Sweet Soul Music Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom

by Guralnick, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780316332736
• ISBN10: 0316332739
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-07-01
• Publisher: Back Bay Books

Summary

Nat Hentoff has called Peter Guralnick "a national resource," and for once this isn't a piece of hype. Guralnick may be a premiere chronicler of American popular music, which he writes about with brains, reverence, and a peculiar tenderness for dashed dreams. In this volume, he records the rise and fall of Stax Records--the Memphis powerhouse that produced a string of classics from the likes of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, Booker T. and the MGs, and Johnnie Taylor. The birth of modern rhythm-and-blues makes for a fascinating story. But there's another story behind that one--the racial tensions that eventually tore Stax apart--which makes the book richer, and sadder, than we have any right to expect.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Soul Serenade	1	(20)
Prologue to Soul: Sam Cooke, Ray Charles, and the Business of Music	21	(55)
King Solomon: The Throne in Exile	76	(21)
Beginnings: Stax	97	(36)
Otis Redding	133	(19)
Stax: The Golden Years	152	(25)
Fame and Muscle Shoals	177	(43)
Papa's Got a Brand New Bag	220	(27)
The Soul Clan	247	(30)
The Other Side of Memphis	277	(31)
Stax Goes to Europe/The Big O Comes Home: Triumph and Tragedy	308	(24)
Aretha Arrives	332	(21)
The Death of the Dream	353	(53)
Epilogue: Time Has Brought About a Change	395	(11)
General Bibliography	406	(9)
Selected Discorgraphy	415	(16)
Index	431