Wilson Pickett with Edwin Starr - Rose d'Or Festival, Pavillon Montreux, Montreux, Switzerland, 5-3-1972

I keep coming across really interesting music on YouTube that doesn't ever make it to audio bootlegs. I keep trying to fix that. Here's another example. It's a Wilson Pickett concert from 1972. Edwin Starr is here too, but he only has a lesser role on one song.

In my opinion, the prime period of Pickett's music career was from about 1965 to 1973. When it comes to live recordings, surprisingly, there never has been an official live album from those years. And when it comes to bootlegs, there's only one well known one, which I've posted here at this blog, which took place in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1969. So it's quite nice to find this second one.

The sound quality is good, due to the fact that it was broadcast on TV. You can find multiple versions on YouTube. A couple of them have lots of little gaps of silence in the songs, but I was able to find a version without those.

This concert was part of a four-day-long festival. For this year, it was known as the Rose d'Or Festival, but it would soon be renamed the Montreux Jazz Festival, which continues until the present. Most years, this was held at the Montreux Casino, but it had to be moved for this year, due to the fire at the casino documented in the Deep Purple song "Smoke on the Water." I looked up the schedule, and Edwin Starr performed at the festival one day later, so it was easy for him to drop in on Wilson Pickett's set.

By the way, I think "I'm a Midnight Mover" turned into a different song halfway through, but if so, I don't know the name of that other song. If anyone does, let me know, and I'll fix the song list. 

Also, it's kind of hard to tell just when Edwin Starr was involved, since neither his arrival nor his departure was clearly announced. But he joined the song "People Make the World (What It Is)" right after Pickett asked if any members of the Rolling Stones in the audience wanted to join him on stage. (Either they weren't there, or didn't want to join.) Then Starr traded lead vocals through the end of the song. 

This album is 43 minutes long. 

01 Funky Broadway (Wilson Pickett)
02 People Make the World [What It Is] (Wilson Pickett & Edwin Starr)
03 I'm a Midnight Mover (Wilson Pickett)
04 I'm in Love (Wilson Pickett)
05 Fire and Water (Wilson Pickett)
06 Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett)
07 Don't Knock My Love (Wilson Pickett)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6cTwjNTi

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/NExW4kGTp6meNAW/file

The cover image is a screenshot I took from a video of this exact concert. That's Edwin Starr closer to the camera, and Wilson Pickett slightly behind him. Although Starr didn't have that big of a role in this concert, finding an image like this showing the top of them together was too good to pass up. 

Wilson Pickett with the Chi-Lites - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 9-21-1973

Here's another episode of the excellent "Midnight Special" TV show. This one is hosted by soul music legend Wilson Pickett, with the soul band the Chi-Lites as a guest star.

I've already posted a couple of songs by Pickett from this show in 1973, when he was a guest star for an episode hosted by the Bee Gees. Those songs aren't included here, since they're that other album I've made. 

In my write-up, I pointed out that Pickett had a long series of hits from about 1963 to 1973, but 1973 was the start of a steep decline in his career. I'm mentioning it here, since it's just as relevant for this album. In retrospect, his big mistake was changing record companies around the start of 1973. He didn't write songs himself, so he had to rely on professional songwriters, and the songs his new record company gave him weren't nearly as good as before.

Be that as it may, it has very little relevance here, because he stuck entirely to hit songs from earlier in his career. The only "new" song was "Never My Love," but that was a cover of a massive pop hit from 1967, so he couldn't really go wrong with that one.

Additionally, and I think rather weirdly, Pickett talked with soul singer and keyboardist Billy Preston a little bit, but that's all they did, just talk. 

It's too bad he didn't sing with the Chi-Lites, because they would have made for a good match. The Chi-Lites had many hits, especially from 1969 to 1974. In 1972 they had their biggest hit, "Oh Girl," which made it to Number One on the U.S. singles chart (as well as the U.S. R&B singles chart). So it's not surprising they performed that one here. The other song they played, "Stoned Out of My Mind," was their most recent hit at the time of this concert. That only made it to Number 30 on the U.S. singles chart, but at least it made it to Number 2 on the R&B chart, and I think it's one of their best.

Not all the songs are from this one episode. Tracks 12 and 13 are from an episode that aired on July 20, 1973. (I only know the broadcast dates for this TV show, unfortunately). Tracks 14 and 15 are from the September 14, 1973 episode, which was just a week prior to this one.

In case you're curious, the main episode here also featured songs by Canned Heat, Brian Auger's Oblivion Express, Curtis Mayfield, B.W. Stevenson, Brenda Patterson, and Spooky Tooth. I've already put the Mayfield on a different album.

All the music here is unreleased. As usual, I did a lot of editing to help the songs flow together, mostly by adding some extra crowd noise to hide commercial breaks and other breaks. 

This album is 45 minutes long.

