"Voices isn't just illuminating and thought-provoking and clever; it is exciting." —Roddy Doyle, author of The Commitments


A personal exploration of what singing means and how it works,
Voices is a book about our deepest, most telling relationships with music. Nick Coleman examines the act of singing not as a performance, but as a close, difficult moment of hopeful connection. What does it do to us, emotionally and psychologically, to listen hard and habitually to somebody else’s singing? Why is human song so essential to our lives? The book asks many other questions, too: Why did Jagger and Lennon sing like that (and not like this)? Billie, Janis, Amy: must the voices of anguish always dissolve into spectacle? What makes us turn again and again to a singing human voice?



The history of postwar popular music is often told sociologically or in terms of musicological influence and innovation in style.
Voices offers a different, intimate perspective. In ten discrete but cohering essays, Coleman tackles the arc of that history as an emotional experience with real psychological consequences. He writes about the voices that have affected the ways he feels about and understands the world—from Aretha Franklin to Amy Winehouse, Marvin Gaye to David Bowie. Ultimately,
Voices is the story of what it is to listen and be moved—what it is to feel emotion.

Preface



Introduction: Hearing voices



The horsemen in the box: Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley with Led Zeppelin, Suzi Quatro, Patti Smith



Boys and girls and girl groups: The Ronettes, The Marvelettes and the Shangri Las with The Four Pennies, Bananarama, TLC



Vulnerable: Marvin Gaye and Roy Orbison with Aretha Franklin, the Ramones and Mary Margaret O'Hara



Class acts: John Lennon and Mick Jagger with The Kinks, David Bowie, Robert Wyatt, Richard & Linda Thompson, Kirsty MacColl, The Smiths



The urge for going: Joni Mitchell with Jackson Browne, Paul Simon, Rickie Lee Jones, Steely Dan



What is soul?: Wilson Pickett, Gladys Knight, Joe Cocker, Paul Rodgers, Elkie Brooks, Terry Reid, Jess Roden, Frankie Miller and Rod Stewart with Dexy's Midnight Runners, Kiki Dee, Bonnie Raitt, Tedeschi Trucks Band



Croon: Iggy Pop, Gregory Isaacs, Kate Bush, Luther Vandross and Frank Sinatra with George Jones, The Carpenters, Prince



So, what?: Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Hank Mobley with Jackie McLean, Booker Ervin, John Surman



The spectacle of anguish: Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, Ian Curtis with Chris Bell, Amy Winehouse



Psalms and raptures: Van Morrison, Burning Spear, Alex Harvey and John Lydon with Bob Dylan



Epilogue: Harvest

Acknowledgements

Index