Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke

It was well written,great depth requiring much research.In my early years I lived just a few miles from all this music and singing.Unable to enjoy it because of racism and hate.America continues to learn from past mistakes.Sam Cooke,s song"A Change is Gonna Come is appropriate for Trum,s America.

At our 1990 wedding reception, my wife and I had our first dance to "For Sentimental Reasons"....
Very good book, with good background to the black music business of the 1950's - 1960's and a good oblique look at the need for the civil rights movement (also have a good treatment of that in Caro's LBJ biographies, believe it or not).
But there are so many questions left concerning his murder. He had frequented the hacienda with the Upsetters in the past; should his murderer, Bertha Franklin, have known him? Researching through the internet, it appears she had shot other male customers previously, including only six months before. What exactly was her background? She probably did tolerate or profit from prostitution at that seedy hotel. One cannot take at face value the testimony of the whore Elisa Boyer (is she still alive and in prison for the murder of a boyfriend in the late 1970's??), Franklin, or the motel owner who was reportedly on the phone with Franklin at 2:30 am when this all went down. (How often did the motel owner phone the night manager in the middle of the night? Was that strange behavior for them or not?) Why didn't Bertha Franklin go for her gun when Sam Cooke was reportedly trying to bash his way in her door instead of waiting until afterwards, after he had searched the manager's apartment and was reportedly in a violent struggle with her? Did she really changer her story four times as reported in other sources? Was Sam getting ready to fire Allen Klein, his manager who gets a squeaky clean portrayal in Guralnick's book despite apparently a sharkline reputation and massive profiteering off Sam's death?
His murder would make for a fascinating book in and of itself. The one thing that is clear is that the official version isn't what happened.

This is a deeply disappointing and punishing read.

Rule number one for every biographer: don’t fall in love with your subject. For all the critical acclaim that Guralnick has received over the years (and I loved Last Train to Memphis and Lost Highways), this is ultimately just the book of a fanboy. Consider only one example of the dreadful hyperbole and purple prose that follows from this: “Through his music, he declares, he will continue to be with them - it’s as close to eternity, in their unvoiced understanding, as any of them are ever likely to come.”

Rule number two for every biographer: don’t fall in love with your sources. Guralnick does just this with the most unpromising and unreliable of people around Cooke, including, of all people, Allen Klein, L.C. Cook, and in particular, Barbara Cooke (more on her to follow below). For a very different view of Klein and Ms. Cooke, the interested reader may wish to turn to Our Uncle Sam: the Sam Cooke Story from his Family’s Perspective. It’s a deeply flawed book, but offers a counterweight to Guralnick’s frequently one-sided perspective.

Why do I call this a punishing read? Because it offers up a seemingly endless parade of bad behavior by folks who make Trump and his circle look like members of the Vienna Boys Choir. Shootings, knifings, brutal violence (domestic and otherwise), drugs, alcohol, misogyny, pimps, prostitutes, betrayals, paternity suits, lawsuits of every other kind, baseless conspiracy theories - it just goes on and on.

In a remarkable instance of authorial understatement, Guralnick tells us that the people who engaged in these behaviors simply chose to disregard “civics class-style virtue.” He himself views it all as part of “a world that celebrated life in all its variegated glory.” But this reader can’t help but wonder whether just the smallest degree of interest in civics - defined as the study of the rights and duties of citizenship - might have been to everyone’s benefit. Certainly the human toll exacted by the behaviors he describes is staggering.

Which brings us back to Barbara Cooke. Guralnick tells us that she “didn’t have the patience” to learn a trade like her sister, Ella, who was a nurse, or her twin, Beverly, who worked as a bookkeeper.” Instead, she chooses to live as a kept woman with a dog’s breakfast of unsavory men before landing the ultimate prize - marriage to Cooke. An 18-month-old son drowns because she leaves him in the care of a daughter not yet three by an open pool. Immediately after Cooke’s funeral, Bobby Womack comes by the house to find her entertaining her boyfriend, who was wearing Cooke’s watch, ring, and robe. She then seduces the 20 year old Womack and marries him shortly thereafter. (As for Cooke’s brother L.C. - one week after the funeral he announces that he is preparing to follow in the shoes of his brother and launch a tour.). Unreported by Guralnick, Barbara and Womack are later divorced because she discovers him in bed with her 17 year old daughter. Their son commits suicide at 21.

This is the woman to whom Guralnick gives the last word in an unbelievably mawkish paragraph of purple prose - about her timeless and undying love for Cooke.

Celebrate this? I think not.

A very well written book about a talented man. This book is very well researched and answers any questions one may have about this legendary man. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.

Very good it dug deep into his life very informative well written

Best author of rock and roll history!

A biography that is as intriguing as his music.

Guralnick's penchant for intricate detail makes for a long but thoroughly enjoyable read.

Sam Cool was a big part of my youth. He was so smooth. That voice said so much. Sad he got involved with such low lives and paid with his life. I love getting into his life and knowing the real story. A very good book.

i brought this book in last year just to starting to read it i like the pictures and some of the stories are interesting to read when u are boring so that why i give it 4 stars i wasn't as exciting to read the book after i got it until now