Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke
by Peter Guralnick

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• ISBN13: 9780316013291
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Book Reviews of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke

Book Review: The elusive man and his accessible music
Summary: 5 Stars

Be warned that the Sam Cooke who emerges in these pages is not a wholly likeable character, though if he seems more elusive than Guralnick's earlier subject that is, perhaps, intrinsic to the man rather than any failing on the author's part. His widow, Barbara, features prominently: a childhood sweetheart whom he eventually married in order not to lose his daughter to another man, she seems to have been the victim of the introspection and anger concealed from others in his compartmentalised life. A frequent theme of many, less close, interviewees is the charm he exerted which made them feel the sole focus of his attention during a conversation, though many seem to stumble when trying to define that appeal more precisely.

This is not a sensational book, though it doesn't flinch from describing Cooke's sexual adventures. But finally it's the music that is left and it's clear that Cooke, despite his boundless professional self-assurance, was always pushing himself, always trying to develop further. This undoubtedly meant crossover success, so even though some people have lamented the fact that he signed for RCA and not the indie Atlantic, it's debatable how much change there would have been had he recorded elsewhere: commercial success meant producers Hugo and Luigi learnt to trust his instincts, and the greater freedom engineered by new manager Allan Klein (painted in a wholly positive light) allowed him to take as much time as he needed to get the results he wanted. Cooke had also been warned off Atlantic by a disaffected Clyde McPhatter, so it seems it wasn't simply a question of RCA having more money.

Guralnick fills in as much of the background as you could possibly want, giving us life on the road and the odd mixture of offstage cameraderie and onstage warfare that characterised the gospel quartets. If you're fascinated by Cooke's story,as I am, you will devour every morsel, although details in parenthesis can break up the flow: at times you need to go back to the start of the sentence to make sense of the whole thing. But this is a tiny point: Sam Cooke is probably as present as he could ever be in this book and if you care about his life or the development of soul music you owe it to yourself to read it.

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