In a scene from Cameron Crowe's 1992 film Singles, a musician named Cliff waxes philosophically on how modern music--and the fans' relationship to music--isn't what it used to be: "Where is the 'Misty Mountain Hop' of our generation?" Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, playing a fellow band member, shushes Cliff; he's interrupting the band's viewing of a documentary on bees. That's Pearl Jam in a nutshell.
Pearl Jam Twenty documents the band's first two decades together: studio dynamics, concert stories, song explanations and more. Crowe provides an introduction and intermittent insight from an outsider's perspective, but the bulk of the book is completely by the band (much like their music), with scores of previously unpublished backstage, tour and studio photos, a trove of anecdotes and memories, and insights into the making of each album. (As for Cliff's question? "Yellow Ledbetter," of course.) --Matthew Tiffany, counselor, writer for Condalmo