Chaka! Through the Fire

Rating:
Summary: Wait for the movie
Review: I guess if you are really in love with Chaka Khan, the book will be alright for you. I liked her music years ago, and realized I didn't know a lot about her, so I got the book. I was surprised that it was so boring. Get it from the library. It really wasn't worth buying and had no insight into the real chaka. Where were the facts that exist in other biographys?

Rating:
Summary: Signed ARC of this book for sale!
Review: I personally saw Chaka Kahn speak about her book at a convention in Los Angeles where I obtained a signed advanced readers copy of her book. Her speech was very moving and I wanted a collector to have this rare signed book. It is an Advanced Reader's Copy so it is a large size paperback, not a hardcover. She signed her name in black sharpie on the title page. I'm asking for $49.99 obo + shipping (to know costs ahead of time, email me your zip code). I will ship internationally. Please email me (Stephanie) at [e-mail]. Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Candid, Honest and a Good Celeb Autobiography
Review: I really love Chaka Kahn for her honesty with this book. Being 28 years old, Chaka is around my moms age. This book really helped me to understand a lot about the culture and the vibe of the late 60's and 70's in Chicago. Chaka devotes a lot of text to her early days in Chi-town. I feel that Chaka is so honest and forthright in this book that it is a biography that many will enjoy. I don't personally know if she comes clean on all topics, but she is very candid and frank about her love life, her mistakes and even which songs she likes and dislikes to perform. If you are a fan of course you should read this book. If you are someone who just wants to learn more about a woman who has really made an impact on the music world, check out this book. I really enjoyed it. It was one of the better celeb autobiographies. It really reads as if Chaka put a lot of pain into this book because she discusses some real close to home situations that she didn't have to disclose. Her frankness helps readers to understand her a better as a person and as an artist.

Rating:
Summary: Candid, Honest and a Good Celeb Autobiography
Review: I really love Chaka Kahn for her honesty with this book. Being 28 years old, Chaka is around my moms age. This book really helped me to understand a lot about the culture and the vibe of the late 60's and 70's in Chicago. Chaka devotes a lot of text to her early days in Chi-town. I feel that Chaka is so honest and forthright in this book that it is a biography that many will enjoy. I don't personally know if she comes clean on all topics, but she is very candid and frank about her love life, her mistakes and even which songs she likes and dislikes to perform. If you are a fan of course you should read this book. If you are someone who just wants to learn more about a woman who has really made an impact on the music world, check out this book. I really enjoyed it. It was one of the better celeb autobiographies. It really reads as if Chaka put a lot of pain into this book because she discusses some real close to home situations that she didn't have to disclose. Her frankness helps readers to understand her a better as a person and as an artist.

Rating:
Summary: 3 -1/2 stars defaults to 4 here. ;o)
Review: I truly enjoyed this memoir written by Chaka Khan and Tonya Bolden and would recommend it to any Chaka Khan fan or anyone curious as to how this siren of song came to be and lived.

I've been a Chaka fan since childhood. She is my favorite all-time vocalist. My father bought Rufus' first album but I didn't pay much attention until the second, "Rags to Rufus". Chaka's raw primal energy on the microphone had me hooked from the first guitar riff of "You Got the Love" and "Tell Me Something Good". The third album, "Rufusized", sealed my fate as a lifelong Rufus and Chaka Khan fan. I would sit, listen and ogle over the album covers for hours on end. In my naive young mind, Chaka Khan was the epitome of womanhood. I wanted to be her. All at once this woman was incredibly talented, beautiful, vivacious, tender... exuding tremendous confidence, power and an animal-like sensuality. I would shake my braids loose, dress up in my summer halter and bell-bottoms and dance about the family room doing that side-to-side-jerk-shimmy thing that was her trademark. The band's appearances on shows like Bandstand and Soul Train were moments that I lived for. My father even bought my first guitar to help appease my obsession. It was only much later that I discovered all that glitters is not gold... in regard to my idol and otherwise. My first live Chaka experience was at a mid-80's concert in the Chicago area. She was good... but clearly trashed and suffering. It broke my heart. My adulation remains however, and I'd always yearned to know her story.

The thing that I enjoyed most about the book is the conveyance of her personality through the words. Her candid expression and frankness are qualities that I deeply appreciate. Her matter-of-fact sense of humor tends to come out of nowhere. From the first mention of her first-born you can sense the guilt that haunted her career, having left her child for long periods to pursue her career. Others have remarked on the brevity and lack of detail throughout some periods of her career (if not MOST of it). I would agree. Though personal and to the point, her recollections are fairly vague. I don't know if she was limited to a certain number of pages, by deadlines, or simply couldn't recall those times through the haze of substance abuse. I will say that I wished there were more... much more. (C'mon Chaka... girl if you're gonna write it... write it) Perhaps the intent was to focus on a few specific moments and what she pulled from those experiences. To the self-dubbed "in-the-moment gal", I gather everything else was irrelevant. I would like to know more about her rise with Rufus beyond the formative years, more detail on the inter-relationships (she could've devoted an entire chapter to her and Tony Maiden alone), inspiration for songs that she penned and adventures on the road. Most importantly, more on where that voice derived it's passion and fire. She seems to have completed this book for the purposes of exorcising demons, rather than putting focus on the beauty and legend that she created. In a way the book IS optimistic, in the sense that she feels that she has now gotten the upper hand on her demons. She continues to look forward, taking each day as it comes. I wish her the very best.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing talent, an improbable survivor
Review: It's been thirty years since Chaka Khan was introduced to the music world through the band Rufus. While Khan's tenure with Rufus and subsequent solo career have made her one of the most influential and celebrated artists in popular music (the accolades include seven Grammies), her private life has not been well documented. Thus, this long rumored-to-be-in-the- making autobiography has been highly anticipated by Khan's throng of admirers. If only she had been able to fully recount her incredible journey.

