Dark Black and Blue: The Soundgarden Story

by Greg Prato

There have been countless books penned about the leading grunge bands - namely, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. But strangely, few have been assembled about the mighty Soundgarden. But this all changed with the arrival of 'Dark Black and Blue: The Soundgarden Story.'Written by author/journalist (and longtime Soundgarden fan) Greg Prato, the book tells the Seattle band’s complete story - beginning with its members pre-SG days, all the way to today. Also included are all-new interviews for the book, including chats with Matt Pinfield, Marky Ramone, Jim Rose, the Reverend Horton Heat, and Dave Wyndorf, among others, as well as rarely seen photos from throughout the band’s history.In addition to dissecting, analyzing, and telling the stories behind all of their albums (including such classics as 1991’s 'Badmotorfinger,' 1994’s 'Superunknown,' and 1996’s 'Down on the Upside'), readers will learn about the stories behind their classic songs (“Black Hole Sun,” “Jesus Christ Pose,” “Outshined,” “Hands All Over,” “Flower,” etc.), as well as recollections of tours (including multiple stints on Lollapalooza, opening several legs of Guns N’ Roses’ 'Use Your Illusion' tour, Neil Young, Faith No More, etc.), goings on behind the scenes, and singer Chris Cornell’s surprising and tragic death in 2017. Finally, Soundgarden’s legion of fans worldwide now have a book that tells the entire story - 'Dark Black and Blue.'

Genres: Music, Rock N Roll, Nonfiction, Biography

453 pages, Paperback

Published September 17, 2019

About the author

Greg Prato is a Long Island, New York-based journalist, whose writing has appeared in such renowned publications as Rolling Stone. He is the author of several popular books, 'A Devil on One Shoulder and an Angel on the Other: The Story of Shannon Hoon and Blind Melon,' 'Touched by Magic: The Tommy Bolin Story,' 'Grunge Is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, 'No Schlock . . . Just Rock!,' 'The Eric Carr Story,' 'MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video,' 'Sack Exchange: The Definitive Oral History of the 1980s New York Jets,' 'Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets,' 'Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984,' and 'The Faith No More & Mr. Bungle Companion.'

Reviews

[Sonstepaul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-researched book from a person with serious expertise on the band. However, that is also the book’s most dire problem.

Greg Prato is the writer who writes about the band and scene I love, but in 100 Things Pearl Jam Fans . . . and now this, he has shown two annoying features: a distracting use of colloquial and idiomatic humour, and making himself as (a very opinionated) writer a character in the book. This detracts from a great read at times.

Although Dark Black and Blue is the biography Soundgarden fans have been waiting for, it’s almost and AUTObiography of a fan of the band, and that is lame at times. We must put up with Prato’s “I first saws” and “I first heards “ as if they feature big significance to us the reader, his parking and seating experiences at concerts he attended, and his opinion of the songs—he doesn’t like “Fell on Black Days” or “Live to Rise” (or want to see the Avengers no matter how popular it is)—and so writes them off. This sort of opinionating is unavoidable in a band bio, but it often takes away from an otherwise great book.

If you love Soundgarden you will love this book, but if you’ve read as much Prato as I have, you’ll wish he stuck in the testimonial style of Grunge Is Dead.

[Stuart Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting enough read about one of my favourite bands - but I found the author's style quite distracting on this volume.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, this is a book for Soundgarden fans. Not just the casual fans that like their singles, but people that know and love all the music. For anyone else, the book doesn't have much to offer. But since Soundgarden is one of my favorite bands, I enjoyed it.

Greg Prato shares a chronological history of Soundgarden from when they first started jamming together to Chris Cornell's suicide. Prato spends too much time on inconsequential things -- I don't care what songs they played during the fifth stop of their 1993 tour -- but there are a lot of great details.

I wish the book explored the creative process more, but aside from some quotes about composition and lyrics for individual songs, all of that is left for the last chapter, which is the best chapter. Soundgarden is one of the most innovative and influential bands in rock history, so I wanted more details on the creation of those songs.

We do get some tidbits, such as: The odd time signatures for which the band was known? It wasn't on purpose. Apparently, when Chris and Kim wrote riffs, they had no idea what times they were in. The dropped-D tuning that they popularized? They got that from talking to the Melvins (but the book doesn't talk about how they developed their other strange tunings).

"Dark Black and Blue" is a book about a great underground alternative band that made it big, much to their dismay. The book makes it clear that while the band loved creating songs and playing them live, they hated being rock stars. It was that tension that led to their breakup in 1997.

But it's also a book about death and depression. The band's rise to fame was regularly marred by the death of a close friend, including Andrew Wood, Shannon Hoon, Jeff Buckley, and Kurt Cobain. And each loss seemed to weigh them down more and more. For Ben, it manifested in his angry tantrums. For Chris, who admitted he would be a recluse with no friends if he wasn't in a band, it manifested in emotional isolation.

So it's a book about one of rock's best bands, but also a tragedy about unresolved grief. Worth a read if you're a fan of the band, but there aren't a lot of scandalous details if you just want some wild stories of rock stars being crazy.

[Jesse D · Rating 3 out of 5]

What the book did is provide an adequate chronology of Soundgarden events from before their formation till Chris’ death and the present day. A good portion of the information included in the book can be found on the original Soundgarden website or on YouTube. Though admittedly written by a fan of Soundgarden, there was a little too much personal opinion and cutesy-ness in the script which included copious amounts of abbreviations where it was unnecessary and author’s views on whether a song was good or not. Overall the book was informative.

[Elena Woontner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clearly written by a big fan of the band.
I love and enjoy the band, even if my level of fandom paled in comparison to Prato's. But he led me to listen more carefully to recordings I had once dismissed, and to find more hidden gems. Also, unlike other bios of the band and Chris Cornell, he kept my attention and made me enjoy the ride.
The very insightful and never read before interviews at the end are a great complement.

[Karl Goodwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can get over the fact that it was written by an admitted super fan, so sometimes the objectivity is not there. And honestly, there is not much drama with the band, and that explains why there aren't really any books or movies written about these guys. However, it was good to read the history as Chris Cornell is my favorite singer of all time.

[Daniele Zanini · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is good, I've appreciated some little gold nuggets... when he's describing the songs of the released albums... it's a little boring. The interviews at the end are very nice, especially the Jim Rose's one.

[Heather Goebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, lots of history.

This book explains the hard work, dedication and creativity Soundgarden put in to their music. Years of hard work and "firsts". You'll read all about how Soundgarden went on to become THE BEST ROCKERS EVER!!

[James Buckley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Soundgarden was my favorite of the so-called “grunge” bands who roared out of the Northwest in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. To this day, their music is unparalleled, and Chris Cornell remains, in my opinion, the most powerful rock singer ever. His tragic end still hurts to think about.

That said, I was pre-conditioned to like Greg Prato’s well-researched history of the band, “Dark Black And Blue.” But even if I had never heard a single SG song prior to reading this book, I would have still enjoyed this book.

Prato admits early on that he is also a huge fan of the band, but he balances his obvious love of SG with distanced objectivity when necessary. He calls both strikes and hits, but does it with love. I love all the stories behold the recording of SG albums, their tours, side projects, etc As someone who was in college in the early ‘90s and neck-deep in the alt-rock scene, I was hit by wave after wave of nostalgia as I read of each release.

Well-researched, well-balanced, and just well done, this book should be required reading for all ‘90s rock fans.

[Scott Sichmeller · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this book. As a Soundgarden/Chris Cornell fan, I was excited to learn more about the band, the music, and what moved them. Totally disappointed by this poorly written and edited book that ultimately was more about the author’s love of Soundgarden and his interpretation and opinion of their albums. I actually got more out of reading the interviews at the back of the book. So many times he had the opportunity to foreshadow and tell a real story about the band and unfortunate passing of Chris, but he completely failed. I have the book 2 stars only because I appreciate the subject matter.

[chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great

I loved this book and would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of the band or a fan of the genre. It really cool hearing the stories that the fans don’t know about. If your a fan of the band or the genre I would totally recommend this.

[Kyle Tomlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great biography of Soundgarden! Well worth reading for anyone who is a fan of the band. The only negative thing to say about it is that it needed an editor. There were quite a few typos and strange abbreviation choices. Despite that though, it was a great book.

[Małgosia · Rating 5 out of 5]

total fucking godhead :)