Dreams to Remember, Mark Ribowsky
Dreams to Remember, Mark Ribowsky
List: $29.99 | Sale: $21.00
Club: $14.99

Dreams to Remember
Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul

Author: Mark Ribowsky

Narrator: Dan John Miller

Unabridged: 10 hr 46 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/01/2015

Categories: Nonfiction, Music


Synopsis

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.

About Mark Ribowsky

Mark Ribowsky has authored over thirty-five acclaimed books about some of the most significant figures in popular culture, including Phil Spector, The Temptations, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, Lynyrd Skynyrd, James Taylor, Hank Williams, Little Richard, Isaac Hayes, Satchel Paige, Howard Cosell, Tom Landry, and Don Shula. His writing has appeared in Rolling Stone, Playboy, People, and High Times. He lives in Boca Raton, Florida.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cold Cream 'n' Roses on January 29, 2016

I found Dreams to Remember repetitive. Despite the subtitle Otis Redding, Stax Records, and the Transformation of Southern Soul, this book is not really about Stax Records. If you want to read the story of Stax Records, read Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. Dreams to Remember......more

Goodreads review by Chris on April 29, 2022

While not quite as masterful as the most thorough of biographies (Ribowsky is careful to neither ire nor unduly adulate the prickly Redding estate, which necessitates a certain level of carefulness in how he writes about the musician which also means it can never be really authoritative), it’s a ste......more

Goodreads review by Dan on September 03, 2015

I received this book as a Goodreads Giveaway. Mark Ribowsky gives a solid and detailed story of Otis Redding's short but talent-ladened life. He does an especially good job of giving the reader the good and the bad of Otis Redding's life and career. However, Mr. Ribowsky states throughout the book t......more

Goodreads review by Rick on June 30, 2015

I am very happy that Ribowsky has written a book about Otis Redding, a favorite singer of mine. My college roommate was into R&B, so he wanted to go to an Otis Redding concert spring 1967 in Baltimore. Three white guys and an Asian were a peculiar-looking group there, but it was memorable! Ribowsky'......more

Goodreads review by Dkolacinski on September 16, 2015

Where was I on December 10, 1967? What part of me died? What part of me still clings to the dreams I remember? That was another time. That was another day. I used to believe that Otis Redding was the reincarnation of Buddy Holly. Otis sang sad songs happy; Buddy, happy songs sad. (OK, ignore physica......more