Sometime in and around the late 80s/early 90s, I was buying and selling photographs. They were mainly subjects from the 1960s and celebrated images across that wonderful decade taking in film, TV, theatre, sport, fashion and of course music. One Sunday morning, whilst rummaging among boxes of paper, old magazines and general tat at a flea market, I saw a photo of soul singer Wilson Pickett dressed in a Prince of Wales suit, with matching top coat.
He simply looked amazing. Sharp as a cut throat razor. I was already a fan of his fantastic voice and his classic singles, especially that great run he had in the mid to late 60s. Who could forget ‘In the Midnight Hour’ ‘Ninety Nine and Half (wont do) ‘634 5789’, ‘You’re So Fine’ ‘Land of A Thousand Dances’ ‘Mustang Sally’ ‘I Found a Love’ ‘I’m in Love’ and ‘I’m a Midnight Mover’ to name but a few that should be in any record collection worth its salt.
His ferocious voice, which sounded like it could strip paint, was just made for those tunes, that were mainly optimistic, feel good sounds, that most found hard to sit down to as they demanded you got up and danced.
Wilson Pickett junior was born in Prattville, near Montgomery in Alabama in 1941; the fourth of eleven kids all living in a two-room shack. It was a troubled upbringing dealing with an abusive mother. He had little or no education and worked in the cotton fields from a very young age. The abuse got so bad, he fled aged 14, to Detroit to live with his father Wilson Pickett senior. There he further developed a voice, that he already ‘found’ singing in the Jericho Baptist Church. To do this, he sang on the streets of his adopted city. In 1955 he began to work with the 6 piece gospel group The Violinaires, before joining the secular The Falcons in 1959, founded by future solo star Eddie Floyd. Pickett was already married and a father at this point, and so decided to cross over to the ‘dark side’ to earn some money for his new family.
Pickett blossomed in this new singing environment, so much so, that he and the group were fired when supporting James Brown at a gig, with Mr Brown said to resent the attention Pickett and his voice had attracted. The Falcons went on to have a hit with the Pickett penned tune ‘I Found a Love’ in 1962.
Solomon Burke then had a hit with ‘If You Need Me’ which Pickett had co written and that put him on the radar of Jerry Wexler at the Atlantic label. He signed Pickett, teaming him with producer Bert Berns and songwriters Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann.
Wilson broke through in 1965 with ‘In The Midnight Hour’, which was recorded in the Stax Records studio, where he was backed by Steve Cropper, Al Jackson and Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn of the M.G.’s. After constant play on pirate radio, the song became a big hit here in the UK too and Pickett toured here not long after.
He was rarely out of the charts for the next two years with hit after hit, with his biggest pop number being ‘Land of a Thousand Dances’ written by Chris Kenner and recorded at Fame Studios. It reached number 6, selling over a million records.
Pickett then began recording songs written by Bobby Womack such as ‘I’m in Love’ & ‘Midnight Mover’ and back at ‘Fame’ he worked up an excellent version of ‘Hey Jude’ with a band fronted by Duane Allman, which got to number 16 the pop charts.
Off stage during the 1960s, he had gained a reputation as being ‘young and wild’ with an unhealthy preoccupation with guns. This rep would dog him for the rest of his career and life.
1970 saw him team up with producers and writers Gamble and Huff which resulted in one song I remember fondly from various Peter Young radio shows, namely ‘Don’t Let the Green Grass Fool You.’
1971 saw him headline Ghana’s 14th Independence Day celebrations in Accra, with Ike and Tina Turner, Roberta Flack and The Staple Singers among those also in the line up.
In truth though, his recording career had all but run out of puff and he was released from Atlantic. RCA picked him up however and he continued to have hits on the R&B charts, but failed to crossover to the Pop 100 like he used to.
By the mid 70s, he was in a heavy tailspin as drink & drugs got hold of him and his violent behaviour towards many around him, family and band mates alike, became legendary.
During the 90s, things came to a head when he became involved in drink/driving violations, including a car accident from which a man subsequently died. His manager at the time, commented, ‘Wilson Pickett’s worst enemy is Jack Daniel’s.’
On top of that, he was charged with domestic abuse whilst heavily into cocaine. He entered drug rehabilitation programmes, as well as serving two jail terms. . He had well and truly become the ‘Wicked Pickett’ as Jerry Wexler had earlier named him.
Career wise, he really struggled during the disco years’, expressing the genre wasn’t for the likes of him.
‘If Otis Redding and Sam Cooke were alive; they wouldn’t get away with changing the music like they have done today. But I don’t have enough help.’
His history though provided major inspiration for ‘The Commitments’ the film of the Roddy Doyle book of the same name. He even makes a fleeting appearance towards the end of the film, or does he?
1998 then saw him appear in ‘Blues Brothers 2000’, the follow up to the original ‘Blues Brothers’ film. Pickett performed ‘6345 789’ with his old Falcons band member Eddie Floyd.
Despite being inducted in to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, he failed to show up for the award.
He began to suffer from a multitude of health problems from 2004, which put an end to the ‘Casino and Cruise Ship’ tours he had worked on up until this point. Whilst recovering in hospital, he began to rediscover his gospel roots, and talked about recording a spiritual album.
In 2006, he planned to record with Sir Mack Rice, Ben E King, Solomon Burke and Don Covay in a revival of ‘The Soul Clan’ but alas, he didn’t make it.
He suffered a heart attack and died at a hospital close to his home in Virginia in January 2006. His long time idol Little Richard preached and spoke of Pickett at the funeral.
The wicked one was 64 years old, and you suspect that he was never really destined to make old bones.
The Mumper of SE5
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