![]() ![]() In addition to her personal accounts, Smith beautifully incorporates interviews with some of the artists who helped her through dark days, including Linda “Peaches” Greene from Peaches and Herb, Will Guest from the Pips, Marilyn McCoo from the 5th Dimension, Jody Whatley, and dozens of significant music and cultural writers spanning decades. The common thread through it all is the songs that provided the backing track to her life over the years. Smith courageously recounts some uncomfortable childhood moments, and struggles from her career working in the music and media businesses. In the very next paragraph, Smith moves from Summer’s story to her own so seamlessly that it takes a minute to realize the transition has occurred (which happens a few times throughout the book). LaDonna of Massachusetts wanted her freedom from a strict but loving home and from the racial separatism of Boston, so she created it.” But even with the white husband and white creative partners and working in a world of European whiteness, none of it was easy. ![]() “Boston was in the rearview,” Smith writes. She wasn’t boxed into the soul sound that had dominated African American music since the 1950s. At this point, Summer was making disco music and exploring new frontiers in recording. A particularly poignant moment in the book is the story of Summer’s (born LaDonna Gaines) time in Germany, when she learned German (in record time) and married Austrian Actor Helmuth Sommer. ![]()
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