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History of Rock & Roll 5: Sounds of Soul [VHS]

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This video is the fifth in a 10-video set documenting Rock `n' Roll in America. It's very entertaining and informative, although more on the entertainment side.

Soul music is, of course, difficult to define (you try it) and the artists here give different definitions of soul, from its roots in gospel, R&B, and other Black-American influences.

James Brown is the first featured artist in this free narrative video, and later we move on to Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, and finally the Motown artists (Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, and all the others). Some of the great clips feature Aretha Franklin singing "Dr. Feelgood," although they used "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" three times for James Brown--they could have used another one of his great songs there. I also liked Smokey Robinson's comments on how he wrote "My Girl" and his reminiscences of Motown Records. There's 90 seconds about the Jackson 5 at the end, if anybody's interested.

Once again, this video series has great interview clips with today's rock stars (and when I say today, I mean 1995)--Salt-N-Pepa, Hall & Oates, Luther Vandross. This video seems to have more focus than many of the others, and seems to be among the better of the series.