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Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 KNIGHT | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
This immensely inspiring autobiography tells the whole, true story of Gladys Knight, a four-time Grammy winner, whose life has been rich in music, faith, love, and immense hardships. of photos.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In the tradition of Billie Holiday's Lady Sings the Blues and Tina Turner's I, Tina comes this thoughtful memoir from Knight, who, with her back-up group the Pips, enjoyed a string of hits ("I Heard It Through the Grapevine," etc.) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Though lacking the trauma-inspired melodrama of the accounts by Holiday and Turner (Knight's mother was a member of Martin Luther King Sr.'s Atlanta congregation, and her family was solidly middle-class for much of her childhood), the book nevertheless chronicles a good deal of tribulation, including teenage pregnancy, attempted rape, various addictions and failed marriages. Yet it is also a story of hard work, realized dreams and the ironies of success. Pop music fans will be intrigued by the steady stream of famed figures through the book, including Nat King Cole, Sammy Davis Jr., Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin, with whom Knight has experienced a-not-so-friendly rivalry. Knight's description of her years as a child star on the eve of the civil rights movement resonates with the history of the period, and her recreation of Motown culture is engaging, if somewhat familiar. The singer's life since the 1980s has been less compelling. Her account of her marriage to her third husband, motivational speaker Les Brownwho served her with divorce papers as the manuscript was being completedgives the end of the book an uncertain, unfinished quality. But Knight's plain-spoken ambivalence about family vs. career, and about the basic challenges that confront even the most successful entertainers (especially women), make this a valuable document of a life in show business. Author tour. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Knight, of pop's Pips, offers an event-packed autobiography--from child gospel sensation through '70s superstardom to Vegas divahood--earnestly but with little verve. First achieving national attention at age eight, in 1952, on Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour, the Atlanta- born Knight was very soon thereafter singing on the ``Chitlin' Circuit'' of black nightclubs with an early incarnation of the Pips (all siblings and cousins). The Pips toured throughout the '50s with the likes of Jackie Wilson and Joe Tex, recording only briefly and unsuccessfully. Knight's first marriage, to her high-school sweetheart, collapsed because of his drug use; her father descended into mental illness and left the family. She indicates that by 1963 the Pips were big enough to have performers at the White House, but it wasn't until the mid-'60s that they signed with Motown, finally breaking through in 1967 with ``I Heard It Through the Grapevine.'' Knight is good on the subject of Motown's feudal business practices: Second-tier groups like the Pips would seldom get a crack at the in-house songwriters' best songs, and naive performers accepted company ``gifts'' that in fact were advances against royalties, keeping the artists in debt (and thus servitude) to Motown. Only on leaving Motown did the Pips achieve top stardom with a succession of hits. On the crises in her life--including a gambling addiction and two more failed marriages, most recently to the motivational speaker Les Brown--Knight is so intent on gleaning lessons that she usually fails to render the experiences themselves particularly vividly. Anecdotes of racism and (other people's) high jinks on the road are similarly lifeless. Perhaps more tellingly than she intends, Knight notes of the world of show business: ``I have seen it all, to be sure, but rarely participated in it.'' This distance comes through clearly in her memoir. (32 pages b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour)
Booklist Review
Early on, Knight throws a curve when she suggests her singing is like that of Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, and even Michael Bolton and Rod Stewart. Comparing her rich, sweet tones with the perhaps inspired but still straining vocals of Bolton or Stewart is the first of many signals that this is no by-the-numbers, ghostwritten pop bio. It is the warmly recalled, purposefully phrased story of a singer who appeared on Ted Mack's fabled amateur show, then persevered on the blues circuit for years before finally hitting it big with a string of immediately recognizable hits: "Midnight Train to Georgia," "I've Got to Use My Imagination," "Friendship Train," etc. Despite a cast including Tina Turner, the Jacksons, the Supremes, and other pop giants, this is the personal story of Knight's relationships and experiences, not a showbiz tell-all. The high drama here runs more to Knight's losing a baby in miscarriage than to imbibing powdered preparations backstage. It is her life, and she tells it well. --Mike Tribby
