Page "Solomon Burke" Paragraph 58

As he increased in weight, " Burke ’ s sheer bulk meant that he could never be a dancer like James Brown, but like Brown, his act was full of showmanship.

" Consequently, over the years Burke " evolved a fervently demonstrative stage act ", that were often compared with religious revival meetings.

Burke and black performers like James Brown, Aretha Franklin and Wilson Pickett, " would adopt the ' house-wrecking ' tactics of black preachers, and their shows functioned in much the same way as black religious events in that performer and audience became immersed in the music, arriving together at an ecstatic state that allowed them to feel a deep intensity of experience.

" According to Weldon McDougal, Burke " turned theatres like the Apollo and the Uptown into churches, he had folk running down the aisles to be saved by his music.

" Cliff White described a show in the UK where " with head thrown back and one hand cupped to his mouth like an Alpine yodeller he cried out with such overwhelming passion that he left the spellbound audience wrung out and exhausted like so many limp rags.