My Song
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Harry Belafonte
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Mirron Willis
About this listen
Harry Belafonte is not just one of the greatest entertainers of our time; he has led one of the great American lives of the last century. Now, this extraordinary icon tells us the story of that life, giving us its full breadth, letting us share in the struggles, the tragedies, and, most of all, the inspiring triumphs.
Belafonte grew up, poverty-ridden, in Harlem and Jamaica. His mother was a complex woman - caring but withdrawn, eternally angry and rarely satisfied. His father was distant and physically abusive. It was not an easy life, but it instilled in young Harry the hard-nosed toughness of the city and the resilient spirit of the Caribbean lifestyle. It also gave him the drive to make good and channel his anger into actions that were positive and life-affirming. His journey led to the U.S. Navy during World War II, where he encountered an onslaught of racism but also fell in love with the woman he eventually married. After the war he moved back to Harlem, where he drifted between odd jobs until he saw his first stage play - and found the life he wanted to lead. Theater opened up a whole new world, one that was artistic and political and made him realize that not only did he have a need to express himself, he had a lot to express.
He began as an actor - and has always thought of himself as such - but was quickly spotted in a musical, began a tentative nightclub career, and soon was on a meteoric rise to become one of the world’s most popular singers. Belafonte was never content to simply be an entertainer, however. Even at enormous personal cost, he could not shy away from activism. At first it was a question of personal dignity: breaking down racial barriers that had never been broken before, achieving an enduring popularity with both White and Black audiences. Then his activism broadened to a lifelong, passionate involvement at the heart of the civil rights movement and countless other political and social causes. The sections on the rise of the civil rights movement are perhaps the most moving in the book: his close friendship with Martin Luther King, Jr.; his role as a conduit between Dr. King and the Kennedys; his up-close involvement with the demonstrations and awareness of the hatred and potential violence around him; his devastation at Dr. King’s death and his continuing fight for what he believes is right.
But My Song is far more than the history of a movement. It is a very personal look at the people in that movement and the world in which Belafonte has long moved. He has befriended many beloved and important figures in both entertainment and politics - Paul Robeson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sidney Poitier, John F. Kennedy, Marlon Brando, Robert Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Fidel Castro, Tony Bennett, Bill Clinton - and writes about them with the same exceptional candor with which he reveals himself on every page. This is a book that pulls no punches, and turns both a loving and critical eye on our country’s cultural past.
As both an artist and an activist, Belafonte has touched countless lives. With My Song, he has found yet another way to entertain and inspire us. It is an electrifying memoir from a remarkable man.
©2011 Harry Belafonte (P)2011 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY and the Lost Story of 1970
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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January 1970: the Beatles assemble one more time to put the finishing touches on Let It Be; Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young are wrapping up Déjà Vu; Simon and Garfunkel are unveiling Bridge Over Troubled Water; James Taylor is an upstart singer-songwriter who's just completed Sweet Baby James. Over the course of the next twelve months, their lives---and the world around them---will change irrevocably.
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Fascinating information, easy to listen
- By NCKitkat on 07-28-11
By: David Browne
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Shine Bright
- A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop
- By: Danyel Smith
- Narrated by: Danyel Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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A weave of biography, criticism, and memoir, Shine Bright is Danyel Smith’s intimate history of Black women’s music as the foundational story of American pop. Smith has been writing this history for more than five years. But as a music fan, and then as an essayist, editor (Vibe, Billboard), and podcast host (Black Girl Songbook), she has been living this history since she was a latchkey kid listening to “Midnight Train to Georgia” on the family stereo.
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Ok might have been better reading the hard copy
- By cde on 06-18-22
By: Danyel Smith
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Tearing Down the Wall of Sound
- The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
- By: Mick Brown
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Phil Spector, born in the Bronx in 1940, grew up an outsider despised by his peers. But he formed a band, and had a number-one hit with "To Know Him Is to Love Him". He quickly became the top producer of early rock and roll and the originator of such girl groups as the Ronettes. Hit followed hit, and for all of them he used a new recording style called the "wall of sound". But the reign of the boy-man who owned pop music was doomed, and Spector spiraled into paranoid isolation and peculiar behavior.
