The gospel sound : good news and bad times / Tony Heilbut.
| Author/creator | Heilbut, Anthony |
| Format | Book |
| Publication Info | New York : Simon and Schuster, [1971] |
| Description | 350 pages : portraits ; 22 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Part one: building the gospel highway. "Sallie Martin's outta sight" ; "I get these special vibrations": Thomas A. Dorsey -- The head of the house: Ira Tucker ; Mahalia the queen ; "The women had fits": The Soul Stirrers -- Part two: the gospel pioneers. Reverend Brewster and the Ward Singers ; Reverend Julius Cheeks and the Reverend Claude Jeter: the fathers of soul ; "Bessie can moan and move a mountain" ; professor Alex Bradford: the singing rage -- "I won't let go of my faith": Dorothy Love Coates -- Part three: the Holiness Church. The Holiness Church ; The traveling saints ; The crown prince of gospel: James Cleveland ; "I've been way out on the stormy raging sea": Marion Williams ; The young singers -- Part four: the gospel life. "You may never go to prison" ; "Turn your radio on": 1969 ; A weekend with the Campbells -- Epilogue: "Looked down the line and I wondered." |
| Abstract | "Child, I've had my singing days. I'm not talking about making money. I'm talking about singing to express myself. You know that's a blessing." These words by Marion Williams, one of the great gospel singers, define both her art and this book. This book is a sympathetic and definitive portrait of the gospel singers, their music and their way of life. Like Studs Terkel's Hard Times, The Gospel Sound illuminates a moment, a spirit, a culture, often in the words of the singers themselves as they travel the long, hard "gospel highway," poorly paid, cheater children of the Depression South who as adults are all too familiar with the horrors of ghetto life, with murder, brutality, he wasting of human lives and the all-embracing constraints of poverty and discrimination, but who express their faith in the most powerful, moving and least-known music America has produced. Gospel is more than music: it is one of the central experiences of Black America, a common heritage whose vitality was a means of survival in a hostile world and whose style gave birth to blues, jazz and rock. The author has shared and studied the gospel life, and his portraits of its major figures--Mahalia Jackson, Sallie Martin, Thomas A. Dorsey, James Cleveland, Dorothy Love Coates, Sam Cooke, Bessie Griffin, the Dixie Hummingbirds, Clara Ward and many others--make his book a unique and important literary event. But more than this, the book re-creates with stunning accuracy and strength the deepest feelings and experiences of one part of the American soul. |
| Bibliography note | Includes discography (pages 327-337) and indexes. |
| LCCN | 76156151 |
| ISBN | 0671209833 |
| ISBN | 9780671209834 |
| Stock number | $7.95 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Closed Stacks - Ask at Circulation Desk | ML3187 .H44 1971 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |