Sing Backwards and Weep

A Memoir

De: Mark Lanegan

Narrado por: Mark Lanegan

This gritty bestselling memoir by the singer Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees, Queens of the Stone Age, and Soulsavers documents his years as a singer and drug addict in Seattle in the '80s and '90s.

When Mark Lanegan first arrived in Seattle in the mid-1980s, he was just "an arrogant, self-loathing redneck waster seeking transformation through rock 'n' roll." Little did he know that within less than a decade he would rise to fame as the frontman of the Screaming Trees and then fall from grace as a low-level crack dealer and a homeless heroin addict, all the while watching some of his closest friends rocket to the forefront of popular music.

In Sing Backwards and Weep, Lanegan takes readers back to the sinister, needle-ridden streets of Seattle, to an alternative music scene that was simultaneously bursting with creativity and dripping with drugs. He tracks the tumultuous rise and fall of the Screaming Trees, from a brawling, acid-rock bar band to world-famous festival favorites that scored a hit number five single on Billboard's alternative charts and landed a notorious performance on Late Night with David Letterman, where Lanegan appeared sporting a fresh black eye from a brawl the night before. This book also dives into Lanegan's personal struggles with addiction, culminating in homelessness, petty crime, and the tragic deaths of his closest friends. From the back of the van to the front of the bar, from the hotel room to the emergency room, onstage, backstage, and everywhere in between, Sing Backwards and Weep reveals the abrasive underlining beneath one of the most romanticized decades in rock history-from a survivor who lived to tell the tale.

Gritty, gripping, and unflinchingly raw, Sing Backwards and Weep is a book about more thanjust an extraordinary singer who watched hisdreams catch fire and incinerate the groundbeneath his feet. It's about a man who learnedhow to drag himself from the wreckage, dust offthe ashes, and keep living and creating.

"Mark Lanegan—primitive, brutal, and apocalyptic. What's not to love?" —Nick Cave, author of The Sick Bag Song and The Death of Bunny Munro

Reseñas de la Crítica

"The artist's journey to find one's true voice can travel some very dark roads; addiction, violence, poverty, and soul-crushing alienation have taken the last breath of many I have called friend. Mark Lanegan dragged his scuffed boots down all of those bleak byways for years, managed to survive, and in the process created an astonishing body of work. Sing Backwards and Weep exquisitely details that harrowing trip into the heart of his particular darkness. Brutally honest, yet written without a molecule of self-pity, Lanegan paints an introspective picture of genius birthing itself on the razor's edge between beauty and annihilation. Like a Monet stabbed with a rusty switchblade, Sing Backwards and Weep is breathtaking to behold but hurts to see. I could not put this book down."—D. Randall Blythe, author of Dark Days and lead vocalist of Lambof God

"If you ever wondered how Mark Lanegan's music came to blossom, here's a taste of the dark dirt that fertilized it. But saying that, or something like it, feels irresponsible, almost like saying 'If you want to make great, soul-shattering art, traumatize yourself to the limit and beyond' ... Sing Backwards and Weep is gnarly, naked, and true."—Michael C. Hall of Dexter and Six Feet Under

"Harrowing, edgy, tense, and hypnotic. A very truthful, sobering account of what it's like in the throes of addiction, with shades of Bukowski, Burroughs, and Hunter S. Thompson."—Gerard Johnson, director and writer of Tony, Hyena, and Muscle

"Some books amuse you, some intrigue you, and some-they don't come along often-like Mark Lanegan's Sing Backwards and Weep, squeeze you by the throat and drag you down the back stairs of the author's soul and blast you till you see what he's seen and feel what he's felt. Mark Lanegan spares no detail of the toxic and maniacal things he's done and had done to him, nor of the glorious, weird beauty he walked out with on the other side. You can't look and you can't look away. This is my kind of book. Fucked-up, full of heart, and hard-core as a shot of battery acid in the eye."—Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight, I, Fatty,and Happy Mutant Baby Pills

"A no holds barred memoir of uncompromising honesty. All of the usual suspects are here-sex, drugs, rock and roll-and if that were all, it would be compelling enough on the strength of Lanegan's writing and the setting of 80's and 90's Seattle, a near mythical time and place in music history. But what elevates Sing Backwards and Weep above the pack is the window into Lanegan's development as an artist, from his first musical influences to the singular singer and songwriter we see today. He seamlessly weaves that storyline into the more conventional rock memoir fabric and the results are outstanding."—Tom Hansen, author of AmericanJunkie and This Is What We Do

Just buy it.

If you're a fan of late 80's early 90's music from Seattle this book is a must read. Amazing.

Great

Besides his use of unnecessary adjectives and descriptors, the book is perfect and you can’t stop listening. He becomes your friend in a way few authors can pull off. He’s Don Quiote or Ignatius Riley. Even as a former hardcore addict, I found the extent of his sickness nearly shocking at times.
I want the next chapter in his life. I hope he writes it.

Best Book On Planet

Raw Uncut & Interesting about one of the greatest times in music history by a guy who was in the middle of all of it. Love everything Lanagan.

God Bless you, Mr. Lanegan.

The shit this man went through to come out the other side is jaw dropping. His storytelling is as intelligent, charming and blunt as one might expect. Hands down the most depressing but probably the best rock autobiography I have ever listened to. Not a feel good story! A story of a hardcore junkie who would do anything, say anything to get his fix. Im so glad he stopped that shit.

Probably the best in the genre

I am a huge fan of music autobiographies and I think this is the best one I’ve ever read. Mark was an incredibly talented writer and is bitingly hilarious while also telling a brutally sad story. There’s beauty in the pain and he is able to tell it all so eloquently. R.I.P. Mark - I’m so glad you decided to tell your story when you did.

Amazing

Loved the Screaming Trees growing up, and really enjoyed Mark’s reading of this story. Really great.

Woah….

I’ve read this book, but hearing it in his voice read it. My god it’s heavy stuff. If you think you wanna get this don’t hesitate. I went through every emotion hearing mark read this.

Exceptional, raw, and emotional

As a great fan of Mark, I love everything he has done. Having access to these stories is amazing! No filters, raw, and true… I had the privilege of meeting Mark in 2013 at a small show at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. He was kind and warm to me, and it changed my perception of him being some oblivious rock singer. Now knowing everything that he went through as a drug addict, I’ve come to admire his kindness in that day. News of his passing last year made me sad, but I was glad that he lived long enough to give us so much good music.

Lanegan’s crafts his autobiography like his music

I loved listening to Mark Lanegan read his book with its careful irony, despair, love and tenderness as he tears himself apart throughout. He was indeed a legendary artist.

Extraordinary

The Screaming Trees were a favorite of mine during the 90’s. Marks solo work then became a staple in my playlists. I saw this book and was curious (I had just listened to Dave Grohl’s book- go buy it right now). Mark’s writing and storytelling is funny, interesting and heartbreaking. I recommend this title wholeheartedly to everyone, music fan or not.