it's interesting to me how the show was produced with a very purposeful sophistication... I mean the crowd isn't dancing or whopping and doing the call and response you would see and hear on soul train...

I'd be interested to hear Mr. Haslip's reasoning behind presenting his show in that way... I'm sure part of it was to distinguish itself from other shows...but what cool about this is that Soul! is super cool...and hip...yet presented in a real artistic manner. Lot's of people dismiss the idea of Black music being presented as art as if doing so takes away something important from the music....but in this format you can see it's really really powerful....particularly with the variety of artists and music that they presented....from jazz..blues...poetry...soul...funk...

but then also look at the audience at the Al Green show...there is a shot where you can see this young girl sitting in the front row.....a child really....then other angles where you see older women ..just people of all ages really... Al gave a more reserved type of performance than he gave on Soul train...but it was honestly just as powerful..maybe even more so.