Detroit 67

The Year That Changed Soul

By: Stuart Cosgrove

Narrated by: Kevin R. Free

The Epic Story of Motown and Detroit's Independent Soul Music Scene

It's January 1967-and one of the worst snowstorms in decades is blanketing Detroit, Michigan. Berry Gordy, owner of Motown Records, is trapped in his home, unable to do anything about the internal war ravaging his most successful group, The Supremes. Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and Florence Ballard are imploding as Ballard battles alcoholism and the aftermath of rape. But soon, even more chaos will descend on Detroit.

As the year heats up, melting the snow, Gordy and his city face one of the most challenging periods of its existence. Detroit 67 is the story of Detroit in the year that changed everything. Twelve monthly chapters take you on a turbulent year long journey through the drama and chaos that ripped through the city in 1967.

Over a dramatic 12-month period, the Motor City was torn apart by personal, political and inter-racial disputes. It is the story of Motown, the breakup of The Supremes and the implosion of the most successful African-American music label ever.Set against a backdrop of urban riots, escalating war in Vietnam and police corruption, the book weaves its way through a year when soul music came of age, and the underground counterculture flourished. LSD arrived in the city with hallucinogenic power and local guitar-band MC5 -self-styled "holy barbarians" of rock went to war with mainstream America.

A summer of street-level rebellion turned Detroit into one of the most notorious cities on earth, known for its unique creativity, its unpredictability and self-lacerating crime rates.1967 ended in social meltdown, personal bitterness and intense legal warfare as the complex threads that held Detroit together finally unraveled.

Detroit 67 is the story of the year that changed everything.

©2016 Birlinn Ltd. (P)2021 Sound Neverrest UG (haftungsbeschränkt)

Critic reviews

Cosgrove weaves a compelling web of circumstance that maps a city struggling with the loss of its youth to the Vietnam War, the hard edge of the civil rights movement and ferocious inner-city rioting [...] a whole-hearted evocation of people and places.
-- Independent

Good Read

I really enjoyed this detail oriented detailed account of Detroit in the year 1967. Thanks

Slightly disappointed

Wish the book would have had more about the music and artists of Motown and not so much about the city of Detroit.