After learning of Don Cornelius' passing, knowing the rest of the web would pile on the obits, I spent most of yesterday sussing out, and enjoying, Soul Train clips, and there are a LOT... This one might be my fave, tho' it IS more footage of the famed Soul Train LINE, watch an absolutely adorable Mary Wilson dance the line WITH Don Cornelius. HOLY SHIT!! Awesome, @ 2:46...his FIRST time no less.

The runner-up clip: Brother James Brown's "Super Bad"...with interview...(gulp) sounds like James Brown voted for...RICHARD fucking NIXON?!?

When I was a kid hearing the Soul Train theme was the signal cartoons were done for Saturday and the afternoon getting down was about to be get got. Also, I grew up in rural North Carolina; those fashions, and the line dancing, on Soul Train seemed so very exotic. Of course that was only at the time, 'cause now when I look back I see my teenaged cousins were dressed in similar flash and flared outfits...and um, evidently, I did as well. I was not wearing any Canadian tuxedos, or billowing flares, but I wore lots of brown/gold poly and plenty of mile-wide collars. YIPES!! Anyways, it was early on I was watching the show, like, the early/mid '70s I'd reckon, 'cause by the late '70s I abandoned watching the show as disco reigned, and that shit was, and still is, a bit too slick for my tastes.

Also...I guess it's worth mentioning Cornelius' uncomfortable relationship with rap/hip-hop, dig Ice Cube, the now "movie" star, from a million years ago giving his biting opinion of Cornelius' statement regarding music rating/labeling. Dag.