From: Bob Davis (earthjuice_at_prodigy.net)
Date: 2003-04-02 09:58:40
This is a press release that I am quite happy to send out...
1. It's about a book that I think everyone here should buy, just on "GP".
2. It's written by one of our own, Mark Anthoney Neal, who incase you didn't know was one of
the very first members of the Soul-Patrol Mailing List.
3. Mark has got a great track record at being an expert in "breaking down" reality from BS
when it comes to documenting a "360 degree" view of OUR culture, in a way that many so called
"black music experts" are quite simply unable to comprehend.
stay tuned...
(there is more to come....)
"One of the most brilliant cultural critics of his generation. Neal writes
gracefully, thinks sharply, and speaks cogently and is old school and new
school at once. He's my favorite cultural critic and one hip brother."
-Michael Eric Dyson, Chicago Sun-Times
SONGS IN THE KEY OF BLACK LIFE
A NATION OF RHYTHM AND BLUES
MARK ANTHONY NEAL
Publication Date: June 20, 2003
ISBN: 0-415-965741-3, $19.95 (Canada $26.95), 224 pages, 10 halftones
In SONGS IN THE KEY OF BLACK LIFE, acclaimed cultural critic Mark Anthony
Neal pays homage to R&B artists such as the legendary Stevie Wonder, whose
career defining opus, Songs in the Key of Life, so fittingly provides Neal
with the title of this volume. This time around, Neal has turned his
attention to a nation of folks whose passions, gripes, joys, and tears are
conveyed through the music that we call rhythm and blues. He argues that R&B
can tell us much about the dynamic joys, apprehensions, tensions, and
contradictions of contemporary black life, if we listen closely.
With a voice as heartfelt and compelling as the voices of any of the artists
he writes about, Neal guides us through the work of classic and contemporary
artists ranging from Marvin Gaye to Macy Gray. In the first section of the
book, "Rhythm," he uses the music of Meshell N'degeocello and Patti Labelle,
among others, as guideposts to the major concerns of contemporary black
life-issues such as gender, feminist politics, political activism, black
masculinity, celebrity, and the fluidity of racial and sexual identity. The
second part of the book, "Blues," uses the improvisational rhythms of black
music as a metaphor to examine currents in black life-including the public
dispute between Cornel West and Harvard President Lawrence Summers, and the
firing of BET's talk-show host Travis Smiley.
The past thirty years or so have witnessed large numbers of volumes written
about jazz, blues, hip-hop, and rap music, and while these books represent a
wide spectrum of ideological and critical vantage points, there have been
relatively few books written about rhythm & blues. Neal persuasively argues
that ignoring the importance of R&B has left a large gap in our society's
musical history and he fills this gap with SONGS IN THE KEY OF BLACK LIFE.
This book is a remarkable contribution to the study of black popular music
and valuable reading for anyone interested in race in America.
Sincerely,
Tooraj Kavoussi
(917) 351-7108
tkavoussi_at_taylorandfrancis.com
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR MARK ANTHONY NEAL'S SONGS IN THE KEY OF BLACK LIFE
Once again, Mark Anthony Neal has proven himself to be one of our most
astute critics of contemporary American music. Neal takes readers on an
exciting journey through the terrain of black popular culture shedding new
light on the relationship between power, politics and cultural production.
Courageous, provocative and insightful, Songs in the Key of Black Life is
sure to spark dialogue and debate for all who read it."-Farah Jasmine
Griffin, author of If You Can't Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie
Holiday
"Engaging, smart, and funny as hell, Songs in the Key of Black Life leaves
no soul unturned. His lyrical analyses range from Patti Labelle to Laura
Nyro, Jill Scott to Jay Z, and academia to black radio. You won't find many
scholars with Neal's deep and abiding knowledge of contemporary black
popular culture, and you won't find any able to throw down such head-noddin'
prose."
-Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
"Reading this book is like sitting down to a plate of collard greens with
chopped up onions and tomatoes and a little touch of wine vinegar. A
mouth-watering piece of hot water corn bread. A lean mean piece of short
rib. And you know it's only going to get better because there is a
sumptuous banana pudding bringing up the rear . . . . Smack those lips. Rub
them hands. Say the blessing and get ready to feast! Thank you Mark
Anthony Neal. It is delicious and truly delectable."-Umar Bin Hassan, The
Last Poets
"Mark Anthony Neal is one of the most creative and insightful intellectuals
on the contemporary scene exploring how black popular music, especially R&B,
provides a complex and rich historical legacy of submerged memories and
communities of struggle that encompass the lived experience of black life in
the United States."
-Henry Giroux, author of The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the
Culture of Fear
Mark Anthony Neal is Assistant Professor of English and African-American
Studies at the State University of New York, Albany. He is author of What
the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Black Public Culture and Soul
Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic, both published by
Routledge.