A Change Is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America

Needed for a college course

Good for history class.

I believe I came across this book in a library while researching the components of the sixties "Love Revolution". I enjoyed reading it and felt it was an essential source for my research, my theory that music contained a prophetic element which drove the sixties.There were several factors that contributed to this amazing phenomenon. The Beat Writers of the Fifties, the Sexual Revolution and Playboy magazine, The Women's Rights movement, the Civil Rights movement, the roll out of Rock and Roll. All the while the Cold War and Vietnam going on in the background. This book goes into depth on the nature of music and how it was a vehicle that helped spread the message of the Civil Rights movement, deeply rooted in the cultural African Americans (Sam Cooke). Rock and Roll came from Blues and Roots music and was combined with American Folk music by British musicians and U.S. "Hippies". It was laced with rhetoric widely circulated through the writings of the Beat Writers. I was a kid and watched it all go down. Amazing.

This book actually is quite good. The only problem is the author fixates on certain artists. Since the book is in chronological order it plays like a movie starting with blues performers and also jazz. It jumps into the 60's rapidly and this is by far the most interesting section. Motown, Stax and the Philly Sound are defined well by the author. Each sub genre of black music seems to be tied to the equal rights movement. Not to sure there. Motown was highly polished music made for enjoyment and profit. Profit and capitalism per the author is what leaves the black man behind. Motown being the exception. Stax certainly let us hear the cry of the unequal black. The Philly Sound also aided equal rights. "Aint No Stopping Us Now" sure did a lot for the equal rights cause. Not. But, the redeeming chapters featured Sly Stone, Gil Scott-Heron and Curtis Mayfield. All three are unique in the history of black music. Sly used an Integrated band and sang of solutions. Gil is my favorite in your face black singer. But Curtis Mayfield somehow ties hope with faith undertones. The fixation artists include Elvis Presley and Bruce Springsteen. Too much time is spent on both. Paragraph after paragraph tells us that artist A hated Elvis and artist B didn't. And the overdone chapters with Springsteen being the emancipation man just don't totally add up. I thoroughly enjoyed the rap and hip hop chapters as I really found these genres unlistenable. The author helped me to understand the message and truly defined every major artist and background. I still find the music vulgar, but must admit I get the message. From the rich kids Run- DMC to Tupac and the ghetto this author made reading this part fun. My favorite black artist has always been Curtis Mayfield. He touches my soul with every song. His final album Brave New World was recorded as Curtis laid paralyzed from an accident. Read this book and then listen to the album. They should be sold together. I am white and lived in all white neighborhoods growing up. A black man was an oddity for me. But, I eventually met many new people of all races as I moved to Philadelphia in my teens. The music I grew up with was what this book reveals. The author expanded my knowledge of already loved artists. Sadly today blacks still have trouble in our world. This shouldn't be. Music touches many a hard soul and softens the heart. One of my favorite lines in the book was when Paul Simon won a Grammy award in 1975 and thanked Stevie Wonder for not releasing an album that year. Innervisions, Talking Book and Songs in The Key of Life are also nice albums that compliment this book. May the music we hear help us to treat other with love and respect

I got this book so that I could write a report on Sam Cooke but ended up reading the whole thing because the first few chapters were so engaging I couldn't put it down. Its well written and includes background information thats important to the story of music. Good choice.

Talk about a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, the popular music literature out there seems to fall into two camps. The first populates journalism school dropouts who, because of their love for the music, feel the need to share their passion with the whole wide world. Their writings are usually superficial and they're the crowd Dylan complained about when he said (paraphrase), "they're a bunch of 40 year olds writing for a bunch of 10 year olds." The other group is made up of academics who, though often having brilliant insights, are more often impenetrable to the masses of popular music listeners. Indeed, this ilk is just as likely to write *about* listeners rather than for them.Craig Werner skillfully accomplishes what only a handful have done before him: marrying the insights of a well read, thoughtful academic with a down-to-earth (way far away from any ivory tower), yet passionate style of writing. Using the "calls" and "responses" found in black music (and communities) and the "impulses" of gospel, blues and jazz, Werner seamlessly connects such varied artists as Mahalia Jackson, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Public Enemy, Madonna, Prince, Duke Ellington, Ani Difranco, and seemingly hundreds more. Though the "huh?" factor may be high at times (the jazz impulse includes Neil Young's "Arc"), through fresh, direct insights an "oh yeah" factor always neutralizes it (usually within a page or two).The subtitle of the book suggests this is an explanation of "music, race and the soul of America." Well, it's not. This is merely Werner's "response," based on the many "calls" he writes of in his book. This is now my "response" to Werner's "call" - Wow, you gotta read this book.

A Change is Gonna Come is a landmark book in the history of the rock/race conversation, because Werner - a white professor of Afro-American studies - has a deeper understanding of the meaning of whiteness than any other rock historian I've seen. It makes a huge difference that Werner is both an anti-racist, and is comfortable in his own skin - this comfort allows him to navigate the culture-theft accusations and counter-accusations without needing to pick sides.

Great book. Needed for thesis, arrived a bit late but glad I got it.

Purchased as a gift