THOM BELL: I HEAR A SYMPHONY
With Thom Bell's passing, another major player of the Philadelphia Soul family is gone. Having left an earthly footprint for eternity---I envision Bell ascending to an ancestral plane, reuniting with his departed comrades. His signature strings, French horns, sitars, and oboes trumpet his arrival. My early memories of the legendary producer/arranger/singer/songwriter were ignited by his peculiar-looking first name--- Thom: a cross between a West Indian spelling and an antiquated abbreviation of his birth name. (For years I called him Th- om as in the word “thumb”). I remember my mother's recollection of my little sister’s infatuation with "Rock and Roll Baby"----a Bell-produced joyful romp about a precocious child prodigy from “Bluefield, West Virginia” in "doodle-white shoes" who "never sang out of tune." Even as a seven-year-old in 1976, I was keenly aware of Bell's music. As a second grader, I proudly recited (to say I sang it woul