The World Of Soul
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First published in 1970 and to my knowledge never reprinted I suspect this book will prove very illusive to get hold of. I was very lucky in that an American visitor to this website realised my interest in soul literature and offered to sell me a copy. In the end, to get around the currency problem, we agreed to make a trade. I sent her a tome about the occupation of the channel islands and she sent me "The World of Soul" Considering it is over thirty years old its condition is pretty reasonable. It was obviously at one time a public library book judging from the loan dates stamped inside it and the classification stickers on the spine, which makes its condition all the more remarkable. No glossy dust jacket for this little number, just a dingy and rather faded mustard cover. The style of writing is also rather dated, but no complaints there. Older texts are invariably better written and more informative than their modern day counterparts. They could not rely on glossy photographs to hold their audiences interest which meant that the content had to be good. What is clear from the outset of this book is that the author's real love is 'blues' and not 'soul' music. Already having written a substantial tome about early R&B (see Honkers and Shouters) he seems to be seeking a new audience by trying to capture the interest of the soul market. At the time soul would have been the new and trendy black style with blues becoming very dated. No amount of disguise however can hide the fact that this is where his passions really lie. The book is just under three hundred pages long, but we hit page 237 before soul itself is considered in its own right, though admittedly there is a forty page section before this entitled "The Big three of R&B" in which he considers the Motown, Stax and Atlantic record labels. He could of course argue that he is giving the history of soul music and setting a context for his story, but in my opinion there is far too much context and not enough content. I have to admit however that when he eventually gets where he should be then the product is fabulous. Chapter 14 entitled "Gospel Music and Soul" is nothing short of brilliant and had the content of the other chapters been of an equally relevant and high quality standard this could easily have become a soul man's bible. It attempts, with some success, to define what soul music is, so much so that I found more significant quotes in this one chapter than I have in many complete volumes. Whereas the bulk of the book is really Blues I would still have bought it for this chapter alone. Try my "Towards a definition" page for some of its more insightful comments. Despite the title this is probably of more interest to Blues rather than Soul fans, none the less it is worth getting if you're lucky enough to find an available copy. |
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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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