Talk:David Nathan (music writer)

Problems with this article
Generally there is much unsourced information. It is moved here to this talk page -- when valid references can be found, please re-insert the referenced information back into the article.


 * soul music historian, journalist, author, founder of Soul Music.com, record producer and singer/songwriter, who lived in the U.S. from 1975-2009 and now resides in London.

Early life

 * Born in London, he set up the UK's first Nina Simone Appreciation Society at the age of 16. In 1966, with Dave Godin and Robert Blackmore, he established Soul City, the first record store outside the US specialising in American rhythm and blues and soul music and which also became a record label. It was credited with helping to inspire the popularity of the music in the UK.

Writing and media career

 * From 1970, he worked for Contempo Records and as a journalist for Blues & Soul magazine in London. In 1975 he moved to America as the magazine's correspondent and contributing editor, interviewing hundreds of musicians and record producers until the magazine's ownership changed in 1981.  After a period working for Werner Erhard and Associates, he wrote the book "Lionel Richie: An Illustrated Biography," began writing biographies and doing freelance journalism, writing for Billboard, USA Today and others including Blues & Soul which he rejoined in the mid-1980s.  He also began writing record company bios for major artists and producers such as Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Usher, Luther Vandross, Patti LaBelle, Gamble & Huff, Raphael Saadiq and others. producing over 500 reissues of classic rhythm and blues and soul music CDs. An extensive list of his credits including 2008 co-production of "Songs 4 Worship Soul" (with Melba Moore, Teddy Pendergrass, Deniece Williams, Jody Watley, Peabo Bryson, Regina Belle and others) for Time Life can be found at Allmusic


 * In 1990 he set up a media coaching and training service for R&B artists, was given the first journalist award by The International Association of African-American Music (IAAAM) and authored his second book, "The Soulful Divas" in 1999. In 2001 he started www.soulmusic.com, a top-rated soul music website which now features much of the archival content that Nathan wrote from 1967-1979 including articles on legendary artists such as Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, Minnie Riperton, Phyllis Hyman, Earth, Wind & Fire, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Esther Phillips, Stevie Wonder, Gladys Knight, Labelle, The Isley Brothers and dozens more. In 2010, Nathan relaunched Soul Music.com Records as a reissue label via Cherry Red and since September 2010, the imprint has released original albums by Mtume, The Dynamic Superiors, The Chi-Lites, The Stylistics, Esther Phillips, Marlena Shaw, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole and Dionne Warwick. He also served as secretary and board member of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation for ten years.  In 2004 he co-wrote a biography of Nina Simone, "Break Down and Let it All Out".

Recording career

 * In the 1990s, encouraged by friends including Doris Troy and Bonnie Raitt, he began a parallel singing career, releasing his first CD, Reinvention, in 2003 on his own Nefer Music label. The album featured guest appearances by saxophonist Najee and vocal group The Sweet Inspirations. In 2007, he released his second album, Wistful Elegance, with jazz/R&B group Pharaoh's Dream. with guests Will Downing, Kenny Lattimore and others and production by Preston Glass.


 * In 2010, after returning to the U.K. a year earlier, David introduced his musical alter ego, Nefer Davis via Facebook and Reverbnation and in February 2011, Nefer released his first CD, "I Used To Rule The World..." with covers of Coldplay's Viva La Vida, The Bee Gees' To Love Somebody and Billy Stewart's "Sitting In The Park" among key tracks.

Please remember that Wikipedia is not suitable for advertising as per WP:SPAM; please only add information which is verifiable which uses reliable sources, thank you.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 14:20, 17 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I have maintained the removal of the self-promotional material, while adding (or re-adding, in some cases) some sourced, accurate and uncontentious factual information. Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:27, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Essentially you're restored the article back to a mostly unsourced puff piece. What I've been trying to tell you is that perhaps you think you're doing Nathan a great service by adding unsourced information about how Nathan has a "singing career", about how his album had guest appearances by Najee or whatever, but my sense as a writer is that you're shooting yourself and Nathan in the foot here. There's a reason that reporters didn't write about his singing career -- the reporters didn't find Nathan's singing to be that interesting. So they didn't write about it. Why are YOU writing about what reporters aren't writing about? It makes Nathan and yourself and the rest of us Wikipedians look amateurish, like an aunt gushing at a dinner party about the exploits of what-she-thinks-is a fascinating cousin. Trust me -- less is more. A tighter, fact-based article makes Nathan seem like a heavyweight with-it can-do music writer; the current version makes him seem like a struggling wishy-washy can't-figure-out-what-he's-doing nobody. As I keep learning time and again, Wikipedia's rules are great -- they have a purpose -- please respect them. It's for your own good. I'm no longer going to fuss with this article and I'm leaving it up to you and others what to do here.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 23:53, 20 June 2011 (UTC)
 * I disagree, though I've trimmed a few words. I have absolutely no intention of seeking to present him as a "heavyweight with-it can-do music writer", and I entirely agree that his singing "career" is not notable in itself - but that's not the point, it forms part of a rounded biography. In my view the article is now balanced, sourced, and complies with WP:BLP.   Ghmyrtle (talk) 08:14, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Picture needed
If anybody has a picture of David Nathan which they have the copyright for, please write something here or on my talk page, thanx.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 15:26, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Alleged COI
An allegation of a conflict of interest has been made by User:86.19.238.17. I refute that allegation. Edits were made in the past to this article by User:Davidpnathan here, and by User:BritSoulMan (probably the same editor) here, but they have subsequently been removed in later editing. There seems to be an ongoing low-level content dispute about this article, but it has nothing to do with WP:COI - unless someone thinks that I have something to do with Nathan, which is certainly not the case. Ghmyrtle (talk) 09:03, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

David Nathan photograph
Since I am the David Nathan referred to in this entry, I am happy to supply an authorized photograph. Please advise the best way to do so. Many thanks, David (BritSoulMan (talk) 09:06, 8 April 2012 (UTC))


 * I found this note about the David Nathan photograph on my talk page and I am moving it to the talk page of the David Nathan article (here) since it pertains to this discussion. I worked on the David Nathan article a while back. It had been a puff piece, with much unreferenced material, unencyclopedic. I honed down the article to something professional-looking, namely here. It was trim, lean, to-the-point and (in my view) I thought it presented the subject of the story -- David Nathan -- fairly, without bias, impartially, since I followed Wikipedia's rules. Soon thereafter, my changes were reverted by another Wikipedian, perhaps yourself, perhaps a fan of yours, that is, IF you are David Nathan as you claim. So now the article is back to being a puff piece, a fairly obvious bit of self-promotion, something I don't trust, something which when I read it, I roll my eyeballs and don't believe any of it. The current David Nathan article indirectly makes the rest of Wikipedians look rather like amateurs and it undoes the hard work of others here who try to follow the rules. If you have been editing your own article, that's breaking Wikipedia's rules about conflict of interest. So frankly I do not have much interest in getting your picture in there. The exception is that if my revamp is restored, and is allowed to remain for some time, then I may be willing to help in the future; but frankly working on a flawed article is back to amateur-land for me, and does not interest me much.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 11:11, 8 April 2012 (UTC)

I've responded to BritSoulMan's comment, at his talk page. Ghmyrtle (talk) 20:50, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 1 one external link on David Nathan (music writer). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110614074909/http://www.soulmusic.com/danapa.html to http://www.soulmusic.com/danapa.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 07:32, 8 December 2016 (UTC)