Burn, baby! burn! : the autobiography of Magnificent Montague / Magnificent Montague with Bob Baker.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Montague, Nathaniel, 1928-

Contributor:

Baker, Bob, 1947-

Series:

Music in American life

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Montague, Nathaniel, 1928-.

Montague, Nathaniel.

Disc jockeys--United States--Biography.

Disc jockeys.

African Americans--Biography.

African Americans.

United States.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 192 pages ; 22 cm.

Place of Publication:

Urbana : University of Illinois Press, [2003]

Summary:

With his dynamic on-air personality and his trademark cry of "Burn, baby! Burn!" before spinning the hottest new records, Magnificent Montague was the charismatic voice of soul music in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. In this memoir Montague recounts the events of his momentous radio career, which ran from the era of segregation to that of the civil rights movement; as he does so, he also tells the broader story of a life spent in the passionate pursuit of knowledge, historical and musical. Like many black disc jockeys of his day, Montague played a role in his community beyond simply spreading the music of James Brown, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, and other prominent artists. Montague served as an unofficial spokesman for his black listeners, reflecting their beliefs and acting as a sounding board for their concerns. Montague was based in Los Angeles in 1965 when the Watts rioters seized on his incendiary slogan, turning the shout of musical appreciation into a rallying cry for racial violence. In Burn, Baby! BURN! Montague recalls these tumultuous times, including the personal struggle he faced over whether to remain true to his listeners or bend to political pressure and stop shouting his suddenly controversial slogan. Since the mid-1950s Montague had also expressed his passion for African American culture by becoming a zealous collector of artifacts of black history. He has taken time out from adding to his monumental collection to become only the second African American to build his own radio station literally from the ground up. A compelling account of a rich and varied life, Burn, Baby! BURN! gives an insider's view of half a century ofblack history, told with on-the-air zest by the disc jockey/historian who was there to see it unfold.

Contents:

The hustle

The groove

The rhythm

The book

The movement

The apple

The boy

The man

The riot

The residue

The climb

The collection.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0252028732

OCLC:

51615309