In the Midnight Hour
It is midnight and I can’t sleep because WIlson Pickett is running my Jukebox Brain all on his own. How many times I have played this song is impossible to count. I recall smokey blue light bar rooms and stages with hundreds of adoring people all moving and groovin’ to this tune. If there was a fight breaking out on the dance floor Midnight Hour was the tune that de-escalated the confrontation. It is a love song of the first order, rather a seduction song. It is assumed that the woman being addressed in the song is an interested participant. Wilson is very insistent in his message. He describes what techniques of love making he will employ. This is a trademark of great soul music; the unabashed confessions of the singer’s intentions. This honesty was a major artistic element for the African American composer and singer. The white crowd had Pat Boone and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Elvis appropriated the mystique. This verbalization of technique separated Soul music from any other form of pop music. The soul charts were unique unto them selves. Great producers like Willy Dixon at Chess records created the super soul hero and the public ate it up, literally. But they needed drummers like Al Jackson to put it back in the pocket.
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Wah-Watusi
Wah-Watusi Penned by Kai Mann and Dave Appell in 1962. My JukeBox brain is digging into my preteen memory and replaying this tune on repeat until I want to scream or maybe dance. Recorded by the Orlons. Was that a synthetic fabric? Dick Clark American Bandstand featured the…
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Gimme Shelter
Gimme ShelterRolling Stones nailed the zeitgeist of America back in the Seventies with this song just after the shocking violence at Altamont. The real high point of the song is Mary Clayton’s vocal performance. She put her whole heart and soul into her call and response blending the…
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Fame
Fame David Bowie and John Lennon cowrote this funky hit tune. The groove imitates an original R and B groove maybe from Otis Redding or James Brown. But it has a luster all its own. Lots of angst too. The posturing to avoid fame and glory is appreciated.…
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Chuck E’s In Love
Chuck E’s In Love Rickie Lee Jones penned this great song back in the Seventies and it still holds up. I met Chuck E. Weiss one night in Sherman Oaks at John Herron’s telling how he met Tom Waits at an open mic whereTom sang folk songs; “Five…
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Woodstock
Latest BloWoodstock Joni Mitchel wrote the song without even going to the first and only Real Woodstock festival. Most people who were alive then and still above ground now have a memory of the first time they heard Joni’s lilting yet haunting song. I was in Key West…
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Lookin For the Heart of Saturday Night
Lookin for the Heart of Saturday Night Tom Waits’ first album. It was a song I loved and should have covered it with Tim Buckley, they were on the same label. I was unsure of my producing chops. Don’t ever doubt yourself when it comes to being creative.…
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