Mercy, Mercy Me

The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye

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By Michael Eric Dyson

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  1. ebook $11.99 $14.99 CAD
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Twenty years after his murder at the hands of his own father, Marvin Gaye continues to define the hopes and shattered dreams of the Motown generation. A performer whose career spanned the history of rhythm and blues, from doo-wop to the sultriest of soul music, Gaye’s artistry magnified the contradictions that defined America’s coming of age in the tumultuous 1970s. In his most searching and ambitious work to date, acclaimed critic Michael Eric Dyson illuminates both Marvin Gaye’s stellar achievements and stunning personal decline — and offers an unparalleled assessment of the cultural and political legacy of R&B on American culture. Through interviews with those close to Gaye — from his musical beginnings in a black church in Washington, D.C., to his days as a “ladies’ man” in Motown’s stable of young singers, from the artistic heights of the landmark album What’s Going On? to his struggles with addiction and domestic violence — Dyson draws an indelible portrait of the tensions that shaped contemporary urban America: economic adversity, the drug industry, racism, and the long legacy of hardship. Published to coincide with the twentieth anniversary of Gaye’s death in 1984, and infused with the soulful prose that has become Michael Eric Dyson’s trademark, Mercy, Mercy Me is at once a celebration of an American icon whose work continues to inspire, and a revelatory and incisive look at how a lost generation’s moods, music, and moral vision continue to resonate today.
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Genre:

On Sale
Aug 1, 2008
Page Count
304 pages
Publisher
Civitas Books
ISBN-13
9780786722471

Michael Eric Dyson

About the Author

Dr. Michael Eric Dyson is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of over twenty books, a widely celebrated professor, a prominent public intellectual, an ordained Baptist minister, and a noted political analyst. He is a two-time NAACP Image Award winner, and the winner of the American Book Award for Come Hell or High Water: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster. His book The Black Presidency: Barack Obama and the Politics of Race in America was a Kirkus Prize finalist. He is the co-author of Unequal with Marc Favreau. He is also a highly sought after public speaker who is known to excite both secular and sacred audiences. A native of Detroit, Michigan, he currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee. He invites you to follow him on Twitter @michaeledyson and on his official Facebook page (facebook.com/michaelericdyson).

Marc Favreau is the director of editorial programs at the New Press, the acclaimed author of Crash,  Spies, and Attacked!, and coauthor (with Michael Eric Dyson) of Unequal: A Story of America, a finalist for the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults. He lives in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

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