The Late Great Johnny Ace and Transition from R&B to Rock 'n' Roll (Music in American Life) [Hardcover]

James M. Salem (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 1999 | Series: Music in American Life

If Elvis Presley was a white man who sang in a predominantly black style, Johnny Ace was a black man who sang in a predominantly white one. His soft, crooning "heart ballads" took the black record-buying public by storm in the early 1950s, and he was the first postwar solo black male rhythm and blues star signed to an independent label to attract a white audience. His biggest hit, "Pledging My Love," was at the top of the R&B charts when he died playing Russian roulette in his dressing room between sets at a packed "Negro Christmas dance" in Houston.This first comprehensive treatment of an enigmatic, captivating, and influential performer takes the reader to Beale Street in Memphis and to Houston's Fourth Ward, both vibrant black communities where the music never stopped. Following key players in these two hot spots, James Salem constructs a multifaceted portrait of postwar rhythm and blues, when American popular music (and society) was still clearly segregated. Among the many colorful characters who knew and worked with Johnny Ace-including B. B.King, Johnny Otis, Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton, and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown-none exerted more influence on his career than the promoter and entrepreneur Don D. Robey.It was Robey and his sometime wife Evelyn Johnson who transformed John Marshall Alexander Jr. into the heartthrob Johnny Ace and promoted him to the top of the R&B charts. But the price of fame was a grueling life of touring on the "chitlin circuit," where successive one-night stands might be 800 miles apart and musicians performed more than 340 days a year. Johnny Ace's career lasted barely eighteen months, yet musicians from Bob Dylan to Paul Simon have acknowledged their debt to him. Ace's inimitable delivery ushered in a fusion of black and white styles that set the stage for rock 'n' roll and changed American popular music forever.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A scholarly work and a piece of genuine research, yet it reads easily and has a feel for both period and musical form... A fine line between academic rigour and narrative drive is expertly negotiated. It also leads you scurrying off to those haunting, delicate songs that meant so much to so many listeners." -- Pop Matters Book Review "Salem's work represents how academic history can bring greater insight and greater accuracy to the recording of popular music history... [This volume] is a terrific read and keeps you turning the pages, even when you know how it ends. This is the most exciting book on popular music that this reviewer has read in the past few years." -- Robert Pruter, Goldmine "This meticulously researched volume tells the tragic tale of the star-crossed Memphis crooner whose most famous record "Pledging My Love" rode up the charts in 1955, the year after the talented singer died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The book also sheds serious light on the powerful changes undergone by pop music in the '50s, changes whose effects are still being felt. Just as valuable are the illuminating portraits Salem paints of the thriving musical, social, business, and cultural scenes that existed in Memphis and Houston in the late '40s and '50s." - Kevin Toelle, Illinois Entertainer "Salem's book is the first all-embracing look at Ace, known for his posthumous hit, Pledging My Love... Read Salem's account - an essential addition to books on Memphis music - and Ace seems all too tragically human." - Bill Ellis, Commercial Appeal "[Salem] has brought his brilliant research skills to almost every aspect of the history, society, music and popular culture that created the Johnny Ace phenomenon, and every ramification of his death from Russian roulette on Christmas Day, 1954... This is a magnificently historical work, and, of huge interest to music lovers... A genuine high point in the bibliography of our music." - Pete Bowen, Now Dig This "Salem combines a biography of Ace with a deft overview and analysis of the changing nature of the record industry and popular music in the early 1950s... Salem focuses on the rapidly changing record industry, the roles of Robey and other key personalities, and particularly the singer as a transitional figure between rhythm and blues and the emerging rock 'n' roll. Salem includes assorted illustrations, detailed notes, a selected discography, and helpful bibliography. A valuable addition to the literature." - Choice "Salem examines the bigger picture of R&B's rise in popularity during the '50s, when color barriers began to fall as white teenagers embraced rock'n' roll's first exciting wave. Salem writes with obvious knowledge of the era's vast musical legacy... Salem's book is a terrific piece of investigative reporting, rendered in highly entertaining and informative fashion... Thanks to Salem, we now have a great deal more insight into - to quote author Colin Escott - rock 'n' roll's first casualty." - Bill Dahl, Living Blues "May be the best and most thorough depiction of that era yet produced... Salem's carefully researched and fluently written book tells a story that reveals the inner workings of the music business in one of its most dynamic periods, but it is also a poignant tale as timeless as that of the biblical prodigal son." - Lorenzo Thomas, Houston Chronicle "Salem has talked to all the right people, searched out the key documents, studied the mode of life of the period, listened to Ace's recordings, skewered some long-lived myths and drawn some interesting conclusions." - Johns Sinclair, Gambit Weekly "Through a combination of carefully documented research (including insightful oral histories gathered from key people who knew Ace firsthand) and artfully developed narrative (with themes as universal as classic tragedy), Salem provides a valuable sociocultural critique that goes well beyond mere biographical portrait... Salem's book offers uncommon depth of insight - not only about the singer he dubs 'the ace of hearts' but also about the role of popular music in postwar American culture before the Civil Rights era." - Roger Wood, Arkansas ReviewADVANCE PRAISE "An impressive and significant study that includes much important research, especially primary interviews."- Craig Morrison, author of Go Cat Go!: Rockabilly Music and Its Makers "This invaluable study is not merely a biography of Johnny Ace; it also integrates his life story into American cultural history, examines the development of the postwar independent record company scene, and describes the mass acceptance of black vernacular music by the mainstream media. No one has previously examined this vital confluence of music, culture, and industry in quite this way."-Kip Lornell, author of "Happy in the Service of the Lord": Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press; First Edition edition (May 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252024443
• ISBN-13: 978-0252024443
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,949,946 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Late Great Johnny Ace, March 15, 2000

