The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.61 (632 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0805072500 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 320 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-08-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Seventeen years after his death, this gay icon gets the celebratory biography he deserves. All rights reserved. Gamson's pulsating use of song lyrics, sounds and descriptions also creates a tangible history of San Francisco as it changed from a joyous oasis of liberation to the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. through his successful music career, to his death from AIDS in 1988 at 41. The richness of this material (Sylvester's background singers Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes Armstead, who later became the Weather Girls, are particularly amusing and insightful raconteurs) reveals all the shadings of Sylvester's diva persona: he was fierce but generous, caustic but caring, temperamental but talented. Photos. From Publishers Weekly In the worl
Fantastic Book!--Would Make A Great Movie!! HE WHO FUNKS BEHIND THE ROWS!! I enjoyed this book so much that I read it twice,then a year later, read it again!!---FANTASTIC!!It captures the times, the people, places and things thatmade Sylvester, San Francisco, that music and that erasuch a golden & magical time!I love the stories of the young Sylvester growing up inSouth Central L.A. in the 50's and 60's, FLAMING THE CHILDREN!!Giving them fabulousness and outrageousness at every turn,from his soul-stirring falsetto rendition of the black gospelclassic "Never Grow Old", to the rawkus "DISQUOTAY. Mighty, mighty real Magic happens where reality and fantasy overlap. It's a space that dance music star Sylvester effortlessly occupied during the outrageous and flamboyant club scene of the mid-70s to early 80s, when those lines were happily blurred on a nightly basis.Gamson does an excellent job of showing Sylvester's `six-degrees of separation' influence - he worked with emerging stars like Bette Midler, Patti LaBelle, The Weather Girls ("It's Raining Men"), American Idol judge Randy Jackson and Patrick Cowley (Megatone Records).By foc. One of the great Disco, stars Rosalind Ross I am pleased to once again take this opportunity too tell the world, how wonderful Sylvester was. We attended the same church, in Oakland California and I met and spoke with him on more than one occasion, I own all of his music and a few pictures of him and Me together. I always thought he was a grand diva; he was before Rupaul, and Sylvester laid the foundation, very talented, brave, with lots of courage. The Fabulous Sylvester, The legend, The music, is a great read and lets the reader in on many unknown secrets abou
And everyone, finally, was welcome-to come as themselves. This is not a fairy tale. This was real, mighty real, and disco sensation Sylvester was the piper. Joshua Gamson-a Yale-trained pop culture expert-uses him, a boy who would be fabulous, to lead us through the story of the '70s when a new era of change liberated us from conformity and boredom. Gamson captures the exuberant life, feeling, energy, and fun of a generation's wonderful, magical waking up-from the parties to the dancing and music.The story begins with a little black boy who started with nothing but a really big voice. We follow him from the Gospel chorus to the glory days in the Castro where a generation shook off its shame as Sylvester sang and began his rise as part of a now-notorious theatrical troup called the Cockettes. A journey back through the music, madness, and unparalleled freedom of an era of change-the '70s-as told through the life of ultra-fabulous superstar Sylvester Imagine a pied piper singing in a dazzling falsetto, wearing glittering sequins, and leading the young people of the nation to San Francisco and on to liberation where nothing was straight-laced or old-fashioned. Celebrity, sociology, and music history mingle and merge around this endlessly entertaining story of a singer who embodied the freedom, spirit, and flamboyance of a golden moment in American