In The Midnight Hour

Punk Rock Historian and Professional Consultant.

~ Hudley Flipside


So, this song came forth out of a longing to bring all this tighter together. Fermenting in my being. Diversity, the gospel, soul, rock & roll the wildness and enthusiastic mission of working and recording music.


Rise to stardom: “In the Midnight Hour” (1965)

The genesis of “In the Midnight Hour” was a recording session on May 12, 1965, at which Wexler worked out a powerful rhythm track with studio musiciansSteve Cropper and Al Jackson of the Stax Records house band, including bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn. (Stax keyboard player Booker T. Jones, who usually played with Dunn, Cropper and Jackson as Booker T. & the M.G.’s, did not play on the studio sessions with Pickett.) Wexler said to Cropper and Jackson, “Why don’t you pick up on this thing here?” He performed a dance step. Cropper explained in an interview that Wexler told them that “this was the way the kids were dancing; they were putting the accent on two. Basically, we’d been one-beat-accenters with an afterbeat; it was like ‘boom dah,’ but here was a thing that went ‘um-chaw,’ just the reverse as far as the accent goes.”[13]Pickett, Wilson, The Very Best of Wilson Pickett, Atlantic Recording Corp. and Rhino records Inc., 1993, liner notes by Kevin Phinney


Sometimes I feel I am standing still. I watch the Ed Sullivan show reruns and learn so much more about music. This is a magical place I have found, and I come across stories that inspire my imagination which is anything but standing still. The contrary nature of life now.

I saw The Chambers Brothers band. My mind drifted and I thought of the band Death and the Bad Brains or the mysterious DC band the Enzymes.

The Chambers Brothers band were live on Ed’s show. Playing their instruments and singing into the microphones while Brian Keenan, with a straight back and smile on his face, was thrashing his drums. I felt a jolt of enthusiasm rejuvenate my heart.

A song that moved through more than one, two or three generations and still is lingering to tell us all something real and magical about ourselves and music. Bouncing from the heart of American soil over the big pond to England and back again to the Ed Sullivan show reruns.

This is amazing to me. I am digging it immensely.


Taken from Online source without Photographer Source artist. If you know let me know.

On January 28th, 1943, Brian Keenan was born. Brian was the drummer for The Chambers Brothers. He was previously a member of Manfred Mann. The Chambers Brothers are probably best known for their eleven-minute hit “ Time Has Come Today ” from 1968.


The Jam in 1977: Paul Weller, Rick Buckler, Bruce Foxton. Picture: GAB Archive/Redferns/Getty Images


I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
When there’s no one else around
I’m gonna take you, girl, and hold you
And do all things I told you, in the midnight hour

Yes I am, oh, yes I am
One more thing I just wanna say right here

I’m gonna wait ’til the stars come out
And see that twinkle in your eyes
I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
That’s when my love begins to shine

You’re the only girl I know
That really love me so, in the midnight hour

Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Yeah, alright, play it for me one time now

I’m gonna wait ’til the midnight hour
That’s when my love come tumbling down
I’m gonna wait, way in the midnight hour
That’s when my love begin to shine, just you and I
Oh, baby, huh, just you and I
Nobody around, baby, just you and I
Alright, you know what?
I’m gonna hold you in my arms, just you and I
Oh yeah, in the midnight hour
Oh baby, in the midnight hour

Source: LyricFind


Songwriters: Steve Cropper / Wilson Pickett

In the Midnight Hour lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

1965

1967

1977

And see that twinkle in your eyes