Don Cornelius is dead in an apparent suicide, TMZ and The Associated Press are reporting. The 75-year-old creator of "Soul Train" shot himself to death Wednesday morning at his Los Angeles home, police said.
"Soul Train" had a vast and lasting influence on pop culture, and seeded -- or at least seeded the idea -- of MTV. (There were many MTV fathers, certainly, but he was one of 'em.)
He was a tastemaker who tasted everything, from Motown to R&B, and taught generations of kids to dance, or try to dance, or try to move.
"Soul Train" ran for decades, and thus, influenced not just one of those generations, but a couple. It aired from '71 to the mid-2000s, and may still be going on in some iteration for all I know. The Soul Train Awards, are of course, still continuing. This was the urban "American Bandstand," and Don, the urban -- and more urbane -- Dick Clark, to whom he was so often compared.
Here's a clip, showing Cornelius at the outset, doing what he always did -- introducing acts, and so much more. After this, a clip of Gladys Knight getting the Soul Train lifetime achievement award last year, crediting -- among many -- Cornelius ("I thank you from the bottom of my heart..."). OK, having some technical difficulties with that clip, as we say in the trade, but do check out this old Cornelius interview with James Brown. And you'll definitely want to go here to read Tom Joyner's good appraisal of "Soul Train" and Cornelius.