01 talk (Wolfman Jack)
02 Land of 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett)
03 talk (Wilson Pickett)
04 talk (Wilson Pickett & Billy Preston)
05 Stoned Out of My Mind (Chi-Lites)
06 Funky Broadway (Wilson Pickett)
07 Never My Love (Wilson Pickett)
08 talk (Wilson Pickett)
09 Oh Girl (Chi-Lites)
10 talk (Wilson Pickett)
11 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
12 Don't Let the Green Grass Fool You (Wilson Pickett)
13 International Playboy (Wilson Pickett)
14 Don't Knock My Love (Wilson Pickett)
15 Get Me Back on Time, Engine 9 (Wilson Pickett) 

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2BNcXqYG

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/9S13XtmDnDmV2GG/file

The cover image is from this exact concert.

The Bee Gees with Wilson Pickett - The Midnight Special, NBC Studios, Burbank, CA, 6-22-1973

Here's another album of the Bee Gees performing for the "Midnight Special" TV show. The Bee Gees hosted the show a remarkable four times in 1973, plus another time in 1975. Each time, they performed a song with a special guest. This time, the guest is soul singer Wilson Pickett.

Often when I put these Midnight Special albums together, I draw in material from other episodes. But for this one, everything comes from the episode that aired on June 22, 1973. The Bee Gees mostly performed their hits, but they also performed an unexpected cover of "Alexander's Ragtime Band," a song written by Irving Berlin all the way back in 1911. They never officially released a version of this, and it was one of the very few times they performed it, it seems. The only other instance I could find of them performing it dates back to 1963, when they were just starting out.

There's also an excellent version of the Beatles classic "Hey Jude," done in an interesting duet between Wilson Pickett and mostly Barry Gibb. This is another song the Bee Gees never officially released in any form. However, Pickett had a hit with it in 1968 that turned it into a soul song. This version closely followed that version.

As for Pickett, his career was on the decline in 1973. He'd had a long run of hits from 1963 to 1972. But then he made the mistake of changing record companies, and his new company, RCA, gave him poorer material. One of the two songs he did on his own here, "Mr. Magic Man," was the first single for this new record company. It was a decent hit on the R&B singles chart, but tanked on the regular singles chart. However, as can be seen and heard in this episode, Pickett was still a very talented and charismatic singer who deserved better songs to sing.

In case you're curious, here are the other musical acts on this episode: the Steve Miller Band, John Kay, Jimmie Spheeris, Maxine Weldon, and the Muledeer and Moondoog Medicine Show. (The last one being a comedy act.) 

This album is 32 minutes long. 

01 talk by Wolfman Jack (Bee Gees)
02 I Gotta Get a Message to You (Bee Gees)
03 talk (Bee Gees)
04 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
05 Alexander's Ragtime Band (Bee Gees)
06 talk (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
07 Hey Jude (Bee Gees & Wilson Pickett)
08 Run to Me (Bee Gees)
09 Mr. Magic Man (Wilson Pickett)
10 Morning of My Life (Bee Gees)
11 Holiday (Bee Gees)
12 Let There Be Love (Bee Gees)
13 My World (Bee Gees)
14 Wouldn't I Be Someone (Bee Gees)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/on3DH93r

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/77olOJ36crKm7Ov/file

The cover image is a screenshot taken from a video of this exact concert. From right to left: Wilson Pickett, Maurice Gibb, and Barry Gibb.

Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary - Madison Square Garden, New York City, 5-14-1988, Part 3: The MG’s, Carla Thomas, Paul Rodgers, Miki Howard, Paul Shaffer, Sam Moore, The Elwood Blues Review, Phil Collins, Bob Geldof, The Spinners, & Wilson Pickett

Here's the third part of six-hour long version of the Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert. 

In the 1950s and 60s, Atlantic Records was mainly known as an R&B/ soul record label, though it broke out into other musical genres by the end of the decade. Most of this section served as a kind of concert within a concert that celebrated the 1960s soul music of the company. Atlantic Records distributed most of the music done by the Stax record label, so all of that was fair game here as well.

In the 1960s at Stax Records, the instrumental group the MG's backed up most of the other lead singers on the label, in addition to having some instrumental hits of their own. Later, key members of that band, like Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn, joined the Blue Brothers band in the late 1970s. Led by comedians/singers John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, they had a hit movie and some hit albums before Belushi died in the early 1980s. For most of this section of the concert, Cropper, Dunn, and other members of the MG's were the backing band. But for a portion of it, their name changed to the Elwood Blues Review, a sort of variant of the Blues Brothers because Aykroyd got involved in those songs too.

That backing band then supported some different lead singers. Carla Thomas was an original Stax star. Paul Rodgers, however, was a big star with Free and Bad Company (on Atlantic Records). Both both of those bands had ceased to exist by the time of this concert. So instead of singing any of his own hits, he sang "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" as a tribute to deceased Stax star Otis Redding. 1980s R&B star Miki Howard also sang a song associated with Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness."

Another big musical act for Stax was the soul duo Sam and Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater). Unfortunately, Dave Prater died several months prior to this concert (and the two of them had had a big falling out prior to that anyway). But Sam Moore was at this concert to represent Sam and Dave. Dave Prater was effectively replaced on some songs by Aykroyd, kind of bringing back the Blue Brothers, and was replaced by Phil Collins on two other songs. 