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Descent Into Madness
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Mick Brown
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Good Day!
- The Paul Harvey Story
- By: Paul J. Batura
- Narrated by: Paul J. Batura
- Length: 6 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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In Good Day!: The Paul Harvey Story, author Paul J. Batura follows the remarkable life of one of the founding fathers of the news media. Paul Harvey started his career during the Great Depression and narrated America's story day by day, through wars and peace, the threat of communism and the crumbling of old colonial powers, consumer booms and eventual busts.
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Should have been better
- By Royce Brown on 12-21-09
By: Paul J. Batura
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The Walrus and the Elephants
- John Lennon’s Years of Revolution
- By: James A. Mitchell
- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 6 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In late 1971 John Lennon left London behind and moved to New York, eager to join a youth movement rallying for social justice and an end to the Vietnam War. Lennon was quickly embraced by radicals and revolutionaries, the hippies and Yippies at odds with the establishment. Settling in Greenwich Village, the heart of Manhattan's counterculture, the former Beatle was soon on the frontlines of the antiwar movement and championing a range of causes and issues.
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I wish you were still here
- By Kazuhiko on 12-09-13
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Boom!
- Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today
- By: Tom Brokaw
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to "turn on, tune in, drop out". While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.
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boring survey of a generation
- By Andy on 01-01-08
By: Tom Brokaw
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Homey Don't Play That!
- The Story of In Living Color and the Black Comedy Revolution
- By: David Peisner
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Few television shows revolutionized comedy as profoundly or have had such an enormous and continued impact on our culture as In Living Color. Inspired by Richard Pryor, Carol Burnett, and Eddie Murphy, Keenen Ivory Wayans created a television series unlike any that had come before it. In Living Color shaped American culture in ways both seen and unseen. Now, Homey Don't Play That! reveals the complete, captivating story of how In Living Color overcame enormous odds to become a major, zeitgeist-seizing hit.
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Wow, that sucked......
- By Just W on 10-11-18
By: David Peisner
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Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
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The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
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Sidney Poitier
- Man, Actor, Icon
- By: Aram Goudsouzian
- Narrated by: J. D. Jackson
- Length: 20 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first full biography of actor Sidney Poitier, Aram Goudsouzian analyzes the life and career of a Hollywood legend, from his childhood in the Bahamas to his 2002 Oscar for lifetime achievement. Poitier is a gifted actor, a great American success story, an intriguing personality, and a political symbol; his life and career illuminate America's racial history.
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The Man, the Star, the Lightning Rod
- By Susie on 01-28-13
By: Aram Goudsouzian
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I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else
- My Life on the Street, on the Stage, and in the Movies
- By: Danny Aiello, Gil Reavill
- Narrated by: Danny Aiello
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Beloved stage and screen actor Danny Aiello’s big-hearted memoir reveals a man of passion, integrity, and guts - and lays bare one of the most unlikely success stories ever told. Danny Aiello admits that he backed into his acting career by mistake. That’s easy to see when you begin at the beginning: Raised by his loving and fiercely resilient mother in the tenements of Manhattan and the South Bronx, and forever haunted by the death of his infant brother, Danny struggled early on to define who he was and who he could be.
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I want to give Danny Aiello a big hug.
- By Mari K. on 01-22-15
By: Danny Aiello, and others
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You Might Remember Me
- The Life and Times of Phil Hartman
- By: Mike Thomas
- Narrated by: Corey Snow
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Both joyous tribute and serious biography, Mike Thomas' You Might Remember Me is a celebration of Phil Hartman's multi-faceted career and an exhaustively reported, warts-and-all examination of his often intriguing and sometimes complicated life - a powerful, humor-filled and disquieting portrait of a man who was loved by many, admired by millions and taken from them far too early.
