Good morning, England. What can you tell me about soul boys, or is it soulboys? Perhaps a counterpoint to my Football Casuals thread.
― Mary (Mary), Thursday, 17 June 2004 06:52 (twenty-two years ago)
This article is a pretty good overview of soul boys > casuals > acid house, Mary.
― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 17 June 2004 07:23 (twenty-two years ago)
haha, i was reading that very article yesterday, after doing a search for Terry Farley
― charltonlido (gareth), Thursday, 17 June 2004 07:46 (twenty-two years ago)
Haha, I thought this thread would be some sort of rebuttal to the Defend White Chicks thread.
― Huk-L, Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:09 (twenty-two years ago)
That article doesn't mention the existence of soul boys in the '70s sense: thought of by some as a splinter of mod (and forrerunner of punk*), into serious dancing, serious record collecting, less strict about the look. As the '70s turned into the '80s the soul boy was maybe a bit more grown-up, wedge and cortina (capri for the flash lads), the smoothest end of jazz funk, dressing smart-casual but nothing too extreme.
For as long as soul / r&b have been making it over to England, there has always been a strain of soul boys, more or less mod-friendly. It's these people who Simon Reynolds laid into in his end-of-year address a couple of years ago, attacking in particular what he saw as a fetishisation of the 'realness of black American music' (my paraphrase).
I know I often cite it, and it is virtually impossible to get hold of, but "Something Beginning WIth O" by Kevin Pearce is good on this stuff.
*see "England's Dreaming" and maybe even the film "Young Soul Rebels", though the latter is not very good.
― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 17 June 2004 08:38 (twenty-two years ago)