New book on Motown: I Hear a Symphony

**woodward** · 10-26-2017, 11:15 AM

I recently purchased Andrew Flory's newly published book entitled I Hear a Symphony. It was printed by University of Michigan Press. Available through Amazon.com.

I would like to give it my best recommendation. Mr. Flory did an extensive amount of research and put forth a lot of information covering things from the very beginning to the 1980's and beyond. Like most MF members, I have almost every book that has been published on Motown and I consider this in the Top 5 of all my books. You will definitely learn something that you did not know. There are some unusual pictures in the book, not artists.

Of interest to Supremes fans: The cover has a picture of the Supremes recording at Studio A from January 1965 with Berry Gordy watching them.

You will not regret buying this book. Has anyone else purchased it and want to comment on it?

Thanks.

**luke** · 10-26-2017, 11:37 AM

Thanks Woodward. It’s $88! Do you know why?

**marv2** · 10-26-2017, 12:34 PM

This is the first I am hearing about it. I will have to look into it. Thank you Woodward for the heads up.

**woodward** · 10-26-2017, 01:23 PM

I haven't the faintest idea where you saw the $88 price. It is on Amazon.com for $39.93 and a kindle version is $37.93. There was an earlier hardcover edition which cost around $90. But I don't see it listed any longer. They must have sold out.

**RanRan79** · 10-26-2017, 01:26 PM

Thanks Woodward! Your recommendation has me interested, so I just ordered it through the library. My local system doesn't have a copy but one of the local universities has it, so now I'm just waiting for it to arrive. Thanks again!

**sansradio** · 10-26-2017, 02:06 PM

Mr. Flory is a member of SDF. I believe it's a university press publication, hence the astronomical price. I'll link to an earlier discussion with him. He's "lefty":

https://soulfuldetroit.com/showthrea...ew-Motown-Book

**marv2** · 10-26-2017, 02:36 PM

Here is another review of the book:

https://www.soul-source.co.uk/articl...w-flory-r3660/

**luke** · 10-26-2017, 03:05 PM

Amazon has hardcover at 88 and paperback at 39 ish. Still very expensive. Are there like great pics?

**McMotown** · 10-26-2017, 04:30 PM

Thanks for the post woodward, it's £30.76 paperback and £68.08 hardback from Amazon UK buying choices.
It'll have to go on my wish list.

**marv2** · 10-26-2017, 06:15 PM

I'm interested in seeing what information he used from here, SDF.

**lefty** · 10-27-2017, 10:51 AM

Thanks for the very kind words Woodward. The most satisfying kind of review that a Motown author could ever receive.

I am sure that the book isn't perfect, but I did do a lot of really difficult research. If others look it over, make sure you look at the footnotes. This might be most useful for the kind of people that contribute to this forum.

The cost is an issue, I know. This is just the world of university publishing. There aren't great photos of artists. These cost a lot of money to reproduce, and would have made the price even higher. When I did include images, I tried to make them relevant to the text [[i.e. something that it is difficult to explain in words) or things that are rare. Amazon seems to order them in batches of ten, and whenever something like this post happens they sell out. If you are in the States, you can always use Barnes and Noble or someone else. But I realize that not everyone interested in the topic is from the U.S. [[There is a whole chapter about this!)

Frankly, I'm not that driven by sales. I'm more interested in people getting access. Libraries are great for that. I have absolutely no problem with this. My college library has instant online access through a service called JSTOR, which is pretty popular. Sometimes you actually have to go to the library to do this, and search through their computers. I know that a lot of us [[me included) prefer hard copies of things, but those who don't mind going this route might be able to get a PDF version for nothing. Even if just to take a quick look and see if it's something that interests you before shelling out your hard-earned money.

To answer Marv: I used a number of interviews, writings, and discussions from the Forum. Golden threads sort of stuff. Mike McLean threads, Ralph remembering how sessions were put together, Ray Monette, a discussion of what people consider to be the "Motown Sound." Things like that.

Let me know if you have questions about anything. I would be happy to talk about it.