Don Knew the Difference

People forget that Soul Train started in Chicago.  It was a city that could support a weekly music show intended for a black audience. It was also a city packed with talent. There were writers, producers, musicians and talented vocalists living there, hanging out and turning out music in phenomenal amounts.

The first guests Don Cornelius had on his show were Jerry Butler, the Chi-lites and the Emotions. A backup group led by a young musician named Maurice White would ultimately evolve into Earth, Wind and Fire.

When it came to music, Don Cornelius knew the difference. While disc jockeys across the country called it R&B, short for rhythm and blues, and most people referred to it as Soul Music, Don Cornelius knew that every city had a style and a sound.

That helped him make Soul Train different from a host of local shows created at the time that never quite caught on, locally and never really had a shot at syndication.  Chicago's Dells were not Cleveland's O'Jays, and Philadelphia's Intruders were not Cincinnati's Isley Brothers.

Don exposed two generations of young people to the sound tracks of their lives. The show provided an escape from chores, Saturday jobs and the stifling sameness of the neighborhoods many of us never left until we headed off for college or the military.

Gut-bucket Blues singers like Joe Simon and Johnny Taylor appeared on the show and sang songs that made their music urban enough to make national charts. Household names like the Temptations and the Four Tops checked their Las Vegas acts at the door and "came home to play just for folks."

Marvin Gaye sang songs, and sometimes even played basketball in outfits that him and Don wore that today's kids would say just looked "young."

When you had to have a huge hit to get any national exposure, Soul Train's syndicated success brought acts into markets from New York and Miami to San Diego and Seattle. The show was never on everywhere, but if you were black and ran into anyone else who was, you could talk about it anywhere.

I doubt that I know anyone who came of age between 1965 and 2005 who never tried to make a fashion statement with something they saw on Soul Train. From Apple Hats to Flagg Brother's boots, or those suspendered hotpants and the ever present Afro picks Soul Train helped define America's vision of black youth having fun.

If you grew up watching fuzzy images on Mississippi televisions from stations in New Orleans, or searched for signals in the rec lounge of some dormitory of some rural college campus on Saturday, Soul Train was not something you wanted to miss.




I could have written about politics, or the economy or this weekend's Superbowl tonight, but February 1, 2012 belongs to Don Cornelius. He knew the difference when it came to music, but he also knew what made us more alike. His idea and his legacy helped define what it meant to be into Black culture for more than 30 years. We will miss him.