Gimme Some Soul

Fat Stax and Handclaps, the new soul music show on BFM, is pretty good.

In the second show, aired originally on 12 May and repeated at 7.30pm yesterday, presenter Johanan Sen opened with Mavis Staples (Eyes on the Prize, the intense, searing version taken off the 2007, Ry Cooder-produced We’ll Never Turn Back) before moving on to Sam Cooke (A Change Is Gonna Come). Great tracks. Great artistes. Just one problem: Sen is bloody boring!

I’m no longer surprised that Malaysian radio stations hire presenters who wouldn’t pass muster on Mickey Mouse pirate stations overseas. But please, if you have to give jobs to people with accents, fake or otherwise, could you assholes in charge at least make sure that these people are exciting. Or do you fuckers really want to hasten radio’s demise?

Radio isn’t the force it used to be. And it hasn’t been for a shit long time. So if you had even a little sense, you’d realise that, especially when your shows are being targeted at a niche audience, you should and MUST make them exciting. 

I’ve a couple of quibbles with Sen’s purported expert soul knowledge (I mean, David Bowie’s Win?! Seriously?! Young Americans may boast the bass playing genius of Willie Weeks. And yes, there’re horns aplenty over the course of the album’s 40-plus minutes. But Young Americans is NOT a soul record. Not unless you consider Adam Lambert glam rock and Sasi the Don reggae) but overall, he comes off as a guy who takes his music seriously. Fine. But where’s the excitement, man?

Soul’s about feel lah, brudder. Soul’s about groove. Soul’s about heart. Soul, lest anyone forget, was the flamboyant, dangerous, mean motherfucker who scared the shit outta the “good” white folk as Detroit and DC burnt. As Black America declared its determination to open chocolate cities all over the nation.

No one’s asking Sen to be Petey Greene (In fact, please don’t be Petey! We already have “DJs” with fake British and American accents who insist on pronouncing “record” and “orang-utan” like Mat Sallehs. The last thing we need is a Malaysian dude speaking like he just stepped off the set of The Wire.) but, is it too much to expect emotion? I mean even tepid Aaron Neville was capable of emotion back when he was in the soul game…