The One
by RJ Smith
The Life and Music of James Brown
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
48%
Critic Reviews: 24
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
84%
Reader Ratings: 42
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Synopsis
The definitive biography of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul, with fascinating findings on his life as a Civil Rights activist, an entrepreneur, and the most innovative musician of our timePlaying 350 shows a year at his peak, with more than forty Billboard hits, James Brown was a dazzling showman who transformed American music. His life offstage was just as vibrant, and until now no biographer has delivered a complete profile. The One draws on interviews... more
About RJ Smith
Published: March 15, 2012 by Penguin Press
Genre: Biographies & Memoirs, Arts & Photography. Non-fiction. 464 pages
- All Critics: 24
- Positive: 13
- Negative: 11
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The Washington Post | 13 Apr 2012
Like Brown’s music, Smith’s writing is both airtight and full of life, conversational and reflective.
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AV Club | 21 Mar 2012
Smith doesn’t touch upon every aspect of Brown’s life, in large part because no writer could—not in one volume.
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USA Today | 12 Mar 2012
Through firsthand accounts by those who knew him, Smith digs out the truth behind the many legends surrounding Brown (the genesis of the cape act; the motivations by the famed Boston concert in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination; rivalries with other singers).
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Los Angeles Times | 25 Mar 2012
Brown's inner life sometimes feels at a remove from us in Smith's account, possibly because of his reliance on so many outside voices and his penchant for details (there are nearly 50 pages of footnotes) and patience-testing tangents.
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Seattle PI | 4 Apr 2012
Smith communicates the impact of Brown's innovations in a way few other writers have.
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Nashville Scene | 5 Apr 2012
Smith can't be accused of objectivity — his abject adoration of the Godfather seeps onto nearly every page — but his account is exhaustively researched and makes a mostly square accounting of Brown's triumphs, humiliations and criminal excesses.
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The Millions | 6 Apr 2012
In the beginning of The One, Smith struggles slightly to find the tone to tell this story.
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Another Rainy Saturday | 26 Mar 2012
RJ Smith writes of Brown’s life like the excellent historian he is, putting it in context of his times but not glossing over the things that also made James Brown terrible.
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Boston.com | 16 Mar 2012
As is often the case with the lives of performers as their prolificacy wanes, the story slows down as Brown’s career did, and as such the last 25 years or so of Brown’s life are dispatched with rather briefly, and somewhat sadly, toward the end of the book.
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Huffington Post | 16 Mar 2012
Strangely, Smith makes no mention of two important tracks, "The Funky Drummer," which became the basis for dozens if not hundreds of hip-hop records, and "Static," where Brown berates rappers for stealing his sound.
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Tampa Bay Times | 25 Mar 2012
But his style can veer a bit too much from the elegiac to the vernacular, as when he describes JB "macking like an outlaw galoot.''
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Six String Theories | 20 Mar 2012
Although I knew he was no boy scout, I actually felt revulsion at times as I read the book.
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Washington Independent Review of Books
If this book isn’t turned into a movie, something’s seriously wrong in Hollywood.
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Book Chase | 28 Mar 2012
The One is for anyone interested in music history, pop culture, the civil rights movement, or simply what makes all of us tick.
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MSN Entertainment | 16 Mar 2012
The One tells us more than we may want to know about Brown's people skills.
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Philadelphia Tribune | 12 Apr 2012
Though this book can be a little longish at times, I really liked the behind-the-scenes tales of the James Brown that younger fans might not know.
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Slate | 1 Apr 2012
In “The One,” that world and Brown’s music come vividly to life.
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The Washington Times | 6 Apr 2012
I confess to having some problems with the author's style - it's too self-consciously "hip" for my taste - and I think some of the local color is both too local and too colorful, sometimes at the expense of his main narrative (on page 364, he's still writing about the mid-1970s).
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The New York Times | 7 Mar 2012
This book’s sparkle speaks for itself, as does Mr. Smith’s ability to take on his screaming, moaning, kinetically blessed, unbeatably shrewd subject.
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Black Grooves | 2 Apr 2012
Throughout the book, Smith does an excellent job of analyzing Brown and his music, but always from a respectful distance
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Downbeat
The One ties all the complex material together in a compelling narrative that moves with a sense of verbal energy on loan from The Godfather of Soul himself.
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The Globe and Mail | 13 Jul 2012
Smith does an illuminating job of explaining the other “one,” the first beat – or downbeat – of every measure.
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The New York Times | 1 Jun 2012
For those who simply do not know the legacy of James Brown, I recommend reading Smith’s book, for it will give you an unparalleled view into the man, the consummate entertainer, his music and us as a nation.
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The Wall Street Journal | 10 Mar 2012
Such a versatile, energetic figure requires an equally omnivorous writer. Mr. Smith devotes every bit as much perspiration and talent to the different research and writing demands of Brown's political facets...
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