A love letter to the soul of the north.
‘Sugar pie, honey bunch’ is an unlikely opener for a manifesto of change and, yes, a cultural phenomenon, but this first line from the Four Tops’ 1965 hit ‘I Can’t Help Myself’ is widely acknowledged as being the fuse for what came to be known as ‘Northern Soul’. And though it’s a terrific record in its own right, and the Four Tops were undoubtedly one of America’s greatest pop acts of all time, a song exhorting its desperate plea of uncontrollable urges to its ‘sugar pie, honey bunch’ is not exactly the stuff of revolutions or countercultural explosions, is it? But it’s true – this song launched a thousand, if not millions, of spins, dropkicks, Oxford bags and Dexedrine tablets to blissfully dance the night away.
But before someone who was there – and, full disclaimer, I wasn’t, but I was around at the height of the Northern Soul scene – tells me the Four Tops were never really regarded as a Northern Soul band, as they were too commercially mainstream, my point about that song is that it was the template for all those fast-paced and beat-laden songs that were to follow and did, in fact, become Northern Soul hymns. But still, what a great blueprint it was.
And because I wasn’t on the inside, but instead, spent a lot of time on the outside looking in on my friends who did make their pilgrimages to the Blackpool Mecca, and laid their money down in the greatest non-gambling joint of all time, Wigan Casino, I saw Northern Soul as something much, much more than ‘just’ a pop music phenomenon. To me, imbued by the late 1970s with the power of punk and its possibilities for change and freedom through some little anarchy and a great deal of thrilling noise, Northern Soul was a conundrum. Yes, the music was fantastic, and unlike punk, beautifully melodic and highly suited for rhythmic dancing. But my friends didn’t drink alcohol at Mecca or in the Casino, and they always seemed, well, happy and not angry at the world, as we punks were wont to be. Yet, we all came from similar working-class backgrounds, and in the late 1970s that was not a good place to be, which is why we punks rebelled. Except, the soul boys and girls danced…
Which, as revolutions go, is probably the best way to revolt. To challenge and to say ‘No! I am not going to accept this life someone else has chosen for me.’ And even if it’s only for the length of time it takes the needle to spiral its scratch through Freda Payne’s unmatchable lament to lost love, that’s enough to seek temporary refuge from the bleak and grey existence many of us had at that time. So, while we snarled anarchy, my soul sisters and brothers chose a far happier, and no less effective for that, escape.
An escape from life in a northern town that may or may not have been on the minds of all those great songwriters, musicians and producers, almost all of whom were African Americans. For they too came, almost exclusively, from similar towns and cities in the American North East that were just beginning to feel the effects of their own post-industrial declines: Chicago, New York and, of course, the centre of the Northern Soul universe, Detroit. They too, were rebelling and forging identities of their own, and so, just because Johnny Rotten and Edwin Starr may, on the surface, have seemed such unlikely bedfellows as agent provocateurs, they were both doing the same thing, giving us hope. Also inspiration to get off our backsides and do something… whether that be to agitate or syncopate; it didn’t matter. The end result was the same. And life changed for us. Forever.
Punk, alas, has been hijacked by shysters and insipid beer, but its spirit lives on. Somewhere… Northern Soul, on the other hand, perhaps because of its irrepressibly joyous nature, never really went away and, in fact, enjoys almost as much success in its all-nighters and club nights across the whole of the UK as it ever did. And even if, like me, you didn’t get it the first time around or, lucky you, you’re simply too young to have experienced that first genius vinyl bloom of Tamla Motown, Invictus, Chess etc, the music is as irresistible and uplifting as it ever was.
Want more soul in your life? And the power to live as you want? Then you don’t need permission from anyone, least of all the south. Spin some Northern Soul and dance the revolution… at 45 rpm!
By Mark Kureishy
