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It’s a new month and there’s no better time to go rather off piste with the theme which was rather loudly announced with the first track and it’s very distinctive opening measures.

Most of the time when doing the research on what I’m wanting to play that night, the theme just leaps out at me as one that just can’t be ignored.

Tonight’s theme wasn’t one of those but it’s one that’s actually quite close to my heart and when I finally found this little factoid after about a hour’s worth of searching through some potential themes that just weren’t giving me that “wow!” factor, I knew I was going to go for this one come hell or high water.

On this date in 1995, “Soul Train” celebrated it’s 25th anniversary of being on the air with a star-studded special lineup of musical guests featuring Marvin Gaye and Patti LaBelle (among many others) who were represented in tonight’s set.

In some of the neighbourhoods I grew up in, “Soul Train” was must-see TV that often aired right after the Saturday morning cartoons.

Streets that would normally be full of kids and other mischief-makers surrounding one of the many curbside basketball goals engaging in one of the more brutal variations on the game that theoretically was supposed to be non-contact were often deserted when Don Cornelius would be inviting us aboard to ride for the next sixty minutes across the tracks of our minds.

Anyone who wanted to make it in R&B and soul inevitably found their way to Los Angeles and the stage of “Soul Train” and would be performing for the crowd of dancers which would give them much needed exposure in a time when the genre was relegated to the sidelines at best.

“Soul Train” would adapt to the changing musical tastes of their audience (in spite of Don’s misgivings as to the direction it seemed to be going which he’d often voice on air!) through the years on its way to becoming one of the longest running continually syndicated programmes until it was finally canceled in 2008 some 38 years after Don conducted the first load of passengers in the original studio at a local Chicago TV station before moving west a year later.

But for those of us who remember that distinctive intro that sounded like a train’s steam whistle, “Soul Train” was a welcome hour-long escape from day-to-day life into the world of music where we could lose ourselves to the notes and occasionally dance along when the Soul Train Dancers would split for their take on “The Stroll”.

This theme was a fun one to put together and that first track took me back so many years to the 1970s and 1980s and good memories from a time that desperately needed good memories as well as love, peace, and SOUL!

Game 1 Warm-Ups

Post-Game