House On Fire

Product Description

If You Dont Know Me By Now " " The Love I Lost " " The Soul Train Theme " " Then Came You " " Aint No Stoppin Us Now"--the distinctive music that became known as Philly Soul dominated the pop music charts in the 1970s. In A House on Fire John A. Jackson takes us inside the musical empire created by Kenny Gamble Leon Huff & Thom Bell the three men who put Philadelphia Soul on the map. Here is the eye-opening story of three of the most influential & successful music producers of the seventies. Jackson shows how Gamble Huff & Bell developed a black recording empire second only to Berry Gordys Motown pumping out a string of chart-toppers from Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes the Spinners the OJays the Stylistics & many others. The author underscores the endemic racism of the music business at that time revealing how the three men were blocked from the major record companies & outlets in Philadelphia because they were black forcing them to create their own label sign their own artists & create their own sound. The sound they created--a sophisticated & glossy form of rhythm & blues characterized by crisp melodious harmonies backed by lush string-laden orchestration & a hard-driving rhythm section--was a glorious success producing at least twenty-eight gold or platinum albums & thirty-one gold or platinum singles. But after their meteoric rise & years of unstoppable success their production company finally failed brought down by payola competition a tough economy & changing popular tastes. Funky groovy soulful--Philly Soul was the classic seventies sound. A House on Fire tells the inside story of this remarkable musical phenomenon."