Invisible Soul

It's time to set the record straight by telling a Black story shot through with white participation. It's as much about race as it is about music. It's about a period 40 to 70 years ago when the call for civil rights, for an end to economic inequality, and for Black power tore cities apart-and at the same time gave rise to music of lasting expressiveness and groove.Blacks tuned into songs by artists who recorded on a gang of local labels and major labels such as Motown, Stax, Volt,...
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It's time to set the record straight by telling a Black story shot through with white participation. It's as much about race as it is about music. It's about a period 40 to 70 years ago when the call for civil rights, for an end to economic inequality, and for Black power tore cities apart-and at the same time gave rise to music of lasting expressiveness and groove.Blacks tuned into songs by artists who recorded on a gang of local labels and major labels such as Motown, Stax, Volt, Atlantic and Philadelphia International. In the '60s and into the '70s, Motown hitmakers in particular appealed to Black and white alike.Soul music was the soundtrack for civil rights. It was the voice of protest and freedom, too, from Marvin Gaye's "Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)" to the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," the Impressions' "People Get Ready," and "Respect," a defiant Otis Redding hit that Aretha Franklin covered even more successfully. In confronting social issues, soul music presented a reality rarely touched on by mainstream rock.A deep love soul music can ease despair about today's circumstances -political polarization, climate crises, violence, economic inequality, intransigence over gender issues. The appreciation of soul music can be a restorative for our fraught souls.