William and Jim Reid of The Jesus and Mary Chain are a pair of bona fide alt-rock legends who tend to be pigeonholed as taciturn grumps. Their enjoyable joint memoir, Never Understood, makes it abundantly clear that nothing could be further from the truth.
The brothers Reid are very droll and self-aware. They’re good company. Those early, surly interviews were helpful in the sense of establishing them as too-cool-for-school punks who wouldn’t play the game, but really they were just a couple of shy, nerdy, pop-culture obsessed kids from East Kilbride who only had confidence in their musical abilities.
They’re justifiably proud of coming up with an utterly inspired idea while still in their teens: why has no one ever matched catchy girl group/Beach Boys melodies with a dentist drill tumult of Velvet Underground feedback?
The saga is told in their own frank, recovering addict words. They each take turns to write a passage – sometimes just a paragraph, sometimes an entire page or two. Their accounts occasionally contradict each other, which adds to the charm.
What comes across most is this: these bright, witty brothers really love each other. They’d never actually say that outright, of course, but they obviously do.
Paul Whitelaw is a book, TV and music critic.
