The Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of over a dozen divine divas from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, & Diana Ross, to Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, & Janet Jackson (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

David Nathan's life changed as an English teenager in the '60s. The agent of that shift? Records by black American singers such as Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, and Nina Simone. Soon he was the head of Simone's British fan club, and in short order, became a journalist with growing access to his heroines. Over the ensuing years, Amazon.com and Billboard contributor Nathan has had Franklin bake him a peach cobbler, stood under the thrown shade of everyone from Esther Phillips to Anita Baker, and even had Miss Ross ask him to call her "Diana." The Soulful Divas captures Nathan's obsession with his favorites, providing two-layered narratives that meld career rundowns with interviews and other personal meetings with his subjects. Most of the 14 single-artist chapters are successful portraits, with the exception of Nathan's profile of Natalie Cole, whose drug problems and career resurrection in the shadow of her late father are little more than the stuff of a legend-in-her-own-mind. A dearth of material weakens a closing chapter on young divas Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, and Toni Braxton. But Nathan also provides many invaluable, eye-opening moments, such as the story of a baseball-bat-wielding Phillips threatening to smash up the offices of a record company slow to pay royalties. Finally, he fills out the received wisdom on "X-rated" Millie Jackson, who says, "When I'm home, it's crossword puzzles, television, and the kids." Kids who no doubt, like Nathan, picked up their share of tips on life and love from Jackson and her sisters. --Rickey Wright

Product Description

Personal portraits of over a dozen divine divas, from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, and Diana Ross to Patti LaBelle, Anita Baker, and Natalie Cole. 40 illustrations.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books (January 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823084256
• ISBN-13: 978-0823084258
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #429,385 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #8 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Rhythm & Blues
  #39 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Composers & Musicians > Rhythm & Blues
  #76 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Musical Genres > Soul

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mildly Entertaining, November 18, 2003

By	Raider Jack "Jackie D Gray-Romeyn" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

It is obvious that David Nathan truly idolizes his subjects which probably accounts for the calculated design at the end of each chapter to make sure in no uncertain terms that he has shown that subject in her best light. I can certainly empathize because many of the divas profiled are true favorites of mine. That said, soul diva aficionados will readily recognize this as a collection of all-too-familiar press clippings even the most casual follower has at least heard of. To his credit, it is indeed refreshing to hear about lesser publicized divas like Esther Phillips, Millie Jackson, Nina Simone, Doris Troy or Phylllis Hyman. And ultimately, the final chapter sketching younger divas appeared entirely too hastily thrown together with the end result being little more than an unsatisfying epilogue.

Quite honestly, if you are in to black female vocalists, this, of course, was an easy, flattering read. However, the finished product is little more than an indulgent scrapbook by a journalist who, apparently, could have shed infinitely more light on the personalities he featured, but declined or refused out of either fierce loyalty or abject fear. Not only do the subjects deserve more than this, but so does the author.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, but unsatisfying look at some of soul's greats, April 4, 2002

By	Karl Miller "kemspeaks" (Phoenixville, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Soulful Divas: Personal Portraits of over a Dozen Divine Divas, from Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin, & Diana Ross to Patti Labelle, Whitney Houston, & Janet Jackson (Paperback)

I wanted to love this book...after all, the music world is filled with legendary anecdotes of some of the women profiled by Mr. Nathans (Diana's attitudes, Chaka's seductive powers, Natalie's substance abuse history), and together these women could make a CD that you'd drop in the player on Sunday, and still be singing along with come payday.
Unfortunately, the profiles are more cotton candy than ham hocks. Most of these ladies would deserve (and have allready written, or have had written about them) entire tomes which still leave out juicy details. The section on Phyliss Hyman, a masterful, yet tragic soulstress, leaves the reader starved for more of a history. The Patti LaBelle pages ignore key sections of her (and her bandmates) historic segue from a "girl group" to the infamous glitter sisters known as LaBelle.
There are some excellent photos in this book, and some interesting stories about the profiled women, but most of the details have been previously discussed by the singers themselves.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable to read but ultimately less than satisfying, November 13, 2001

By	James E. Bagley "Jim Bagley" (Sanatoga, PA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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With Soulful Divas, David Nathan - a true lover of r&B music - has compiled interviews with many of his favorite singers of the past 40 years. Some of the subjects, like that of the humorously raunchy Millie Jackson and the troubled Nina Simone, make for compelling reading. Most suffer from his endless fawning however. Take, for instance, Diana Ross. By all other accounts, Miss Ross is a difficult person, yet Nathan makes her out to be practically a saint.

Nathan's frequent access to all of the top divas exposes the modern journalist's dilemma: if he fully captures his subjects in print, warts and all, he risks alienating them and being denied interview access to them in the future. Instead, Nathan fawns all over his subjects and gets repeat interviews with high-profile women who are often leery of the press (Aretha Franklin for one). Because of his "tactics", we are able to enjoy his many interviews in one setting (this book). Too bad most of his portraits don't penetrate the surface.