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The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the Seventies in San Francisco, by Joshua Gamson
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From Publishers Weekly
In the world of that most disparaged of musical genres—disco—the subject of this biography commanded respect. By conventional standards, Sylvester James was an outsider—he was an out, gay, African-American who dressed in drag and sang with a thundering falsetto—but he found mainstream success in the late 1970s and early '80s with three Top 40 hits, Dance (Disco Heat), You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) and I Who Have Nothing, and an international #1 sensation (Do Ya Wanna Funk). At times, Gamson's (Freaks Talk Back) extensively researched volume is a vibrant and moving oral biography, with firsthand conversations with virtually everyone who knew or worked with Sylvester, from his youth in South Central L.A. through his successful music career, to his death from AIDS in 1988 at 41. The richness of this material (Sylvester's background singers Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes Armstead, who later became the Weather Girls, are particularly amusing and insightful raconteurs) reveals all the shadings of Sylvester's diva persona: he was fierce but generous, caustic but caring, temperamental but talented. Gamson's pulsating use of song lyrics, sounds and descriptions also creates a tangible history of San Francisco as it changed from a joyous oasis of liberation to the epicenter of the AIDS pandemic. Seventeen years after his death, this gay icon gets the celebratory biography he deserves. Photos. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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From Booklist
Hot on the heels of Pam Tent's book on the Cockettes, Midnight at the Palace [BKL N 15 04], Gamson limns another gender-bending San Francisco entertainment phenomenon, whose career arced high without quite denting general national consciousness. Sylvester James Jr. came from nearly all-black South Central L.A. As a teen, he started cross-dressing and sneaking out to glitzy parties. Possessed of a remarkable singing voice, he advanced from the antics of his cross-dressing street-gang-cum-sorority the Disquotays to become immortalized onscreen when a scene in the Bette Midler vehicle The Rose called for a drag Diana Ross. "The producers thought it would be hilarious to have a Diana who tipped the scales at around two-fifty, so Sylvester was hired." The seventies were a cornucopia of glitz and success for Sylvester. When he died of AIDS in 1988, even his funeral was a show full of singing, sermonizing, and an audiotape of the deceased cutting loose--in falsetto, of course--on Christmas carols. "Most people in the church were overcome"; Sylvester would've wanted them to be. Mike TribbyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Product details
Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (March 1, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0805072500
ISBN-13: 978-0805072501
Product Dimensions:
5.9 x 1.2 x 10 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Average Customer Review:
4.8 out of 5 stars
44 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#1,449,515 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
I love The Fabulous Sylvester! The book arrived ahead of schedule and in perfect condition. This is a book for anyone interested in the glittering disco era and the book encompasses all of the feeling of that era.It is a bittersweet look at a magnificent singer who infused disco with gospel and hot buttered soul. It is sad that he died so young.I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to relive the exciting disco era and who just loves good music.
Sylvester was a beloved figure inside his circle of admirers; he received cautious regard at best from outside that circle. Now, along comes a long overdue biography, and what a volume. The timing couldn't be more right, as the US has finally put to rest most of the putrid disco backlash. In the stores are not only decent compilations of the disco music but also books like this one that reflect the reality of the subculture. Not the bandwagon that pop radio jumped on, not the Arthur-Murray style competitions, not the faux-glamour suburban nightclubs, but the real deal. Sylvester was both artist and participant in the disco culture-- singer, performance artist, club dancer. The author of this book captures Sylvester in all his complexity and drives home the important part he played in the subculture that was disco.Gamson is an academic, which means that he has been thorough in locating good sources of information. He seemed to have access to so many of the important persons and institutions that played a part in Sylvester's life. He is able to provide a well-rounded depiction of the man's personality, warts and all. He does a good job laying out the formative experiences in this colorful life, be it a mother who role-modeled an imperious love of fashion but later derided a child who followed her example, or a church community that would exploit Sylvester's temperament but denounce him for acts its other members could get away with if they kept hypocritically silent. Sylvester's complicated relationship to the gay community of 70s San Francisco is fascinating. The author does a great job bringing all the early elements around in the end of the book, showing how lasting the formative events are and how much a person can fill in the voids during adulthood.Gamson is more than an academic, however. He is also an entertaining writer and he takes in this book a great tone that fits his subject. He doesn't shy away from any aspects of the life he is depicting. The sex, the slang, the drugs, the erratic behavior, the fun, the bonds, and the subculture's differing values all sparkle like one of Sylvester's jackets. There is no stuffy ivory-tower writing here. Gamson can be as breezy in tone as Sylvester, but he doesn't pander. In fact, among the disco-oriented books that have come out over the last six years, this volume is as well-produced as that other benchmark of writing, *Last Night A DJ Saved My Life*.The 60s teen drag scene, the 1970-era Cockettes, the rock-and-blues recording phase, the disco about which Sylvester had conflicted feelings; then the Hi NRG and activism phases-- all of these are given sharp observation and each makes for vibrant reading material. Gamson covers nearly all the bases, including the way the drag-loving Sylvester was an open mark for a defrauding imposter. It was great to learn how the disco albums came about, and what the exact roles of the band, producers, and record-label suits were. The only omission I found was Sylvester's collaboration with jazzist Herbie Hancock in the 1981 album Magic Windows. Otherwise, Gamson covered all the personal, community, and musical bases.This was great reading for someone like me, familiar with both Sylvester and the 70s; I think the book would appeal to anyone with an open mind who is interested in a character who will swim against the current if he is so created.
