What the hell is soul, anyway? Maybe we can get a clear idea by reeling off the names of a few of the Devil's minions who don't have it (remember the words of Saint Dylan:"...I love you/Not because of what you are/But because of what you're not"). Kenny G(erm). Stink. Mitch (Run of the Mill)er. Air Biscuit Supply. Dan Fogey-berg. Celine D-yawn. Pat B(uff)oone. And those are just some of the schmucks who invented their own strain of lifeless, selfish, masturbatory musical disease--we won't call out the phonus balonuses who have made life miserable for some and confused the rest since Al Jolson, Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Jimmie Rodgers, Charley Patton, Emmett Miller, Louis Amstrong, Charlie Poole, and Bessie Smith-- the first messengers of the Holy Rock and Roll Ghost--revealed to us the Light of the Wavelength.

Maybe what it boils down to is a genuine acknowledgment--in your writing, singing, playing, dancing--of the pure pain and ecstasy, of the tears and laughter, of the confusion and clarity, of the boredom and thrills (both cheap and earned), of the choking darkness and blinding light that is being alive. This is the heart of the Gospel of Rock and Roll: "I am not alone. I am not insane. I am not wrong for feeling and thinking this way. And it is not OK for me to lie here in my room jerking off and feeling sorry for myself--there's a connection out there to be made before it's too late."

The way out of the shadows and into the light is to walk with the Enlightened Ones, and walk with them always (a sure invitation to soullessness is to believe there's nothing left to be revealed). In the religion of Holy Rock and Roll, the Enlightened are not few--they are many. They are not all gone, awaiting resurrection--those dead have immortal voices, and the rest walk the earth (if not inhabit the airwaves). And, unlike with liquor, you should start with the strong stuff: Billie Holiday, Hank Williams, Sr., Ray Charles, John Lennon, Otis Redding, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Gram Parsons, Marvin Gaye, George Jones, the Clash, Al Green, Bruce Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, the Mekons, Steve Earle, Public Enemy...and there's much more. Sup with the saints, and rejoin the living.