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The Literature File -
Richard Younger
A Shot Of Rhythm and Blues - The Arthur Alexander Story
Alexander is a long time favourite of the Primer and as far as I can tell this is the first attempt to analyse at length the life and work of a complex and incredibly talented individual.
Younger illustrates the highs, lows and inconsistencies of the man and his music and, in telling the story of this great country-soul writer and performer, he also provides the reader with the wider context; the detail of the Muscle Shoals music scene is unsurpassed, Alexander's music is well placed in the social and cultural history of the American South and, most of all, we get to read about (if not always understand) the nature and complexity of the man himself.
This is a book that tells us a great deal about who Alexander was and where his wonderful music came from; we should all be grateful for that alone. That Younger also manages to set the whole sad but still strangely uplifting story into the wider context is clearly a bonus - it is for these reasons that this is the one book about a specific R&B; artist (as opposed to those about the genre itself) that the Primer would recommend as essential reading to those with even a passing interest in the life of a truly great and undervalued talent and its social and cultural context. (A fuller review can be found here)
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