RaR19 – In the Midnight Hour
DIRECTIONS:
Listen to the recording of the tune by clicking the attached mp3 file. This will open the recording in a new window or tab. Listen and follow along with the listening guide in the book.
Read the liner notes below.
Read the information “What to Listen For”
Respond to the Rate-A-Record/Questions by clicking on the assignment link and then click on on the button “Write Submission” (to the right of Text Submission) to record your response. Do not use the comments field.
In the Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett
“The Wicked Pickett,” as he would come to be known, was born in Pratville, Alabama, though his family moved to Detroit when he was fairly young. He began singing in the choir of his Baptist church and was soon also singing on the streets of Detroit. In 1958 he formed a gospel quartet called the Violinaires, who made a few modestly successful records. By the early 1960s he was fairly well known as the leader of a popular local doo-wop group called the Falcons, which also included future soul stars Eddie Floyd and Sir Mack Rice. The group had already recorded a million-selling single called “You’re So Fine”; their new member gave the Falcons another hit with his own composition “I Found Love,” which broke the top ten on the national R&B charts in 1962. After this Pickett decided to leave the group and launch a solo career, without much success. Two years later he was signed to Atlantic records, but after several releases he was still without a hit. Jerry Wexler took him to the Stax studios in Memphis, hoping the collaborative environment would yield some exciting material appropriate to Pickett’s hard gospel/soul style. Guitarist and producer Steve Cropper visited a nearby record store to familiarize himself with Pickett’s sound and abilities before he arrived. He found two or three records—his hit with the Falcons and several gospel disks—and noticed that at the end of each song, right before the fade-out, Pickett launched into a vamp based on the phrase “in the midnight hour.” Since this seemed to be favored territory for the singer, Cropper started working on a song that used that phrase as a hook. When he met Pickett later that afternoon, the singer was delighted. He had also been working on a song for the session, and with only about an hour of work—and, according to Cropper, a bottle of Jack Daniels—”In the Midnight Hour” emerged.
Jerry Wexler claims that in addition to being the song that launched Pickett’s career, it introduced the famous Stax “delayed backbeat” after he asked the musicians to match the rhythmic accents to the rhythm of a popular dance, the Jerk. Steve Cropper, however, insists that the “delayed backbeat” had a much simpler and more prosaic origin: it was the natural result of recording in the cavernous Stax studio in Memphis, which was a converted movie theater.
WHAT TO LISTEN FOR:
The predominance of the backbeat from the drums
Unique timbres created by vocal effects, production/studio technology, and interesting combinations of instruments
Pickett’s unique vocal style
RATE-A-RECORD/QUESTIONS TO ANSWER:
Why would it be important for a rock/pop/soul singer-vocalist to know about this tune?
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APA
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