Dream Boogie: The Triumph Of Sam Cooke (Peter Guralnick)

Another port from the original site and the second offering from Guralnick. But, given it’s length and quite dense prose, is it a stretch too far? Most visitors to Shades of Blue will know that the site is a big fan of Peter Guralnick and his ability to combine a frighteningly detailed knowledge of American popular music with such a lucid and effortless writing style. So it’s a major event when he puts pen to paper again, especially when the subject matter is such an icon of the R&B; and early soul music of the late 1950s and 1960s.

Sam Cooke was the product of the mid 20th century black migration from the rural south to the urban north, became a male gospel star, an early teen idol, a black entrepreneur and in many ways a spokesman for a generation; and yet he was also the urbane, upwardly mobile elegant individual whose life was ended when he was shot dead in a seedy motel on the wrong side of town in what can only be described as undignified circumstances. The subject of this book is clearly a complex man.

Guralnick chronicles the complexity of both Cooke’s career and Cooke the man with a scale of research so daunting that it can only have been a true labour of love to complete. Unlike some of his other books however (e.g. Sweet Soul Music) the confining nature of the subject matter can mean that the reader doesn’t get the same level of engagement or wider social context that you might have expected. The context is there certainly but, understandably, it’s a context as it applies to Cooke’s specific career and individual circumstance. The author doesn’t hide from the darker side of Cooke’s life and character, detailing the self imposed isolation, the multiple sexual affairs, the increasingly heavy drinking, all of which worsened at the very time that he began to reap the financial rewards of his success. Guralnick clearly admires both the man and his talent but also recognises his personal demons and behaviour lapses. It’s very strong on the business and financial side, which might well be a niche readership for some I would have thought. If you are interested in the civil rights movement of the 60s, the supporting cast includes Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Cassius Clay. Some of the details about the way Sam and his band were treated in the American South are very disturbing and illuminating, and you wonder at what a hard shell this must have formed around him and that it never manifested itself in the music.

At over 750 pages, the attention to detail and the minutia of recording sessions and business dealings can get a little tiresome; there were occasions when I found myself reading pages chronicling innumerable complex financial negotiations with a certain amount of disinterest. However, a fitting critical overview of Cooke’s life and career has long been overdue and this extremely well written tome is a fine monument to the man and his music – just don’t try and read it at one sitting!