Wow, what a great book. It reads like a high-level, romantic and lyrically-written primer on all the varying forces that have shaped human history (migration, westward expansion and the search for paradise; empirism, colonialism, and fights for freedom; the horrors of slavery and the communities and music that came of it; wars, assassinations, and the periods of confused, frightened rigidity in between; religion, myths and folklore) and therefore shaped the human desire for the ecstatic, the momentary freedom of song and dance, the glimpse of the great beyond.

At points, Hill gets a bit too far into the weeds - the lengthy (multi-page) description of the inspiration behind "Walk Away Renee" and it's correlation with Dante's Divine Comedy, for example - and loses the thread and the reader. But for the most part, this book is brilliant.

This is a wonderful book for music and history lovers. I started reading it and couldn't put it down!

Thanks so much for sending me this book - sadly I do not have the facility to easily read PDFs. Is there any chance you could send me a Kindle copy? If so, I will read and review it. Thanks again. I look forward to hearing from you.

I am very sorry, but I am unable to download the book, so I cannot review it. I have a kindle fire, so I cannot download the app suggested by NetGalley and I do not like reading on my PC. I will pre-order the book and buy it instead. Apologies.