Guitars, Bars, and Motown Superstars

Rating:
Summary: A superbly written and hilarious account of a funk legend
Review: This is one book you just can't put down. It grabs you and takes you on a funk-filled roller coaster ride through LA, NY, Detroit, and all points in between!

Dennis Coffey comes to life and brings you along for the ride of a lifetime. Exploring Detroit in the 60's and 70's, he talks about the rise of Motown Records, his gigs, shows, and tells the stories that only an insider like him can tell. With wit and charm, he often makes you laugh out loud, and you catch yourself imagining just what it was like to be making history. This is the kind of biography and story telling that we need more of. The session players like Dennis have all sorts of great stories because the people they are, and the people they worked with, are so far above extraordinary that it makes for great reading.

Pick this book up, but be warned, you won't put it down anytime soon.

Rating:
Summary: A different perspective than most
Review: Under Berry Gordy Motown became a place where studio musicians usually stood in the shadows of solo stars promoted in his studios, for Gordy held stringent contracts which prevented his musicians from playing for other record companies and often denied them credit on his records. In Guitars, Bars, And Motown Superstars, guitarist Dennis Coffey tells how he escaped Gordy's tight hold on music to become a success as both a Motown musician and solo artist - and his backstage look at the Motown experience provides quite a different perspective than most. This is no fly-by-night artist: Coffey was one of Detroit's most important session guitarists in the 1960s and 80s and played for many superstars: his insights are a 'must' for any enthusiast of the Motown scene.