By 

jermaine roberts (virgina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Late Great Johnny Ace and Transition from R&B to Rock 'n' Roll (Music in American Life) (Hardcover)

A biography that has been long overdue,"The Late Great Johnny Ace.." is a marvelous journey to the backsteps of an long overlooked persona. Ace is just as much a legend as James Dean or Elvis Presley, but has been for years sidelined to a mere footnote in rock history. Ace's sensational russian roulette death on Christmas Day 1954, has unfairly eclipsed his musical merits, and is usually the first open topic in a discussion about him. This book is an excellent read simply because it offers more information about Ace and his music than anything previously published. Salem not only takes the reader for a slow cruise through Ace's short life but he builds an incredible atmosphere of life as a musician in Memphis. Here we not only learn more of Johnny Ace the man, but of his world and the collision course fame put him on. Ace's tragic death is explored in grave detail dispelling many myths and half truths. A must-read for any music historian. Now if they could just turn this into a movie.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Late,Great,Johnny Ace, March 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Late Great Johnny Ace and Transition from R&B to Rock 'n' Roll (Music in American Life) (Hardcover)

At long last,a book about Johnny Ace,rock&roll's first great tragedy.(He preceeded Buddy Holly's plane crash by a good 5 years.)Indeed,they had barely begun calling it "rock & roll"when Johnny killed himself playing russian roulette on Dec.25,1954.(Not Christmas eve,as is usually reported.)This fine book dispells many myths about that fateful night,and is also a welcome addition to the rock'n roll literature.A must read about the early days of rock music.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, November 19, 2006

By 

M. Buisman "Martijn Buisman" (Amsterdam, NL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Late Great Johnny Ace and Transition from R&B to Rock 'n' Roll (Music in American Life) (Paperback)

How do you read a book about someone whose career just spanned 18 months and whose recorded material fits on one cd? And this in a time when the media wasn't as developed, certainly not for black events.

Salem has somehow managed it. It gives a good overview of Johnny Ace's life and unfortunate death at a very early age. The crux of the book is how the author weaves Ace's career and life into the broader narrative of black music and black life in the South.

Therefore, it's a good biography, but also a good history book on black entertainment in the early 1950's