Higher Ground: Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Curtis Mayfield, and the Rise and Fall of American Soul

This book doesn't fit neatly into any genre boxes. It's not a dedicated biography. It's not a musical history. It's not really cultural theory. It's a fusion between a joint biography of Wonder, Franklin, and Mayfield with a connection to the cultural history that fuels their work. I learned some things along the way, but I found this book to fall short of other recent reads in popular music such as "I Never Loved a Man" focusing on Aretha Franklin's first album and "Shout: The Beatles and Their Generation". This book is very ambitious. It covers the lives of three subjects and 40 years of social history in about 290 pages. Consequently, it's more a series of events that support the author's central ideal: black music is most vital when it speaks in a gospel voice to community themes. The work on Mayfield is very helpful and was most beneficial to me. Mayfield has traditionally been underrated. This book skillfully connects Mayfield to Cabrini-Green and traditions of black entrepreneurship. Mayfield sacrificed some of the chart success of Motown to remain independent and this book provides some quality interview excerpts from Mayfield and gives key highlights from his career. Let's hope there's a Black Studies student out there who will read this and be led to give Mayfield the full scale critical biography he deserves. It's hard to do justice to Stevie in the space allowed. Werner is a big believer that Songs in the Key of Life is the peak of Stevie's powers. I'd like more support for this viewpoint with closer reading of Stevie's lyrics. Werner's a big fan of Conversation Peace for recent Stevie and dismisses Jungle Fever. I gained some key episodes on Stevie's life, though, and having just read about the Beatles, I gained a great deal from Werner's discussion about how Stevie gained artistic strength from rock music and artists like Jeff Beck. Aretha resists analysis because she has not been as an open an interview subject as Stevie and Mayfield. Still, this book does communicate how powerful a symbol of womanist advocacy Aretha has become and how she has struggled to be true to her gospel roots while succeeding in a pop environment that often opposes those roots. This book is not as thorough a history as other things that I've read, but it does offer one man's interpretation of some key figures and, especially in the case of Curtis Mayfield, bring attention to some underrated work. I recommend this for those deeply interested in these artists and those exploring a range of options for revitalizing soul music. 4 stars ---SD

I bought this book because LA Times writer Ann Powers referenced it in her article on Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and the movie Dreamgirls. I can see why Ann thought so highly of this work. Craig Werner has written the most insightful and the deepest book we are ever likely to get concerning the simultaneous influence of soul greats Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Curtis Mayfield. This book is the bomb! As a lifelong Aretha-file, I was astonished by the author's multi-dimensional portrait of Aretha and her musical journey. There is more information here about Aretha than I have ever found anywhere---including in Aretha's very disappointing autobiography. The portraits of musical genuises Stevie Wonder and Curtis Mayfield are as deep and as indelible as the one of Aretha. These three artists very simply changed the face of American music. Not just soul music, but American music. We can see---sometimes in frightening ways---the influence of these great musical sensations on American Idol every year. Not that any singer/songwriters of the last 20 years can touch these geniuses. God Bless Aretha, Steve and Curtis! And God speed Craig Werner on to his next great book!

Werner, whose masterpiece, A CHANGE IS GONNA COME: RACE, MUSIC AND THE SOUL OF AMERICA, is widely considered a classic, strikes again with an equally profound book that is an even better read. The narrative speedskates on three fascinating and nicely braided portraits of artists who reshaped American music in the image of the best black dreams of freedom. Not only do we get three great life stories; we also get a complex cultural history of how the black freedom movement transformed American culture, infusing the "gospel vision" into all manner of music. And on top of that, Werner has written a fine short history of the movement "up South" in Detroit and Chicago, two urban crucibles that reveal, in distinct ways, the tragedy of America's failure to respond to the African American call for R-e-s-p-e-c-t and to the call of its own best inner visions. This book sings like Aretha.