downtown topics

Saviors of Soul

By Dave “Soul Man” Roffman

November 2008

In October, I went to DAR Constitution Hall to see and hear the Queen of Soul, Miss Aretha Franklin, in concert. I remember going to the Howard Theatre back in the mid-60s to see her when she broke onto the music scene like a hurricane with her hit songs “A Natural Woman,” “I Never Loved a Man,” “Think,” and of course, her signature song, “Respect.” After all these years, I’m here to report that The Queen still reigns supreme with a heavenly voice and terrestrial passion. It was a terrific evening at DAR Constitution Hall.

A few days later, I found myself at the Verizon Center where the living legend, Stevie Wonder performed 27 of his songs before a near sold-out audience. It took me back, once again to the mid-60s when, at a little night club in Georgetown at 34th and M called The Cellar Door, one week they featured the “comeback” of Little Stevie Wonder with his very first performance under the MoTown label. As a young boy, Stevie was a sensation with his “Finger Poppin’” and “Finger Poppin’ II,” then sort of disappeared until his appearance at the Cellar Door. It launched him on a whole new career. Just to utter the names of some of his songs brings chills: “Isn’t She Lovely,” “Higher Ground,” “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” “Superstition,” “Uptight (Everything’s Alright).” The highlight of the concert for us was his one song tribute to native Washingtonian, Marvin Gaye, with “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Most notable about “Grapevine” was his use of a vocoder, the funky, voice-altering devise he helped integrate into soul music for the use of some of today’s big-name urban acts.

The vocoder’s inherent funkiness was a perfect segue into the raucous “Higher Ground.” By this time, the floor-seated crowd was on its feet clapping, jumping, and finding just about any other way to express their jubilation. Hard to believe it has been almost five decades since I saw him in his “comeback” right here in Georgetown.

And now, the third of the living legends is about to come to town.

Miss Tina Turner herself will be at the Verizon Center on Nov. 23 and 24 for two sold-out shows. Remember that scene in the movie “Animal House” where the all-white fraternity boys go to an all-black nightclub out in the backwoods? Well, in 1962, that white boy was me, going with a group of other white boys to a night club in Cairo, Illinois, just outside of St. Louis in an all black neighborhood. I remember this circular bar with a stage in the middle. Performing that night were, about to make t big, Ike and Tina Turner. The joint was jumping. This white boy never forgot the excitement of seeing Tina Turner on stage, albeit a circular bar in some small nightclub outside of St. Louis. And this white boy can’t wait to see Tina performing “Proud Mary,” and “River Deep, Mountain High,” among her many hit songs over the years.

Aretha, Stevie, and Tina...the saviors of soul. In one month. In downtown DC.

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