Soul, jazz, and progressive politics
It's about 1991 or so and I'm about three or four years old, sitting in the back seat of the car while my dad drives. As was usually the case, we're listening to Chicago's Oldies station, which at the time played mostly music from the 1950s and 60s. I liked everything I heard at that time, though there were a few songs that always got younger me excited, and one of them was by The Isley Brothers.
The year is 1968, and The Temptations have a problem. They are one of the biggest groups in the world, but their lead singer is destroying himself, and taking The Temptations with him.
Sam Cooke was essential to desegregating audiences in the United States, but there were still two sides to the man as a performer. The King of Soul had huge crossover success, with songs like “You Send Me” hitting the top of both the Pop and R&B charts, but the Sam Cooke that white audiences saw was different from the Sam Cooke that black audiences did.
Fly Me to the Left 