Given that the 2000 film Almost Famous is widely known to be a semi-autobiographical version of Cameron Crowe’s time as a teenage journalist for Rolling Stone magazine (for which Crowe won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar), you might think you already know his story.
Or, knowing that he went on to write and direct movies like Say Anything, Singles, Jerry Maguire, and more, that he’s obviously had a very cushy life.
The Uncool is Crowe’s real memoir and puts the lie to both these assumptions.
For one thing, the Almost Famous account of young William Miller following fictional band Stillwater doesn’t come even close to Crowe’s actual early achievements.
From writing record reviews at the age of 14 for a San Diego free underground paper, through interviewing farm worker and political activist Cesar Chavez, to writing for Creem at the invitation of Lester Bangs (still 14), Crowe talked his way backstage to interview the early Eagles, then Kris Kristofferson, Jim Croce, Gram Parsons, Jerry Garcia, Gregg Allman, Todd Rundgren, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, David Bowie (spending 18 months with him), Fleetwood Mac, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer, and Joni Mitchell.
Among others. How he managed that at such a young age makes great reading.
I couldn’t help thinking how when I was a 12-year-old in my bedroom in Claremont, Tasmania, trying to work out how Jim Croce used harmonics in Time in a Bottle, Crowe – two years older than me – was interviewing the man himself.
And then there’s his family life. While Frances McDormand was indelible as his fictional mother in Almost Famous, the real story of Crowe’s family, especially his mother, Alice, is much more moving.
The Uncool also covers the uncomfortable time when Crowe was 21 and “washed up” at Rolling Stone, usurped by a hungrier writer eager to cover newer music.
At this point, Crowe realises that starting professional life so young has meant he has nothing more than a high school diploma he received in the mail to prepare him for another career.
He has the idea of impersonating a high school student to write a story about modern teenagers. That became Crowe’s book Fast Times at Ridgemont High, which became the movie of the same name, for which Crowe wrote the screenplay.
Crowe’s profile of Sean Penn during the making of the movie is, frankly, worth the price of the book alone.
Despite studio scepticism, the movie is a hit, credited as uncovering a new movie audience. When Todd Rundgren later convinces Crowe to film him playing a new song, he feels a new rapture for filmmaking, “like writing but without a pen”.
“Congratulations,” said Tom Petty, “you’re a director.”
Crowe bookends his memoir with the preparations for and eventual Broadway debut of Almost Famous: The Musical, adapted for the stage by Crowe himself. This, like all the anecdotes in the book, is interspersed with highly emotional family drama.
It’s no surprise that Crowe is a terrific writer with fantastic material. I suppose it also shouldn’t surprise that someone so good, so young at getting people to open up to him should open so much about himself.
If any of the names in this review ring a bell or strike a chord with you (musical pun intended), you’ll find The Uncool an absolute delight.
Highly recommended.