{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.032492518170158184, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.749385749385749, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Sound of Soul

In the chapter titled "Recording in Memphis" Phyl Garland quotes Al Jackson, Jr., drummer with Booker T and the MGs, as saying, "It's my belief that soul comes from a cat's folk roots. . . ." The nature of a "cat's roots" is of vital importance in today's all-out search for identity and racial respect, especially when that "cat's" ethnic background is Afro-American or, to be current, "black." The central case is his musical heritage, which has grown out of a folklore quite different from that of Western civilization. He has seen his folk music labeled country blues, urban blues, and Negro spiritual. The blues segment has had several different labels, such as Race Records, rhythm and blues, and now soul-labels given to it by various historians, musicologists, and pseudoauthorities. But the term soul has an even greater significance in the contemporary cultural study of Afro-American history: it is the symbol of the black man's way of life. Therefore, anyone who addresses himself to the subject of soul must have a definite understanding and accurate knowledge of the ethnic background ingrained in every tone, pitch, and rhythm of the music. Sound of Soul, one of many recently published manuscripts dealing with the subject, is an analysis "of what many have taken to be a new phenomenon: soul music," according to the jacket notes. The author is associate editor and regular music critic of Ebony magazine. The outstanding quality of the book is its simplicity; Miss Garland's intention is to provide a book for everyone to understand and enjoy, for as the music evolved from a simple folk, so goes the style of Sound of Soul. This is not meant to imply that the data contained in Sound of Soul is not meritorious; to the contrary, it provides the reader with a concise history and the related aesthetic factors surrounding the development of black music. An extraordinary feature of Miss Garland's approach is her candid yet tactful handling of the facts surrounding the commercial success of white recording artists and the lucrative profit reaped from using elements of Afro-American music. Many white artists like Bill Haley and the Comets, Elvis, the Beatles, and Bobbi Gentry attribute their commercial success to their interpretation of spiritual, gospel, and blues motifs; as Miss Garland points out: