Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke [Hardcover]

As you might expect from Elvis Presley's definitive biographer, this tale of one of soul music's pioneers can be highly recommended. I haven't reread the earlier biography of Sam Cooke, Daniel Wolff's You Send Me, since its publication ten years ago, but my impression is that that Guralnick's account is more vivid, taking into account a wider range of points of view.

Be warned that the Sam Cooke who emerges in these pages is not a wholly likeable character, though if he seems more elusive than Guralnick's earlier subject that is, perhaps, intrinsic to the man rather than any failing on the author's part. His widow, Barbara, features prominently: a childhood sweetheart whom he eventually married in order not to lose his daughter to another man, she seems to have been the victim of the introspection and anger concealed from others in his compartmentalised life. A frequent theme of many, less close, interviewees is the charm he exerted which made them feel the sole focus of his attention during a conversation, though many seem to stumble when trying to define that appeal more precisely.

This is not a sensational book, though it doesn't flinch from describing Cooke's sexual adventures. But finally it's the music that is left and it's clear that Cooke, despite his boundless professional self-assurance, was always pushing himself, always trying to develop further. This undoubtedly meant crossover success, so even though some people have lamented the fact that he signed for RCA and not the indie Atlantic, it's debatable how much change there would have been had he recorded elsewhere: commercial success meant producers Hugo and Luigi learnt to trust his instincts, and the greater freedom engineered by new manager Allan Klein (painted in a wholly positive light) allowed him to take as much time as he needed to get the results he wanted. Cooke had also been warned off Atlantic by a disaffected Clyde McPhatter, so it seems it wasn't simply a question of RCA having more money.

Guralnick fills in as much of the background as you could possibly want, giving us life on the road and the odd mixture of offstage cameraderie and onstage warfare that characterised the gospel quartets. If you’re fascinated by Cooke’s story,as I am, you will devour every morsel, although details in parenthesis can break up the flow: at times you need to go back to the start of the sentence to make sense of the whole thing. But this is a tiny point: Sam Cooke is probably as present as he could ever be in this book and if you care about his life or the development of soul music you owe it to yourself to read it.

Following Guralnick's two-volume account of Elvis Presley's rise and fall comes this biography of Sam Cook(e) which has 650 pages of text and a further 100 pages of notes, acknowledgements and index. This weighty tome traces Sam's life from his childhood in Chicago, to singing with the gospel groups the Highway QCs and the Soul Stirrers and then cross-over into pop stardom. The sheer size of this book perhaps suggests that Sam Cooke is the black Elvis and, although I don't think that this is necessarily the case, in many ways it could be argued that Sam is a greater artist than Elvis in that he wrote many of his own songs, took control of his own career, had his own record label and produced his own and other peoples' records.

Once again Guralnick seamlessly weaves together a chronological, extremely detailed account of all Sam's tours, recording sessions, financial dealings etc etc with comments from his friends, backing musicians, music industry players and other stars. For a book about a `mere pop singer' this is as scholarly and well-researched as any biography of a politician or author. Although I've read many accounts of R&B stars on the chitlin' circuit (and with his crossover into secular music that is what the early part of Cooke's pop career became) what was a real revelation to me were the stories of his tours on the gospel circuit and how these differed from the pop tours, and how they were the same - groupies! Sam's climb to success in the late 50s and early 60s also coincided with the fight for civil rights and that fight, and Sam's involvement in the movement, is also clearly evoked in the book. We also are introduced to many R&B stars who cross Sam's path on their way to success - James Brown, Lou Rawls, Johnnie Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Solomon Burke, Jimi Hendrix etc - most of whom are great characters. We also meet the young Allen Klein and see him honing the techniques he would use with the Beatles and others artists. There are also many wonderful pictures in the book, the best being the informal ones of Sam and his friends in unguarded moments.

If I have a criticism of the book it is that it is slightly too long - 650 pages for someone who died at 33 and had a happy and uneventful childhood - is, I feel, a bit excessive. Although much of the information that is presented is fascinating, I feel that sometimes it gets in the way of the narrative thrust of the book and that an editor should have consigned some of these details to footnotes. I also feel that the death and its aftermath are covered in much less detail than the rest of the book and I would have liked to have seen his legacy assessed and some speculation of how his career would have progressed (although I can't help feeling this would have been Las vegas and smaltz).

However, overall this is a wonderful book that gives a clear and vivid picture of the man, his music, his business and his associates. From childhood his family noted that he was special and everyone he met seems to have been bewitched by his charm. Sam Cooke was a great influence on many of the soul singers who came after him - Otis Redding, Otis Clay etc and also white singers like Rod Stewart. His influence is still being felt today both on singers like Amy Winehouse and James Hunter and in the way that modern artists approach their business affairs and take control of their own careers.

How do you write about a man who for all intents and purposes was many men ? I have read Daniel Wolfes You Send Me and Erik Greens Our Uncle Sam and they all paint a different picture of this unique individual. One of my qualms with this book is the way Peter Guralnic rushes through the murder of Sam Cooke . For somebody with his reputation for investigative journalism I was disappointed that he seemed to accept as fact many thing that were to say the least strange . For instance he states that Sams fingers and nails were ragged and broken and probably his arms were broken . How does that happen to a young man wrestling with a woman almost twice his age . The police record with which Guralnic seems to concur is to say the least improbable . While nobody expects Sams family to agree with the sordid official details of his death one can sympathise with them as his legacy is soiled with his final deeds in this life . Peter Guralnic said he was told lots of stories as to why Sam Cooke had to die . A couple of instances would not have gone amiss in this book .

I still enjoyed the read but felt the last chapters were rushed almost to the point were they let the rest of the book down.