Not for You

I’ll start by saying that this is not a book for the casual fan. But as Givoney himself says, as it has been almost 20 years since the band released an album with more than two or three decent songs, is there really such a thing as a casual Pearl Jam fan left? Instead, we have folk who remember Pearl Jam from when ‘Jeremy’ was on hard rotation on MTV, back when MTV actually showed music videos, and folk who will look down upon the author for having ‘only’ seen them live fifty-seven times. This book is aimed squarely at the latter group.

Not for You doesn’t contain much in the way of biographical info on the individual members of Pearl Jam, working from the probably accurate assumption that anyone picking this book up will already know most of that. Instead, Givoney works his way through the band’s history by placing it in context with what was going on in the wider community at the time, starting with the explosion of ‘Grunge’ in the early nineties, through their battles with Ticketmaster, 9/11 and the Gulf War, the ‘Battle of Seattle’ anti-globalisation protests and the on-going fight for reproductive rights in the US. In fact, some fans who don’t share Pearl Jam’s political views might find themselves joining the crowd at some of their more infamous shows in chanting ‘stick to rock and roll’, but I appreciated this linking of the bands output with contemporary events.

Givoney claims, with some justification, that Pearl Jam are pretty much a ‘touring band’, with the main focus, and best examples, of their work being found playing live rather than in the recording studio, and Not For You contains lots of discussion and dissection of particularly notable live performances throughout the band’s career. Whilst some of this was illuminating, I probably could have done without the continued inclusion of the ‘um’s and ah’s’ during the transcriptions of Ed’s onstage chatter, however.

I would certainly recommend Not For You to Pearl Jam fans, but with one slight caveat. Givoney, as you would expect, has some strong opinions on which parts of the band’s catalogue he likes and which he doesn’t, and if these views don’t chime with your own, then they can become quite grating. I knew by page 50 that he really doesn’t like ‘Jeremy’, I didn’t need to be still being told that by page 350, too. But overall, Not for You was an interesting and entertaining look at an often unfairly maligned band.

Not for You: Pearl Jam and the Present Tense is not your typical band biography. More than a gossipy retelling of behind the scenes drama, this is a thorough examination of the band’s recording and concert history. The author isn’t afraid to share his opinions on what he sees as the band’s triumphs as well as their missteps. It’s an intelligent examination of what has worked and what hasn’t. Particularly insightful is the recounting of current events that shaped Pearl Jam’s music and performances. As a casual listener of Pearl Jam, I appreciated the recap of what I’ve missed over the years.