amy winehouse lyric

Contents
Introduction
BOOK I
1
The Uses of the Blues: James Baldwin’s Lyrical Quest
1
“Not the country we’re sitting in now”:
Amputation/Gangrene Past and Present
23
2
Blues Constants, Jazz Changes: Toward a Writing
Immune to Bullshit
36
3
“Making words do something”: Retracing James
Baldwin’s Career
42
BOOK II The Uses of the Lyric: Billie’s Quest, Dinah’s Blues, Jimmy’s
Amen, and Brother Ray’s Hallelujah
4
Billie Holiday: Radical Lyricist
131
5
Dinah Washington’s Blues and the Trans- Digressive Ocean
149
6
“But Amen is the price”: James Baldwin and Ray Charles in
“The Hallelujah Chorus”
162
viii
Contents
BOOK III “For you I was a flame”: Baldwin’s Lyrical Lens
on Contemporary Culture
7
On Camden Row: Amy Winehouse’s Lyric Lines
in a Living Inheritance
193
8
Speechless in San Francisco. “A somewhat better place to
lie about”: An Inter-View
215
9
“In a way they must . . .”: Turf Feinz and Black Style
in an Age of Sights for the Speechless
241
10
“Shades cannot be fixed”: On Privilege, Blindness,
and Second Sight
252
Conclusion: The Brilliance of Children, the Duty of Citizens
277
Acknowledgments
295
Notes
297
Bibliography
323
Index
329