Can rock & roll save your soul? Not sure about that. There is much debauch and wreckage associated with the r&r lifestyle. Early death. Fallen idols. Alchoholism. Drug abuse. Blasted and broken lives. Too many peanut butter and fried bannana sandwiches.
On the other hand, I do believe r&r feeds and fires the soul. It may not be enough to save a soul, but it certainly stirs it. Last night, I spent a few hours in a dark rehearsal space with a couple of other souls. It was hot, not really transcendant. We blasted through some numbers, originals and covers, elemental r&r songs, played loud.
Turn up the volume, crash through a chord progression, feel the kick of the drum, and throb of a bass guitar. The failures, the defeats, all the bad shit of the world had to wait for us outside the doors. You can't barricade the doors. Finally you have to pack up and go into that dark night. The world is waiting for us all with all it's pain and glory, it's claws and embraces.
But for a few minutes you get to rock, and it lights something inside. It may not be enough, but then again, the soul thing doesn't work by number and logic...instead it's kind of like magic...and sometimes a maple fretboard points you in a certain direction...and it's something.