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I Will Remember You Phil Hartman
- By Roxanna on 12-19-14
By: Mike Thomas
What listeners say about My Song
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Morris Villarroel
- 01-17-20
Amazing listen, a lesson in 20th century history
I loved listening to Belafonte as a child and was looking forward to learning more about his life. Not only does this book provide quite a synopsis of his early life and career, it melds with important historial moments in American history, and international music history in surprising ways. The book is long, but covers lots of stuff and never gets boring. I would have preferred to hear the story from the singer himself but unfortunately his voice is not up to it... he only speaks in the intro. Mirron Willis does a good job though and many times you just believe he is Harry. One minor annoyance, all dates are said in an unnatural way, e.g., "June one" instead of June first (1st), May fifteen instead of fifteenth, etc.
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- Smith
- 02-13-17
Chronicles Civil Rights Movement in a Personal Way
My Song is one of the best historical memoirs I have ever read. Hearing Belafonte reading puts him in the room with the listener. His closeness to Martin Luther King and ability to access Bobby Kennedy make awesome accounts. Belafonte' intelligence, insights, rich vocabulary and melodies voice create a top-level experience.
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- JoJo
- 07-05-12
Wow!
I totally did not know Harry Belafonte this way. I had not known how important he was to the civil rights movement and I had known how big of an entertainer he was in his time. Belafonte does come across as somewhat arrogant but the reader is able to overlook this because his contribution is so vast (assuming all he says is true and I think he is credible). The reader also realizes that entertainment was actually the secondary role in his life and tackling social causes was the primary. As mentioned before, he has a pronounced ego but I suppose that worked for him in instances when he needed to be strong and self-assured. He has strong opinions on public figures that I do not always agree with but that is uniquely who he is - he usually speaks his mind. I also question some of the things he found necessary to include in the book like MLK's true feelings about his wife - it was not important to Belafonte's story and not his business to reveal. Like him a lot or a little, it is an interesting book that is well written and engagingly narrated.
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- Khafre
- 12-30-11
Amazing
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I have listend to digital books for years and this my first review. Harry Belafonte's life was and is simply amazing. The narration was perfect. I have purchased hard copies of the book for myself, my son, my aunt and a close friend. It is that good.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Mr. Teflon
- 08-19-16
Great historical and entertaining book!!!
Really enjoyed the content, details about public personalities and candid expression. This book had a cadence that made it exciting from beginning to the end. Awesome work!
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- Sandra
- 05-19-21
An exceptional life... truly lived!
I loved this book and would recommend to others. Most especially anyone who wants to learn about the early Civil rights movement. or, like myself, be reminded of what it was like when we were young and the times wenhave.lived through. I'm a white 7 year old woman, who was raised in New England. I want directly touched by most of the early days as I was a child. Upon moving to NYC in 1966 that changed. Mr. Belefonte's story is a straightforward telling of the times, from an insiders viewpoint, complete with his personal beliefs and misgivings. I've adored his music since I was 11 years old, and I knew of his involvement in Civil rights.... just not the extent. I admire him all the more for having just completed this book. God bless him. He is a treasure!
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- Regena
- 11-16-11
Iconic
Great insight into the life of one who lived the Civil Rights. Excellent historical account of Balafonte's life and the movement for justice!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Dominique
- 01-31-20
a celebration of life and human rights
I has no idea Belafonte was such a mover and shaker in the world and national events that shaped and created the United States. It was amazing to learn about his humble beginnings and his struggles as a man alien to his race, love and the industry who could be so fickle towards him on the basis of race. I am happy to hear he was able to overcome most of these obstacles and that he too made mistakes and learned from them. This book was very inspiring.
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- George W.
- 10-08-18
Awesome!
I thought I knew Mr Belafonte, but after reading this I can see I didn't know the half. He has touched and been touched by some of the greatest people in history!. I am truly awed .
PLEASE READ
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- EEE
- 12-21-23
What a life of purpose and meaning!
A five-star listen of creativity, friendship, and strategy in pursuit of the Civil Rights movement. Don’t miss this one.
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