JONATHAN GOULD is a former professional musician and the author of CAN'T BUY ME LOVE- The Beatles, Britain & America. He divides his time between a home in Brooklyn and a house near Hudson, NY.
An NPR Best Book of 2017
A Rolling Stone Best Music Book of 2017
A Paste Best Nonfiction Book of 2017
2018 Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for
Excellence Best History
"[An] impressive biography.... Access to Redding's surviving family
members helps Gould flesh out his upbringing and offstage
personality.... Music historians like Peter Guralnick, Rob Bowman
and Robert Gordon have all done essential work on the history of
Stax, but Gould takes a contrary and provocative position on the
label's relationship to its greatest star.... [He] makes a
convincing case that, while Redding's recordings are never less
than compelling thanks to his remarkable voice, [Stax co-founder
Jim Stewart's] shortcomings...held Redding back as a songwriter and
repeatedly stymied his popular momentum."
--Alan Light, New York Times Book Review "Magisterial... With
meticulous scholarship, lively prose, and a tale that uses a
singular musician as a springboard into interrogating America's
political and popular cultures, Gould has created a vital book that
helps contextualize one of the most important figures in pop
music."
--Maura Johnston, Boston Globe "An absorbing and ambitious
book...[that] succeeds in making [Redding] seem a good deal more
remarkable by taking the measure of the historical circumstances he
emerged from.... Among the great pleasures...are [Gould's] very
considered assessments of each of Otis's albums, track by
track."
--Geoffrey O'Brien, The New York Review of Books "Perceptive....An
incisive and deeply humanistic portrait."
--Eddie Dean, Wall Street Journal
"Jonathan Gould's Otis Redding doesn't so much practice revisionist
history as simply get a complex story right, capturing the
too-short life and career of the immortal Otis Redding with
unerring perceptiveness, precision and cultural context. In short,
Gould delivers the first biography to do Redding justice."
--Steve Nathans-Kelly, Paste "The beloved '60s soul titan...comes
alive in Gould's insightful, well-researched biography."
--People "Wonderful."
--The Atlantic
"Gould...sets sky-high aspirations for his book, attempting not to
merely chronicle Redding's meteoric life, but to use him as the
backdrop for a larger story about race in America, the history of
soul music, and the rise of Memphis' small but powerful Stax
Records. He does that gracefully."
--Dallas News
"A rich picture of [Redding's] world....Illuminating."
--Rolling Stone "An excellent and definitive biography... A master
storyteller, Gould tackles Redding's life by planting his flag
firmly at the crossroads of individual genius and social and
cultural context... [His] fabulous portrait...provides Redding with
the "Respect" he richly deserves. Highly recommended."
--Library Journal (starred review)"A music biography with the depth
to do its subject justice. Otis Redding (1941-1967) ranks high in
the pantheon of 1960s musical luminaries, so it's fitting that
[Otis Redding] ranks equally high among such work focusing on
popular musical artists.... Better late than never, the soul master
receives his considerable due in this superbly researched and
written biography."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "Jonathan Gould's much-heralded
biography... builds beautifully, more like a great soul ballad than
the dance hall hit so many music biographies aim at becoming. One
feels the time that's gone into the book's organization, it's
exegesis, it's every insightful and often quite-funny
sentences."
--Hudson Valley One "Gould vividly brings to life the man Stax
Records boss Jim Stewart called 'a walking inspiration'.... From
his supreme triumphs to his one last heart-breaking phone-call to
Zelma, devotees and soul scholars alike could not wish for a more
thorough and sensitive portrait."
--Mojo "Some of the best parts of Gould's book are his incisive
descriptions of Redding's live performances and recording
sessions.... But even more than his vivid re-creations of Redding's
composing and recording work, it's Gould's insightful portrayal of
the Segregated South's racial climate that makes Otis Redding: An
Unfinished Life so compelling."
--Paste
"Nuanced and well-researched.... [Otis Redding] belongs in the
hands of anyone who cares about soul music in the sixties."
--Booklist
"Jonathan Gould's exquisitely written biography of one of the
greatest singers of all time is spell-binding. His deep research
superbly contextualizes Otis Redding's way-too-short life and
career, while his incisive critique of Redding's work makes his
music come alive on the page--leaving us yearning to have
experienced the remarkable performer onstage."
--Holly George-Warren, author of A Man Called Destruction: The Life
and Music of Alex Chilton, from Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor
Man "In his biography of Otis Redding, Jonathan Gould summons up
the teeming cast of hustlers, visionaries, and eccentrics who fed
Otis' supernatural talent. It's a thrill to see Redding brought
back to life in all his raw, flashing glory!"
--David Dalton, founding editor, Rolling Stone, and author of Who
Is That Man?
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