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The Gospel Sound: Good News and Bad Times
This book relays the complete history of gospel music, paying special attention to the relationship between gospel and other African American musical forms in America such as jazz and R&B. It discusses specific gospel music singers as well as the world of the gospel church itself. Includes black-and-white photos.
404 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Anthony Heilbut
11 books7 followersAnthony Heilbut received his Ph.D. in English from Harvard University. He has taught at New York University and Hunter College and is the author of Exiled in Paradise, The Gospel Sound, and Thomas Mann: Eros and Literature. Heilbut is also a record producer specializing in gospel music and has won both a Grammy Award and a Grand Prix du Disque.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 9, 2020
The copy I have is the orginal 1971 edition. It helped to introduce me to the world of black gospel music - I'd heard some of the music before, but this book gave me some background and led me to other recordings. It was a godsend for me. When I opened it up today, I found that I had placed inside the front cover a copy of the February, 1972 WLIB Gospel Record Survey, with a listings of records that WLIB djs were playing that month.
I see that there's a 25th anniversary updated edition. I don't think that I need it, as I've found my way far enough into the music to be on my own, but I'd recommend it to anyone looking to find an entryway into the world of black gosel music.
I see that there's a 25th anniversary updated edition. I don't think that I need it, as I've found my way far enough into the music to be on my own, but I'd recommend it to anyone looking to find an entryway into the world of black gosel music.
April 26, 2013
If you can find a better written, more comprehensive book about Black gospel music then please let me know. This must be the definitive book written about gospel music. Anthony Heilbut has written a classic about a genre of music that has influenced so many others but has often been overlooked. Growing up in a Pentecostal church really brought back special memories of this music and Heilbut's writing on this subject is superb. Oh, Precious Memories!
September 11, 2016
Folks have been saying it for years, but just essential. Heilbut writes with heart, insight, humor, and deep, deep knowledge of the performers and the genre. The recommended discography will COST you. And rightly.
January 31, 2025
marvelous Roberta Martin funeral for a start
January 22, 2016
Gospel has always been the root of rock and roll with which I was least familiar, a condition that reinforced itself over the years rather easily. ("Why would I listen to gospel music? I know nothing about it! Why should I read about gospel music? I'm unfamiliar with the music!")
Two things broke down my resistance in recent months. First, I listened to the religious disc of the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music on Thanksgiving, a disc that's slowly grown on me in recent years, and couldn't get some of those songs out of my head. I'd also picked up a couple old Rhino Records gospel compilations earlier in the fall (found 'em cheap) and was enjoying those, too. So I figured maybe the time was right to get educated. The enduring reputation of this book (and Anthony Heilbut's standing in the field) made it a natural first pick, its age notwithstanding.
I can't imagine a better introduction. Through profiles of more than a dozen of the most important artists of gospel's golden age, plus chapters on other relevant matters, Heilbut covers the history of the music in an engaging way that allows us to get to know these people, understand who they are and why they're important, and never feels like names-and-dates history (because it never is).
Two comparisons came to mind as I was reading. Heilbut's knowledge of and respect for the music and the artists is akin to Peter Guralnick's, and the structure of the book reminded me a lot of the latter's great early books. But Heilbut also accomplishes something Guralnick's first couple books didn't set out to do, which is using profiles to cover the history of the music. (Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music does this to some extent, although I haven't read that book in seven years and should probably avoid making any more claims about what it does or does not do, and whether it was successful in its aims.) However, the book The Gospel Sound most reminded me of wasn't one of Guralnick's at all. Instead, it was Nicholas Dawidoff's In the Country of Country, which is very similarly structured and basically does the same thing for country music that Heilbut does for gospel.
In case putting this book in the same category as the Dawidoff book and anything by Guralnick doesn't immediately come across as a wholehearted endorsement, let me say this: I really, really liked this book. I like that it's respectful, informed, enthusiastic, and critical of its subject(s). And I like that I'm eager to know more about some of these musicians, particularly Marion Williams, Dorothy Love Coates, and Bessie Griffin. (I'm also looking forward to reading Heilbut's more recent essay collection, The Fan Who Knew Too Much.)
