Author Nelson George Talks The Genius Of Soul Train & His New Book 'The Hippest Trip In America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style'
Author Nelson George drops science on his new tome entitled The Hippest Trip In America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style - a book that details the genius of the cultural zeitgeist conceived and launched by Don Cornelius. The book is the latest contribution from Nelson George, arriving on the heels of Finding The Funk - his recent documentary about funk music narrated by Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. George pays particularly close attention to Don Cornelius and the unforgettable Soul Train dancers in his look at one of the longest running shows in syndicated television history. He recently offered quite a bit of insight on Soul Train and the personal motivations behind his examination of the widely celebrated pillar of black popular culture in a recent interview with Life + Times:
Life+Times: What role did Soul Train have in presenting positive images of African-Americans to a national audience?Nelson George: If you look at the year Soul Train began – 1971 – there was no regularly scheduled show about Black people on TV. There were very few Black supporting roles on any network show. You had the odd Clarence Williams on The Mod Squad, there was Room 222, but they were few and far between. The Black sitcoms came after Soul Train, and the news coverage about Black people tended to be about marches, disruption, trying to explain the “Negro problem.” So, there was virtually no consistent images of Black people as human beings and not as problems, agitators or questions. So, what Don’s show did, number one, was bring Black joy to the world – I don’t think you can leave the world out of this discussion because the legacy of Soul Train internationally is very powerful. Black joy – the fact that Black people had a good time and there was something very spirited and wonderful about our sense of celebration, style, movement, humanity with each other – Soul Train brought that into American households on a regular basis from 1971 well into the 21st century. It has an unprecedented legacy as one of the longest running shows in TV history; particularly, I would say, during the era from the beginning of 1971 until the mid-to-late ‘90s, it was still a very vital place to expose Black music and Black dance and Black style.
L+T: Taking the style, images, dances and artists that were on the show, to you, what has been the most lasting influence of Soul Train?
NG: I think the combination of style and dance. I saw a commercial on TV this year that ran during sports season that was talking about the different eras of fashion, and when it went to the ‘70s, there was a Soul Train line going down. When Daft Punk had their album that went on to win [Grammy Album of The Year], there were tons of videos floating around the internet where Soul Train footage was cut into [their songs]. There’s something about the dancing, the locking, the popping, waacking, and the style which was very colorful. Ironically, the Afro is back, the natural is back, and some of the outfits you might see on some of the Soul Train footage now looks almost contemporary, depending on the crowd. It’s the combination of style and dance together, I think, that has made it so enduring.
L+T: Coming up watching the show and later doing lots of research, what are some of your personal most memorable moments or performances?
NG: There’s a bunch. Writing the book, one of the things I hope it is is a guide to your YouTube viewing. I tried to be very specific about the show numbers, what years certain things happened, so that you can go back and look at episodes as I looked back. Most memorable? Wow. It still tickles me when Don Cornelius and Marvin Gaye had a one-on-one basketball game and Smokey Robinson was the referee. It was like you got the entree to the off-stage world of Black celebrity life in LA at that time, because Marvin, Smokey and Don were tight. So this was sort of like an entry into a world you don’t normally see. There’s so many great moments on that show. I think James Brown doing “Payback,” there’s some incredible Sly Stone performances, Al Green performing after he got injured. Unlike American Bandstand and most of the music dance shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s, Don allowed artists to perform live. So these aren’t just artists lip-synching, they’ve got full bands plugged in. Barry White had his whole Love Unlimited Orchestra on there at one point. You’re not just getting a TV performance, you’re getting a concert-level performance.
L+T: There is a chapter in the book specifically about ?uestlove and there are quotes from him throughout. He’s one of the Soul Train aficionados like you. How is it having a conversation with ?uest about Soul Train?
NG: His connection to it is as deep as anyone I’ve ever met. As he says in the book, he comes from a musical family. His mother and father were musicians and he was playing drums at an early age. Not all musicians, unfortunately, are historians of the music they play. A lot of musicians know one or two bands that they really like, but they don’t the breadth; particularly in Black music, you’re talking about a pretty wide expanse of music. He is one of the few people who is plugged in –he’s as much of a historian as he is a musician – so I feel like Soul Train was an essential experience for him in terms of expanding his knowledge and curiosity. He talked about the fact that there’s things he saw on Soul Train that affect how The Roots perform. One of my favorite parties in New York is his Soul Train Valentine’s Day party. I’m always impressed with how much music he knows and how he makes connections. If you look at the lineup for Soul Train shows, it was a pretty eclectic group, so if you watched Soul Train pretty consistently, even if you were just a fan of contemporary dance music, you got a pretty wide understanding of popular music and I think ?uestlove’s career is a reflection of that.
Purchase Nelson George's new book The Hippest Trip In America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture and Style via Amazon. Check the clip below to take a hip trip down memory lane with some vintage Soul Train footage featuring The Jackson 5. Read the full interview via Life + Times. Stay tuned for more from Nelson George.
