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Bad boy of gospel music : the Calvin Newton story / Russ Cheatham.
LIBRA ML420.N478 C4 2003
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Cheatham, Russ.
- Series:
- American made music series
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Newton, Calvin, 1929-2023.
- Newton, Calvin.
- Gospel musicians--United States--Biography.
- Gospel musicians.
- United States.
- Genre:
- Biographies.
- Physical Description:
- xvi, 342 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.
- Place of Publication:
- Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2003]
- Summary:
- "I messed up," Calvin Newton lamented, after wasting thirty years and doing time in both state and federal prisons. "These were years of my life that I could have been singing gospel music." During his prime, he was super-handsome, athletic, and charged with sexual charisma that attracted women to him like flies to honey. By his late teens he had been recruited by the Blackwood Brothers, the number-one gospel quartet in the world. In his mid-twenties while he was singing with the Oak Ridge Quartet, Newton's mighty talent and movie-star looks took him deep into hedonism -- reckless driving, heavy romancing, and addictive pill popping. As 1950s rock 'n' roll began its invasion of gospel, he and two partners formed the Sons of Song, the first all-male gospel trio. The Sons of Song turned gospel upside down with histrionic harmony, high-styled tuxedos, and Hollywood verve. Their signature song "Wasted Years" foreshadowed Newton's punishing fall. This prodigal-son biography looks back at the destructive lifestyle that wrecked a sparkling career.
- Contents:
- Ancestors
- Big boy
- Bible training school
- Headed straight to the top
- Singing like an angel, fighting like a demon
- Advice from two sources
- In the army
- Wild and crazy
- The battle of the bands
- Touring and recording
- The slide
- A new era
- A matter of style
- The magic of their singing
- Ralph Carmichael, a contract with God
- The fat lady sings
- We sang at every
- pig trail in the state
- Gentlemen songsters off on a spree
- Picking up the pieces
- From rock'n'roll to rock bottom
- Searching
- Wonder woman
- Wedding bells and prison cells
- If I had wings
- Musical chairs
- Gospel fried chicken
- Still magic after all these years
- Making money
- Awakening
- Colson and parole
- Out of the depths
- The holy accident
- Redemption
- Wasted years, why?
- Sunset.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-330) and index.
- Discography: pages 319-325.
- Videography: pages 325-326.
- ISBN:
- 1578065526
- 1578065534
- OCLC:
- 51046869
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