Nowhere To Run
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This book is well written, thoroughly researched and is a welcome competitor to Peter Guralnick's 'Sweet Soul Music'. In fact I may have enjoyed this tome even more. Both books are constructed in a similar way, by identifying key figures in the development of soul music, interviewing them and presenting their stories as mini biographies. From the readers point of view this works very well. Nice crisp neatly re-counted tales which are never long enough to become tiresome and all set within the context of soul history. In all honesty I cannot recommend this publication highly enough. Despite being an avid fan I have to point out that it suffers from exactly the same weakness as Peter Guralnick's. On its front cover it includes the caption, 'The Story of Soul Music', but I have to question whether this or any other book yet written truly lives up to this billing. To be definitive all key players must be identified, their contributions analysed, and the effects of their innovations assessed. Why for example was Aretha Franklin so important? Is the argument that she sings a song better than anyone else enough to justify her place in the annals of soul folklore? What did she do to revolutionise the direction of soul music? This is not explained. Who introduced 'melissma', 'call and response' and 'soul shouting' as techniques which changed R&B into soul? What is the difference between an R&B and a Soul record anyway? None of these issues are addressed with enough clarity to trace a direct lineage in soul music history. To illustrate my point further let me give the following analogy. If I was to buy a book about the second world war I would expect to be told the armaments of both sides, who their generals were, what decisions they made, when they made them, what the consequences of those decisions were. I would not expect to read mini biographies about their private lives and then have to piece together what this all had to do with the outcome of the war. 'Nowhere to Run' is an excellent, well constructed book with a lot of human interest but it is not a definitive story of soul music. That is a book which is still waiting to be written. |
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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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