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Soul Man
2006-01-20 05:25
by Alex Belth

Rest in Peace, Wilson Pickett.

Comments
2006-01-20 07:26:43
1.   wsporter
Hey Alex, I was beginning to think no one over here noticed or cared. He was one of the 60's great crossover artists. Man that cat could wail.
2006-01-20 08:44:55
2.   Sliced Bread
wsporter, I'm definitely on the Pickett line with you. He was one of the originals.
I agree with your props (in your previous post) to the Bryan Ferry cover of "In The Midnight Hour." But nobody delivers the immortal line more convincingly, "In the midnight hour, when my love comes tumbling down..." like the cat with the cool name, Wilson Pickett.

PS - my all-time favorite Roxy cover is Ferry's take on "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall."

2006-01-20 09:37:33
3.   wsporter
Slice, On the Picket line. Yes. There was something so free yet so aspirational about the music. Songs full of hope delivered by messengers who were proud of where they were. I think for me that's why they're so timeless.

Sometimes I'll listen to an album I haven't opened in years and wonder what the hell I was thinking when I went gaga over it. CSNY's "Four Way Street" is a recent example. There aren't three songs on that mess I can sit through now. When I hear "These Foolish Things" and his take on "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" I think I can hear the next 20 years of the Punk-Pop-Avant-garde movement. It's a big smile. B. Ferry could get it done.

2006-01-20 14:25:17
4.   jonm
Thanks for mentioning this, Alex. I was more saddened by Pickett's death than any other celebrities' death in quite a while. I guess that I had hoped that he had at least one more comeback album in him, a la Solomon Burke.

He was one of the all-time greats. Amongst male soul singers, off the top of my head, personally I would only rank Otis, Marvin, and possibly Al Green above him.

By the way, have you read the new Sam Cooke bio? I read a great review of it in the new Mojo.

2006-01-22 11:31:40
5.   The Mick 536
Mustang Sally, you betta slow that mustang down.

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