Remember that scene at the end of Ghostbusters II where Egon, Venkman and the crew use ecto-goo to power the Statue of Liberty?  By that point they’ve figured out that the goo is moved either by negative or positive emotions and so they make a music choice that is sure to inspire the most positive of reactions from New Yorkers.  What do they choose?  Jackie Wilson’s “Higher and Higher”.

All of this is to say that soul music, like that of Jackie Wilson, Bill Withers and Otis Redding, is incredibly moving.  It’s great BBQ and Sunday morning music.  I figured that even the most hardened of humans could be carried away by it.  Apparently not.  I have a friend who is a great person.  He’s smart, talented, funny, with pretty good taste in a lot of things.  He is also a huge heavy metal fan, as only someone who spent their adolescence in the 1980’s can be.  Fine.  Excellent.  So not too long ago we got on the subject of soul music and he flat out declared that he didn’t like it.  At all.  Now, I realize that metal and soul are quite different, but he went on to say that it didn’t have any sort of emotional effect on him.  At this point I suspect replicant and would like to subject him to the Voight-Kampff machine.

I have other friends who make similar sweeping statements about music genres.  ”I hate country.”  ”I just can’t get into hip hop.”  ”I don’t really like music before 1981.”  That last one is bullshit because they later admitted to liking Television (and Otis Redding).  But I don’t think that it would be impossible for these folks to find a single song to like in those genres.  Even my Dad, not the biggest hip hop fan in the world, likes RZA’s work on the Ghost Dog soundtrack.

I guess the point of this post is to say, always try to find the exception.  I’ve always said that no one should call San Francisco, “Frisco”.  This is something that San Franciscans really feel.

 

Don't Do It

The exception, of course, is that Otis Redding can forever call it “the Frisco bay”.