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Dream Boogie
The Triumph Of Sam Cooke
by Peter Guralnick
The biographer (who has written previously about Elvis) profiles singer Sam Cooke (1931–1964), best known for pop hits such as "You Send Me."
Little, Brown, 768 pages
10/18/2005
$27.95
ISBN: 0316377945
Nonfiction
Biographies & Memoirs
Entertainment & Media
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
The New Yorker
Guralnick, as in his biography of Elvis Presley, displays a feel for the culture that gave rise to the musician, and his account is a revelatory portrait of the rough-and-tumble yet familial world of black show business before and during the civil-rights era. [14 Nov 2005, p.95]
Booklist Gordon Flagg
An expert biographer, Guralnick shines at assessing Cooke's music, particularly the incessant live performances that took him from the chitlin' circuit to the Copa. [1 Sept 2005, p.38]
Publishers Weekly
Guralnick's revelation of the complicated man behind the music ultimately enables readers to rediscover songs like "A Change Is Gonna Come" as even more remarkable than before. [25 July 2005, p.57]
Kirkus Reviews
The writing is as relaxed, graceful and affecting as a superior Cooke performance. It's another unsurpassable work by one of music's most knowledgeable and sensitive chroniclers... To use a gospel-music term for a hot gig, Guralnick turns the house out. [15 July 2005, p.776]
Boston Globe James Parker
Patiently and faithfully, Dream Boogie gives us everything that can be known about him.
Houston Chronicle John Freeman
Dream Boogie succeeds thanks to Guralnick's magnificent storytelling powers. Like his subject, Guralnick knows we're all suckers for a dream, and he pitches Cooke to readers as an all-American kid with a gleam in his eye.
San Francisco Chronicle Joel Selvin
In his monumental, panoramic 700-plus-page biography, best-selling pop music historian Peter Guralnick etches a richly detailed portrait of Cooke as a driven, proud and independent spirit who flourished in a white man's world on his own terms but was ultimately undone by his own dark drives.
The Nation Robert Christgau
As monumental as Dream Boogie is, it could have been more monumental still.
The New York Times Book Review John Leland
Guralnick earns every one of his 750 pages, but in the way Peyton Manning earns his $98 million - no one could give you more, but you might have other demands on your time or money. Me, I like the full monty, but I'm geeky that way.
New York Review Of Books Arthur Kempton
Barbara Cooke's voice stands out among the others in Peter Gural-nick's book the way her husband's had amid the aural clutter of Top 40 radio. It bespeaks an old pain. Gu-ralnick is not Sam Cooke's first bi-ographer but his book is enlivened by being the first to have her as source material.
Salon Charles Taylor
While Guralnick the meticulous researcher and compassionate interviewer is present, the part of him that synthesizes and brings a critic's eye to the story is absent here.
Entertainment Weekly Tom Sinclair
Despite the fascinating parallel tale Guralnick relates about how the commingling of religious and secular music helped spawn rock & roll, Dream Boogie feels overstuffed — like a five-CD boxed set by an artist with just one great album to his credit.
Village Voice Keith Harris
But Guralnick's technique, which works for biography, falters when it comes to artistic appreciation.
The Guardian Mike Marqusee
The scale of research is dauntingly impressive, but the narrative is often overwhelmed by the minutiae of recording sessions and financial negotiations. Though clearly a labour of love, the book lacks the personal engagement and social sweep of the author's "Sweet Soul Music" and his works on Presley.
Daily Telegraph Tim Willis
And it's true that his account of Cooke's last day is not only gripping, but lends to his subject a sort of tragic dignity. However, that's poor compensation for the slog to get there. Alas, even Guralnik nods.
The Globe And Mail [Toronto] Andre Alexis
It is a biography that tells one more, perhaps, than one needs to know about Cooke and, in so doing, makes Cooke's life seem a little monotonous and dull.
Library Journal Lloyd Jansen
[Guralnick] is stubbornly coy about Cooke's importance; a frustrating lack of context leaves readers without a way to measure the singer's accomplishments against those of his peers. [1 Aug 2005, p.88]
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