A Change Is Gonna Come

by Werner, Craig

• ISBN13: 9780472031474
• ISBN10: 0472031473
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-09
• Publisher: Univ of Michigan Pr

Summary

". . . extraordinarily far-reaching. . . . highly accessible." -Notes "No one has written this way about music in a long, long time. Lucid, insightful, with real spiritual, political, intellectual, and emotional grasp of the whole picture. A book about why music matters, and how, and to whom." -Dave Marsh, author ofLouie, LouieandBorn to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story "This book is urgently needed: a comprehensive look at the various forms of black popular music, both as music and as seen in a larger social context. No one can do this better than Craig Werner." -Henry Louis Gates, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois Professor of the Humanities, Harvard University "[Werner has] mastered the extremely difficult art of writing about music as both an aesthetic and social force that conveys, implies, symbolizes, and represents ideas as well as emotion, but without reducing its complexities and ambiguities to merely didactic categories." -African American Review A Change Is Gonna Comeis the story of more than four decades of enormously influential black music, from the hopeful, angry refrains of the Freedom movement, to the slick pop of Motown; from the disco inferno to the Million Man March; from Woodstock's "Summer of Love" to the war in Vietnam and the race riots that inspired Marvin Gaye to write "What's Going On." Originally published in 1998,A Change Is Gonna Comedrew the attention of scholars and general readers alike. This new edition, featuring four new and updated chapters, will reintroduce Werner's seminal study of black music to a new generation of readers. Craig Werneris Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and author of many books, includingPlaying the Changes: From Afro-Modernism to the Jazz ImpulseandUp Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival.His most recent book isHigher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul.

Author Biography

Craig Werner is Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Wisconsin

Table of Contents

Preface to the Revised Edition	xi
Introduction: "What's Going On"	xiii
Acknowledgments	xix
Section One: "A Change Is Gonna Come": Mahalia Jackson, Motown, and the Movement
1. The Dream	3	(1)
2. Mahalia and the Movement	4	(7)
3. "The Soul of the Movement": Calls and Responses	11	(4)
4. Motown: Money, Magic, and the Mask	15	(7)
5. The Big Chill vs. Cooley High: Two out of Three Falls for the Soul of Motown	22	(6)
The Gospel Impulse	28	(40)
6. Sam Cooke and the Voice of Change	31	(6)
7. Solid Gold Coffins: Phil Spector and the Girl Group Blues	37	(3)
8. SAR and the Ambiguity of Integration	40	(4)
9. "The Times They Are A-Changin' ": Port Huron and the Folk Revival	44	(5)
10. Woody and Race	49	(4)
11. "Blowin' in the Wind": Politics and Authenticity	53	(3)
12. Music and the Truth: The Birth of Southern Soul	56	(9)
13. Down at the Crossroads	65	(3)
The Blues Impulse	68	(35)
14. Soul Food: The Mid-South Mix	72	(7)
15. Dylan, the Brits, and Blue-Eyed Soul	79	(6)
16. The Minstrel Blues	85	(4)
17. Otis, Jimi, and the Summer of Love: From Monterey to Woodstock	89	(5)
18. Last Thoughts on the Dream: Dot and Diana	94	(9)
Section Two: "Love or Confusion?": Black Power, Vietnam, and the Death of the Dream
19. Sly in the Smoke	103	(3)
20. Death Warrants: LBJ, Martin, and the Liberal Collapse	106	(3)
21. "All Along the Watchtower": Jimi Hendrix and the Sound of Vietnam	109	(7)
22. 'Retha, Rap, and Revolt	116	(5)
23. "Spirit in the Dark": Aretha's Gospel Politics	121	(4)
24. Jazz Warriors: Malcolm and Coltrane	125	(7)
The Jazz Impulse	132	(45)
25. "Black Is an' Black Ain't": JB, Miles, and Jimi	137	(7)
26. Curtis Mayfield's Gospel Soul	144	(7)
27. John Fogerty and the Mythic South	151	(7)
28. "Trouble Comin' Every Day": Southern Strategies and the Revolution on TV	158	(7)
29. Troubled Souls: Wattstax and Motown (West)	165	(7)
30. "Where Is the Love?": Donny Hathaway and the End of the Dream	172
Section Three: "I Will Survive": Disco, Irony, and the Sound of Resistance
31. Reflections in a Mirror Ball	177	(2)
32. Reverend Green and the Return of Jim Crow	179	(4)
33. Demographics 101: Hard Times in Chocolate City	183	(4)
34. Black Love in the Key of Life	187	(4)
35. Jimmy Carter and the Great Quota Disaster of 1978	191	(6)
36. Roots: The Messages in the Music	197	(6)
37. God Love Sex: Disco and the Gospel Impulse	203	(6)
38. Disco Sucks	209	(3)
39. Punks and Pretenders	212	(6)
40. Rebellion or Revolution: Bruce Springsteen and the Clash	218	(8)
41. P-Funkentelechy	226	(4)
42. Redemption Songs: Bob Marley in Babylon	230	(6)
43. The Message: Hip-hop and the South Bronx	236	(9)
Section Four: "And That's the Way That It Is": The Reagan Rules, Hip-hop, and the Megastars
44. Welcome to the Terrordome	245	(1)
45. Springsteen and the Reagan Rules	246	(5)
46. The Problem of Healing in the Hall of Mirrors	251	(2)
47. The View from Black America	253	(4)
48. The Way It Was and the Way It Is	257	(3)
49. Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby	260	(2)
50. Run-D.M.C. Negotiates the Mainstream	262	(1)
51. "A Hero to Most": Elvis in the Eighties	263	(8)
52. Megastardom and Its Discontents: Michael and Madonna	271	(6)
53. Duke Ellington for Our Time: The Symbol Formerly Known as Prince	277	(4)
54. West Africa Is in the House	281	(3)
55. "Bring the Noise": The New School Rap Game	284	(6)
56. "Know the Ledge": KRS-One, Rakim, and the Gangstas	290	(7)
57. "Born in the U.S.A.": Springsteen and Race	297	(10)
Section Five: "Holler If Ya Hear Me": In the Nineties Mix
58. Wasteland of the Free	307	(2)
59. American Dreaming	309	(5)
60. C.R.E.A.M., or, Tupac on Death Row	314	(5)
61. No More Drama: Mary" Blige and the Hip Hop Generation	319	(11)
62. The Gospel Impulse Gets Crunk: OutKast and the Dirty South	330	(8)
63. Ozomatli and the Myth of Purity: Notes on the Browning of America	338	(10)
64. The Gospel Impulse (Remixed): Bruce Springsteen, Kirk Franklin, and Lauryn Hill	348	(15)
Notes	363	(35)
Play list	398	(29)
Index	427