Do What You Want: The Story of Bad Religion

If you love Bad Religion, this biography is quintessential reading and reviews are irrelevant: You're definitely going to enjoy it overall. Likewise, Jim Ruland deserves heaps of praise for being the person to take on the herculean task of synthesizing half a century's worth of information into a coherent biography, and the amount of people from whom he collects direct quotes is spectacular. His efforts are deeply appreciated.That being said, Ruland's writing cannot be described as artful, clever, or even impartial. There are a lot of small issues with the text that add up, and the book could have benefited immensely from a heavy extra round of editing. To be clear, I'm not talking about things like typos; I only recall seeing a couple of those (where/were and this/his typos). Rather, there are problems of tone and detail.The issues with tone are multi-pronged. Right from the opening pages of the book, there is a mild element of cheesiness/hokiness in the writing, with inelegant sentences like, "But they [Bad Religion] had one asset that made them stand out from the start: their intelligence." Likewise, it feels like a bit too many bands and venues are casually described as "the legendary [group/place]," or any kind of negative event might become "the infamous [event]."A stronger issue though is Ruland's extremely apparent partiality for the band. He's frankly far too eager to remind readers of the band's insightfulness and far-reaching cultural influence on a semi-regular basis, culminating in a final chapter that is (Forgive the blunt description.) a rambling mess and that reads like a high schooler's persuasive essay on why everybody should agree Bad Religion is important.Similarly student-like, awkwardly written analysis accompanies many selections of lyrics in the book. Ruland wants everyone to appreciate the artistry of Bad Religion's lyrics and the context underlying it, but he lacks the ability to do so succinctly or without an excessive level of passion. The same problems appear when he attempts to discuss heavy subjects like the Iraq War. I winced a bit too often while reading this book.Issues with detail in the book extend beyond that. For starters, there is some redundancy in the descriptions and storytelling that could have been smoothed out with another round of editing. A related issue, Ruland sometimes chooses to quote people directly for details that are already established or that just don't require a direct quote, like explicitly quoting Greg Graffin to have him say that "The Dissent of Man is a play on words."In general, the text delves a bit too deeply into providing contextual details sometimes. For instance, I don't think we needed to know the explicit (and somewhat benign) reasons why "Pee Wee" was in jail with Brett Gurewitz, considering Pee Wee only exists in the book for that one short paragraph.And on a personal note, it's disappointing that the biography can't provide more context on Greg Hetson's removal from the band, beyond that he wasn't performing well and that the band felt bad about having to expel him. The fact that Hetson refused to be interviewed for the book and that Bad Religion values privacy for its members inevitably has a lot to do with that though, so I can't fault the author for this.In any case, for the reasons I have outlined, Do What You Want is not an elegant read. The chief issue is simply that the author was a bit overzealous in all respects and there simply wasn't enough editing to rein it in. But again--for longtime listeners of the band, it ultimately won't matter. This is still the in-depth story of Bad Religion you've been waiting for.

Great band, was excited to get this. Unfortunately it reads like they got a 12 year old fan club zine editor to write it. It's overly fawning, lacks depth to the reporting and barely touches on Hetson's departure. A big disappointment.

I wasn’t expecting Patti Smith’s “Just Kids”, but I was hoping for something maybe more along the lines of Greg Graffin’s “Anarchy Evolution” or “Population Wars” with tons more Bad Religion anecdotes. Large chunks of “Do What You Want” read more like a Wikipedia entry or a LinkedIn bio. I don’t know if it suffered from a lack of editing or perhaps too much. I suspect there were too many hands in the pie for Jim Ruland to accomplish what he set out to do.How did this pass through Brett Gurewitz’s and Greg Graffin’s hands without them voicing concerns?While it fell short of my expectations, I still enjoyed it. Just hearing about what Jack Grisham did to Jay Bentley’s bass, and what Steve Soto (RIP) did to that deli tray were worth the price of the book. And I anxiously await Brian Baker’s memoir as well

I really wanted to like it. It reads like a high school book report. It completely lacks any interesting or intriguing antidotes. Do yourself a favor and re read NOFX's book instead.

