Does anyone listen to the guy? He's on now. It's a fantastic show.
Tonight is soul night.
Other nights he does country and classic albums.Ralph McLean plays current releases, re-issues and classics, featuring a mix of R 'n' B, soul and gospel, blues and funk
Worth catching on the i-player if you can get it.
BBC - BBC Radio Ulster Programmes - Ralph McLean - Soul Music
It makes squabbling over politics and identity seem so pointless and small minded.
Damon, i listen to him all the time..I was converted a few years ago, and have tried to spread the word.Originally Posted by damon
I remember telling a radio DJ in Belfast, that I thought Ralp Mc Lean was the best on radio. This particular DJ's reply, was that anybody could look up Wikipedia. Hissy fit/jealousy or what..the guy let himself down.
Ralp covers music from the 20's 30's right up to today. You never know whats coming next, and he gives you great stories/background on the tracks he plays. Theres a guy on Radio 2 at night "Whispering" Bob Harris, and he's similar to Ralp Mc Lean. Somebody might correct me here, but I think he (Harris) was connected to "The Old Grey Whistle Test". A great music show from the early 70's.
No no Gako - not Whispering Bob
First of all, I can't stand his ''whispering'' and secondly he's a bit of an ''old fart'' who was appalled by punk music when it started.
He refused to have any of that on his Old Grey Whistle Test show, (as he was into the ''prog rock'' so heavilly) and only relented after after the new music became more established in New Wave. But I will have to listen out for his Radio 2 programmes as he has such a huge depth of knowledge.
But I like the way that McLean chats between the records, and his Soul Show is the particular one I like.
Just see his play list from last night.
Van Morrison and John Lee Hooker together. Dusty Springfield, Bobby Bland, Howard Tate and a great Wilson Pickett cover of ''Hey Jude''.
Three tracks from Rory Gallagher and others from people I've hardly heard of (I'm ashamed to admit).
BBC - BBC Radio Ulster Programmes - Ralph McLean - Soul Music, 07/02/2012
As for my other point about the socialising aspects of appreciating that kind of music, this might come across as middle class and patronising, but if more people in Northern Ireland were tuning into that sort of thing in the last 40 years, there would have been less appetite for conflict and sectarianism.
I don't mind being shot down for saying that btw. Being an outsider from England and all that.
But if I was the ''dictator of Britain and Ireland'' I'd have that kind of programme as part of the national national curriculum in schools, or at least as part of the programme for prisoner's rehabilitation/education in the jails.
I'll be listening again tonight at 8pm
I suppose I should admit to this being a bit of a troll thread.
Not because I don't like that show and the music, but because of my other comments.
About wondering if people were more into that kind of thing, that they'd be less into the identity stuff and worrying about a border.
Which I know is rather rude and could be seen as quite annoying.
But your rank and file Orangemen (for example) are not the main listeners to the Soul Show ... I'm guessing.
And neither the flute band members.
As for Republicans? Who knows.
McLean played three Rory Gallagher tracks the other night and I know he was popular here and used to play the Ulster Hall every year. And Van the Man of course, he just played in Belfast the other night and I'm sure is liked right across both communities.
When you see Ian Paisley's congregation at his packed church all clapping him on his last day there as a minister recently, you remember that there are still a lot of people ''that repressed'' in this society. And more proof of how clueless some people are was hearing that Gregory Campbell had complained about the wee diamond that is Gerry Anderson - who when he's on form is just the best - for Gerry playing the Christy Moore song ''Weekend in Amsterdam''.
BBC apology after Gerry Anderson plays 'explicit' Chisty Moore song - Northern Ireland, Local & National - Belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Gerry's show (I think) is just what NI needs as a way of bringing people together. And laughing at the sectarian fools who would divide people on spurious lines.
I've been a fan of Van Morrison since my older brother arrived home from college in Dublin with Astral Weeks back in around 1969, although I liked his stuff with Them in the mid sixties before that. He recorded other great LP's back then, Moondance, Hard Nose The Highway, Veedon Fleece, St Dominic's Preview and Wavelength. In common with many other sixties greats most of his later stuff is very mediocre though.
"I'm normally not a praying man, but if you're up there, please save me Superman."
I know this thread was a damp squib of nothing, but I was listening to Ralph again on his Soul Show last night and I couldn't help but think of some of the great music and the Troubles here, and how things could have been different if there had been a ''higher consciousness'' amongst the people most susceptible to the tribal drum beating.
That's a hugely patronising thing for a Brit to say I know, and I'm not being entirely serious.
But it's nothing that Stiff Little Fingers didn't sing about in their song Alternative Ulster.
''They say they're a part of you, but that's not true you know ...'' etc.
So in the last half an hour of his programme last night, he mentioned this compilation album.
A Soldier's Sad Story: Vietnam Through The Eyes Of Black America 1966-73: Various Artists: Amazon.co.uk: Music
And then proceeded to play three tracks off it, including the stupendous ''I Can't Write Left-Handed'' by Bill Withers.
And I was thinking how sad it is that most people wouldn't even bother with a song like that, and maybe only a minority of people in NI had ever really heard it or pondered it much.
I Can't Write Left-Handed(live audio 1973)-Bill Withers - YouTube
Watching the BBC programme about the Ballysally estate in Coleraine on monday, I'm pretty sure hardly anyone of them would have.
Which is a graet shame IMO.
As I say, I know this might sound as grossly insulting and patronising, but it's also true I'd say.
All those years of the Troubles and this fantastic music was already out there, but people were getting involved in conflict and sectarianism and wanting to fight the army.
Damon -you are over generalising a bit .As a former flute band guy , I love old soul music ,especially Dobie Gray, Otis Redding ,Wilson Pickett .Also, enjoy Americana ,classic rock etc etc.Most of the guys enjoy a wide range of music but it is the era that you grow up in that sometimes determines your musical tastes , as you get older , what you thought was crap ,starts to sound good .Crikey even like Matt Munro, Dean Martin , you appreciate the voice .
As for your theory ,yeah,Free P'S are not big on soul music , but your average loyalist likes a range of stuff .Btw,Bob Harris Country Show on Radio 2 is good.
Well said Vinboy. You know this is just me thinking out loud - and not to be taken too seriously.
You're so right about Matt Munro and Dean Martin too. The stuff that your parents liked.
I was a that way with Johhny Cash and Jim Reeves, totally ignoring them when I was growing up.
If all the people in NI who professed to be Christians had actually been a bit Christian there wouldn't have been any troubles either.
And if you could have got some of the young rioters fro ''Agro Corner'' in Derry together with the young soldiers in a pub or club after an afternoon's rioting back in the early 70's and asked them to have a listen together to great records like Otis Redding's ''Try a little Tenderness'' - well maybe you could have a bit of brotherly love breaking out.
Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness [Best Quality Version] - YouTube
Who would want to try to knock a person's head of with a brick or a plastic bullet after enjoying something like that together?
I love the organ on that record.
As for Ballysally and the BBC TV series. I'm surprised there's not a thread on it. I've watched them all and you have to feel some empathy for the people shown in the programme. Showing them getting a flute band together for the twelfth, you saw their humanity (and vulnerability) - and when they all turned out, you'd just want to give them a cheer and a clap. I fear for the young guy with the blond hair and the liking for vodka who's self harmed and tryed to kill himself before.
Maybe I should be writing thoughts like this on a blog of my own and not on here.
I bet they didn't used to play Otis Redding and Al Green at Lenny Murphy's club on Shankill Road.
If they had of done, they might not have felt those murderous urges so strongly.
Last edited by damon; 24th February 2012 at 04:50 PM.
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