- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc; Reissue edition (1 Aug 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0306805812
- ISBN-13: 978-0306805813
- Product Dimensions: 20 x 12.8 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,779,688 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Product Description
Soul evolved from gospel and blues to speak to an entire generationblack and whiteabout the importance of pride, freedom, determination, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Nowhere to Run examines the lives behind the legends of soul with energy, warmth, and emotionthe same qualities that characterized songs such as Baby, I Need Your Loving, Papas Got a Brand New Bag, and I Heard It Through the Grapevine. Author Gerri Hirshey takes us on a bus tour with the Temptations and on the backroads of rural Georgia with James Brown. Diana Ross reminisces about her lean teen years in Detroit; at home in California, ex-Supreme Mary Wilson fills out the story. The Wicked Wilson Pickett tells his best stories long after the midnight hour in a New York City dressing room. And Michael Jackson, driving his Camaro and singing along to the radio, talks about opening shows for the great soul acts when he was a child. But soul faded, giving way to disco, rap, and black pop. And the artists who once captured the heart of the world soon had, as Martha and the Vandellas 1965 hit put it, Nowhere to run to baby, nowhere to hide. In this enthralling narrative, Gerri Hirshey captures the triumphs and failures of soul like no one else before or since, telling the soul story through the eyes of those who lived the dreamand the often harsh reality.
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TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND FANS move between the molded plastic seats in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
TWENTY-TWO THOUSAND FANS move between the molded plastic seats in New York City's Madison Square Garden. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
This monumental work consists of three parts. Part One: Singing Both Sides, looks at the Gospel and Blues roots of Soul Music, the record companies that first recorded this style, the DJs and the radio stations that played it, and includes interviews with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Cissy Houston, Ben E. King, Ahmet Ertegun, James Bown and Wilson Pickett. The pioneering work of Ray Charles features heavily here.
Part Two: City Soul, starts with a look at the early Soul artists on Atlantic and other labels and includes the reminiscences of Jerry Wexler, includes information on Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, Motown Records, plus interviews with Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin. It also includes information on Curtis Mayfield and the Chicago-based record companies.
Part Three: Southern Soul, deals with James Brown again, the Memphis scene, Stax Records and its legendary artists, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Muscle Shoals, Joe Tex, Isaac Hayes, the New Orleans scene, and concludes with a poignant interview with Irma Thomas.
As a young teen I was enthralled by the voices of Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge and others, so this book finally made the people behind the music come alive for me. It is easy to get lost in its labyrinthine pleasures, to discover how, when and where favourite songs were written, to learn about the backgrounds of the musicians, the record companies and the business people like Ertegun and Berry Gordy.
There’s a lot of human interest in the text, a lot of triumph and tragedy – Hirshey is a masterful writer who really gets into the music and compels one to reach for your CD and vinyl collections to hear these great voices again. She mostly allows the voices to speak for themselves, but in a brilliantly interwoven text where the songs, the charts, the gigs and the tours form the historical frame in which the voices reveal the human element.
There are sixteen black and white plates with photographs of artists like Cooke, Wells, Ross, Gaye, Wonder, Lamont Dozier and the Holland Brothers, Franklin, Reeves, Junior Walker, James Brown, Don Covay and others. The thorough index to artists, personalities, songs, record companies and TV shows make referencing easy.
As music writing this book is indispensable, as human interest, it is engaging and addictive. Hirshey succeeds in capturing the mood of the times and the flavours and history of a great American musical style by letting these timeless voices speak for themselves so eloquently.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What should be a great tribute to the US soul music scene is in fact a rather messy hard to read jumble of facts, anecdotes and speculation. I found it hard to read and it at no time did I ever get that "can't put it down" feeling. Pages and pages dedicated to a (then) recent interveiw with Diana Ross but only a fleeting mention of Chicago soul icon Carl Davis. Los Angeles had a thriving soul scene with great writers, arrangers and singers such as Fred Smith, Arthur Wright and HB Barnum but reading this book you wouldn't think so. There are better books on the market I suggest you try those and consign this one to the trash can.