It was a fast and fascinating read. Loved the photos and learned some things that have been misrepresented in the media and legend for years. Without a doubt this solidifies what all BR fans know , that they are (arguably) the most important and influential punk band of all time. They have been the most constant band in my life and continue to be as I guide my children in this world they have listened to them on constant rotation. My only criticism is I wanted more from the text in terms of salacious material. Addiction is glossed over and sobriety is taking the same back seat as the narrator repeats himself constantly, and has a feel of an iconic essay and not a biography. Which equates to a perfect soliloquy of a most beloved band. Unlike other band bios this one states the nature of the beast and takes us for a ride that stared with 4 kids from the "valley" making music and writing lyrics that seemed to be far beyond their years making them outcasts in the very scene they helped. Many fans have different starting points with BR but we all agree that regardless of where we are going the words of Brett and Greg will always have resonance in the ever changing world. "Ya-Hey"

This book reads like an extended press release.I love Bad Religion and I admire their members but this book contains the following:- Early history of the band (interesting)- How they finally made it (and also made Epitaph) and revitalized west coast punk along the way (interesting)- The rotating cast of members (not so interesting)- Exhaustive derails on their recordings (not interesting, at least not after Against the Grain)- Extensive details of their tours (boring)- Greg’s work in evolutionary biology (moderately interesting, and note that I went to Cornell and took a class from Greg’s thesis advisor! I still found these parts dull.)- The band’s issues with drugs (interesting at first, then boring after it happened to everyone but Brett)- Who hated whom in the band (not so interesting)I have no idea why the band felt that if they needed to tell their story, this play by play was the story they needed to tell.Save your cash and go buy the following instead:- Keith Morris’ book- X’a book “under a big black sun”- NOFX’s book- The Beastie Boy’s book- Flea’s bookAll are so much more interesting, fun and even introspective.Skip this.

Can I start by saying I love Bad Religion. They've been pumping out sublime music for four decades with a remarkable level of quality control. So I was, naturally, really looking forward to publication of this book.Given that the book is flagged as being by authored by Jim Ruland with Bad Religion, I expected so much more. As a couple of other reviewers have mentioned, it's fawning in the extreme - to the point that I started to wonder whether it was all a bit of an in-joke. I don't know quite how often Greg's undoubted intellect or Brett's, again undoubted, business acumen needed to be highlighted. Yes, NOFX's The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories has set the bar incredibly high in terms of punk rock autobiographies (and I classify this as an autobiography rather than a biography) but, I'm sorry, at times the book is self-serving and, frankly, a little bit dull. Dare I say it, Jim Ruland really is not a very good writer either in terms of the technique of narrative. I've given it three stars out of loyalty to a band I love. In truth, for anyone who doesn't really care about Bad Religion I'd struggle to recommend you bother reading it.

As a Bad Religion fan of 20+ years, this was a hugely anticipated release for me, especially given the extended lead-in time before it was available in the UK.As such, you can imagine my disappointment when this much-hyped 'autobiography' turned out to be little more than an extended Wikipedia article. It took me less than a day to whiz through its scant 300-odd pages, learning next to nothing new in the process..Yes, there is new interview material, but it merely serves to confirm the facts of Jim Ruland's narrative - direct input from the band members themselves is surprisingly minimal. Said narrative is also somewhat lacking; it's thorough, for sure, yet simultaneously lifeless and uninspired - a sadly ironic contrast to music it documents.As other reviewers have mentioned, Ruland is also overly reverent, almost to the point of parody. OMG, Greg is SOOO smart, and Brett is like, the BEST at business! Yeah, we get it. We knew that already. Just as we knew how important the band's intelligent and subversive lyrics are to their identity - it's hardly a secret, yet Ruland feels obliged to mention the fact every 5 minutes.If it seems like I'm being overly harsh here, I guess I expected more than a chronological rundown of BR's musical career. I wanted to find out more about the people behind the music, but it's as if both the author and the band themselves are at pains to avoid delving into personal matters, at least not in any great detail. I do of course respect the band's decision not to air their dirty laundry, but a discussion around who they are as people wouldn't have gone amiss. Likewise the odd anecdote - surely there's more to their 40 year career than 'made a record, went on tour, swapped out a member or two, repeat'? As it happens, there's a LOT more to it, but the focus here is squarely on the music. As admirable as that may be, it doesn't make for a particularly gripping read.When all's said and done, Do What You Want is a solid biography which does much to redress the inaccuracies of other, unofficial publications. It is well researched, well structured, and comprehensive . If you don't know a great deal about the band's history or how they made their records, this will fill the gaps with ease. For existing fans, however, there is precious little to get your teeth into.

I gave this book 3 stars because it was enjoyable but it lacked a lot of personality. After reading other bands books like Motley Crue, NOFX, Against Me etc. I thought this book would be brilliant, but it was missing the same personal edge that other books have. I guess it's because it's not an autobiography.

Very well written. The book is engaging and you just want to keep reading. I had a hard time putting it down.Being able to read about the history and story of Bad Religion was great. Lots of insights from the band members. If you are a fan of Bad Religion, grab the book! You won't regret it.

Que Bad Religion son una institución no lo duda nadie... ahora bien, conviene conocer el camino hasta aquí puesto que no todo ha sido un lecho de rosas. Biografía sobre el grupo, sobre Epitaph y sobre una de las bandas más seminales de los 90-2000. La lástima es que esté en inglés pero eso no lo hace menos imprescindible.