Greg Prato, “Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets” (Lulu, 2012)

Disclosure: I am a Meathead, an avid fan of Meat Puppets. I have been since 1986 when I first heard their version of “Good Golly Miss Molly” from Out My Way. I’m even writing a book about the band. The problem, however, has always been lack of secondary data. There are no books detailing the career of this seminal punk/indie/alternative/psychedelic/country trio, until now. In Too High to Die: Meet the Meat Puppets (Lulu, 2012) Greg Prato offers up an exhaustive history of the band’s thirty-plus years of music making. As an oral history he includes stories from all three original band members, plus most of the band’s other members, past and present. He also includes interviews with many people familiar with the band: childhood friends, girlfriends, fellow musicians, label executives, managers, etc. The collection of stories is convincing. They trace the path of a band that has consistently defied categorization, always stuck to their artistic guns, battled the inner-demons that seem to haunt too many great artists, and in the twenty-first century, in their fourth decade as a band, come out on top of their game. Other than listening to Meat Puppets’ music (which is what y’all should do), reading Too High to Die is a great place to begin your path to becoming a Meathead.

Greg Prato is a writer and author whose work appears regularly in Rolling Stone. He is the author of several books including Grunge is Dead: The Oral History of Seattle Rock Music, MTV Ruled the World: The Early Years of Music Video and, most recently, Dynasty: The Oral History of the New York Islanders, 1972-1984.

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