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In the studio, it’s possible for you to do multiple takes.
But on live television, it just happens.
And boy, does Pickett know his way around a studio.
To celebrateSNLs 50th-anniversary season, Pickett took us through his most cherished and significant recordings.
I went from being out of work to fully employed.
This was my first time in the studio recording a solo for Tower of Power.
It was a big learning curve.
Performing in the studio is a very different thing than performing live.
When youre playing live, you have an audience in front of you, which I much prefer.
This was intense two or three days I spent doing this.
It was a very short period of time.
Worth it, of course.
Little Feat, Mercenary Territory (1977)
I met Little Feat on a tour.
Warner Brothers put it together and we had a train that traveled all over Europe.
Tower of Power had our own special train cars.
We met the Rolling Stones and we finally met Elton John.
But meeting Little Feat was fortuitous and spurred three albums with them.
This version was recorded live at the Rainbow Theater in London.
Its the solo I played on the record.
Little George started the solo and I took off from where he left off.
It was my debut as an arranger.
I wrote horn parts and played a short solo on Blue Jean.
It followed Davids Serious Moonlight Tour.
I had met David when he was touring forLets Dance.
It was a few days of work.
We had our meals there and we were in constant touch with one another.
David was in the studio all the time.
When we were recording, he was in the control room.
He was very hands on with the whole process.
He was friends with Tommy Mottola, who was managing Hall & Oates at the time.
He called me for this session.
It was last minute and behind schedule.
I also put together charts on the floor of the dressing room backstage at the Apollo.
I have a solo on The Way You Do the Things You Do.
He was working with Hall & Oates during this period.
And thats how I got the audition to do the show.
Finally, I played with a Beatle!
This is my favorite of the two.
David was very open to that.
He was experimental in nature and very receptive to the writing that Id done.
I have to say, the band was getting along pretty well for their final album.
They were all collaborating.
It was a session where I made a lot of connections with musicians.
I played 15 different ones and recorded them to match Allens reading.
He read the poem first, and then I orchestrated it around his reading.
It was no different from a regular studio session with a musician.
The way Allen read was very rhythmic, like a song.
Hal Willner produced it.
He chose the sketch music forSaturday Night Livefor years.
It was nice to combine those two different professional worlds.
Little Richard was … very intense.
It changed the amount of recording I could do.
But Im particularly proud of Taylor Swifts appearance that she did live onSNL.
It was very interesting because it was the first time I did a track with a contemporary singer.
Usually the things I had done before were for older or more established acts.
I mean, for comparison, I played with Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey.
What I heard in my headphones was different.
This was very modern.
Theres a click track, backing parts, and other elements that arent in the studio.
Its an interesting point of view.
Taylor was so great.
We had all the rehearsal time we needed and she was very encouraging.
It was a very good experience.
