Soul Man: The 458th Greatest Song of All Time

 

The year was 1967. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd didn't know it yet, but their alter egos, The Blues Brothers, were going to need an R & B hit to launch their singing career.

Rising to the challenge were Samuel Moore and David Prater, known more familiarly as PraterMoore, though a very small band of intellectual know-nothings insisted on calling them Sam & Dave.

"Soul Man" was written by Isaac "But I'm Talkin' 'Bout Shaft" Hayes and David "Don't Call Me Natalie" Porter and contains a few jewels of wisdom that have been unequaled to this day:

Comin' to you on a dusty road

Good lovin', I got a truckload

NOT really sure what a truckload

of good lovin' is referring to, but it

sure sounds like it's being

smuggled in from somewhere.

And when you get it, you got something

This phrase ranks right up there with

"It is what it is," said Captain Obvious.

I learned how to love before I could eat

Because the rest of this song leads me to

believe that when he says "love" he's really

referring to between-the-sheets activity,

I have my doubts as to the veracity of this timeline.

When I start lovin', oh, I can't stop

*Ahem* Yeah, well, uh...

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

On a safer note of interesting trivia, the words "Play it, Steve" refer to the guitarist, Steve Cropper, of Booker T and the M.G.s, who played lead guitar for Sam & Dave AND The Blues Brothers!