At last, a beautifully-written book about a beautiful artist - Sylvester. I have been waiting for this book to arrive for years and, finally, here it is!I was hooked by the opening chapter which tells the story of a young boy named Tiki Lofton who sneaks out of his bedroom window at night and over to a friend's apartment where, in 1960's South Central, with the help of a young Sylvester, he transforms himself into a "Disquotay." The Disquotays were a group of boys who liked to dress up as sophisticated ladies. And Sylvester, or Dooni as he was known then, was in charge of the wigs."The first Disquotay bash that Tiki went to was over on 120th and Athens, at Etta James's house, sometime around 1965. Etta, who would later be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (largely on the strength of her 1961 hit "At Last") and the Betty Ford Center (largely on the strength of her smack addiction), was already a recording star and a friend to many local Los Angeles drag queens . . . The house, with its swimming pool and fireplace, had stunned her. Women, drag queens, and guys, all sending joyful noises in Tiki's direction; the music had been jumping; Walter Jackson's version of "Lee Cross," Jr. Walker & the All Stars' "Shotgun," "Nowhere to Run" by Martha and the Vandellas, Fontella Bass singing "Rescue Me." Gay kids all perched on gigantic speakers, singing and carrying on . . . Tiki had said to herself. "This -- honey, where is this world?" Within months, she would be a full-fledged Disquotay, made-up, bewigged, bejeweled."Joshua Gamsom recreates this world vividly in that first chapter. Simultaneously, he introduces us to the members of Sylvester's family. His beautiful and beloved mother and grandmother. His twin sisters, Dette and Dean. The quotes are full of heart and expertly placed and the story unfolds like a fine silk fan. I can't help but think that Sylvester would be very pleased to read this biography.I had the honor of meeting with Sylvester to discuss a project a few years before his death. It was mid-afternoon and he was sewing sequins on something, which was his favorite pasttime. He was always sewing, a talent he picked up from the women who raised him. He walked over to the turntable and put on Patti LaBelle's "If Only You Knew" and said he was dedicating the song at his One-Night-Only concert the following night to his fans and supporters in San Francisco, the city in which he always felt most at home. That night, with Martha Wash at his side, they performed that song together, bouncing their voices off each other inside the Castro Theater. Those two powerful voices, the acoustics of the Castro Theater, and the magical spell he wove with Patti LaBelle's song was something to behold.That Sylvester could hold his own with the amazing Martha Wash is a testament to the power of his falsetto. He didn't have a thin, reedy falsetto. His was full-bodied, gravelly even, and very much in evidence on one of his biggest hits, "Do You Wanna Funk.""So when I tell you, that you're really something, baby, will you stay, or will you go away."Joshua Gamson captures the essence of Sylvester's personality, the diva fits as well as the immense kindness and sensitivity, and wraps it all together into an highly readable book that I wholeheartedly suggest you pick up. Although some have faulted him for not having an encyclopedic knowledge of music, Gamson lets experts like Joel Selvin provide insightful commentary.It is my hope that someone has optioned the book for a movie and we can expect to see this wild individual portrayed in all his glory.John Waters wraps up "The Fabulous Sylvester" pretty well in his cover blurb: "A well-written, touching, dignified biography of a gay black diva who never really fit into any minority but managed to achieve his dreams of stardom. Now that's what I call a man."Five Stars. Great Read.
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