That this set has never been officially issued, given the deified status of its creator and the necessary, standard-setting and eternal nature of his music, is one of the truly mystifying questions of the alleged music industry.
Thankfully they rebroadcast things like this on Swedish radio, because the day you'll hear an hour like this on American airwaves is the day that will make you wait forever.
I mean, they can't play concerts like this on US radio... how will there be room for the same eleven songs -- by artists no one will remember in 52 minutes, no less 52 years -- every hour? I wonder if any of those people know who Wilson Pickett even is.
You bet the folks in the Stockholm Konserthuset that night 52 years ago knew who Wilson Pickett was.
The fury of the tsunami he whips on the room cannot be faked, so the phony soul moles of today -- with their 77-notes-to-the-syllable odes to liquidity and Capital -- needn't even try.
I was reading where some of the band got fired during this tour, or maybe it was the previous year's. The bass player and drummer seem like they are guesting or filling in, but you would never know that from how they play, only the references WP makes to them "helping out".
As far as the setlist. all the Wicked picks are here, and this plays like a miniature Greatest Hits Live thing.
Obviously this guy was famous for putting on the highest energy performance possible on Planet Earth, and this 57+ minutes in no way deviates from that level of commitment.
Really the only criticism I can think to make of it is that it's too short. But then, so is life, amirite?
All right, enough of my bitter vitriol. Think of me as the T-shirt that reads
YES I AM OLD, BUT YOUR MUSIC REALLY DOES SUCK.
Wilson Pickett & The Midnight Movers
Konserthuset
Stockholm, Sweden
2.10.1969
01 FM intro
02 Sweet Lorene
03 Soulful Strut
04 Cleo's Mood
05 Light My Fire/introduction of Wilson Pickett
06 634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)
07 People Make the World
08 Midnight Mover
09 Hey Jude
10 Mustang Sally
11 I'm In Love
12 Funky Broadway
13 In the Midnight Hour
14 Sweet Soul Music
15 Land of 1000 Dances/FM outro
Total time: 57:41
Wilson Pickett - vocals
with The Midnight Movers, likely:
Skip Pitts - guitar
Curtis Pope - trumpet
George Patterson, Jr. - tenor & alto saxophones
Jack Philpot - tenor & alto saxophones
Chris Lowe - trumpet
unidentified bassist
unidentified drummer
1st gen cassette of an indeterminate FM rebroadcast
372 MB FLAC/February 2021 archive link
I will return, as promised, on Friday, with something even more viciously Wicked than this, if that can be believed. There may even be armed Marxist tirades and funky, somewhat angry Jazz.
But I thought this one was a deep way to start off the Black History festivities, so I hope you all will pull it down, crank it up and commence to boogie on down.
Make sure you get to all 1000 dances, though... I'll be over here counting!--J.
3.18.1941 - 1.19.2006
Many thanks
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