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    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation
    Unavailable
    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation
    Unavailable
    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation
    Audiobook8 hours

    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation

    Written by Steven Hyden

    Narrated by Ron Hippe

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    A leading music journalist’s riveting chronicle of how beloved band Pearl Jam shaped the times, and how their legacy and longevity have transcended generations.

    Ever since Pearl Jam first blasted onto the Seattle grunge scene three decades ago with their debut album, Ten, they have sold 85M+ albums, performed for hundreds of thousands of fans around the world, and have even been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack Of A Generation, music critic and journalist Steven Hyden celebrates the life, career, and music of this legendary group, widely considered to be one of the greatest American rock bands of all time. Long Road is structured like a mix tape, using 18 different Pearl Jam classics as starting points for telling a mix of personal and universal stories. Each chapter tells the tale of this great band — how they got to where they are, what drove them to greatness, and why it matters now.
     
    Much like the generation it emerged from, Pearl Jam is a mass of contradictions. They were an enormously successful mainstream rock band who felt deeply uncomfortable with the pursuit of capitalistic spoils. They were progressive activists who spoke in favor of abortion rights and against the Ticketmaster monopoly, and yet they epitomized the sound of traditional, male-dominated rock ‘n’ roll. They were looked at as spokesmen for their generation, even though they ultimately projected profound confusion and alienation. They triumphed, and failed, in equal doses — the quintessential Gen-X tale.
     
    Impressive as their stats, accolades, and longevity may be, Hyden also argues that Pearl Jam’s most definitive accomplishment lies in the impact their music had on Generation X as a whole. Pearl Jam’s music helped an entire generation of listeners connect with the glory of bygone rock mythology, and made it relevant during a period in which tremendous American economic prosperity belied a darkness at the heart of American youth. More than just a chronicle of the band’s career, this book is also a story about Gen- X itself, who like Pearl Jam came from angsty, outspoken roots and then evolved into an establishment institution, without ever fully shaking off their uncertain, outsider past. For so many Gen-Xers growing up at the time, Pearl Jam’s music was a beacon that offered both solace and guidance. They taught an entire generation how to grow up without losing the purest and most essential parts of themselves.
     
    Written with his celebrated blend of personal memoir, criticism, and journalism, Hyden explores Pearl Jam’s path from Ten to now. It's a chance for new fans and old fans alike to geek out over Pearl Jam minutia—the B-sides, the beloved deep cuts, the concert bootlegs—and explore the multitude of reasons why Pearl Jam’s music resonated with so many people. As Hyden explains, “Most songs pass through our lives and are swiftly forgotten. But Pearl Jam is forever.”
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHachette Audio
    Release dateSep 27, 2022
    ISBN9781668610916
    Unavailable
    Long Road: Pearl Jam and the Soundtrack of a Generation
    Author

    Steven Hyden

    Steven Hyden is the author of Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me. His writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Washington Post, Billboard, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Grantland, The A.V. Club, Slate and Salon. He is currently the cultural critic at UPROXX, and the host of the Celebration Rock podcast. He lives in Minnesota with his wife and two children.  

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    Reviews for Long Road

    3/5

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    • 2/5
      This is much more of a fandom memoir than the critical history of the band I was expecting, and overall I thought it was one written without particular maturity or even much factual insight. Hayden spends a significant amount of the text psychoanalyzing individual members of the band and raising their personal dramas both individually and as a unit, though he specifically states that he never spoke with any of them for the writing of his book. He unnecessarily forces the content of his chapters to fit roughly into the contexts of different Pearl Jam songs, leading to some awkward redirection (and even misdirection, at times) to end each chapter with some acceptable relevance, but that relevance is questionable in some places. The grand lessons that Hayden assures us Pearl Jam are teaching us with their music are never truly believable, given that they are interpreted through the eyes and ears of an unabashed mega-fan, and the frequent intrusion of his personal experiences and philosophies about life and death, politics, and history disrupt the narrative, making it difficult to stay focused on the subject of the book: the band itself. Furthermore, I resent Hayden's treatment of the narratives surrounding Andrew Wood and Mother Love Bone, which comes off as pedestrian and uninformed, if not downright unpleasant. This is neither a true history nor a biography of Pearl Jam, but it does fulfill the role of a sometimes-specious memorial by a long-time admirer.