What is Northern Soul?
Scene: A kitchen somewhere in the north of England
So some of you Yanks want to knoo what Northern Sool is all aboot dos tha? Jus' lemme finish this 'ere black pudding and I'll tell thee all aboot it while I tek the whippet for a walk down t' pub for a pint of mild.
See, back in t' 1960s all the Mods were lissening to soul and R&B muzic but then all them soft an' trendy southern poofters started getting all girly wearing frilly shirts, growing their 'air long and list'ning to that psychadelic muzic and all that twatty funk rubbish, but us 'ard lads oop north weren't 'aving none o' that poncey shite and we stuck with good old fashioned soul muzic. Yer know, the stuff with a beat that thumps you over the 'ead like a brick that you can dance yer bollocks off ta while oot of your 'ead on speed. We liked a lot of that Motown stuff but the really greet thing was that we found there were all these cracking tunes on other little labels that no buggers 'ad ever 'eard of before and 'adn't got in the charts like. People were digging oop some right great records, spending loads o' money on 'em coz they were 'ard to find like and clubs opened where you could go after a hard day at t' mill and dance all night long. Ee, it were a right greet crack goin' down t' Wigan Casino and t' Blackpool Mecca, listn'ing to top tunes like Gloria Jones's "Tainted Love" (which them Soft Cell blokes covered in t' 80s) and "Out On The Floor Tonight" by Doobie Gray which 'as to be the toppest Northern Soul number of 'em all coz it's got a great beat like and the words are all aboot dancin' and pulling birds. Then this journalist bloke from down south called David Godin comes up t' Blackpool Mecca in 1971 and writes this article in Blues & Soul magazine where he were the first one to to call the scene "Northern Soul" coz the muzic in the clubs oop north were really different from them trendy shiteholes down south where they're all drinkin' Shandy and dancing to soft girls muzic like the poofters they are. Now all them buggers doon south are into it too o' course but it started oop north with us coz we knoo what real soul muzic is and we're well 'ard like.
So that's what Northern Soul is. Any questions, like?
(For a Queen's English translation of the above go here and here. Hope that clears things up.)
[Download]
Out On The Floor Tonight - Dobie Gray
8 Comments:
Yay!
That was me (it was I?) who asked you to do the definition but I think I forgot to sign my post that time. Little did I suspect that you'd do such a colorful job of it! It was almost like an audience with Sam Weller out of "The Pickwick Papers" (not to be confused with Paul Weller out of The Style Council) altho' I realize Sam is a Londoner and you were writing that in Northern dialect. But: dialect! You just don't see that much of it. (I used to be friends with a guy from Bradford and he talked just like that.)
Ooops, almost forgot to sign again.
Yr ever-likin' friend,
Herself in NYC
Aye,ah've got one question...what fookin' accent were that meant to be (like)?!!??!!!
Erm... a soft southern poofter's vague approximation of Yorkshire, Geordie and Manc combined.
I'm easily swayed, but this just jumped to the top of my musicblog charts. Great selections, nice commentary, more soul at last! As well as the classic olds, how about some classic news? The McKay track was a winner, but there's a lot of new stuff not getting the attention it deserves...
misterpc
never registering
not even for free
Lee, that's incredible.
I'm familiar with this song, but it's nice to see here, and even better to see the Northern Soul primer.
There are loads compilations that feature Northern Soul (most of them from England obviously, despite the fact that it's almost exclusively american music). Keb Darges' Soul Spectrum I and II were great finds (as is a lot of the early BBE output).
As soon as I get my record collection back (it's stuck at my old apartment 3,000 miles away) I'll put together a piece on that stuff.
Great day, Lee.
robot mark
music.for-robots.com
I know how you feel, my record collection is on the other side of the Atlantic ocean.
Your Lucky,My collection's over there and some ass lent it to some other ass.
man i remember dancing to this tune at the 81 soul club in High Wycombe, as a mod, now in 2005 I'm living West Coast USA, how times change, still got this record with me tho!
Post a Comment
<< Home