Lonely Avenue: The Unlikely Life and Times of Doc Pomus
by Alex Halberstadt
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One of the most original, influential, and commercially successful American songwriters, Jerome Felder, aka Doc Pomus (1925-1991), gave the world a dazzling legacy of musical hits during rock 'n' roll's first decade. A role model for generations of writers and performers, Doc was renowned for his mastery of virtually every popular style, from the gutbucket rhythm and blues of "Lonely Avenue" to the symphonic soul of "Save the Last Dance for Me" to the pure pop of "Viva Las Vegas." His show more songs-"This Magic Moment," "A Teenager in Love," "Hushabye," "Little Sister," "Turn Me Loose," and many others-have been recorded by everyone from Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, and B. B. King to Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, and Bruce Springsteen, with sales exceeding 100 million. Doc was ready-made for literature. His collaborator Mort Shuman once described him as an "entire rollicking soul neighborhood rolled into one man." Garrulous, profane, hilarious, and Rabelaisian, Doc was never inhibited about offering his opinions and his friendship. His confidants, collaborators, and discoveries included Duke Ellington, John Lennon, Dr. John, Jimmy Scott, Bette Midler, and Lou Reed. In the words of renowned producer Jerry Wexler, "If the music industry had a heart, it would be Doc Pomus." Despite, or more likely because of, his successes, few acquaintances knew that this writer of jukebox hits led one of the most dramatic and unlikely lives of his time. Spanning extravagant wealth and desperate poverty, suburban domesticity and the depths of New York's underworld, worldwide fame and near-total obscurity, enduring love and persistent loneliness, Doc's story remains one of the great untold American lives. Its chapters comprise a back-room history of rock 'n' roll, touching on more than a half-century of American popular music-from the blues Doc performed with Lester Young to his collaborations with the luminaries of New York's punk scene, shot through with vivid portraits of virtually every major player. Lonely Avenueis the first biography of this American original, so elegantly rendered that it reads like a novel, and fortified by full, exclusive access to Doc Pomus's family, friends, voluminous journals, and archives. show lessTags
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On the third reading, this book moves up to the top of my rankings.
"Lonely Avenue" is the biography of New York City, Brooklyn born singer then songwriter, Jerome Felder, known by his professional or stage name as Doc Promos http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Pomus As a young boy in Brooklyn, Jerome contracted polio and was left partially paralyzed and forever on crutches or in a wheel chair. An early interest in music led to his brief career as a singer. Following that scant success singing blues and jazz, over the next four decades Doc Pomas together with a number of partners crafted more than a thousand songs. Mostly rhythm-and-blues and rock 'n' roll tunes, some became top hits for artists such as Ray Charles, Bobby Darin, Fabian, the Drifters, Dion and the Belmonts, and Elvis Presley. Read online show more reviews of this book at This Magic Moment by Alan Light http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/books/review/Light.t.html?_r=1&ex=11834352... (Mar. 25, 2007, New York Times) and Viva Doc Pomus! http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/32893/lonely-avenue-by-alex-halberstadt/ (Feb. 200) by M.E. Ross at PopMatters. (lj) show less
Learned a lot about the songwriter Doc Pomus, whose credits include "Save the Last Dance for Me", "Suspicion" and other fifties and sixties hits as well as some great blues and R and B songs.
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- Genres
- Music, Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, History
- DDC/MDS
- 782.42164092 — Arts & recreation Music Vocal Music, Singing Secular forms of vocal music Songs General principles and musical forms Traditions of secular songs {genres} Western popular songs
- LCC
- ML423 .P664 .H35 — Music Literature on music Literature on music History and criticism Biography
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