The Hippest Trip.............!!!!!

I had such a pleasurable weekend. Yes of course because I hung out with my family during Thanksgiving, but please don't tell them.........that they were NOT the highlight.  The highlight for a lover of R&B music like myself was watching SOUL TRAIN.  The Soul Train Awards were in rare form last night and I was extremely proud of US!  But.........what made the awards even that much more enjoyable is that they had run a documentary about the beginning of Soul Train called......Soul Train: The Hippest Trip in America. 

Now growing up and having Soul Train on in my home for as long as I can remember, gives me pride to blog about this today.  I have to admit that I didn't understand that before Soul Train, we as African Americans, did not have any positive representation of who we TRULY are on television. I have never been part of a world where there were no African Americans on television. So therefore I didn't truly understand the power that Soul Train had.  Not until I was taken on a trip back through time. 

My pride of course first comes from the fact that Soul Train began in CHICAGO BABY!  Right on WCIU the home of Judge Mathis. One of the Chicago dancers told us a story about how he used to love to dance on Soul Train, and how he was coming home one night from his girlfriend's house and got jumped and robbed by a bunch of guys.  They took his coat, clothes, and money........UNTIL one dude recognized him as a Soul Train dancer.  When they realized that he was a dancer on Soul Train they gave him back the things that they had stolen........and all of his money...........PLUS they gave him some money to catch a cab 'cause he was in a bad neighborhood and people might hurt him. (that's funny coming from the robbers isn't it?)   The power of our pride for our music. 

Soul Train is where we went to have pride in our race.  Soul Train is where we went to find out the new dances. Soul Train is where we went to find out the newest fashions.  Soul Train is where we went to be able to see our favorite artists.  Soul Train was a source of power and pride for us.  ALL URBAN DANCING including, breaking, popping and locking, was born out of Soul Train. And the Soul Train dancers were ALL BLACKS..........ALL BROTHERS & SISTERS, ALL AFRICAN AMERICAN. There was no break dancing or break dancers or "B" boys and "B" girl before Soul Train. When Soul Train came on, that was a time when all Black people were one.  We were doing the same thing, watching the same thing, imitating the same thing, and even dreaming the same things. 

Soul Train was HOME for African American artists, dancers, singers, producers, camera men & women, stage crew, musicians, watchers and wannabees. 

Until I watched the documentary I didn't know that Shalamar was birthed right out of Soul Train.  Jodie Watley and Jeffrey Daniels were Soul Train dance partners.  And Executive Producer Don Cornelius decided to start a Soul Train record label and Shalamar were the first artists signed to this label.  Jody Watley went from dancing on Soul Train to "Looking for a New Love" as a solo singing artist.  Jeffrey Daniel is now a a famed choreographer, and is directly responsible for teaching the world famous Moon Walk to Michael Jackson. Rosie Perez famed actress and choreographer also got her start as an unpaid dancer on Soul Train.

Snoop Dogg said on the documentary that Soul Train is what broke Hip Hop into the big time.  If it had not been for rap artists being able to break into Soul Train..........Hip Hop may never have been born.  We as an African American culture owe our loyalty to Soul Train and the pride that it instilled in us.  We as a people are always so ready to shed our culture and hop into the next big thing.  However by abandoning the great rich tradition of Soul Train we are doing a great "dis" service to the generations coming up behind us.

I know we all remember the Asian woman with the long long hair on Soul Train.  Well even if you don't ,she was a well known dancer.  She was on the documentary and she said that her life was so full of trauma and hurt and dysfunction, and coming to dance on Soul Train is what saved her life.  Soul Train gave her something to be a part of.  Soul Train gave her life meaning.  Soul Train "saved her life."  Those are her words and not mine. But hold up they are my words too........because music has saved my life too.  My life was filled with fatherlessness, abuse - sexual, physical, and mental, neglect, and poverty.  But I could lose my pain and my hurt inside the music.  I believe that singing in every school talent show, and singing with the choirs, and going to the South Shore Community Center on 76th and Phillips and making up dances with my girls is what inserted the LOVE THAT I WAS LACKING into my life.  I could have easily slid into a life of crime, teenage pregnancy, or drug usage............BUT I DIDN'T because the love that I was lacking in my life.........................was found in the heart and soul of the music.

So again I say in order to stop the rash of violence in our Chicago youth today we need to infuse them with the love and the healing power of music.  In a society where most homes are run by single mothers, there HAS to be something to come in and fill those voids, where love is lost.  Children are killing each other because our music has lost its love message.  We are failing our youth by denying them what we had.  REAL MUSIC.

Well I'm not even finished talking about the Soul Train documentary let alone the Soul Train Awards last night.  But there is so so so much to say.  I will be back to talk about. 

Give me a shout if you hear me............let me know what you think!