Life Could Be a Dream - Wasserman, Jerry

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Résumé :
In the tumultuous decade following World War II, the civil rights movement began transforming Black lives and American society. The era also proved momentous for African American popular music: new record labels, new styles, and exciting new sounds in the form of electrified blues combos, rhythm and blues shouters and balladeers, gospel and doo wop quartets. By the late 1950s, with rock 'n' roll dominating the American soundscape, much of the phenomenal Black music of the postwar decade began to drift into relative obscurity. This book brings a remarkable body of African American music, excluding jazz, back into sharp focus, and explores its connections to the socio-political dreams of Black America during that period of frustrated hopes and great expectations. With close attention to the singers, musicians, and lyrics in hundreds of recordings from 1946 to 1956, it offers for the first time a detailed examination of four musical genres along the blues continuum: blues, rhythm & blues, gospel, and secular harmony (better known as doo wop). Meet the artists and listen to the sounds and themes of Black America in a musically explosive decade....

Biographie:
Jerry Wasserman lives in Vancouver, Canada, where he is emeritus professor of English & theatre at the University of British Columbia. He is also an actor with more than 200 film and television credits....

Sommaire:
Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Standing at the Crossroads, 1946-56
Chapter One-Blues: Can't Be Satisfied
Texas, Oklahoma, California: Pioneers (T-Bone Walker, Lightnin' Hopkins,
Lowell Fulson)
Going to Chicago: Mississippi Pioneers (Big Bill Broonzy, Memphis Minnie,
Robert Nighthawk, Big Boy Crudup)
Going to Chicago: Muddy and After (Muddy Waters, Jimmy Rogers, Floyd Jones,
JB Lenoir, Eddie Boyd, Otis Rush)
Going to Chicago: Wolf and Elmo (Howlin' Wolf, Elmore James)
Going to Chicago: The Harp Masters (Sonny Boy Williamson II, Little Walter,
Junior Wells, James Cotton)
Ladies Sing the (Rhythm &) Blues (Big Mama Thornton, Faye Adams,
Big Maybelle, Etta James)
Don't Forget the Motor City (John Lee Hooker)
Blues in New Orleans (Guitar Slim)
Beale Street Blues (B.B. King and Bobby Blue Bland)
Chapter Two-Rhythm & Blues: Let the Good Times Roll
The Pioneers: Rhythm & Joy (Louis Jordan, Helen Humes,
Dinah Washington)
Sing Us a Song, You're the Piano (Wo)Man (Julia Lee, Bull Moose Jackson,
Camille Howard, Nellie Lutcher, Roosevelt Sykes, Memphis Slim,
Amos Milburn, Little Willie Littlefield)
Leaders of the Pack (Roy Milton, Tiny Bradshaw)
Shouters (Big Joe Turner, Wynonie Harris, Roy Brown,
Jimmy Witherspoon)
Balladeers (Percy Mayfield, Johnny Ace, Little Willie John)
Mama, He Treats Your Daughters Mean (Little Esther, Ruth Brown,
LaVern Baker)
Laissez les bons temps rouler (Fats Domino, Lloyd Price,
Shirley & Lee)
Rock the Joint (Wild Bill Moore, Jimmy Preston, Chris Powell, Goree Carter,
H-Bomb Ferguson, Jimmy Liggins, Jackie Brenston, Sonny Parker,
The Treniers)
Chapter Three-Gospel: Too Close to Heaven
Mahalia Jackson and the Big Bang
Madame, Sister, Mother, Professor, Reverend (Edna Gallmon Cooke, Rosetta Tharpe, Jesse Mae Renfro, Alex Bradford, Rev. Kelsey)
Jubilee to Gospel: How Sweet the Quartet Sound (Golden Gate Quartet, Trumpeteers, Bells of Joy, Radio Four, Violinaires, Highway QCs, Staple Singers)
A Little Bit Harder Now (Pilgrim Travelers, Golden Echoes, Spirit of Memphis, Harmonizing Four, Angelic Gospel Singers)
What Then: Hard Gospel Voices of Salvation and Doubt (Dixie Hummingbirds, Ward Singers, Soul Stirrers with R.H. Harris, Soul Stirrers with Sam Cooke, Dorothy Love Coates & the Original Gospel Harmonettes, Blind Boys of Alabama, Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, Famous Davis Sisters, Swan Silvertones, Sensational Nightingales, Meditation Singers, Chosen Gospel Singers, Jackson Gospel Singers, Kansas City Soul Revivers)
Chapter Four-Doo Wop: The Glory of Love
Birds Take Flight (Ravens and Orioles)
Gospel Goes Doo Wop (Dominoes, Larks, 5 Royales, Five Keys, Drifters)
Where Were You in '52? (Cardinals, Swallows, Clovers, Five Crowns, Harptones, Willows, Spaniels, Flamingos, Blue Jays)
1954: The Revolution Will Not (Yet) Be Televised (Crows, Chords, Charms, Royals/Midnighters, Moonglows, Penguins)
More from '54 (Cadillacs, Solitaires, Diablos, Honey Bears)
A Rare Species: Women in Doo Wop (Shirley Gunter and the Queens, Hearts, Lillian Leach and the Mellows, Shirley Haven and the Jacks)
Rolling on the R&B Tide (Platters, Turbans, El Dorados, Five Satins, Del-Vikings, Cleftones, Heartbeats, Dells, Channels)
Teenagers in Love: Schoolboy Doo Wop (Mello-Moods, Schoolboys, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Lewis Lymon and the Teenchords, Ruth McFadden and the Harptones)
The Best of the Rest (Nutmegs, Meadowlarks, Jaguars, Wheels, Chips)
Chapter Five-Roots of a Revolution
The Blues Had a Baby (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Little Richard, James Brown)
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
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