Mark Bego is the best-selling biographer of pop and rock stars. He is the author of 50 published books and has taped an episode of A&E-TV's "Biography," discussing his book, Aretha Franklin: Queen of Soul . Mr. Bego's is also the author of Billy Joel: The Biography . He divides his time between New York City, Los Angeles, and Tucson, Arizona.
In this unauthorized biography, Bego (who has written books on Michael Jackson and Elton John, among many others) expands his previous books, published in 1989 and 2001, about dynamic vocalist Franklin. For this third book, Bego includes all of the earlier editions, adding "over one dozen Aretha Franklin stories and two new chapters in order to bring the story all the way up to 2012." Those 53 pages tacked on at the end are followed by a "new and improved" reconstructed discography. Here are the highs (singing at the Clinton White House, being a 1994 Kennedy Center Honoree, winning 20 Grammy Awards, performing at Obama's inauguration) and the lows: teen pregnancies, her stormy first marriage, canceled engagements, lawsuits, drinking and weight problems, the fire at her $1.8 million home. Bego writes with enthusiasm and manages to juggle "conflicting information," but since Franklin prefers privacy, he's unable to get the inside information that would have captured the soul of this legendary soul singer. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Bego's detail-laden effort could well stand as the definitive reading of the Queen of Soul's life and career, barring an objective account by Her Majesty herself. But while certainly interesting, Aretha's life does not lend itself to the in-print excitement that, say, a Jerry Lee Lewis or a Keith Moon might inspire. Indeed, so much of Franklin's life is shrouded by a veil of privacy that it was a real challenge for Bego to unearth as much as he did. Although he obviously reveres his subject, he nevertheless displays a good reporter's fearlessness in revealing less-than-complimentary aspects of Franklin's life. He occasionally gets bogged down with minutiae (especially when writing about recording sessions), but his overall performance is good. Recommended for popular music collections.-- David M. Turkalo, Social Law Lib., Boston
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