rd<\/sup> birthday in June, and spends most of his time at his farm in Alabama. But over the last little while, he\u2019s found the time to create an autobiography\/memoir: Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood: My Life in Soul<\/i> (out today<\/i>, August 10, from BMG Books). Cowritten with Tony Fletcher (Moon<\/i> and other music biographies), Floyd\u2019s book is a lively trip through a life that has seen its share of twists and turns. Floyd spent a good chunk of his youth in juvenile detention facility, and \u2013 this is a tale one doesn\u2019t often hear \u2013 he considers himself much better for the experience.<\/p>\nIn vivid detail, Floyd charts his life in music, form childhood to present day. It\u2019s a story that bounces around from Alabama to Detroit to Washington D.C. to Memphis to London and beyond, and it\u2019s never less than an engaging story. The book is a breezy read, and benefits from Floyd\u2019s storytelling prowess and keen memory as well as from Fletcher\u2019s added context and focus.<\/p>\n
As Floyd told me in an extensive interview (one that forms the basis of a feature I\u2019m writing for Record Collector<\/i> Magazine), the process of writing the book came down to him telling Fletcher stores and Fletcher writing them. But the author did more; he manages to capture the cadence, the style, the personality of Eddie Floyd\u2019s voice in the pages of the book. Having spent time in conversation with Floyd, I can attest that Fletcher skillfully captures the musician\u2019s essence in the book\u2019s pages.<\/p>\n
That, however, makes the very few missteps in the book stand in sharper relief than they otherwise would. As a coauthor, Fletcher clearly endeavors to render himself invisible; Knock! Knock! Knock! On Wood<\/i> is told in Eddie Floyd\u2019s voice, from Floyd\u2019s point of view. But on more than a few occasions, the first-person storyteller uses the phrase \u201cThat\u2019s as may be.\u201d Find me an American who uses that phrase. Go ahead; I\u2019ll wait. (Fletcher is British, by the way.) There\u2019s also a sticks-out-like-a-thumb reference to \u201chigh street\u201d shops. We \u2018Murcans don\u2019t call \u2018em that.<\/p>\n
Again, in a less skillfully-written book, the aforementioned unforced errors wouldn\u2019t stand out. But here they do. Still, they don\u2019t take away from the interesting story that Floyd has to tell.<\/p>\n
More successfully, Fletcher fleshes out some of the stories in a manner more effective than exposition: he enists other notable figures, quoting them at length to fill in the gaps and provide additional perspective. Occasionally, the transition from Fletcher-as-Floyd (or Floyd-via-Fletcher) to a different storyteller feels like a speed bump, but in the end, it\u2019s an effective way to tackle the material.<\/p>\n
As he explains in the book, Floyd isn\u2019t interested in digging up scandal or discussing politics. That\u2019s his right, and since he\u2019s led a scandal-free, largely apolitical life, it makes sense in context. So don\u2019t come to the book looking for any of that sort of thing. Fans of soul music, r&b or the American musical experience in general are encouraged to give Floyd\u2019s book a read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eddie Floyd is best known for his 1966 hit single, \u201cKnock on Wood.\u201d Backed by the Stax band Booker T & the MGs, Floyd delivered a powerful, soulful and highly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19330,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,49,65,69],"tags":[4279,2032],"class_list":["post-19329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book","category-new-release","category-review","category-soul","tag-eddie-floyd","tag-stax","cat-10-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","cat-69-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19329"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19332,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19329\/revisions\/19332"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Eddie Floyd is best known for his 1966 hit single, \u201cKnock on Wood.\u201d Backed by the Stax band Booker T & the MGs, Floyd delivered a powerful, soulful and highly memorable performance, one that earned him a place in soul music history. He did a lot more of note before and after, though: he was one of the staff writers at the Memphis label, penning songs that would become hits for Otis Redding (\u201c634-5789\u201d), Sam and Dave, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor and other greats. He\u2019s remained active, playing regularly in the UK and Europe, where he\u2019s still enormously popular (he was a key figure on the famous Stax Revue back in the day).<\/p>\n