Gerri Hershey - Nowhere To Run

"Soul to me is a feeling, a lot of depth and being able to bring to the surface that which is happening inside, to make the picture clear. The song doesn't matter....it's just the emotion, the way it affects other people"

This quote from Aretha Franklin is one of many gems from Hershey's book, one of the finest books about soul music and a perfect complement to Guralnick's "Sweet Soul Music". She largely tells the story of soul through the anecdotes of the people who were there - the approach adds authenticity to the proceedings and the raconteurs are as varied as the music they produced; James Brown, Aretha, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, The Temptations, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross are all here to tell us the southern soul tale and provide the 'northern cities' portraits.

There is no single voice which represents soul music and there is no one voice which alone can tell its story. This is the only book on soul I have read in which the leading participants are given such free reign to recount their own histories - but it is a better book than most because of the quality of Hershey's own writing, her narrative style perfectly fitting the subject matter; it is also a richly detailed book and certainly does not sacrifice substance for style. Leading artists become leading historians of the period and this makes the book a fascinating read. It is extremely well structured throughout, informative but above all entertaining - no-one who is remotely interested in soul music is likely to be able to put it down.

You might not be able to get hold of this book at the moment - in which case a visit to the library is essential!