Touch Me I'm Sick

If you are expecting a " coffee table" book with brilliant, posed portraits in Kodachrome, you will be disappointed. Charles Peterson's black and white photography here is honest, raw and real. It is anything but pretty. It will give you a glimpse into the chapter of live rock music that many missed due to fear. Fear caused by the stories of mosh pits filled with frenzied and bloodied fans and performers diving from the stage where those fans caught them and sometimes they didn't.For the many that weren't afraid, this book will serve as a reminder of just how lucky you are to have experienced it all. In that case, this book is something you must have, to pull off the bookshelf once in a while and look at as if it's your personal photo album.

I bought a used copy of this for a good price. It continues from Charles Peterson's 1st book Screaming Life. Nothing in it blew me away but I like it.

I was there - in Seattle - in the 80s - in that scene... The book does capture some of the mood and the angst of the times, however, once you glance through the book, your done. No desire to pick it up again. Get 'Grunge" instead; More evocative shots of the key musicians of the time. You will want to keep that one handy just to walk down memory alley once in awhile...

I grew up loving this music but unfortunately I was born a little late so didn't get to experience it first hand. I've seen many pictures read many books about the grunge scene in Seattle but this book really shows what it would have been like to be there. The photographer captured this epic time in music beautifully.

This book is almost ALL photos and unfortunately, not a lot of stories to go with the photos. Not as good as I had hope, kinda a letdown. Wanna buy my copy?

the book have amazing photos but the size is just a little smaller than the one I saw once. I think that the other one had more photos!!

the book have amazing photos but the size is just a little small to enjoy how can it be

As Charles said at his book release party, "This is your book, too," and it is. It's not just Nirvana and Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, it's the audiences and the energy and the feeling. This is the real story of "grunge," or rather what the media slapped a big fat label on and tried to shove it down the world's throat. It is big and beautiful and full of all the energy of what it was like, is like, to be THERE at a show. No photographer's pit for him, no three-songs-and-you're-out. Mark Arm's All-Star clad feet on the dashboard of a van, Ed Vedder looking bored and lonely in the back of a bus somewhere in Europe, Fastbacks fans in Japan, Chris Cornell not looking like that guy who sings with Audioslave, Thurston Moore looking like someone you do NOT want to p*ss off, Pearl Jam walking to their plane looking all the world like the Rolling Stones in 1975. Mosh pits when they still meant something (well, maybe), Carrie Brownstein lookin a little bit like a guitar heroine (which she is). Oh, and let's not forget those terrifically embarassing photos of Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament when they were somewhere between heavy metal and new wave. This is a piece of history. Buy it. Own it. Love it.

I thought about getting this book for a long time and when I did I wasn't disappointed. A really good collection of pictures that really set the scene of the grunge era. My friend looked through it and said she hated it but she doesn't understand grunge at all so am not surprised. This is more for the hardcore fans that just the inquisitive. Got to admit though the picture of the author at the back - which I presume is his 'moody' look - just makes him look like a brat. But there we go.

I was in a music shop in Vancouver years ago and saw a copy of a book called 'Screaming Life' by Charles Peterson (note: book has same title as the Soundgarden album). Being a 'grunge' freak, I HAD to buy this book instantly. It was mostly photos, mostly killer, seldom filler. A grunge coffee table book? Hell yes.In case you don't know, Charles Peterson took a s***load of photos during the seminal days of a lot of awesome Seattle bands (and some bands from outside of Rain City) and he in essence captured the feel of what it was like to be at all these awesome rock shows the artists put on.Most (if not all) pics were black and white, raunchy, electric, and captured life as it happened- so in effect the perfect visual companion to a lot of this exciting music coming from Alice In Chains, Mudhoney, Nirvana, TAD, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Melvins, Pearl Jam etc.There were NO posey stupid shots of wannabe rock stars with pre-ripped jeans standing all static and primadonna like, as I see a lot of today (there are too many crap bands out there today that just try to look cool and talk the talk but don't 'rock the rock'! ) Some of these Peterson pics even ended up as official album covers. To make 'Screaming Life' even cooler, it also came with a free CD of some of Charles' personal picks of tracks by the bands he took photos of!Somehow some years went by and the release of 'Touch Me I'm Sick' (note: named after the Mudhoney song) escaped my immediate notice. I found out about it late in the game. In effect, it's 'Screaming Life' : the sequel.I'm glad I picked up a copy of 'Touch Me I'm Sick' but it might not rank as highly as 'Screaming Life'. So I give it 4 stars instead of 5 (which I would give to 'Screaming Life'.)Reasons 'Touch Me I'm Sick' isn't as good:*Book size is wayyyy smaller. The pictures POPPED in 'Screaming Life' because it was a larger book. 'Touch Me I'm Sick' is just a tiny bit bigger than a novel length and height wise. 'Screaming Life' is probably closer to double the size.*Some of the pics ALREADY appeared in 'Screaming Life', perhaps with slightly different framing, enlarged etc. For example, Kurt Cobain stage diving (the one you see on the back cover of the 'From The Muddy Banks Of The Wishkah' album). Also, one of Mark Arm and Matt Lukin of Mudhoney taking a piss, one of L7 fooling around, several of Kurt trashing a drumset at a certain 'Raj's' club etc.*It comes with no free CD. This is not expected, but it was an awesome bonus for 'Screaming Life' no?That being said, the small size is more portable (if you like that), the majority of the pics are new, and you get to see some 'non-grunge' but still cool ones of acts like Black Flag/Henry Rollins, Laughing Hyenas, Dwarves et al.I also seemed to have noticed a bit more in terms of writing, little article snippets etc. Still, the main focus is the photos.So in conclusion, I wouldn't consider this equal to 'Screaming Life', but a nice addition for the hardcore fan of this stuff. Maybe I should consider this more like 'Bonus Features' to 'Screaming Life' instead of a sequel of sorts.

Da grande fan della musica grunge non ho perso l'occasione di ordinare questo volume, di cui avevo sentito parlare varie volte e che restituisce un quadro vivido e fedele della scena musicale di Seattle in quell'epoca: Charles Peterson è cresciuto fianco a fianco con gli artisti fotografati e ne ha seguito le vicende da ben prima che la loro musica diventasse un fenomeno mondiale.Forse però le mie aspettative erano troppo elevate: le immagini sono belle e numerose, ma una volta sfogliato il libro da cima a fondo dubitavo ci sarei tornato sopra in un secondo momento e pertanto l'ho restituito. Segnalo a questo proposito che il volume è prettamente fotografico: le brevi parentesi scritte non possono in alcun modo definirsi una vera storia del grunge, peraltro disponibile altrove.

il libro raccoglie gli albori del grunge, le foto sono quelle che i fan del genere hanno ben impresse nella memoria, le copertine della Sub Pop, i primi articoli sulle riviste specializzate in rock e quant'altro. l'edizione è superba, copertina rigida, mini interviste, e bellissimi bianchi e neri su carta pesante. É un libro fotografico, se non siete appassionati non vale la pena perché la parte scritta è minima. Per gli amanti della fotografia invece dovrebbe essere un must.

Libro da avere poiché Peterson, oltre a raccontare tramite immagini un periodo particolare di certa scena musicale, lo ha fatto in modo originale con scatti personali, con tecnica riconoscibilissima. Oltre le foto il libro è arricchito da aneddoti e interventi degli addetti ai lavori che costituiscono delle vere e proprie chicche.Lo consiglio vivamente per gli amanti del post-punk e della fotografia.