Customer Reviews

Just My Soul Responding: Rhythm and Blues, Black Consciousness, and Race Relations

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I found this book informative and readable; a thoroughly documented guide to black music in the 50s, 60s and 70s by someone who is evidently a fan yet who does not allow his passion for the music to lead him into simplification or wishful thinking. Some parts of the book are a very useful corrective to this tendency in other books I have read - for example his treatment of black consumption of white music. He is particularly interesting on the subject of the sexual politics of the music and its relation to the social and political background. An accessible and entertaining book which maintains scholastic rigour throughout and is never guilty of sloppiness or turgidity.

Brian Ward is currently teaching "The Southern Civil Rights Movement" at the University of Florida. As a scholar his knowledge on the civil rights movement is exhaustive. Not only that, Ward knows his music. In Just My Soul responding Ward displays extensive knowledge of black music ranging from fifties R&B and Doo Wop to seventies Funk & Soul. Not surprisingly Ward has written several publications on the relation between mass media and the civil rights struggle.

"Just My Soul Responding" focuses on the relation between the struggle and Black music, and black popular music to be precise. Ward doesn't take Jazz into his analyses by stating that this was music for the intellectual crowd. Ward is more interested in the influence popular music had on the advance of the movement and what it meant for race relations.

The strength of this publication lies in the fact that it's not burdened by a drive to prove cultural imperialism. Some scholars on the subject of black music at times tend to get blinded in their effort to show how the white co operations tried to steal or destroy black music. Although Ward acknowledges such mechanisms, he paints a much more subtle picture. Ward shows us how black and white music influenced each other, that the lines weren't always as sharp as they seemed. Most tellingly is his analysis of Southern Soul, now often seen as the epiphany of black music. Ward dissect Southern Soul and shows how much of it is actually a multi-racial effort. A lot of the music was backed by integrated bands. White musicians brought Country into Soul and vice versa. Ward doesn't take the road of easy analyses but tries to pierce the way segregation worked, and how far it extended. Through the course of the book we get a picture of where the racial lines blurred and where the space of advancement lied.

Ward's publication is interesting reading for those interested in the civil rights movement but also for those just interested in the music as well. The book is littered with amusing anecdotes of Black music's most influential artist. Going though the book it becomes clear that for true appreciation of Black music knowledge of the civil rights movement is essential.

Dr. Ward's work adds much needed academic perspective on America's cultural history. This is not a book you can just breeze through, but the payoff is high. Dr. Ward writes with a true passion for the music as well as a subtle wit.

Brian Ward's book is probably the most valuable scholarly study of rock or closely-related music. The best-known works in this field are by music critics, which are often entertaining reads filled with fascinating inside information, but very light on evidence and argument. Some offer brilliant interpretation (e.g., Greil Marcus's _Mystery Train_), but they usually offer no evidence that the music has had any meaningful societal effects.

Ward, in contrast, weaves a sophisticated argument about the interaction of rhythm and blues and racial consciousness. He also offers well-reasoned criticisms of the claims of a number of music critics (e.g., Nelson George). For those looking for lighter (but not entirely light-weight) reading, James Miller's _Flowers in the Dustbin_ is a better choice, but if you want a well-written but scholarly study, Ward's is the best yet. Glenn Altschuler's _All Shook Up_ and Michael Bertrand's _Race, Rock, and Elvis_ are also well worth reading, for those looking for scholarly studies that examine other aspects of the early rock era.

what i dig about this Book is it's honesty.Music along with Sports have brought people of all Races together but when it's over folks go back into their Enviroment.The Music Speaks of Being Free&that's How People Get into Music but not Viewing the person as a Human Being is very sad.this book points that out&more.it's cool to Emulate James Brown, but being him?the business has always been Unequal.the charts have Pop,R-N-B/Rap(now Lumped as one)then Country,etc.....this is a Must Read.I Understood it all&then some.