Charles Pitts

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Charles Pitts, nicknamed Skip, was born in 1947 in Washington D.C. and died in 2012. He was an American soul and blues guitarist, best known for his wah-wah style. He learned to play the guitar on the street at the age of eleven, and received tips there from his neighbour Bo Diddley. His uncle had a hotel next to the Howard Theater, where he met musicians such as James Brown and Otis Redding. At seventeen he played on Rainbow '65 by Gene Chandler. He then became guitarist and bandleader with Wilson Pickett, where he accompanied Pickett and Sam & Dave. In 1969 he joined The Isley Brothers and devised the recognisable riff of It's Your Thing.

Music and breakthrough

In 1970 he moved to Memphis to play in Isaac Hayes's band. A year later he devised the wah-wah intro of Theme From Shaft, a song that earned Hayes an Oscar. He stayed with Hayes for more than thirty years, until Hayes's death in 2008, and played on records, in the film Truck Turner and on the South Park soundtrack. At Stax Records he worked as a session musician for, among others, Rufus Thomas and Albert King. In 1998 he was a co-founder of The Bo-Keys.

Influence

Pitts's guitar parts later returned in hip hop. Dr. Dre, the Beastie Boys and Massive Attack sampled his riffs from Stax recordings. His playing forms a line from soul to funk, and thus also to the rhythms of later pop music.

Listening

In School of Rock

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