I should also mention that my reading was immeasurably enhanced by buying and listening to a handful of the CDs Heilbut has compiled over the years, particularly The Great Gospel Men, both volumes of The Great Gospel Women, and the quartet compilation Kings of the Gospel Highway, which between them have a very generous 117 songs of mostly 1940s-1960s vintage. They're effectively sequenced, the songs seem very smartly selected, and they not surprisingly cover many of the artists profiled in the book. There are some notable exceptions -- J. Robert Bradley is mentioned only in passing in the book, and his three songs on The Great Gospel Men have haunted me for weeks, particularly "King Jesus Will Roll All Burdens Away" -- but by and large the discs and the book complement each other really well.
I can't recommend The Gospel Sound highly enough!
Two things broke down my resistance in recent months. First, I listened to the religious disc of the Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music on Thanksgiving, a disc that's slowly grown on me in recent years, and couldn't get some of those songs out of my head. I'd also picked up a couple old Rhino Records gospel compilations earlier in the fall (found 'em cheap) and was enjoying those, too. So I figured maybe the time was right to get educated. The enduring reputation of this book (and Anthony Heilbut's standing in the field) made it a natural first pick, its age notwithstanding.
I can't imagine a better introduction. Through profiles of more than a dozen of the most important artists of gospel's golden age, plus chapters on other relevant matters, Heilbut covers the history of the music in an engaging way that allows us to get to know these people, understand who they are and why they're important, and never feels like names-and-dates history (because it never is).
Two comparisons came to mind as I was reading. Heilbut's knowledge of and respect for the music and the artists is akin to Peter Guralnick's, and the structure of the book reminded me a lot of the latter's great early books. But Heilbut also accomplishes something Guralnick's first couple books didn't set out to do, which is using profiles to cover the history of the music. (Guralnick's Sweet Soul Music does this to some extent, although I haven't read that book in seven years and should probably avoid making any more claims about what it does or does not do, and whether it was successful in its aims.) However, the book The Gospel Sound most reminded me of wasn't one of Guralnick's at all. Instead, it was Nicholas Dawidoff's In the Country of Country, which is very similarly structured and basically does the same thing for country music that Heilbut does for gospel.
In case putting this book in the same category as the Dawidoff book and anything by Guralnick doesn't immediately come across as a wholehearted endorsement, let me say this: I really, really liked this book. I like that it's respectful, informed, enthusiastic, and critical of its subject(s). And I like that I'm eager to know more about some of these musicians, particularly Marion Williams, Dorothy Love Coates, and Bessie Griffin. (I'm also looking forward to reading Heilbut's more recent essay collection, The Fan Who Knew Too Much.)
I should also mention that my reading was immeasurably enhanced by buying and listening to a handful of the CDs Heilbut has compiled over the years, particularly The Great Gospel Men, both volumes of The Great Gospel Women, and the quartet compilation Kings of the Gospel Highway, which between them have a very generous 117 songs of mostly 1940s-1960s vintage. They're effectively sequenced, the songs seem very smartly selected, and they not surprisingly cover many of the artists profiled in the book. There are some notable exceptions -- J. Robert Bradley is mentioned only in passing in the book, and his three songs on The Great Gospel Men have haunted me for weeks, particularly "King Jesus Will Roll All Burdens Away" -- but by and large the discs and the book complement each other really well.
I can't recommend The Gospel Sound highly enough!
March 26, 2008
This book is for me the equivalent of a child's dog-eared, frayed, tattered, soiled, and cleared loved "binky". It is the only paperback that i have ever applied a protective scotch tape treatment to so that the covers do not become worn. I consider it a friend and keep it close. Don't really no why. I've never been a church-goer and seriously doubt the existence of the "big guy", but fell madly in love with black gospel music almost twenty years ago, and this book has been my companion ever since. Tony Heilbut obviously is passionate about his subject, and although he is clearly an intellectual thinker, he does not intellectualize the music or the people who make it, he rather brings his cognitive gifts with him to keep his enthusiasm company! A book that will inspire anyone who has ever been moved by a gospel turn of phrase, and welcome anyone interested in listening.
Ps. he also produced several gospel albums, including several by the late, great Marion Williams and several excellent gospel music anthologies.
Ps. he also produced several gospel albums, including several by the late, great Marion Williams and several excellent gospel music anthologies.
March 26, 2013
Excellent
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews