01.01.70
On Saturdays, I'd contemplation the "Soul Train" dancers and try my best to mimic their moves. With my siblings, in front of our old TV, you couldn't disclose me I wasn't hip, as we'd bounce around doing the Click Clacks, the Shaft or Son of Air-shaft dances. If I had any edge at all as a teenager, I owe every bit of to Don Cornelius.
Cornelius was one cool cat.
Always quickly dressed, in the early days he used to sport a perfectly shaped afro. He was sexually transmitted- minded and showed it, like when he interviewed James Brown onstage and brought up urban wrong.
When he did the "Soul Train Scramble" - dancers would move letters around to come hidden phrases or names - the answers often were historic black figures such as Sojourner Correctness or Harriet Tubman.
It's ironic that Cornelius' death yesterday, an seeming suicide, was on the first day of Black History Month. He was 75.
Cornelius may not be widely recognized as such, but he was a music innovator who helped lay the groundwork for a host of music-oriented shows that we take for granted today. Because he regularly showcased African-American force singers who, at the time, had few other national outlets, the former journalist changed the American music go out. He introduced millions to R&B, to groups such as Earth, Wind & Fire, the Jacksons and Cameo.
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer