Monday, January 23, 2006
Ray and the Wicked Pickett
I was in a motel in Lewistown the other day and turned on the TV when I walked in the room. Oftentimes, I never turn on the TV or at least not until the evening news to catch up on what’s happening in the state. Anyway, the movie “Ray” was just starting, so I postponed dinner a couple of hours and watched the bio. Ray had one sorry life. First, he loses his baby brother to a drowning accident in his mother’s washtub, and then he goes blind from glaucoma. His mama sends him off to the school for the blind where he learns some music, but his mama dies. Later he gets taken advantage of by all his “handlers” and agents. He seeks solace in the big “H”, gets addicted, gets paranoid about everybody around him and has a series of affairs and one night stands, all the while his wife stands by him and raises two boys who hardly get a chance to know their dad. His music is great though, especially the early soul which he pretty much invented. I went home and ordered a 3 cd collection called “The Birth of Soul” on the Atlantic label. It has all the great early hits from the movie, plus everything else from that period in the ‘50’s. Later he did a C & W thing and also wrote “Hit the Road Jack” about troubled times with the girlfriend (they did a great job of singing the lines back and forth to each other) and “Georgia on My Mind” which became the Georgia state song in about 1968 after they had banned Ray Charles from ever performing again in the state back in the ‘50’s when he opposed their segregation laws. Ray did clean up his habit and never touched heroin again the rest of his life.
Wicked Wilson Pickett died last Thursday at the age of 64. He had some great music too, like “Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally”. His personal life was as big a mess as Ray’s or worse possibly and he didn’t find any redemption of a meaningful nature in his life. He used to pinch all the secretaries and thus the name Wicked Pickett. He drove his car across a neighbor’s lawn in 1995 or thereabouts pursing the neighbor with the intent to run him down. He spent a year in jail as a result.
I was in a motel in Lewistown the other day and turned on the TV when I walked in the room. Oftentimes, I never turn on the TV or at least not until the evening news to catch up on what’s happening in the state. Anyway, the movie “Ray” was just starting, so I postponed dinner a couple of hours and watched the bio. Ray had one sorry life. First, he loses his baby brother to a drowning accident in his mother’s washtub, and then he goes blind from glaucoma. His mama sends him off to the school for the blind where he learns some music, but his mama dies. Later he gets taken advantage of by all his “handlers” and agents. He seeks solace in the big “H”, gets addicted, gets paranoid about everybody around him and has a series of affairs and one night stands, all the while his wife stands by him and raises two boys who hardly get a chance to know their dad. His music is great though, especially the early soul which he pretty much invented. I went home and ordered a 3 cd collection called “The Birth of Soul” on the Atlantic label. It has all the great early hits from the movie, plus everything else from that period in the ‘50’s. Later he did a C & W thing and also wrote “Hit the Road Jack” about troubled times with the girlfriend (they did a great job of singing the lines back and forth to each other) and “Georgia on My Mind” which became the Georgia state song in about 1968 after they had banned Ray Charles from ever performing again in the state back in the ‘50’s when he opposed their segregation laws. Ray did clean up his habit and never touched heroin again the rest of his life.
Wicked Wilson Pickett died last Thursday at the age of 64. He had some great music too, like “Land of 1000 Dances” and “Mustang Sally”. His personal life was as big a mess as Ray’s or worse possibly and he didn’t find any redemption of a meaningful nature in his life. He used to pinch all the secretaries and thus the name Wicked Pickett. He drove his car across a neighbor’s lawn in 1995 or thereabouts pursing the neighbor with the intent to run him down. He spent a year in jail as a result.
