The Rough Guide to Soul 100 Essential CDs

I may not be an expert, but I do know that "soul" represents a fusion of R & B with gospel. Moreover, since its inception in the late 50's and early 60's, soul has developed side-by-side with R & B, with a number of artists straddling the thin divide between them, and additional cross-pollination in the meantime. Soul in turn begat funk, which then immediately began interacting with the other genres as well. Given all of this, it is to be expected that a volume listing 100 "essential" soul recordings will include R & B and gospel antecedents, R & B and funk artists who also perform soul, and all sorts of hybrids for which simple categorization is not possible. But one wonders how this can justify the inclusion of pure disco/funk acts like Cameo or The Gap Band, much less Donna Summer, who is described in this very book as having a voice lacking even a hint of the church in it. Everyone, of course, will have their disagreements with a given list of 100 "essential" recordings. Other reviewers here have complained about a perceived over-reliance on "Greatest Hits" packages; in my view, a guide like this can serve the valuable function, at least for some artists, of pointing out which of the often many such packages available really provides the best overview. And it should go without saying that - especially given the time and the singles-dominated genre from which most of these recordings originate - the typical soul LP is loaded with largely worthless filler, making "Greatest Hits" releases even more desirable. Regardless, this book is a pocket-sized reference, of sorts, containing brief two-page listings for 100 CDs the writer proposes as "essential" for a good collection of "soul" music. Each listing introduces the performer, provides a very brief biographical and/or career overview, occasionally includes additional information for the specific recording, and finally summarizes the key tracks on each. As such, read cover-to-cover the book can serve as a quick-and-dirty primer to the recorded history of soul music (although with a few inevitable gaps). It can serve to provide interesting new suggestions for your own collection - for my part, James Carr, Ann Peebles and The Jimmy Castor Bunch were all new to me, but definitely worth the effort to find subsequent to reading this book. James Carr, in particular, is a real discovery - imagine encountering an artist with the depth and style of Otis Redding all over again. It is also possible to read this book and come away with a new appreciation for artists you may have never listened that closely to before - for example, Chic, which in my mind was just another throwaway disco act before I read this. I may still not be quite as enthusiastic about them as the author is here, but at least I'm paying a bit more attention. It should also be noted that there are more like 200 CDs mentioned in here, since at the end of each entry an alternate selection is mentioned for each artist, albeit wi

The reviews have been rather harsh of Peter Shapiro's Rough Guide to Soul. It is a good introduction to soul. Shapiro is well-informed about the music. I found interesting information about the Meters, Ann Peebles and James Carr some of the unsung heroes of soul. The main criticism of the book is that it includes lots of greatest hits selections. I think this really isn't fair because in the 50s and 60s soul artists concentrated on hit singles not albums. Shapiro is right to focus on the Greatest Hits as the best works. Remember it is just an introduction and if you really like the music you can start investigating the back catalogue. Shapiro's book is a good starting point to investigate the wonderful world of soul.