Cameron Crowe’s semi-autobiographical film Almost Famous won a string of awards on its release in 2000 and has a legion of fans globally. Crowe now tells the real story of his years as a young journalist for Rolling Stone Magazine and other iconic music outlets in his memoir, The Uncool. We largely follow his mid-late teens spent on the road with iconic bands like The Allman Brothers Band and Led Zeppelin. These interactions formed the basis for William Miller’s travels with the fictitious Stillwater, and many of the characters encountered and locations are directly lifted from Crowe’s own life as a teenage rock journalist.
While some memoirs can be stale and full of uninteresting details, Crowe cleverly decides to juxtapose his childhood and family life with life on the road, often linking forward to details included in Almost Famous. It gives us a sense of his early upbringing and how he fought against his parents’ wish to become a lawyer, finding escapism in rock n roll and the taste of his two elder sisters with the likes of The Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel.
It is full of eye-opening anecdotes from interactions with pre-fame Eagles to staying in Kris Kristofferson’s hotel room after a gig and shadowing David Bowie as he shunned Ziggy Stardust for The Thin White Duke. It is a vivid recreation of the 70s music and journalism scene, showing how much the decade changed from the days of superstar singer-songwriters like Joni Mitchell and Elton John to punk and new wave at the decade’s sunset.
Focusing almost entirely on his writing career is a clever move, giving this a tighter focus. We do get hints and titbits about his later films, with a section exploring Fast Times at Ridgemont High, but those are potentially stories for another time. It offers new meaning to many of the plots in Almost Famous, and eagle-eyed fans of the film will spot references that directly inform the interactions between William and Stillwater.
It’s a fast-paced read that shows why Crowe was able to build such a formidable body of work for Rolling Stone at such a young age and transfer these skills to screenwriting and eventually directing. One of the most remarkable stories is how he felt burnt out by music journalism at 21, an age well before most journalists now begin to get started in earnest. The unprecedented access he had at such a young age was testament to his passion for music and determination to leave an indelible mark, something he more than managed, and this book cements his now perhaps overlooked contributions as a journalist and writer.
It’s a must-read for fans of Crowe’s films, especially Almost Famous and is accessible both for those around in the 70s heyday and those whose main point of reference is the timeless music. This is a surprising, heartfelt memoir that is equal parts funny, heartbreaking and electrifying, easy to picture many of the concerts described in such vivid detail.
Words by Chris Connor
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