Soul Music: Tracking the Spiritual Roots of Pop from Plato to Motown

265 Pages·2010·0.984 MB·English

by  Joel Rudinow

I soul music

Soul Music
Tracking the Spiritual Roots of Pop
from Plato to Motown
Joel Rudinow
I
The University of Michigan Press Ann Arbor
Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2010
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
cPrinted on acid-free paper
2013 2012 2011 2010 4 3 2 1
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise,
without the written permission of the publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rudinow, Joel.
Soul music : tracking the spiritual roots of pop from Plato to
Motown / by Joel Rudinow.
p. cm. — (Tracking pop)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-472-07108-1 (cloth : alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-472-
05108-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-472-02279-3 (e-book)
1. African Americans—Music—History and criticism. 2. Soul
music—History and criticism. 3. Blues (Music)—History and
criticism. 4. Music—Religious aspects. 5. Music and philosophy
I. Title.
ML3479.R84 2010
781.6401—dc22 2010007915
I
For Jalen Jacob—when you’re ready

The superior man tries to promote music as a means to the
perfection of human culture. When such music prevails, and
people’s minds are led towards the right ideals and aspirations,
we may see the appearance of a great nation.
—confucius
The inward and essential part of every being is composed of ‹ne
vibrations, and the external part is formed of gross ones. The
‹ner part we call spirit and the grosser matter, the former being
less subject to change and destruction and the latter more so. All
that lives is spirit, and all that dies is matter; all that dies in
spirit is matter, and all that lives in matter is spirit. All that is
visible and perceptible appears to be living, although subject to
death and decay, and is becoming every moment resolved into its
‹ner element. But the sight of man is so deluded by its awareness
of the seeming world that the spirit that really lives is covered
under the garb of matter and its true being is hidden.
—hazrat inayat khan

Contents
Preface xi
Introduction 1
chapter 1 What Is Soul? (And What Is Soul Music?) 8
chapter 2 The “Devil’s Music” (Can Music Be Evil?) 29
chapter 3 Between Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
(The Dark Night of the Soul) 54
chapter 4 Blue Notes and Greek Philosophy
(Pythagoras, Plato, and Spiritual Intonation) 77
chapter 5 Bio-Rhythms (From Formalism to Somaesthetics) 106
chapter 6 Fake It Till You Feel It
(Race, Ethnicity, Authenticity in Performance) 126
chapter 7 Speaking in Tongues (Isn’t This All Too Straussian?) 152
chapter 8 Music as a Healing Art
(Music and Medicine, Body and Soul) 173
Notes 197
Bibliography 219
Recommended Listening and Viewing 231
Index 237