‘Sometimes the story isn’t the one you came to write but the one that finds you instead…’
Almost Famous is one of my favourite films of all time and probably the reason why I’m writing this review at all. Cameron Crowe’s semiautobiographical film about his time as a teenage music journalist in the ’70s inspired me to start writing in the first place (direct your complaints to Crowe), and so, when I heard that Crowe had written a memoir detailing this period in his life, I knew I had to have it. Happily, I can confirm that The Uncool is essentially Almost Famous: The Novel…
Chronicling Crowe’s unconventional childhood with a demanding mother, a sister who died young and another sister who was always battling with the family’s matriarch, and ending with his mother’s death a few days before the opening of Almost Famous – The Musical, The Uncool is very much the story of a rock journalist and not that of a film director. While Crowe does cover the writing of Fast Times at Ridgemont High and some of Almost Famous, he is more interested in his time on the road with artists as diverse as The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin and David Bowie. The latter, hilariously, claims not to remember any of the 18 months he spent with Crowe due to being on a cocktail of illicit drugs at the time.
Unsurprisingly, Crowe is a wonderful music writer. He can still dredge up the wide-eyed romance of being a teenage rock journalist, and it is genuinely incredible how young he was when most of the events of The Uncool take place. He was still a teenager when joining Bowie on the road and the level of access he received remains astonishing. It seems that many of the bands and solo artists he profiled saw Crowe as more of a curious kid than a journalist for Rolling Stone magazine and this worked in his favour when it came to pulling something from his subjects that they hadn’t revealed before.
Crowe also talks warmly and extensively about his mother, Alice Crowe, memorably portrayed by Frances McDormand in Almost Famous, who comes across as an incredible force of nature and a huge influence in the life of Crowe and his two sisters, for better and for worse, and he also speaks affectionately about his relationship with legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, who served as a mentor to the young writer at the start of his career.
The Uncool should be required reading for anyone wishing to write about popular culture, anyone with an interest in the American rock music scene in the ’70s, and anyone who enjoyed Almost Famous. If you don’t fall into any of those categories then it’s probably time to ask yourself why.