I do not expect this diary will be widely read. If the name was John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin and Joe Lieberman, I am sure there would be greater interest. This is not a diary that attacks or picks apart nuances of ideas or political thought. People who constantly look for negatives about everything will surely find them everywhere. Instead of writing a diary exposing lies, pestilence, bad karma, bad HCR mojo and all the ills of life, I wanted to lay a little soul on the community so maybe for a moment you will realize there is more to life than arguing and getting mad about all the nuances of politics. People with soul experience a different emotion than anger.
Last night I started monkeying around with my guitar and started playing something that reminded me of Wonderful World. You know, "Don't know much about history". Then I remembered Sam died on December 11th.
Almost every singer/songwriter of the past 45 years has been influenced by the inventor of soul. Sam Cooke. A man whose art reflected beauty and deep passion for love. In a time many of us want to dwell on differences among us, maybe we can spend a few minutes on what brings people together on the anniversary of his death.
I first ran into Sam in the 50s in NYC. His voice was as smooth as butter with a hint of raspiness that enhanced a sound that has lived on. His music was one of the first to be accepted into white homes by a black singer. Along with his friend and one time recording collaborator Ray Charles, Sam was one of the first to write his own songs and then record them himself. I heard Smokey once say that he wrote You Really Got A Hold on Me after he heard Bring It On Home To Me.
Sam had twenty-nine top-40 hits between 1957 and 1964. There were many more songs that never made it big during his career that were just as beautiful as his popular songs. I love the music he made when he replaced R.H. Harris as lead singer of the gospel group The Soul Stirrers in 1950. I always think about what direction music would have taken if Sam was was still around today. He would turn 79 in January. He was tragically shot and killed on this date in 1964.
With the Soul Stirrers
Just a little tenderness
This is what soul is
Nothing, nothing can ever change
And don't forget Obama's theme song which was an answer to Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind