CURTIS MAYFIELD - "GET DOWN" (1972)

This is the incomparable Curtis Mayfield - a model of heavenly restraint in a sea of funky soul brothers and sisters trying to out do each other with their moves - and a "sho' nuff killer" from his second solo album, Roots. Footage from an episode of Soul Train, first broadcast 25 March 1972. Get down.

CURTIS MAYFIELD - GET DOWN

As you polish off the Baileys and stuff another After Eight in your gob on Boxing Day, spare a thought for the insurpassable soul legend Curtis Mayfield, who died ten years earlier.

I consider myself hugely honoured to have seen Mayfield perform on three occasions; the last only a few months before the tragic accident in August 1990 that paralyzed him from the neck down. It still chokes me.

Here, the dancers on Soul Train in 1971 throw some damn funky shapes to “Get Down”. Don’t try these moves after a second plate of bubble and squeak.