Soultrain.com sort of alleges itself to have the HD video, but I can’t find it there. In any case, this is a great song, killer outfits (I want all those! All I own is the pants of the dude with the hat. Hm. OK, her pants, but I don’t like them on me.) and Don Cornelius is rocking…just…is that tie 6 full inches wide? It is, right? Right on.
Wishing you peace, love, and soul, gentle readers.
{ 20 comments }
Elly 04.10.14 at 12:59 pm
Thank you! This song gives me a happy.
JG 04.10.14 at 1:55 pm
Bless you, Belle – loved it and it also brought tears to my eyes, for me, for us. We did believe, and many of us still do!
MG 04.10.14 at 2:09 pm
Thanks so much for this. I love the music, love the clothes, still miss SOUL TRAIN!
PJW 04.10.14 at 2:53 pm
Goosebumps. They used to play this every Friday night at the skating rink in the early ’70s in the small town where I grew up. Fond memories. “I’ll Be There” by the Jackson Five was also a great favorite.
Alan White 04.10.14 at 5:44 pm
The S-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-U-L Train!
That is a great song–now stuck in my head the rest of the day!
Thank you Belle!
Barbara 04.10.14 at 10:53 pm
The 70s was the best decade ever.
(What I remember of it, that is….)
Peter Hovde 04.11.14 at 2:47 am
I certainly hope she is correct.
Belle Waring 04.11.14 at 3:33 am
Me too. I told my daughters “I’m going to play you a cheerful uplifting song,” and they were like, “you’re being sarcastic, right?” But I wasn’t! Entirely. Because the music makes you feel a little heart-pain, the tune, truly. But yeah. ‘Someday, when your head is much lighter.’
maidhc 04.11.14 at 8:49 am
It’s interesting that they have a certain amount of choreography worked out, but the camera work imposes its own structure so we miss most of it. They have a presentation designed for the stage, where when only one person is singing the others do their moves back behind, to add some extra interest. But the camera pulls in tight on the solo singers, and the only time we see the whole group in longshot is when they’re all singing.
A low-budget show like that probably had very little in the way of rehearsal. Still the camera work is good, the song is good, so the end result is pretty decent. Why can’t we have low-budget shows like that any more?
JPL 04.11.14 at 11:19 am
So many great songs out there! Keep ’em coming, Belle! It reminded me of another beautiful song that was a little before my time, but we always liked it, and that’s “Hello, stranger” by Barbara Lewis. The way the lyric relates to the melody…simple and understated passion…
uncle rameau 04.11.14 at 2:14 pm
Has been my go to sing to myself in the car for years. I’m sure I saw this in real time living in Williamsport and getting WPIX and WOR from NY. Came on Sat mornings along with the high school football.
The Temporary Name 04.11.14 at 3:14 pm
Jim Buck 04.11.14 at 8:44 pm
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=monyiOsoKxg
Krogerfoot 04.12.14 at 3:23 am
I’ve often wished that the USA had a Japan-style “Living National Treasure” designation. Don Cornelius, while he was alive, would have made it in on the first ballot.
Ronan(rf) 04.12.14 at 5:08 am
The colourful pants got me.
And reminded me of this.
Belle Waring 04.12.14 at 9:22 am
OMG I will totally cast an absentee ballot posthumously designating Don Cornelius a National Treasure!
Widmerpool 04.12.14 at 5:35 pm
@maidhc. I don’t think we would tolerate the blatant lip synching anymore. Don Cornelius must have required it, because it’s amazing who lip synched on that show– Stevie Wonder, Chaka Khan, everybody.
Look at their instruments, they’re not plugged in to amps. (In those days that meant no sound.) The drummer is barely playing. At first I was surprised to see the cords running to the mikes, but then I remembered this was the seventies, mikes were like lamps and the power cords didn’t detach. It must have been a little odd to be a Soul Train stagehand.
Widmerpool 04.13.14 at 1:55 am
I take it back, not everybody OMG
JG 04.13.14 at 2:45 pm
I love Sly thanks so much for this. And what group today features black and white men and women and so many different instruments with so much SOUL!!!
NickS 04.16.14 at 8:22 pm
I’ve often wished that the USA had a Japan-style “Living National Treasureâ€
There is the National Medal Of Arts, but the list of recipients is . . . . idiosyncratic.
On the other hand, I know of the award because of Bill Clinton’s wonderful line, when presenting the medal to Doc Watson, which makes me think positively about both Bill and Doc, “There may not be a serious, committed Baby Boomer alive who didn’t at some point in his or her youth try to spend a few minutes at least trying to pick a guitar like Doc Watson.”
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