We continue our look back at the music of 50 years ago…..
Before soul music became dominated by a disco beat, there were still some old school soul holdouts doing their “thang” and that included “The Wicked” Wilson Pickett who released his 11th Lp for Atlantic in 1971.
That’s not to say that Pickett doesn’t have some new school floruishes on this record. The title track is divided into two parts with the beginning released as a single…the second part is an intrumental jam that includes some pyschedelic work from the band which included some of the Muscle Shoals guys including David Hood, Barry Beckett and Roger Hawkins and the Memphis Horns plus Motown guitar ace Dennis Coffey who shines on a bunch of other cuts as well. I saw one critic describe this as “Shaft being guided through Dante’s Inferno by a funked up Virgil”. Couldnt have put it better.
There are uptempo shouters like Fire & Water (A Free Cover), A Mighty Long Way (which features the wicked one on harmonica) and “Call My Name I’ll Be There”.
He can slow it down as well including a nice cover of Jonny Ace’s “Pledging My Love” in which he almost sounds like Otis Redding. He also had a habit of covering other hit songs and he does it here turning Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not To Come” into a funky pleasure.
I had an eight-track player attached to my stereo in those days and bought a greatest hits of 1971 tape. It included both parts of “Dont Knock My Love” which , of course were divided by that familiar “thunk” in between. Since we rarely heard Pickett around here, it was a small sacrifice.
His hit-making days may have been slowing down but he could still deliver the goods. Get Down, Get Funky!
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