Burn, Baby! Burn!

The Autobiography of Magnificent Montague

Author: Magnificent Montague with Bob Baker

Reflections from the legendary R & B deejay whose signature sound seared the airwaves

Paper – $19.95

978-0-252-07684-8

Publication Date

Paperback: 07/31/2009

Series: Music in American Life

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About the Book

With his dynamic on-air personality and his trademark cry of "Burn, baby! BURN!" before spinning the hottest new records, Magnificent Montague was the charismatic voice of soul music in Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s. In this memoir Montague recounts his momentous radio career, which ran from the era of segregation to that of the civil rights movement. He also tells the broader story of a life spent in the passionate pursuit of knowledge.

About the Author

Magnificent Montague (Nathaniel Montague) has been a disc jockey, a radio station owner, and a major collector of black memorabilia. He lives in Las Vegas. Bob Baker was a staff writer and the former deputy metropolitan editor at the Los Angeles Times for twenty-six years and is the author of Newsthinking: The Secret of Making Your Facts Fall into Place.

Reviews

"Montague's undeniable energy and passion for life leap from the pages."--Los Angeles Sentinel

Blurbs

"Montague! Dynamic! Understanding! A brother in the struggle! Yes, the Magnificent Montague! A man who commanded so much love and respect it will never, never, never be replaced. Take it from the Godfather of Soul, paying homage to the Don of Radio: This book tells it all."--James Brown

"Webster defines 'magnificent' as splendid, superb, noble--truly a description of Montague. He was splendid in his ability to captivate the listening audience, superb in his role as a community leader, and noble in the way he showed young people how to move through life with class. As I looked up these definitions, I thought to myself, 'Webster must have known my friend Montague.' I'm so glad he was around during the infancy years at Motown. What a blessing he was to so many of us."--Smokey Robinson

"The only sustained account by a black deejay who lived through the harshly segregated world of the 1950s and the explosive civil rights era of the 1960s. This book is a valuable contribution to the literature of black life and history."--Robert Pruter, author of Chicago Soul and Doowop: The Chicago Scene