Peace, Love, and Soul

I don't bother with any of the pocket lint that's normally shown on VH1, but they did a very worthwhile documentary about Soul Train that premiered over the weekend. I should have clued you into it ahead of time, but I didn't know about it myself until after it had aired. I was able to record one of the subsequent showings and we watched it last night.

The first music I recall from my childhood is Motown--The Temptations, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, the Jackson 5. My dad loved R&B and soul, so we also had Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Marvin Gaye, and Sly & The Family Stone on regular rotation in our house. Naturally Soul Train was a show my dad would want to watch.

I can't say I remember us watching it every week, but that was probably because my father was a police officer, and often worked nights and weekends. So we were probably catching the show if it was on when he happened to be home. But I do remember being ten or twelve and getting an introduction to the idea of live performance and the visual aspects of music along with an appreciation of the artists and their work.

The VH1 show, Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America, did a nice job of placing the genesis of Soul Train in the context of the larger social and cultural changes taking place around the beginning of the 1970s. It was first nationally syndicated in 1971, and stayed on the air for 35 years. As of now the documentary does not appear to be scheduled to air again, and I don't think it's available anywhere to watch online, which is unfortunate. If I find it in the listings again I'll post an update.