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SEVEN HOURS OF WILSON PICKETT

You’d be forgiven for wondering if six CDs of Wilson Pickett is overkill. You know the big hits: “In The Midnight Hour”, “Land of 1000 Dances”, and probably one or two others. Hard-driving soul music—it really got you moving at your cousin’s wedding. But while you’re discerning enough to realise that his “Mustang Sally” trumps that version from The Commitments, you’re really not sure if seven-hours-plus of his screaming hyper-virility is what you need to spend your money on. “In the Midnight Hour”, in 1965, was the song that sealed Pickett’s legend, and deservedly so. Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler brought the "Wicked" one to Memphis, borrowed Stax’s house band (Booker T. and the MG’s) and suggested the off-kilter backbeat (a delay on the two and four beats). The result revolutionised soul music. Stax shut its doors to Atlantic soon after (why give away Booker T. and the MG’s?), but for years afterward, nearly every uptempo song on the Stax label borrowed that rhythmic trick. And nearly every subsequent Wilson Pickett hit carried some of its DNA—the ballads never sold quite as well. But one of the great revelations of Rhino's new six-CD "Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962-1978)"—and there are many—is the strength of the slower album tracks. Pickett could plead and cry with the greatest of them. In 1967 and 1968, Pickett was grabbing as many songs as he could from the pen of his new guitar player, Bobby Womack; the tender melodies tended to nudge Pickett’s baritone into higher registers, and the exhortations and grunts he threw into the song’s margins took on a wholly different meaning. There’s an enormous range of emotions in “It’s A Groove”, “I’m Sorry About That”, “I’ve Come A Long Way”, “Trust In Me”, “Jealous Love” and the dozen or so other Womack/Pickett collaborations. On “I’m in Love”, for instance, the exuberance that Pickett telegraphs is simply indescribable: "Funky Midnight Mover" continues long past the point of Womack’s departure (who, having given away all his songs, was forced to round out his own solo debut with covers like “Fly Me To The Moon” and “Moonlight In Vermont”). Over the course of the next ten years, Pickett found new collaborators (Duane Allman contributed blasts of guitar to a muscular "Hey Jude"; producers Gamble & Huff set his voice against swirling Sound of Philadelphia strings), and further expanded the range of his music. He never turned his back on the ballads—a previously unearthed rendition of Bill Withers' "I Hope She'll Be Happier With Him" is breathtaking. Of course, "Wicked" Pickett never forgot how to shout, either, and the glory of “In the Midnight Hour” never faded. "Funky Midnight Mover: The Atlantic Studio Recordings (1962-1978)", Wilson Pickett (Rhino), out now ~ SEAN HOWE