You never learn anything from talking. “I didn’t know it yet, but Kristofferson had flagged the very passion that would guide the rest of my creative life. The marriage of film and music would soon be my favorite part of writing and directing films…I liked asking about things I wanted to know. I liked listening even better.” A true journalist.
I can’t help but reiterate how cool I think it is that Crowe’s experience interviewing and writing about musicians found its way into films – i.e. a conversation he had with Glen Frey in the 70s was used as dialogue for a Fast Times character in the 80s. Another example: In The Uncool, Crowe says “forward motion was everything” when describing Frey and Henley’s songwriting – a line that was in Jerry Maguire! Speaking of which – a fun fact I learned is that Crowe wrote (but put away the script for) Almost Famous prior to Jerry Maguire. Following the success of the Tom Cruise classic, Crowe pulled the script back out of the drawer and showed it to Steven Spielberg who was the head of Dreamworks Pictures at the time. After reading the script, he told Crowe to “shoot every word.”
Music Is Magic
All these years later, Crowe still remembers what it meant to see his byline in Rolling Stone for the first time and still appreciates that there is no greater thrill than getting paid to write about music. Amen. That being said, it wasn’t all glamour all the time. The story he tells about an outside-of-his-mind, drug-addled Gregg Allman snatching Crowe’s tapes and making a scene about writing a contract is insane. That incident almost broke the young journalist’s spirit which would have been an enormous loss. The author also chronicles some big tragedies – including the plane crash that took the lives of several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd (“Simple Man” is my favorite song too) and the plane crash that killed Jim Croce.
My least favorite story in The Uncool is the one about David Bowie. Somehow, Crowe spent eighteen months in the mid-70s (how is that possible?) with him and the things he said to Crowe were mind-boggling. Apparently Bowie was trying to sound provocative and ground-breaking but instead he was paranoid and on numerous substances so the things he said made no sense. When Crowe interviewed him again in 2006, Bowie didn’t recall ANYTHING from those conversations that took place over the course of a year and a half. He claims that he was having mental issues and was on too many drugs at the time. As a result, every time Crowe quoted something Bowie said during those interviews, his infuriating responses were: “I’m sorry, I don’t remember.” and “That’s nobody I recognize.” How soul-crushing that must have been for Crowe as Bowie was one of his most important profiles.
Bowie aside, people love real, relatable, well-written stories which is exactly what Crowe has given and continues to give the public both in print and on the big screen. Even though Crowe does not talk much about Say Anything, he does mention that the movie’s breakup scene was semi-autobiographical (of course it was). That anecdote, as well as the fact that Siskel and Ebert “rescued it from obscurity with a pair of rave reviews,” was especially interesting to read following Ione Skye’s memoir. Conversely, Fast Times references appear throughout the narrative including a story about how Sean Penn showing up in checkered Vans to play Jeff Spicoli saved the shoe company. Van Doran mentions those shoes in his book Authentic as well. “Out of the ashes of a sputtering career as a music journalist came this new path as a screenwriter.”
Art Imitates Life
Even though rock was clearly his beat, Crowe found himself at the forefront of the beginning and apex of so many genres including reggae, punk, folk, and country. He also made several interviews happen with artists who were notoriously tough to nail down including Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, and Bowie. “Like a historian of the heart, I was thirsty for details.” One major theme of The Uncool is how his young age made him trustworthy to many musicians which contributed to his mostly unfettered access and helped propel him to the next level. But the most significant themes are music and family, as well as his yearning to be part of something bigger, optimism, camaraderie, listening, happy/sad moments, and the importance of lyrics and songs.
Throughout the narrative, Crowe recognizes that the downside to accomplishing so much at a young age was missing out on teenage experiences that are usually essential to a person’s growth. “Having lived through the emotions of others in books and movies and songs, I was utterly unprepared for real life.” That was true of his initial relationships with girls/women because sometimes he was too shy to talk to them but had no problem asking a rock star anything. “My sister Cindy was right all along. I skipped too many grades. I skipped adolescence. I’d traded it for a backstage pass.” Who wouldn’t have done that? It was an experience of a lifetime.
In the end, all of this goes back to music and family. Crowe is a father of three and his children are clearly the most important people in his life. That being said, he still seems to be mourning his own childhood and greatly misses his parents and sister Cathy. “Music was an emotional beacon for all three of us, Cathy, Cindy and me. From the Beach Boys to Todd Rundgren to Joni Michell, it was the happy/sad songs we loved the most.” No one loves and appreciates music and writing more than Cameron Crowe – except maybe Laura Lieff.
Quotes (this is probably the longest quotes section of any book review I’ve ever done):
“I would disappear into the world of music; where my favorite songs were often written from the hearts of similarly rejected songwriters.”
“Music was already more than music. It was a door that opened for three minutes.”
“Sometimes I would listen to one song twenty or thirty times in a row. There had to be other people like me. I just hadn’t met them yet.”
“All I knew back then was I had to get to a concert. If only there was a way to break down the wall between me and family and rock.”
Bill Maguire, Editor and Publisher of The Door (small San Diego publication), was the first person to positively respond to Crowe stepping up and volunteering to interview an artist: “Write about James Taylor if you want. There’s also a bunch of promo records leaning against the wall. Take a few. Write a few reviews. If we print your review, you can keep the record.”
“I left with an armful of records and a whiff of the very thing that had been elusive: a sense of camaraderie.”
“It was true of many of the colorful characters I was meeting. I was never sure how much was bluster and how much was truth.”
“I always felt that a favorite song has a mind of its own.”
