Soul Man - Sam and Dave
- unclestylus
- Aug 6
- 2 min read
Nowadays, by far away Sam and Dave's best remembered song is their classic "Soul Man".
Although there are many claims for the coining of the term "soul music" dating back as far as the mid 50's, Isaac Hayes and David Porter were thinking of a more specific connotation of the word "soul", beyond the generic umbrella for African American r&b/gospel influenced pop music.
In the US "race riots" of the summer of 1967, African American owners of shops and other business premises were in the habit of writing the word "soul" on their doors and walls so that the rioters would leave them alone.
Isaac Hayes is on record as saying he was inspired by this to write the song, and in turn he noted its similarities with the Biblical story of the Passover, in which the Hebrews mark their doors with blood from sacrificial lambs as a sign to the Angel of Death, who has come down to visit a plague on Egypt which will kill the first-born of every family, to spare the household within. Today, it is ironic, and tragic, that the families of Gaza, not for just one night, but month after month, and now year after year, have no such recourse to protect them from squadrons of death angels from both land and air.
In 1967, in the days of the burgeoning civil rights movement in the USA, the word "soul" had become a statement of identity, and "Soul Man" is in no small way an assertion of pride in that identity, of having survived and risen above adversity.
Beneath the amorous swagger of the lyrics, Sam and Dave's delivery goes way beyond their normal gospel inspired interplay, this is hard soul from a "dusty road", tough and assertive like a "truck load"; this is no-holds-barred, no-doubt-about it singing by the duo, backed up to the hilt by the Stax house band right from the iconic opening bars of Steve Cropper's guitar and Al Jackson's drums to the sizzling brass section led by the peerless trumpet of Wayne Jackson.
If anyone asks me what soul music is, I play them this. "Soul Man" is definitive, a musical line in the sand, wild, free and yet the quintessence of sophistication, all at the same time.
Comments