Wednesday I hosted the Majic 102.3 and DC Lottery Soul Train Event at Union Station. It was a great time, dancing and having fun with all the fans that came out. It also brought back all kinds of memories of past TJMS events, my fantasy of actually winning the lottery, and of course, Soul Train.
Come take a hip trip with me back to weekends in front of the TV.
Long before we all used to watch “Scandal” together, we watched Soul Train. Everything stopped when that theme song came on.
We didn’t even mind that Rufus and Chaka Khan, The Commodores, Al Green, and every hot group in the business was lip synching. The mics had no cords…and that was before cordless mics, but it was okay.
We didn’t notice because we had too many other distractions…like all those great shots that the cameraman used to get. Talk about winning the lottery…how lucky was a man to have THAT job.
And the dancers!
We were so happy to see people who looked like us…or looked the way we WISHED we looked. And they were wearing the clothes we wish we had. Now, when you watch the Soul Train reruns…the clothes don’t look so good. It looks like a bad episode of “What’s Happenin!” But back then…you would have done anything to have a polyester jump suit, an apple cap and a vest with fringes.
The women were women a guy like me could only dream to meet. Damita Jo…the Asian Lady with the long hair…Jodi Whatley before she had drama. These were our celebrities. This was our reality show.
Remember the commercials. You have to understand that this was the only time we saw black people in commercials. And you really believed that if you used a blow up kit, your afro would explode and look perfect. And how many of you, like me, never got the Soul Train Scramble Board right? One time I couldn’t figure it out…and the group was L.T.D.
But what I remember most was the smoothest brother I had ever seen…running it. Talk, dark, handsome, cool, confident…deep voice, slooooowwww talking. People don’t realize that Soul Train was really a 15 minute show…Don just stretched it out to an hour because he talked so slowly.
I miss him and anytime I have a chance to honor his memory, I jump at the chance. In the meantime, our goal was to make the longest Soul Train line in history and the most late to work excuses, too!
If you have a favorite Soul Train moment let me have it. Peace,Love…and you know the rest!
