THE HIPPEST TRIP IN AMERICA: I wasn't quite sure how, as a 39-year-old white guy, I had any ability or authority to eulogize Soul Train creator/host Don Cornelius, who ended his life today at the age of 75.
"The epitome of black entrepreneurship, building Soul Train from the ground up" is how Pam Spaulding put it, and I guess what I can add is that in the pre-MTV era, Soul Train is the vehicle that smuggled black culture into white households. I don't think primarily of the musical performances or even the scramble board, but rather the dancing -- and especially the line dancing. That wasn't something I got to see at my USY dances, and it wasn't music that I got to listen to on Top-40 radio of the early 1980s.
Soul Train made my childhood a little funkier and more enjoyable, and for that I say thank you, Mr. Cornelius.
