Tuesday, December 16, 2003 5:52 PM
Newly elected Press Club board member Bob Baker has a surprising answer when you ask him how long he worked on the newly published autobiography of legendary R&B deejay Magnificent Montague, “Burn, Baby! BURN!”
“Thirty-eight years,” he says.
That’s how long ago Baker first heard Montague on Los Angeles radio station KGFJ. It was just after the Watts Riots of 1965, in which rioters had begun using Montague’s trademark-”Burn, Baby! Burn!”-to the deejay’s shock. A year and a half later he left the station.
Twenty years later, as an L.A. Times reporter, Baker tracked down Montague for a where-is-he-now piece. Montague had built and was running an easy-listening station in Palm Springs. Eventually they became friends and in 1992 decided to collaborate on Montague’s rise in radio during the days in which soul music was born and segre- gation was only beginning to recede.
The University of Illinois Press pub- lished “Burn, Baby! BURN!” in November. An L.A. Times review called it “a fascinating picture of a creative and dynamic spirit….a freewheeling, impres- sionistic mix of stories and opinions,
poetry and prose, all delivered in an easy yet compelling style that’s close to the spoken word.”
Other reviews, old audio clips of Montague and his recent National Public Radio interview are available on his website, www.magnificentmontague.com.