The only odd one out in this R&B section of the concert was Bob Geldof. I'm not sure why he was put where he was in the running order, if indeed this order is correct, but oh well. It was also a bit strange that instead of doing any of his own hits from his Boomtown Rats years, he did a cover of a relatively obscure song by Graham Parker.

The Spinners continued the R&B vibe of this portion of the show, even though they had much bigger success in the 1970s compared to the 1960s. I could only find one song they did. But they also played "Working My Way Back to You" and "Could It Be I'm Falling in Love."

Finally, Wilson Pickett was the star of the last couple of songs here. He was backed by the Elwood Blues Review. I looked at the video, and Dan Akroyd danced around on stage a lot and played some harmonica, but the lead vocals were basically all done by Pickett. Still, this must have kind of been a reunion for Pickett, because the Elwood Blues Review was basically the same as the MG's, and they were the backing band for most of Pickett's hits in the 1960s. Pickett even co-wrote one of the songs he performed here, "In the Midnight Hour," with the lead guitarist on stage, Steve Cropper.

This album is an hour and two minutes long.

043 talk (Dan Aykroyd)
044 Last Night [Instrumental] (MG's)
045 talk (Steve Cropper)
046 Gee Whiz (Carla Thomas & the MG's)
047 talk (Steve Cropper)
048 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Paul Rodgers & the MG's)
049 talk (Steve Cropper)
050 Try a Little Tenderness (Miki Howard & the MG's)
051 talk (Steve Cropper)
052 Tramp (Carla Thomas, Paul Shaffer & the MG's)
053 Everybody Needs Somebody to Love (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
054 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
055 Soul Man (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
056 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
057 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
058 talk (Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
059 You Don't Know like I Know (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
060 talk (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
061 Knock On Wood (Phil Collins, Sam Moore & the Elwood Blues Review)
062 talk (Roberta Flack)
063 talk (Bob Geldof)
064 You Can't Be Too Strong (Bob Geldof)
065 Mighty Love (Spinners)
066 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
067 talk (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)
068 Land of 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett & the Elwood Blues Review)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/zi3oxCsd

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/UMkqqccXBZLa7Di/file

The cover photo of Wilson Pickett is from this exact concert.

Wilson Pickett - Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden, 2-10-1969

I'm a big fan of the soul music of the 1960s and 70s, and I wish there was more of that to post here. But I haven't found so many "albums that should exist" in that genre. But here's one. For some strange reason, there's only been one official release of a live Wilson Pickett album, and he's one of the all-time soul greats. That one album dates to 1974, and it's generally disliked. Pickett's career went on a sharp decline after 1971 for various reasons.

Happily, I've found this bootleg recording, from his peak years. (One might argue there has been a release of it, but it's one of the legal grey area releases that just package and profit from somebody else's bootleg recordings. Even that "release" is very obscure.) The reason we have this is because a lot of musical acts that played in Stockholm, Sweden, in the late 1960s had their concerts broadcast on the radio, and this is one of them. (I posted a Traffic concert from 1967 that's another example of this.) The sound quality is excellent, what you'd expect of an official life album from the era.

The concert is rather short, at 48 minutes total. But he played two concerts that night (this is the second one), and this is almost certainly all that he did. The last song fades out. I didn't do that, but I read that's because a radio DJ talks over the very end of the concert, so nothing important is lost.

I must admit that I didn't include two songs at the start. That's because they were generic soul instrumentals to get the crowd in a lively, dancing mood before Wilson Pickett came on stage. I did keep one instrumental that at least is a known instrumental hit ("Soulful Strut"). Then there's one minute of some emcee talking over the chord changes to "Light My Fire" before Pickett finally hits the stage.

There's one other quality bootleg I know of, of a concert in Germany in 1968. Other than that, there's pretty much nothing from his peak years of the 1960s and early 1970s, other than a couple of official live tracks. I consider that strange, since Pickett was such a charismatic guy who seemed at home on the stage.

01 Soulful Strut [Instrumental] (Wilson Pickett)
02 Light My Fire [Instrumental] - talk (Wilson Pickett)
03 634-5789 [Soulsville, USA] (Wilson Pickett)
04 People Make the World [What It Is] (Wilson Pickett)
05 I'm a Midnight Mover (Wilson Pickett)
06 Hey Jude (Wilson Pickett)
07 Mustang Sally (Wilson Pickett)
08 I'm in Love (Wilson Pickett)
09 Funky Broadway (Wilson Pickett)
10 In the Midnight Hour (Wilson Pickett)
11 Sweet Soul Music (Wilson Pickett)
12 Land of a 1000 Dances (Wilson Pickett)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701234/WILSNPCKTT1969_LivKnserthustStckholmSwedn__2-10-1969_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find a good color photo of Pickett in concert in 1969. But I did find one of him singing in Minneapolis in 1968, so I used that. For his name at the top, I took the font and colors from a 1960s concert poster. I also got the "Live!" part from that.