Just because music - this evening's edition

There's so much to parse, study and contemplate about Sam Cooke. There's the six-degrees-of angle, which yields us such sideshoots as Billy Preston, Lou Rawls, Reverend C. L. Franklin, Rev. Franklin's daughter Aretha, Hugo & Luigi and Herb Alpert & Lou Adler. There's the sociocultural angle: look how clean and smooth, impeccably handsome and poised he is. He had a stellar gospel background. By 1963, he had a string of children by various women, some of whom he'd been married to, and some not.

There's the black-American-music angle. He was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi in 1931, same place and year as Ike Turner. The list of other notables from Clarksdale is long.



There's the moves. The stage presence. The obvious standard he set for connecting with the audience.



And then there's just Sam giving us what he's got. His gifts. That essence that, like any of our unique contributions to this world, can't be duplicated, and so must be appreciated while it's in our midst.







Just