Zach Schonfeld Knihy

In 1973, the musical collective 24-Carat Black released an unheralded masterpiece on Stax Records-and then disappeared. Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth, a soul-funk opera primarily written by the Motown composer Dale Warren, was too bleak, ambitious, or just outright bizarre to reach mainstream audiences. 24-Carat Black collapsed when Stax went bankrupt, and the group's only completed album sank into cultural obscurity. With deep reporting elucidating an untold story full of cinematic details, this book traces how Ghetto went from commercial flop to enigmatic underground classic. It also chronicle, in infuriating detail, how the music industry of the 1970s systematically exploited soul musicians and then left them struggling to get paid, in cases ranging from Isaac Hayes to James Brown's drummer, Clyde Stubblefield-and where 24-Carat Black fits into this broader injustice. This is a fascinating and multilayered story about a remarkable album nearly lost to history. It's also a rare glimpse into what it's like to have your music resurrected by rap samples decades after your career fell apart.

How Coppola Became Cage tells the story of Nicolas Cage's early career and rise to fame, examining the formative performances that made him an icon of independent cinema of the eighties and early nineties. By interviewing dozens of directors, producers, and actors who worked closely with Cage, author Zach Schonfeld takes readers behind the scenes of his legendary early films and provides a revealing portrait of Cage's intensely devoted commitment to his roles.