Ball of Wax 38 Songs of Protest: Darryl Blood – “Gimme Some Soul”

Daryl Blood employs Bob Dylan’s cascade of words technique from “Subterranean Homesick Blues” for the verses of “Gimme Some Soul,” a song that seems to vent frustrations about the music industry (or what Adorno would call the culture industry – wait, where are you going?) and the struggle for recognition and some degree of success. For a protest song, the lyrics are pretty vague but still effective. Phrases like “play dead / stay fed / don’t believe what you’ve read” and “can’t get my foot in the door of industry” stream past the listener before the chorus of “oh, oh, gimme some soul” kicks in. The chorus has a similar scrappy, quasi-soul feel as Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga-era Spoon and the rest of the song rumbles along and gets a little noisy in spots too. There’s a rich tradition of railing against the music industry in song, from the Sex Pistol’s “EMI” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Working for MCA” to Destroyer’s whole Streethawk: A Seduction record, and “Gimme Some Soul” is an nice underdog contribution from Mr. Blood.