The subtitle of this book describes it as a “Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism,” but this is an essential work for anyone who wants to understand song lyrics. Gates uncovers the coded meanings in vernacular texts, and I’ve usefully applied his conceptual framework to everything from the lyrics of Sappho to the blues songs of Robert Johnson. Because songs have frequently addressed controversial issues long before the broader culture accepts them, you often have to crack the code to understand what’s actually happening in the music. That’s especially true of songs of the African diaspora, but the framework provided here has much broader applicability.