SOUL TROOPER OF THE 60`S PIONEERED FUNKY SOUL ROCK.... OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT

Soul is not big in my repertoire but the real blues inspired rollicking
stuff from the 1960`s does do it for me, especially when its the music
of the late great Wilson Pickett, who died only a year or so ago after
spending the latter years of his life as a washed up artistic has been
who only rarely made the occasional venture out into the spotlight. He
was for a brief time in the 60`s a musical revolutionary, he and Steve
Cropper from instrumental group Booker T and the MG`s became a for-
midable songwriting force in the upbeat soul music revolution that the
Stax Records label was famous for recording and promoting. Arguably
only the late & possibly even greater Otis Redding, who stuck to more
safe Motown like material, had a greater influence as a soul musician
over other musicians than did the adventurous Wilson Pickett. To give
you some idea as to what broad influence Pickett had over other musos,
and not just in the soul biz, veteran British hard rocker and founder
of Whitesnake David Coverdale started out singing Pickett covers in a
number of english pubs before being asked to join Deep Purple as a re-
placement for vocalist Ian Gillan. Coverdale absolutely revers Wilson
Pickett as one of his greatest influences, it just goes to show that
Pickett`s blend of souped up blues inspired soul had a big influence
on musicians of all shapes and sizes. He became a giant of the soul
genre with such brilliant and musically muscular and uproarous songs
such as `In The Midnight Hour`, 634-5789`, which was resurrected on
the Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack with a much older Pickett adding
some vocals, the popularised `Mustang Sally` which has been covered
by more blues artists than i can count, `Funky Broadway`, considered
by many to be the most `heavy` song in Pickett`s canon, and also the
cover of the decade `Hey Jude`, which of course belongs to four lads
from Liverpool and not a black american. I never did like the Beatles
version of the the song, always sounded too groupie and Woodstock for
my liking with them but Pickett opened the song up and allowed it to
breath, and to me he sounds a lot more convincing in how he sings it
than any pipsqueak englishman. `Land of A Thousand Dances` is another
underated minor hit for Pickett which has been picked up by heaps of
blues and soul artists and re-recorded over the years. Wilson Pickett
was better than what he has to show for his creative artistic output,
he might have only had a dozen good songs but those songs had a very
big impact on the development of funk, rock, and even heavy metal in
the decade following the 60`s. `Funky Broadway` is my pick - brilliant!