The Saviors of Soul Revisited

In 1997, some twenty years after his notoriously iconoclastic conversion to Christianity, when asked what he then believed, Bob Dylan replied:

I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music . . .. I believe the songs.

A difficult doctrine to understand? He that hath ears to hear, let him listen to and watch “The Commitments,” Alan Parker’s 1991 cinematic tract proclaiming the saving power of soul, Motown soul that is. It’s the story of a band of 12 music disciples who bring salvation to the ruins of Dublin through music.

Like Jesus picking his disciples, Jimmy Rabbitte, the future band leader, opens the movie by holding auditions at his family’s flat in Dublin to start a soul group. On the wall behind Jimmy’s father there’s a picture of the Pope, and above the Pope, there’s a picture of Elvis.

Jimmy Rabbitte: Elvis is not soul.
Jimmy Rabbitte, Sr.: [defensively] Elvis IS God.
Jimmy Rabbitte: I never pictured God with a fat gut and corset singing “My Way” at Caesar’s Palace.

But God moves in mysterious ways in “The Commitments.” As if to underscore this point, the final member to join the band arrives at Jimmy’s house on a Moped and introduces himself as “Joey ‘The Lips’ Fagan.” Says The Lips: “God bless you, Brother Rabbitte. Does your band need a trumpet?” When Jimmy asks why Joey wants to join them, Joey says: “The Lord sent me. And the Lord blows my trumpet.”

Fagan later recounts how he received his call to proclaim the gospel of soul:

See, the Lord told me the Irish brothers needed some soul. Well, Ed Winchell, a Baptist reverend on Lennox Avenue in Harlem, told me. But the Lord told him to tell me. He said the Irish brothers wouldn’t be shooting the arses off each other if they had soul.

As might be expected, these disciples have much to learn before they are truly converted. They study video performances of James Brown like scripture. Jimmy, like Moses,  declares Led Zeppelin and other rock music unclean. Explains Brother Rabbitte to his pasty white fellow Dubliners:

Your music should be about where you’re from and the sort of people you come from.   What kind of music says all that? Soul. We’re going to be playing Dublin soul. Do you not get it lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe, and Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland and the north side Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin.   Say it once and say it loud. I’m black and I’m proud.

Jimmy names the group “The Commitments,” anointing them “the saviors of soul.” On occasion, some of them have doubts about their calling. Consider the lack of faith of Clifford, a med student and the band’s keyboardist, as he confesses to a Catholic priest:

Steve Clifford: There’s these three girls with the band, I’ve had lustful thoughts about all of them.   Used to, when I studied I would sing hymns, but now all I can sing is “When A Man Loves A Woman” by Marvin Gaye.
Father Molloy: Percy Sledge.
Steve Clifford: What?
Father Molloy: It was Percy Sledge did that particular song. I have the album.

But the faith of The Commitments is lifted by their first miracle performing in the church hall at St. Bridget’s Community Center under a sign that reads “Heroine Kills” next to a picture of a syringe, each hand painted, the “e” at the end of “Heroine” corrected by Father Molloy and whited out before curtain time. As The Commitments continue to practice their songs and take their message to the people, the spirit rests upon them and they perform as one.

Soon, Joey The Lips predicts a Messiah of Motown, Wilson Pickett, will attend their next show and perform with them. As they anxiously await his appearance, however, they are finally destroyed by the petty disputes, romantic liaisons and jealousies that have long tempted them. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was too abundant. In the midst of curses and fisticuffs they disband after their show, leaving Jimmy Rabbitte to wander the streets, disheartened, only to see Wilson Pickett himself finally arrive in a limousine, too late to save the saviors of soul. Then Joey The Lips rides up to Jimmy to say goodbye.

Joey: Look, I know you’re hurtin’ now, but in time you’ll realize what you’ve achieved.
Jimmy Rabbitte: I’ve achieved nothing!
Joey: You’re missin’ the point. The success of the band was irrelevant – you raised their expectations of life, you lifted their horizons. Sure we could have been famous and made albums and stuff, but that would have been predictable. This way it’s poetry.

At the end of the movie, Jimmy, in his mock interview voiceover describes how the different band members eventually rise from the grave of The Commitments to pursue their divergent musical paths, reminding us every declaration of faith, even one  in music, must end with a resurrection, a hope, in this case,  of music everlasting.