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This monumental work consists of three parts. Part One: Singing Both Sides, looks at the Gospel and Blues roots of Soul Music, the record companies that first recorded this style, the DJs and the radio stations that played it, and includes interviews with Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Cissy Houston, Ben E. King, Ahmet Ertegun, James Bown and Wilson Pickett. The pioneering work of Ray Charles features heavily here.
Part Two: City Soul, starts with a look at the early Soul artists on Atlantic and other labels and includes the reminiscences of Jerry Wexler, includes information on Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, Motown Records, plus interviews with Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin. It also includes information on Curtis Mayfield and the Chicago-based record companies.
Part Three: Southern Soul, deals with James Brown again, the Memphis scene, Stax Records and its legendary artists, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Muscle Shoals, Joe Tex, Isaac Hayes, the New Orleans scene, and concludes with a poignant interview with Irma Thomas.
As a young teen I was enthralled by the voices of Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge and others, so this book finally made the people behind the music come alive for me. It is easy to get lost in its labyrinthine pleasures, to discover how, when and where favourite songs were written, to learn about the backgrounds of the musicians, the record companies and the business people like Ertegun and Berry Gordy.
There's a lot of human interest in the text, a lot of triumph and tragedy - Hirshey is a masterful writer who really gets into the music and compels one to reach for your CD and vinyl collections to hear these great voices again. She mostly allows the voices to speak for themselves, but in a brilliantly interwoven text where the songs, the charts, the gigs and the tours form the historical frame in which the voices reveal the human element.
There are sixteen black and white plates with photographs of artists like Cooke, Wells, Ross, Gaye, Wonder, Lamont Dozier and the Holland Brothers, Franklin, Reeves, Junior Walker, James Brown, Don Covay and others. The thorough index to artists, personalities, songs, record companies and TV shows make referencing easy.
As music writing this book is indispensable, as human interest, it is engaging and addictive. Hirshey succeeds in capturing the mood of the times and the flavours and history of a great American musical style by letting these timeless voices speak for themselves so eloquently.
Part Two: City Soul, starts with a look at the early Soul artists on Atlantic and other labels and includes the reminiscences of Jerry Wexler, includes information on Solomon Burke, Sam Cooke, Motown Records, plus interviews with Smokey Robinson, Mary Wells, Martha Reeves, Diana Ross, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin. It also includes information on Curtis Mayfield and the Chicago-based record companies.
Part Three: Southern Soul, deals with James Brown again, the Memphis scene, Stax Records and its legendary artists, Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, Muscle Shoals, Joe Tex, Isaac Hayes, the New Orleans scene, and concludes with a poignant interview with Irma Thomas.
As a young teen I was enthralled by the voices of Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge and others, so this book finally made the people behind the music come alive for me. It is easy to get lost in its labyrinthine pleasures, to discover how, when and where favourite songs were written, to learn about the backgrounds of the musicians, the record companies and the business people like Ertegun and Berry Gordy.
There's a lot of human interest in the text, a lot of triumph and tragedy - Hirshey is a masterful writer who really gets into the music and compels one to reach for your CD and vinyl collections to hear these great voices again. She mostly allows the voices to speak for themselves, but in a brilliantly interwoven text where the songs, the charts, the gigs and the tours form the historical frame in which the voices reveal the human element.
There are sixteen black and white plates with photographs of artists like Cooke, Wells, Ross, Gaye, Wonder, Lamont Dozier and the Holland Brothers, Franklin, Reeves, Junior Walker, James Brown, Don Covay and others. The thorough index to artists, personalities, songs, record companies and TV shows make referencing easy.
As music writing this book is indispensable, as human interest, it is engaging and addictive. Hirshey succeeds in capturing the mood of the times and the flavours and history of a great American musical style by letting these timeless voices speak for themselves so eloquently.
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