Publisher Description
When he died suddenly at the age of twenty-six, Otis Redding (1941-1967) had already become the conscience of a new kind of music. Sure, Berry Gordy might have built the first black-owned music empire at Motown, but Redding was doing something as historic: mainstreaming black music within the whitest bastions of the post-Confederate south. As a result, the Redding story still largely untold is one of great conquest but, sadly, grand tragedy.
Now, in this transformative work, Mark Ribowsky contextualizes Redding's life within the larger cultural movements of his era, whisking us from the sinful clubs of Macon to the trendsetting studios in Memphis and, finally, to the pulsating stage of the Monterey Music Festival where, in a single set, Redding immortalized himself as soul legend. What emerges in Dreams To Remember is not only a triumph of music history but also a reclamation of a visionary who would come to define an entire era.
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“Evokes the fire of Redding…Ribowsky tells the story with nonstop energy, while always probing for the larger social and musical pictures…[His] insightfulness and storytelling gift trump all. Helped by revealing quotations from musicians, he recalls a time of interactive music-making that seems worlds removed from today’s computer-assembled, auto-tuned pop.”
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New York Times Book Review
About Mark Ribowsky
Mark Ribowsky is the acclaimed author of more than thirty books on music, sports, and pop culture, his definitive biographies including those of Phil Spector, the Supremes, the Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, Hank Williams, and Little Richard. His biography of Otis Redding was a finalist for the prestigious Marfield Prize. Some of his sports subjects include Al Davis, Satchel Paige, Howard Cosell, Tom Landry, Don Shula, the football Manning family, and a complete history of the Negro baseball leagues. He co-authored Dale Berra’s My Dad, Yogi. He has also written major articles for Playboy, Penthouse, and Sport and has appeared on Dateline NBC, Primetime Live, The Tavis Smiley Show, and numerous radio and Internet programs and documentaries.
About Dan John Miller
Dan John Miller is an American actor and musician. In the Oscar-winning Walk the Line, he starred as Johnny Cash’s guitarist and best friend, Luther Perkins, and has also appeared in George Clooney’s Leatherheads and My One and Only, with Renée Zellweger. An award-winning audiobook narrator, he has garnered multiple Audie Award nominations, has twice been named a Best Voice by AudioFile magazine, and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards and a Listen-Up Award from Publishers Weekly.