People Get Ready! A New History of Black Gospel Music | 
 enlarge | Author: Bob Darden
Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
Category: Book
Buy New: $24.99
New (3) Used (10) from $18.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  13 reviews
Sales Rank: 1080288
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 440
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0826414362
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.25409
EAN: 9780826414366
ASIN: 0826414362
Publication Date: October 30, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Unmarked and unread.
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Product Description
People Get Ready!: A New History of Gospel Music is a passionate, celebratory, and carefully researched chronology of one of America's greatest treasures. From Africa through the spirituals, from minstrel music through jubilee, and from traditional to contemporary gospel, People Get Ready! shows the links between styles, social patterns, and artists. The emphasis is on the stories behind the songs and musicians: the stories that helped to create the incomparable art form. From the nameless slaves of Colonial America to Donnie McClurkin, Yolanda Adams and Kirk Franklin, People Get Ready! provides, for the first time, an accessible overview of this musical genre. In addition to the more familiar stories of Thomas A. Dorsey and Mahalia Jackson, the book offers intriguing new insights into the often forgotten era between the Civil War and the rise of jubilee - that most intriguing blend of minstrel music, barbershop harmonies, and the spiritual. Also chronicled are the connections between some of gospel's precursors (Blind Willie Johnson, Arizona Dranes and Sister Rosetta Tharpe) and modern gospel stars, including Andrae Crouch and Clare Ward. Robert Darden knits together a number of narratives, and combines history, musicology and spirituality into a coherent whole, stitched together by the stories of dozens of famous and forgotten musical geniuses.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 8 more reviews...
 Infectious in its love for the music and its sociocultural context June 3, 2008
This book was my entree into the study of African-American music. I loved it when I first read it, carried along by Darden's obvious love of the subject, though I was not able to vouch for the level of his scholarship. Now, 8 months later, having read Cone, Samuel Floyd, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Christopher Small, Raboteau, Eileen Southern, Dana Epstein, Higginson, Elijah Wald and others, and then returning to this book, I find that Darden has indeed done his homework and synthesized a great deal of scholarship. I do agree that Darden is at his best up through the so-called "Golden Age of Gospel", and that the last chapters do not exude the same passion as one finds in Anthony Heilbut's work. Still, if one takes "Gospel music" to encompass slave songs, ring shouts, Jubilee songs as well as Tindley, Dorsey, Martin, Rosetta Tharpe, Mahalia and James Cleveland, then this book should be of interest. Darden's passion for the music is infectious.
 Spirit Feel October 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Check out "The Gospel Sound" by Tony Heilbut. In my opinion, this is the definitive work on black Gospel Music. The author is intimately familiar with the subject and the artists. His love and respect is deep and the writing sings right off the pages. It's a beautiful book, one of the best at capturing the soul of original American Music.
Gospel Godsend March 20, 2006
0 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book belongs in the library of any serious historical scholar, music aficionado or anyone else who appreciates a historical romp through the world of Gospel music as told by a man who loves this music with all his heart and soul. A fascinating read.
People Get Ready for this book! November 27, 2005
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
"To truly understand American music, you must first attempt to understand the spirituals and gospel music," says former gospel music editor of Billboard magazine and author Robert Darden. "And it begins where it all began-Africa, a thousand years ago."
Darden, an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Baylor University has done his homework.* His research is extensive. People Get Ready! is informative and cites multiple sources.
"The aim of African music has always been to translate the experiences of life
and of the spiritual worlds into sound, enhancing and celebrating life."
Samuel Floyd
"Praise songs, songs of insult, boasting songs, litigation songs, mourning songs,
topical songs, story songs, love songs, heroic songs and religious songs, and the
repertoire of drum language constitute an important part of literature of African
peoples created, developed, maintained and transmitted through music."
J.H.Nketia, "The Musical Languages of Subsaharan Africa."
Work songs, also known as hollers, cries or whoops, contained rhythmic quality making work seem easier, be it rowing, picking cotton, or laying railroad ties. Many were performed as the "call and response".
Then there were the `spirituals' and plantation hymns with the master's whip keeping
time...
Eventually, America became fascinated with African-American music, which spread
because of the exodus of blacks from the deep South to Chicago.
From the spirituals came ragtime, followed by the blues, then jazz.
Some time during the migration, jubilee music, using quartets sang spirituals in
harmonized verse chorus arrangements.
Later, gospel music with its improvisation of individual expression evolved just as
spirituals did, by visions, trouble, sorrow, thanksgiving, and joy .
Darden includes a chapter dedicated to the Fathers of Gospel music, William H.
Sherwood, Charles A. Tindley, and the man behind the melding of blues to religious
hymns, Thomas A. Dorsey.
In another chapter, he tells of three black divas that helped transform American popular
music, as well as gospel, Rosetta Tharpe, Clara Ward, and the high priestess, Mahalia
Jackson.
The soul music of the 1960's produced artists that had their roots in gospel before
moving into the secular realm, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Lou Rawls, and Wilson
Picket.
The spiritual, biblical message proclaimed today is deemed `contemporary' gospel music.
Kirk Franklin summed it up, "We just let the music take us wherever the Spirit led us
and wherever the music wanted to go."
Robert Darden closes with, "In the beginning was the WORD...
And THE WORD got the funky beat, it became GOSPEL
*For his book, People Get Ready: A New History of Black Gospel Music, the ARSC
(Association for Recorded Sound Collections) 2005 Awards for Excellence in
Historical Records Sound Research awarded Mr. Darden "Best Research in Recorded
Rhythm and Blues, Soul, or Gospel Music."
The award is given to authors and publishers of books, articles, liner notes, and
monographs, in recognition for outstanding published research in the field of recorded
sound and encourages high standards to promote awareness of superior works.
Gospel Desegregation June 9, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
People Get Ready! is an excellent read for anyone interested in the history of Christian music in the U.S. Darden takes time to explore how primary sources support or refute several competing theories about who influenced whom in the evolution of gospel music. He does a fascinating analysis of how frontier revivals and clandestine religious services held by slaves contributed to the integration of English lyrics with African music. He humbly approaches music history with passion for his subject, respect for his sources, and documented gratitude for the many archivists and researchers in Africa and North America who have laid the groundwork for this fascinating book. Darden shows that gospel music is the bridge linking the histories of Africa and North America.
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