Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke by Peter Guralnick Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke
Book Review: (RAW Rating: 3.5) - From Gospel to R & B
Summary: 4 Stars
Peter Guralnick's DREAM BOOGIE is the story of Sam Cooke's journey from singing gospel music in church with his family, to his ultimate move to singing Rhythm and Blues in the secular world. His father, a minister, supported Sam's transition to a new genre of music but he still came under a lot of scrutiny from those who felt singing popular music was a move away from God. Sam persevered in spite of the criticism and became a very popular star.
His fame and popularity lead many women to him and at one point three women claiming he was the father of their children. Eventually he married Barbara, his childhood sweetheart and the mother of his child, Linda. His parents and family were not thrilled with Sam's choice. The marriage was rocky to say the least since Sam had not really given up other women plus he had a quick temper that sometimes lead to physical violence. Barbara blamed herself and constantly wondered what she could do to please Sam more. Eventually they had two more children before the marriage began to spiral downward after their 3-year-old son drowned in the family pool. Barbara found solace in another man's arms.
Guralnick's coverage of Sam's life is complete and comprehensive. Not only do we learn a great deal about Sam but also about other stars of the same era, such as Aretha Franklin, also the child of a minister, Jackie Wilson and Bobby Womack who married Sam's widow. There were many surprising things about Sam's personal life that surfaced and the mystery of his early death was adequately covered. If old-school music is your thing, then this is the book for you.
Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Book Review: the stars are for the subject, not the author
Summary: 3 Stars
Guralnick tried very hard in this book (the only biography of Cooke I have read, though I notice there's another written within the past 10 years). I empathize with the frenzy of a researcher who has a truck-load of somewhat-relevant information, and about a cupful of truly relevant information. Guralnick does what lots of us have done in those last minutes of hysteria before the due date: Throws everything at the reader and hopes the reader will sort it all out.
Maybe I'm losing my mind or my memory, but I had a hard time sorting it all out. Every percussionist who banged a stick on a drum behind Cooke, every singer who harmonized a note with him (and, frequently, against him), every businessman who tried to make a buck off him, every hanger-on (including relatives) who ever bummed a ride off him: They're all marched by us, then referenced backwards, then pop up 150 pages later. We learn about his record deals and other artists' record deals, and we revisit so many gospel and pop road shows that by the end I could well imagine myself screaming to be let out of the back seat of the Cadillac rather than face another stage. It's easy to guess who gets lost in this mess: Sam Cooke, of course.
I sympathize with the author. Cooke's been dead over 40 years, he was a young man when he died, he apparently didn't keep a diary or write letters (the absolute high point of the book for me was the one letter quoted, polite and well-written, in Cooke's own words), and most of his acquaintances still around to interview aren't sharing a lot of deep insights to the man's personality. So here is my suggestion, based on having had to work around factual voids myself: the compare and contrast essay. It might have made more sense for Guralnick to set up some foils to help us understand what it was about Cooke that caused his rise but might have contributed to his undoing, as well. There are many African-American entertainers of about Cooke's age (most of whom show up in this book at some point) who became cross-over hits and did not die young. It would have been interesting to me (who did not grow up in an African-American neighborhood in the 1940's and '50's) to know why Harry Belafonte and James Brown, for example, each in their own highly diverse ways, kept on singing for decades after Cooke died. Was there something about Cooke's background or personality that created for him a terrible destiny, or was it just one night when luck was against him?
I will make one more point that will probably not endear me to some people reading this. There was clearly pathology in Cooke's upbringing, and it gets glossed over in favor of the front-page civil rights stories of the following decade. However, it wasn't just the civil rights struggles that made Cooke what he was. His earlier experiences would, obviously, have been most formative, and of these, there is a Dad who was a womanizer (and head of a very large family), at least one brother who served time in prison at a young age, a sister who seems to have begun childbearing without benefit of vows, and in general a kind of confusing mix of the overtly controlled (Dad was the minister of several Bible churches and Cooke was originally a gospel singer surrounded by both the sacred and the profane) and covertly out-of-control (sex, drugs, alcohol, gambling, violence, theft) that has led to cognitive dissonance in many a person, white as well as black. From the accounts of people who knew him, as well as from his own words and behavior, Cooke seemed like a highly intelligent and talented person who even as a child--particularly as a child--would have begun to develop existential doubts in the face of such craziness. The cause of those environmental pathologies (including but not limited to racism) are numerous and unpleasant, but because they occurred in a discriminated-against minority group doesn't mean they didn't exist, and to slight them actually diminishes Cooke's triumph. (Yes, I understand there are lots of reasons Guralnick might have deliberately taken the course he took, including the fact that some of the worst offenders were his sources; because it was a reasoned decision doesn't mean it was an effective one.)
Book Review: Thrilling Read with Some Sketchy "Facts"
Summary: 3 Stars
Mr. Guralnick has provided a serious look at the legendary Sam Cooke's life, and written it well. No one who appreciates or is interested in Mr. Cooke's work will be disappointed with the intricate details of and respectful approach to Sam's creative and business affairs.
Where "Dream Boogie" falls short is 1)in its ham-handed misrepresentation of and obvious disregard for the facts concerning the Nation of Islam and Mr. Cooke's interest in it (he was a supporter of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X), and 2)in its apparent disregard for resolution in the lives and careers of Mr. Cooke's family and collaborators after his tragic death. Couldn't an update on their lives have helped the reader see why Sam interacted with them in the way he did?
Indeed, for Mr. Guralnick to have dismissed a major religious, social and intellectual movement (The Nation of Islam) as absurd comic relief in Sam Cooke's life is a disservice to both the movement and the man. Hence, I must temper my enthusiasm for the positives in the book with my indignation over its clear and glaring negatives. Read it at the library first, then decide.
Book Review: Thorough, and at the same time incomplete
Summary: 4 Stars
I think some of the previous reviewers missed the point a little bit.
Dream Boogie is an intelligent read that leaves no stone unturned in chronicling Sam Cooke's entire life and career. Every session, every tour, and every release is discussed, and if you're a fan of the man's music, as opposed to simply being attracted to the sensational elements of his life that have been beaten into the ground over the past 40+ years, you will enjoy this book immensely. Guralnick is clearly a student of Cooke's music, and provides context and details about that music that had never been revealed prior to the release of the book.
If you want to find out what Sam Cooke's innermost thoughts and feelings were, you are going to be disappointed, because as the book makes pains to reveal, Cooke had demons that he never fully revealed to even his closest friends or family. Everyone of interest that was ever associated with Cooke was interviewed in a thorough fashion by Guralnick (who, by the way, also interviewed Cooke himself prior to his death), and if none of them could crack Cooke's complex nature, you can hardly expect Guralnick to do so either.
My one minor quarrel with the book is that Guralnick, after going to tremendous lengths to introduce us to Cooke inner-circle figures like Bobby Womack, J.W. Alexander, and Allen Klein, doesn't quite tie up all the loose ends associated with these people that followed Cooke's demise. For instance, I thought Guralnick could have told us that Womack went on to achieve significant solo success, or that he divorced Cooke's ex-wife in 1970, that Alexander passed away in 1996, etc. But these are just tangential facts. The facts that most readers should want, aka the ones involving Sam Cooke, are all here.
Recommended.
Book Review: ALL HAIL THE KING OF SOUL !!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
IT'S ABOUT TIME SAM COOKE BEGAN GETTING HIS DUE RECOGNITION. HE IS TRULY THE KING OF SOUL! IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, YOU WILL AFTER YOU READ THIS BOOK. IT'S GOT EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN A GOOD BOOK. DRAMA,LOVE,VIOLENCE AND EVEN HIS TRIUMPHANT RAGS TO RICHES STORY. PETER GURALNICK DID A WONDERFUL BOOK ON THE KING OF ROCK AND ROLL,ELVIS AND RETURNED WITH THIS BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN DREAM BOOGIE. TRUST ME,YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED! NOW IF WE COULD GET WILL SMITH TO PLAY SAM IN THE MOVIE WE'LL CALL IT A DAY!