A Touch of Classic Soul 2
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The style of this book is very much in keeping with that of volume one. It is well written and logically constructed. It is also thoroughly researched with a lot of first hand recollections. Just like its predecessor each act is given approximately eight pages which is not long enough to be comprehensive, but just a little too long to be merely a reference work. As a result the material only considers professional angles as there is neither time or space to look at any aspects of the artists personal lives. I admit that I miss this human aspect, but credit where credits due Marc Taylor does exactly what he set out to do and does it very well. One definite improvement on the first volume is that the photographs are not all clustered together, but are spaced out so that they appear with the relevant text. My main critisism however is not one of style, but one of definition. Volume one stretched the definition of 'soul' when it considered artists of the early seventies. This one considers performers of the late seventies and early eighties. This was an era when soul was struggling against the rising tide of disco and I would seriously question the 'soul' credentials of many of these performers. Indeed many of them can be firmly placed in a genre that seriously damaged the very existance of soul music. I sure most people would agree that putting Donna Summer, Funkadelic, Heatwave, Chic and Brass Construction into the 'soul' bag is stretching the definition just a little bit. In summary a good book for anyone interested in black music of the late seventies, but for anyone exclusively into soul there are many more relevant books around. |
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Why Not visit the Authors other Website, 'The Alternative Blackpool Website' at http://www.localdial.com/users/jsyedu133/bpool This Site Last Updated 18/05/05
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