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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Careless Whisper
Careless WhisperGeorge Michael “I’m never gonna dance again. Guilty feet got no rhythm.” He was puzzled why this song became so popular. He penned it when he was 17 and admittedly had little experience with relationships let alone infidelity and breaking up. But such is the nature of…
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One More For the Road
One More For the RoadFrank Sinatra will always be the voice of America. It is a voice that pops up in my JukeBox Brain when I least expect it. As a jazz drummer it is expedient to be able to play the Sinatra book of tunes, usually with…
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Me and My Arrow
Russell Buddy Helm 1.4K followers • 159 following Intro Featured Section Featured Photos Friends 1,255 friends Cathy Burchett Will Cameron Wheeler Drew Hennessey Peaceful Waters Isgro Alan Berger Sandra Melvoin Kenneth Davidoff Joyce Evans Aris Wiwid Life events Posts Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook…
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For What It’s Worth
For what it’s WorthSteven Stills was one more extremely talented musician composer from the Tampa Bay area of Florida. Genius or maybe the water. This song was recorded by Buffalo Springfield back in the mid Sixties. “Stop, Hey what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going round.” An anthem…
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Light My Fire
Light My Fire Enough has been written about The Doors already. But the history of Jim Morrison is always fodder for rock scribes. We both got our starts in a dinky mildewed coffee house in Pinellas Park Florida; a suburb of St. Petersburg on the gulf coast of…
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In Memory of Elizabeth Reed
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed The Allman Brothers will always have a place of honor in my JukeBox Brain. My band Bethlehem Asylum was fortunate enough to open for the original Allmans on numerous occasions in the South when we were all getting started. The cemetary in Macon,…
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