Video Soul History
Bob Davis Appears Courtesy of Soul-Patrol.net -
SOUL (The Old PBS TV Show)
Normally I have no interest in posting any links whatsoever to
video’s (especially the illegal one’s on YouTube, that would shut down
Soul-Patrol if we distributed them).
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/january-10-1973
However this is one case, where I am not only happy to post a link, but to also encourage you to share with others.
One of the very first questions that we got here on Soul-Patrol.com, back in the mid 1990′s was one to this effect: Does anyone out there remember the old PBS TV show called SOUL (hosted by Elis Hazlip) and if so where can we either see or purchase those old episodes?
–Until now, the official answer to that question was always:
“I dunno.”
–The “unofficial answer” was always:
“IT’S IN THE HANDS OF SOME GOD DAMN CULTURE BANDITS WHO ARE GETTING READY TO MAKE A WHOLE BUNCH OF MONEY ONCE AGAIN RIPPING OFF BLACK CULTURE”
Today I am pleased to report that you can go to the following link and view these classic programs right in the place where they should have always been available. The website of WNET, channel 13 in NYC/Newark, the TV station where these shows were originally broadcast.
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/january-10-1973
I’m pleased to report that I spent a fair amount of time at the site
yesterday watching one of my favorite broadcasts from the series, which featured an in studio concert with Earth, Wind & Fire.
I remember watching this episode when it was originally broadcast in 1973 (I was a senior in HS at that time). The quality of the video is simply stunning. I had only previously seen it of course on a black & white TV set. This stuff is in color and it looks to me to be in very high quality.
And of course the “color” is important, never before or since has there ever been a more “afrocentric” TV program. The effect is so stunning, that it even made me shed a tear of nostalgia for the kind of “organic” afrocentric mindset that the show enabled.
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/january-10-1973
And of course the music is totally off the chain. IT’S ASTANK AZZ BASS, GUITAR, KALIMBA, DRUMS, COMNGA, etc. It’s Earth, Wind & Fire at the very height of their power as one of the most essential Funk bands of it’s generation (prior to their big sellout a few years later), doing songs like POWER, “DON’T LET ME BE LONLEY TONIGHT” (feat Jessica Cleaves on lead) and some kinda untitled off the chain FUNK JAM that I couldn’t get enough of.
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/january-10-1973
Go & check it out, in all there are about 9 different episodes from the series posted on Channel 13 website for your viewing pleasure.
And be sure to share this with your children so they can get a glimpse of why people like myself cry when we view stuff like this and lament: “this is the way it was all supposed to be…”
http://www.thirteen.org/soul/episodes/january-10-1973
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Bob Davis
earthjuice@prodigy.net
