Sally’s Midnight Blues

I have always loved the rhythm and blues recordings from the Stax and Atlantic labels, featuring artists like Wilson Pickett, Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, etc. These classic tracks featured outstanding, soulful vocalists backed up by the best session players in the business – like Booker T. and the MGs, and the Muscle Shoals house band. One of the many admirable things about this music is the color-blind nature of the musicians involved. Booker T. and MGs had two black and two white members.

Here are some examples.

First we have a home video of Eddie Floyd performing “Knock on Wood”. The video and audio quality is poor, but it is an excellent performance. It appears Eddie is being backed up here by at least some of the members of Booker T. and MGs. The camera catches both Steve Cropper (who co-wrote the song) and Duck Dunn:

Mustang Sally was one of Wilson Pickett’s biggest hits, and is probably the ultimate “bar band” tune. This is a live concert performance:

Midnight Hour was Wilson Pickett’s first hit for the Atlantic Label. This tune was also co-written by Steve Cropper:

As sort of an extension to my arrangements of classic 50’s and 60’s instrumentals, I thought I’d see if I could put together a tribute to this great r&b musical tradition. My tune is titled “Sally’s Midnight Blues”, in honor of some of its main inspirations.

Sally’s Midnight Blues

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