“my instrument was the typewriter”
“The best interviews allow you to appreciate the artist and the work in interesting new ways…Sometimes the story isn’t the one you came to write but the one that finds you instead.” (That last part is beyond accurate with all types of writing).
“The combination of country and rock was a shotgun marriage between two warring factions.”
“Springsteen had his own spin on things; his music often had a carnival-like joy to match the blizzard of lyrics.”
“It’s on a night like this that music might spin your life around, give you new passion, point you in an unexpected direction.”
“There’s always a hidden hero in every journalistic adventure. For every writer who lands a good story, there’s a good Samaritan, or publicist, or family member, who helps them get there. Sometimes all you have to do is listen.”
“Rock autobiographies are like that. A complex or morally ambiguous incident can become a benign chestnut, mostly untrue.”
“This was always my favorite part of any concert. The very beginning.”
“On any given day, Townshend was the best interview in rock. His interviews were x-rays into his process, rock therapy in real time.”
“I was never a jock, but following music was my sport.”
“That’s the power of music, and that’s the poetry of the road.” (A reminder that music brings you back to singular moments).
“Sometimes the truth is so blinding you don’t even see it.”
“I always made monthly cassettes of my favorite songs, and listening to tapes now was like reading an old diary. (YES! The music always brings you right back).
Crowe’s conversation with Jann Wenner after he sold Rolling Stone in May 2019:
“Lester Bangs was good, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah, he was. Better than all the others.”
“Why?”
“He led with his heart.”
_________
“It was the emotion of growing up with complex feelings and finding true meaning in a song. It was the power of happy/sad. It was time to let go.”
“I will never stop marveling at the power of people’s memories and their ability to turn a gaping wound into a tall tale with a punch line.”
On Tom Petty: “Just like Ronnie Van Zant years earlier, an artist can throw off sparks that give you a sense of the bonfire that’s coming.”
“This was something new – writing with my heart and a camera. It was electric. I felt like I was capturing life and music and feeling in real time. And it was funny as hell.”
“Sometimes the best conversations are the silent ones.”
“My dad taking my hobby seriously felt like the end of something and the beginning of everything.”
“Music was everything to me, then and now.” ❤️
On Led Zeppelin
“Hard rock was their calling card, but it was their acoustic stuff that made them legendary.”
“I knew instantly that Led Zeppelin were the band I wanted them to be.”
“The Rolling Stones may have been touring the same year, but Zeppelin was selling out more shows without even the benefit of advertising. To be a Zeppelin fan was to be part of a private club.”
“I had managed to talk my City College journalism teacher into counting my road trip with Zeppelin as a class credit.” (Unreal. This is why Crowe is an OG).
“Plant is a music aficionado whose taste rivaled any rock critic of DJ.”
“He’s the kind of front man who who’ll pick up a fan t-shirt thrown onto the stage and proudly wear it the next day.”
“Never bet against Led Zeppelin.”
On the Eagles
“I was six feet away, with tape recorder on, as they wrote ‘Lyin’ Eyes,’ ‘One of These Nights,’ ‘After the Thrill Is Gone’ and fine-tuned many other songs.”
“I had a front row seat for their process and wanted the profile to show their chemistry from the inside out.”
“the lyrics sounded like well-worn leather”
“I would often look over to make sure my tape recorder was rolling. It was.”
“The literary-styled lyrics. The humor. The cynicism. The romance. The sweet harmonies. Hotel California was a happy/sad musical masterpiece. The success of the album broke the band, and even expanded the size of the music business.”
On the Allman Brothers Band
Right after Duane passed away in 1971: “There was already a feeling about this tour. Sprits were being summoned right before us, in real time. I couldn’t wait to write about it.”
On Gregg 42 years later: “Not much had changed in four decades, except everything.”
“I couldn’t stop staring at his hands. I had never seen so many miles on a pair of hands.”
“Gregg Allman just wasn’t built for social media bro-posing.”
On Almost Famous – the movie and the play
“The entire goal of Almost Famous had always been simple – to capture that moment of promise.”
“Life imitates arts that imitates life that becomes truth.”
“Let’s be honest. The true miracle had already happened. The movie had brought my mother and sister together, if only briefly.”
“Our idea was that as soon as you entered the theater, you were in 1973.”
“The cast lifted the story and the songs onto their shoulders.”
“Life strikes again…Out of sadness came the ending I’d been longing for.”
“Time had given them the gift of understanding what was most important in the world – to be heard.”
“Who were these people who left their homes to see this story about ours?” (I felt this way with my book on a much smaller level).
Alice Crowe Quotes
“Opportunity favors the prepared mind!”
“Sometimes the thing you worry about most doesn’t come about.”
“Never tell me the odds.” (Crowe credits both his mom and Han Solo for this quote)!
“Getting old sucks.”
On Alice Crowe
“My mother had never been a fan of small talk…straight-up bluntness was her default mode.”
“She was never one to squander an opportunity to teach.”
After he won the Oscar for Almost Famous, his mother still said to him: “It’s not too late to go to law school.” Wow she was something else – for so many reasons.
“We were two wounded warriors for optimism.”
“Even unconscious, she gathered fans out of strangers.”
Stray observations
Clearly his parents liked alliteration as all three kids’ names start with the letter C.
It was fun recognizing the conversations, situations, and songs in The Uncool that were also in Almost Famous.
Crowe points out that tours often started and ended in San Diego because the big rock critics were in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. I never thought about that!
Did the name Jerry Maguire come from Bill Maguire?
Jann Wenner fired Lester Bangs because of a Canned Heat record review. Hahahaha only in the music business.
I always wondered who the two songwriters in the quick hotel scene in Almost Famous were supposed to be and Crowe explains that the scene was an homage to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris.
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