Tom Allalone’s meaning of soul

Come on now, who has a list of influences reading anything like this in 2009?

Martha Reeves and the Vandellas, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Rosetta Tharpe, Mel Torme, Guitar Slim, Lee Baby Simms, Bernard Hermann, Leonard Bernstien, Paganini, George Gershwin, The Knack, Murder By Death, Julie London and Billie Holiday.

Tom Allalone, of Tom Allalone and The 78s, that’s who. The music is fun, assured, and sounds like it’s part of the grass roots rock ‘n’ roll era it’s so clearly been influenced by. Here’s Tom’s truthful take on soul:

“The word Soul is often used quite erroneously in my opinion. It’s a word that artists use to give themselves an air of deep rooted one-ness or spiritual connection with their music. Oasis for example, use the term quite a lot. I’d imagine the only soul they’ve known would be a Dover Sole. Their music is so derivative and contrived that it is almost empty of all soul and no amount of Hammond Organs or Beatles’ rip-offs will constitute a soul number.

“Quite often, people take soul to mean ‘Black Music’. Soul does not mean a black man or woman with a microphone. It does not mean a white man or woman with a microphone singing a song that a black man or woman made famous 20 years previously. Barry White and Imagination are prime examples of acts who will have no doubt use that word in their press releases, yet have absolutely no soul in my opinion. Murder by Death have more soul in their little fingers than in the whole of Barry White. It has nothing to do with creed or upbringing or even having things to rebel against. Its all about being disarmed and dropping all inhibitions. Amy Winehouse has got it. So have Arcade Fire. And yet Lionel Richie wouldn’t know it if he cut his face on it.

“Soul, in my opinion, has one meaning. Its honesty between writer/singer and listener. If Etta James can admit that she was ‘Almost Persuaded’ to cheat on her beau with a handsome stranger, she is bearing her soul to the listener. If you can expose your demons in a song, to perhaps thousands of people who think you’re cool, even if you’re admitting that you have been a complete fucker, thats soul. Soul is music that has zero pretension or concern for what’s cool in the perception of others. Soul is therapy for the musician, and the listener finds solace in hearing their ‘heroes’ experiencing and dealing with the same trials as them. Life is a painful existence most of the time, and soul or blues music is the support group.

“Soul is an admission of humanity and all the flaws that go with it.

“Having said this, there is a mysterious band of soul, that even without confessional lyrics, can seem like the most honest and impulsive sound imaginable. ‘Green Onions’ has this. I can’t explain it. If I had worked out what the MGs were doing to create such soul, i’d be a millionaire by now. But I haven’t… and I aint.

“If I ever get some soul, it’ll allow me to write sincerely about how unhappy I am. And on that day, I’ll be a happy man.

Tomorrow’s meaning of soul comes from members of band we love, Vessels.