Never Understood, William Reid
Never Understood, William Reid
List: $27.99 | Sale: $19.59
Club: $13.99

Never Understood
The Jesus and Mary Chain

Author: William Reid, Jim Reid

Narrator: William Reid, Jim Reid

Unabridged: 9 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Da Capo Press

Published: 09/17/2024

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

William and Jim Reid, brothers and founding members of The Jesus and Mary Chain—a band that bridged the gap between the punk explosion and the emergence of grunge and Britpop—chronicle the chaos, confusion, and stories behind their music. For five years after they’d swapped sought-after apprenticeships for life on the dole, brothers William and Jim Reid sat up till the early hours in the front room of their parents’ East Kilbride council house, plotting their path to world domination over endless cups of tea, with the music turned down low so as not to wake their sleeping sister. They knew they couldn’t play in the same band because they’d argue too much, so they’d describe their dream ensembles to each other until finally they realized that these two perfect bands were actually the same band. The name of that band was The Jesus and Mary Chain.

The rest was not silence, and picking up those conversations again more than forty years later, William and Jim tell the full story of one of Britain’s greatest guitar bands for the very first time – a wildly funny and improbably moving chronicle of brotherly strife, feedback, riots, drug and alcohol addiction, eternal outsiders and extreme shyness, that also somehow manages to be a love letter to the Scottish working-class family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Cody on January 23, 2025

Pretty much what you’d expect: middling book by middling band with occasional flashes. William was someone I ran into a few times in the early-middle 90s through mutual relativism, and young me thought he was an enormous cock. Very nice to see that he was just going through similar shit to myself at......more

Goodreads review by Nigeyb on April 28, 2025

Bought and listened to on a whim. Well a whim informed by a fair amount of enthusiasm for the music of the Mary Chain. It's well worth checking out. The Reid brothers have famously had a few falling outs over the years and this memoir explains how and why this happened. It's frank and often amusingl......more

Goodreads review by Munawar on September 26, 2024

An incredibly honest and forthcoming examination of artists, not as tragic gods, but simply brothers, brothers who loved music more than anything in the world but were worn down by a world that cared nothing for artistic purity. They were truly never understood, but hopefully this book sets the reco......more

Goodreads review by Berry on December 15, 2024

Even if you own the physical copy, listening to William and Jim narrate on the audiobook is a must. I enjoyed the brutal honesty and their criticisms of the industry and the people they’ve worked with. Overall funny, honest and majorly enjoyable even after 9 hours of listening. As a huge fan, I was......more

Goodreads review by James on September 25, 2024

I was about seventeen when I bought Psychocandy. I remember putting on the cd, and it was a defining musical experience for me. I just remember this strong and utterly distinctive sound filling the room, drawing me into their musical landscape. Jesus and Mary Chain have been sacred and precious to m......more


Quotes

“A wonderful book, most enlightening. Jim and William were outsiders among outsiders and being in a band was life or death for them. Somehow against all the odds they created one of the most iconic bands of all time and easily some of the most sublime music of the ‘80s.”—Roisin Murphy

“Art ignites in the mind and, in the case of the Mary Chain, churns relentlessly on to the center stage. Perhaps the definitive outcasts-saved-by-rock 'n roll story.”—Irvine Welsh

“Forget Phil Spector's wall of sound—the Jesus and Mary Chain didn't know where to stop, and it led to the most exciting sounds to come out of the UK in a generation. Here is the story of the Reid brothers’ rollercoaster life.  Scream if you want to go faster—they’ll almost certainly oblige.”—Ian Rankin

“An epic story about the Reid brothers’ war against the world and themselves. An odyssey of rock and roll, class, addiction, self-crucifixion, and resurrection. As diseased and beautiful as their music. I couldn’t put it down.”—Bobby Gillespie