1967 in detroit marked a period of complicated upheaval that sparked a sea change in the city’s musical culture, which was heard and revered around the world. That year, as the city’s most famous group, the Supremes, was torn by personal animosity and Motown tried to deal with the fallout from the greatest girl group of all time, Detroit faced the greatest challenges in its history: race, poverty, endemic police. corruption. My book, Detroit 67: The Year the Soul Changed, focuses on the diverse culture of 1967 and how the city’s music scenes responded to the turbulence of the Vietnam War, social disruption, and civil rights. These are some of the books that helped me remember that period of American history more clearly.
1. hellhound on his trail around hampton sides (double day)
You are reading: Books about the 60s
In April 1967, inmate James Earl Ray escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in a prison bakery van. This stunning book follows Ray’s wanderings across the deeply divided southern states as his paranoia and intolerance grow into full-blown megalomania and lead him to Memphis, where he ultimately assassinates Martin Luther King. a brilliant thriller that weaves together the personal journeys of two men with different motivations and is fortified by a compelling social story.
2. the algiers motel incident by john hersey (knopf)
During the 12th Street Riots of 1967, a Detroit Police unit killed three African-American teenagers at the Algiers Motel. Later, Hersey, a Yale professor who had just won a Pulitzer Prize for his book on Hiroshima, packed his bags and left the leafy academy for the still-smoldering streets of the city. hersey’s book still resonates today and should be read by anyone who supports the black lives matter campaign.
3. dispatches by michael herr (knopf)
john le carré described dispatches as “the best book i have ever read on men and warfare in our time”. Though written in the 1970s, it flashes back to the height of the Vietnam War in the late 1960s, creating characters that in turn influenced Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket. it is war reportage, battlefield drama, and intense tragedy, and remains one of the great war books even today.
4. where did our love go? the rise and fall of nelson george’s motown sound (omnibus)
the best book on motown and the rise of the greatest black music corporation of all time is packed with detail and passion. nelson george takes his commanding understanding of soul music to the max. Unlike other Motown books, it’s less obsessed with gossip and scandal and more intrigued by the circumstances that brought the Overlords, Marvin Gaye, and the Temptations into the world. a classic in its genre.
5. the electric kool-aid acid test by tom wolfe
Tom Wolfe’s kaleidoscopic novel about LSD and social liberation was published in 1967 and follows the spaced adventures of author Ken Kesey and the merry pranksters as they douse America with lysergic acid. one of the great books on counterculture, a perfect marriage of observational journalism with hallucinogenic outrage.
6. army of guitars: rock and revolution with the mc5 and the white panther party by john sinclair (process)
the book tom wolfe tried to write but didn’t: this detroit underground classic screams revolutionary enthusiasm. Written by John Sinclair, who was manager of the notorious Detroit band MC5 in 1967, Guitar Army is angrier than Kool-Aid Acid Test and more militant than Motown. Sinclair’s book provides an excellent insight into the Detroit music scene.
7. the middle is the marshall mcluhan massage (ginko press)
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another landmark book from 1967 that revolutionized the way we view technology media and communication. A major influence on wired magazine, he foresaw ideas we take for granted today, such as the growth of participatory media and user-generated content. manages to crystallize great ideas in a small and accessible format.
8. Respect Yourself: Stax Records and Robert Gordon’s Soul Burst (Bloomsbury)
a tour de force on the history of stax, the other great soul label of black america. The book spans the entire decade, but draws its gritty influences from the segregated communities of the Deep South and the strange synergies that intertwined soul and country music into one visceral, expressive sound.
9. Muhammad Ali: The Life and Times of Him by Thomas Hauser (Pavilion)
Ali’s life has a magnetic pull for biographers, but Hauser’s compact and well-researched book is among his best. 1967 seeps throughout the book: the year everyone publicly opposed the war in Vietnam, for which they faced excommunication from boxing by the sport’s notoriously conservative establishment. the book never leans towards hagiography; He remains consistently honest about Ali and his changing motives as he joins the nation of Islam and faces a massively hostile media.
10. Dancing in the Street: Motown and the Cultural Politics of America by Suzanne Smith (Harvard University Press)
Unassumingly academic and analytical, this history of Motown dispenses with the easy clichés and argues that Motown was an important but ultimately compromised moment in black capitalism. Smith delves into the history of Detroit, particularly the tense warfare within the city’s auto assembly plants, but always with the infectious beat of his theme.
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- stuart cosgrove is the author of detroit 67: the year that changed souls. He is shortlisted for the 2016 Penderyn Music Book Prize, with the winner to be announced on April 3. His next book, Young Soul Rebels-A Personal History of Northern Soul, will be published on Polygon in May priced at £14.99 and can be pre-ordered from Guardian Bookshop for £11.99.