Four tablespoons of boiling Memphis guitars
Soul Unsung - Reflections on the Band in Black Popular Music - Kevin Le Gendre
Kevin Le Gendre [+ ]
Journalist and Broadcaster
Kevin Le Gendre is a journalist and broadcaster with a special interest in black music, literature and culture. Since the 1990s he has written about soul, funk, jazz and hip-hop, as well as African and Caribbean authors, for many publications including Echoes, Jazzwise, The Independent On Sunday, Qwest TV (France) and Times Literary Supplement Online. He contributes to BBC Radio 4’s Front Row and also presents Radio 3’s J To Z. He is the author of Don’t Stop The Carnival: Black Music in Britain Vol.1 (Peepal Tree Press, 2018) and Soul Unsung: Reflections on the Band in Black Popular Music (Equinox Publishing, 2012).
Description
This chapter examines the guitar's role in soul which, over time, became more ambiguous, compared with its status in related forms of music (such as rock and heavy metal) which made a macho cult out of the guitar during the 1960s to 1980s.