Sing Backwards and Weep: A Memoir

I became increasingly tired by "Sing Backwards" as it went along. The book started out promisingly enough, with Lanegan describing a tough upbringing in eastern Washington, but ultimately I just wanted the book to end. Maybe it was simply a matter of my expectations, but I don't think so. I imagine certain readers are going to pick up this book hoping for a glimpse of the Seattle music scene of the Nineties. There's some of that here, though not a lot. Lanegan was a something of a Seattle Zelig. He was good friends with Kurt Cobain and came close to discovering Cobain after the singer's suicide. Layne Staley was staying at Lanegan's apartment shortly before his own death. Lanegan seemed to stumble into singing on a couple tracks from the incredible Mad Season album, just as his band Screaming Trees fumblingly contributed to the film soundtrack "Singles." Pearl Jam is mentioned only in passing, as is Soundgarden. There's no mention of Sleater-Kinney. In fact, Lanegan's entire musical career is made to sound incidental. This was a big disappointment for me. I like grunge, but that wasn't my motive for buying the book. I bought "Sing Backwards" because I've loved Lanegan's voice ever since I first heard those opening strains of "Nearly Lost You." I love the last couple Screaming Trees albums, and I like a lot of Lanegan's solo work. It was no secret that he didn't get along with his band mates, and the discord is set out in detail here. Apparently, Lee Connor was a tyrant, and the last two Screaming Trees records were only good because those were the only two where Lanegan had any creative sway. And he seems to agree with critics who felt his first couple solo records were "genius." But there's not a single word written about his later work, such as his collaboration with Isobel Campbell. Maybe I was largely misled by the marketing of the book. What I hoped for was a true memoir of Lanegan's life and career. I wanted to know where he learned to sing. But this book is quite simply about hardcore drug use and hitting rock bottom. As Lanegan went on describing tale after tale of debauchery, I kept reading, waiting for the moment of catharsis and inevitable recovery arc, but it didn't come until the final few pages. Instead, there are countless stories of Lanegan getting high on heroin before this or that performance, Lanegan drinking until he blacked out, Lanegan sleeping with everyone he could (including friends' girlfriends and wives and, eventually, crack whores), Lanegan ripping off drug dealers and drug users, Lanegan trying to score heroin in foreign countries, Lanegan being physically and verbally abusive to friends, coworkers, and family. I'm sorry to judge, but his own account points him as a spoiled, petulant person, and he seems to delight in telling these stories, as though his epic appetite for drugs is still a point of pride. This is the risk with memoirs: some cause you to have increased respect for their author, but others, like this one, cause you to lose the respect you had. I was hoping for something along the lines of recent books by Carrie Brownstein and Jeff Tweedy, but they are talented writers. There's some bad writing here and some laughably bad metaphors. (At one point, Lanegan reports feeling as though he's being gang-raped by Satan's horde...but in a bad way. Is there a good way?) His re-creations of conversations are stilted and wooden-sounding. Lanegan's recovery takes all of about five pages. He is whisked to California to a rehab hospital at Courtney Love's expense, but agrees to go only because he's being threatened by a local drug dealer. I suppose "Sing Backwards" reminded me of William S. Burroughs--both authors were selfish junkies--but Burroughs wrote with creativity and flair. This book by Lanegan merely seems an opportunistic way for him to capitalize on his role adjacent to the Seattle scene.

I’ll start this off saying that I’m a big fan of Marks and I happen to have a poor attention span, so the fact that I devoured this book in three days is unheard of for me! It’s exactly the brutally honest book I wanted it to be. You can tell that no ghost writers were involved and I’m very pleased that it doesn’t read like a Wikipedia page (nothing kills an autobiography for me quite like that). Mark has a very interesting story to tell and a must read for fans, I think even people that just want another perspective on the 90’s music scene would appreciate it. I highly recommend this book to anyone who thinks they might be even remotely interested in it, you won’t regret it! I truly hope we get a part two someday. Excellent read, can’t recommend it enough!

An amalgamation of Burroughs, Bukowski and Fante, Mark Lanegan shows that his most powerful creative work might not actually be his music, but this book. I am absolutely stunned by the quality of Sing Backwards and Weep. I would recommend this to people that aren’t even fans. Don’t hesitate, just buy this book.

Who could’ve guessed it!? Lanegan could’ve been an MLB pitcher but thankfully he ended up making some of the darkest and most personal music known to mankind. His art is a blessing and his soulful baritone voice is indeed an acquired taste but Mark Lanegan’s solo work has legitimately gotten me through some of the toughest moments in my life over the past 20 years. This book is a beautifully crafted memoir from his teenage years up until about 2002 when he joined QOTSA. The stories he so brilliantly recounts in these pages is truly a gift to any fan of the infamous 80’s/90’s Punk/Rock&Roll/“Seattle-Sound”. The rollercoaster like twists and turns this man has endured is indeed a testament to both a true “F you!” attitude and a spirit not willing to give up in the face of so much adversity. Mark’s journey is quite possibly one of the most tragic comedies a human can suffer let alone endure. This memoir is one excruciatingly long “dark night of the soul” that only a soul like Lanegan could traverse. Not only did he somehow make it out alive...It feels as if Lanegan has reached that cosmic summit choosing to avert his gaze past the valleys of bloodshed, bodies, despair etc and instead pinpoint that golden light that is only privy to spirits as beautiful as his. It’s not some tragedy to triumph story. It’s f’ing real, it’s grimy, and it genuinely hurts to read a lot of his anecdotes but it’s well worth every damn second. Hands down the best “Rock & Roll” memoir I’ve ever read and it’s not just cuz he’s a favorite of mine but because of the eloquence with which it’s told. 10 stars!

A lot of celebrities use their biographies as a way of distancing themselves from any blame. To re-position their role in any bad situation and put their fragile self-image in a good light. Mark Lanegan doesn't suffer from any such narcissism.This is a brutally honest warts and all (literally at times!) story of his life/lifestyle. A gnarly, eye-wateringly painful read. Read in less than 24 hours (I couldn't put it down, one of those "just a couple more pages" books) . Broken down in anecdotal vignettes, a sordid and sometimes darkly funny account.Ever wondered where that incredible, haunting, sombre voice comes from, that is better heard live than on any CD? His dark, brooding lyrics? This book goes some way to explain.One of the best singer/songwriters there is. After reading about his experiences, I'm just grateful he's still around. It takes us up to the end of the Screaming Trees years. Will there be a part two covering his solo career? I hope so!

In a world sadly lacking in honesty, ‘Sing Backwards and Weep’ is not so much a strike to the solar plexus, as a full throttled assault to the back of the head with a shovel. Mark Lanegan, by his own admission, is a deeply flawed character. He f****, fights, scams and shoots up drugs pretty much throughout the re-telling of his life from a young man growing up in Ellensburg, to his emergence as minor rock royalty in Seattle.In writing about his experiences he hides from nothing, whilst documenting an incredibly tough period of his life. And herein lies one of the many reasons why you should read this book – even if he is writing about an event that makes him look like an utter, utter c***, he does so with a brutal honesty that is disarming. So much so, that one constantly looks through the carnage of what he has done to the integrity of the man writing about it.Even if you have read every rock biography out there by the most degenerate of individual’s, I guarantee this book will leave its mark on you. It is a brutal, sad….heartbreakingly sad, and sometime unbelievable story whose roots lie in a man who is untethered by any conventional boundary.Having finished this book I have reflected greatly on it. It has really affected me and I have a deep held gratitude that Mark Lanegan wrote it. This book is so much more than a rock biography - It is how to emerge from a quagmire of sh*t with everything stacked against you. Mark Lanegan – a modern day soothsayer.

I disagree with all this talk about honesty and a breakthrough biography. Read Burroughs Junkie and that's just has boring. Of course that's fiction but Burrough's was a junkie. You need to think if this lifestyle is so great then why did Kurt Cobain blow his brains out!As a document of a way of life perhaps it works and shows the mundane of scoring heroin, shooting up and then attempting to sing when high and messed up on stage and in a recording studio. At least Lanegan admits he would take drugs anytime over being clean. But I feel sorry for his band mates, girlfriends, studios, record company people for having to deal with him. As what I find irritating, is all these people helped him become successful or you could argue being cynical they only manipulated his voice to their ends so tolerated the behaviour. Reminds me of Hazel O'connor's Breaking Glass film but instead of the manager injecting drugs into the singer Lanegan has to do that to himself before every show and then falls into a spiralling addiction of needing heroin every day!He portrays a macho tough guy but drug addicts are never strong.As a way of life and perhaps a warning to others that shooting up heroin is not glamorous at all -read Viv Albertine's book regarding Johnny Thunders- it works. Sometimes the writing is funny, but there's very little on how the music is composed or lyrics written, and with Kurt Cobain's death it's reads like OK that's occurred but now let's just carry on and take more drugs...only the death of the singer in Alice In Chains seems to have affected him but then the book ends. And ironically that singer is someone he regularly shoots up with.In conclusion, it just washed over me and made me think how desperate the music industry must be in to continually fund musicians that are junkies to make them money.And the product really is all they care about with the musician getting constantly more and more messed up; the other side of glamour.

Lanegan writes well and I struggled to put this book down once I picked it up. The subject matter is, as you would expect, dark.From his childhood on, there was very little joy or light for Mark and his spiral down to rock bottom was long, harrowing and absolutely terrifying. But it is ultimately a story with a happy ending.I have knocked a star off purely out of disappointment that he didn't take his story closer to the present. I would have like to learn about the life he has gone on to live... about his time in Queens, about writing and recording his masterpiece 'Bubblegum' and deciding to tour again. That would have made an even greater ending imho.

Long term fan here of the Trees and Lanegan's solo work after obsessing over the Seattle scene as a teenager in the mid to late 90s. This is almost difficult to read at times, and it is astonishing that he came out of this personal hell alive.His negativity towards the Trees music and his former band members was quite a shock for me. There was real magic there musically (at least in my opinion) and I am sure that the other guys have their sides of the story to tell as well! But living in a van together for a decade and a half would probably do that to most relationships.Most importantly, it is a reminder that whatever anyones status, whether supposed glamorous rock star, shop worker or big business exec, we are all human and struggling day to day with our own personal challenges.