Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.16 (826 Votes) |
| Asin | : | B00GL9T3QQ |
| Format Type | : | |
| Number of Pages | : | 490 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-04-16 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Berns, afflicted with a heart condition since childhood, felt himself doomed and incorporated signature wails of despair into his songs, typically “Cry Baby.” As Selvin makes clear, the independent R&B and rock-music business then was sleazy, gangster-ridden, and, like Berns’ life, short in duration. The supporting cast includes the best musicians and songwriters of the period, particularly songwriters Leiber and Stoller, Atlantic Records’ Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler, and performers Ray Charles and Solomon Burke. --Mark Levine . Sometimes the book reads like an annotated list of recordings and erratically named performers, but if you grew up with the songs, you’ll leave the book happily singing to yourself, though also saddened (this being the blues). From Booklist Veteran music journalist
His heart damaged by rheumatic fever as a youth, doctors told Berns he would not live to see twenty-one. I don’t know where he’s buried, but if I did I’d piss on his grave.” Jerry Wexler, best friend and mentorHere Comes the Night: Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues is both a definitive account of the New York rhythm and blues world of the early 60s, and the harrowing, ultimately tragic story of songwriter and record producer Bert Berns, whose meteoric career was fueled by his pending doom. Although his name is little remembered t
A. G. Krakow said Fascinating Book, Rich With Detail, Texture and Some Great Anecdotes. Like Jon Tiven, I've been waiting for this book for years. THANK YOU JOEL FOR FINALLY GETTING IT TO ALL OF US! First of all, it's incredibly well-written. And because of that, I lost only one day of work staying up way past my bedtime, because this really is a book you cannot put down. The book weaves the story of Berns, and the . A more fully realized portrait of a character usually considered a villain. Most histories of the Brill Building era treat Bert Berns with hissing contempt, but Joel Selvin's fast-paced overview of Berns and his milieu shows you the complex man beneath the bad toupee. Selvin doesn't whitewash Berns' tendency to screw-over his artists, or his mob connections and willingness to use them, but he gives due t. Selvin obviously didn't interview Neil Diamond The striking cobra I would normally give this excellent book 5 stars. Mr. Selvin has used the Bert Berns story to weave a magnificent book about the history of rhythm and blues and the record business in New York. I'm only able to give it 4 stars because of the unfair treatment of Neil Diamond. It is obvious that Mr. Selvin did not interview Mr. Di