Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

A Rae Town Pampidoo regular dances with a much younger partner. - file

There were two ways to look at just over an hour of soul music at Sunday's Rae Town oldies street dance.

You were either alone or you were coupled.

Not that those who were on their lonesome did not enjoy the extended run of slow jams from Black Prince, starting with Love Me Just a Little Bit Longer after a Big Stuff end to the more uptempo music. Just that those who had a partner, whether twirling in the street as one man in a Lakers jersey did with a couple ladies, or snuggled against a wall, enjoyed it more.

And as Stephen Bishop sang on the first line of the second soul cut On and On, "down in Jamaica they got lots of pretty women", quite a few of them in Rae Town on Sunday night.

However, by and large they were not the stereotypical straight variety in hair, nose and figure, but women with meat on their bones, liveliness sparkling in their eyes and earthy chatter on their full lips.

'Pull up' treatment

Black Prince gave many of the slow songs 'pull up' treatment for the large party crowd, the appreciation for Homely Girl (which has had a Digicel Rising Stars resurgence) urging a restart after some way into the Chi-Lites' hit. The man in the white Lakers shirt had a change of partners on You Don't Wanna Be Loved, while a couple younger women in short shorts ground their glutes into their partners' zippers on the raised steps to a closed shop.

The soul even soothed some potentially savage beasts, as one man who had been 'badding up' an empty bottle collector named 'Yellow' five minutes earlier gripped his Heineken bottle like a green miniature partner, closed his eyes and sang along with Champain's 'How Bout Us?'.

Soul took toll

A woman with splits on each leg of her already sheer white pants had fun by herself in the middle of the road before one of the more appreciated soul cuts of the morning, Members Only. However, the soul eventually took its toll on some people, who murmured their desire for something a little more lively.

They got it at 2:15 a.m. with Dawn Penn complaining "no no no", the rub a dub getting an enthusiastic "yes yes yes" and a restart. The beat may have changed but it was still matters of the heart with a tearful cut tumbling from Delroy Wilson and Carl Dawkins' Satisfaction following The STAR walking away from Black Prince's sound to call it a night.