In the opening chapters of Chaka! Through The Fire, Khan is quite forthcoming in discussing her humble beginnings in Chicago's Hyde Park. By the age of ten, she had endured her parents' turbulent marriage and divorce, followed by her father's desertion (leaving Khan and her younger siblings to be raised by her mother, aunt, and grandmother). During adolescence, she entered - and won - many talent contests as a member of the Crystalettes, performed with the Shades Of Black vocal group, and even found time to join the Black Panther Party. Then a teenage pregnancy threatened to stifle her musical dreams, just as Khan's own unplanned birth had halted her mother's artistic aspirations.

Fortunately, Khan continued to pursue a career in music, and the book perks up when she becomes the lead singer of the inter-racial band Ask Rufus in 1972. Khan takes us through the band's relocation from Chicago to Los Angeles, the shortening of their name to Rufus, their failed first album, and onto their breakthrough collaboration with Stevie Wonder on the hit "Tell Me Something Good" (of which Wonder failed to give the naive Khan a deserved co-writing credit). As fame beckoned, Khan recalls the band's abrupt rebilling by their record label to "Rufus featuring Chaka Khan," creating a rift between her and the rest of the band that would continue to grow until she left the group in 1983.

Rufus' hectic itinerary - frequent recordings sessions surrounded by constant touring - drastically altered Khan's life, as she began to take drugs to keep up with the demands. Her escalating drug use also profoundly affected the quality of this book, as the vivid details of Khan's youth give way to vague remembrances of stardom from the late '70s through late '90s. Latter-day Rufus efforts and seminal early solo recordings, for instance, are dismissed by Khan with just a few sentences devoted to each (the only project given adequate commentary is Khan's teaming with Prince on the poorly promoted 1998 album Come To My House). Meanwhile, marriages and romantic relationships - all of which involve substance abuse on both parties' part - go sour, with little or no explanation given.

The book's final chapters depict Khan - at 50 - at peace with herself, a doting grandmother who has been drug-free for over three years (thanks to an intense detox program). Her vocal strength is still considerable and continues to be lauded (her most recent Grammy being bestowed upon her just last February). She has also started her own foundation that "aids and assists woman and children at risk." It's an inspiring - if improbable - rebirth by a remarkable woman.

Chaka! Through The Fire saves the best for last with a discography in the Appendix that contains a listing of all Rufus and solo albums' tracks, as well as Khan's contributions to others artists' albums and side projects like soundtracks and tribute albums. Khan's extraordinary contralto has been sought for dozens of these special projects over the years and this thorough compilation of credits alone merits the cost of the book for Chakaholics.

Rating:
Summary: straight to the Point
Review: one thing about Chaka Khan is that She doesn't pull any punches about any subject matter&comes at you very direct.that is why I was looking forward to this book.it covers alot of bases&is Good.

Rating:
Summary: I feel for this Book, and you will too!
Review: Really enjoyed this read. it's the rare diva that writes a truly reflective, truthful memoir with inclusion of thier triumphs and mistakes. Ms. Khan comes across as comical in this book as she does in person. It is absolutely amazing that through all the abuse she has inflicted on hrself, she still possesses a pair of the best pipes in the business and is going as strong as she did in the beginning of her career. It is also so heartwarming that her family is so supportive and that she has made amends with her children and extended relatives. I adore her to pieces and I hope that voice continues to soar for another fifty years. Great read.

Rating:
Summary: Memoirs Of A Wild Child
Review: The year 2003 marks the 30th anniversary of music icon Chaka Khan's recording career. In celebration of this milestone , Chaka has written a deeply moving autobiography, one that (like the singer) will evoke many emotions. Chaka, a woman who's influence can rival that of any modern day musical institution (ie: Aretha, Miles, Joni and Billie), is the youngest link in the chain of the... "last of the great singers". Chaka!Through The Fire takes you on an emotional rollercoaster ride as the gifted singer recounts her colorful childhood, rocky teens and (even rockier) adulthood. Hers is a gripping story of struggle,turmoil, strength and finally redemption. Chaka's recollections are candid and brutally honest as they are witty. I found myself laughing, crying and "feeling" for her. I thought I knew her story, but this book opened my eyes to a great many things. Behind the beautiful face (one of the most incredible smiles ever), talent and humility was a highly intelligent yet troubled superstar. Which proves that money can't buy you happiness. In fact it can ruin you, as it almost did with Chaka. This book gives deeper insight into one of the most important female artist of all time. A GREAT read!

Rating:
Summary: Through the Fire
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in a long time. Chaka who is already a musical legend keeps it real from beginning to end. She is a strong woman, who should be celebrated for being a survivor.