![]() ![]() For the next five years, they'd have trouble recapturing its commercial success, though the standard of their records remained fairly high, and Stax's dependence upon them as the house band ensured a decent living. Jamming in the studio while fruitlessly waiting for Billy Lee Riley to show up for a session, they came up with a classic minor-key, bluesy soul instrumental, distinguished by its nervous organ bounce and ferocious bursts of guitar. The band's first and biggest hit, "Green Onions" (a number three single in 1962), came about by accident. Within a couple years, Steinberg was replaced permanently by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who, like Cropper, had also played with the Mar-Keys. With the addition of drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg, they became Booker T. Cropper had been in the Mar-Keys, famous for the 1961 instrumental hit "Last Night," which laid out the prototype for much of the MG's (and indeed Memphis soul's) sound with its organ-sax-guitar combo. In 1960, Jones started working as a session man for Stax, where he met Cropper. Jones himself, who provided much of the groove with his floating organ lines. sound were Steve Cropper, whose slicing, economic riffs influenced many other guitar players, and Booker T. But in addition to their formidable skills as a house band, on their own they were one of the top instrumental outfits of the rock era, cutting classics like "Green Onions," "Time Is Tight," and "Hang 'em High." Their tight, impeccable grooves could be heard on classic hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Albert King, and Sam & Dave, and for that reason alone, they would deserve their subsequent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. & the MG's may have been the single greatest factor in the lasting value of that label's soul music, not to mention Southern soul as a whole. The record did not sound that way, it had much more to offer, and the single, like Duck said, “let me sing along,” but the sing-along was not mixed into that record like it is on a single.As the house band at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, Booker T. It’s just all music it was beat from the word go, a constant stomp beat. Whoever mixed the stereo forgot that there was a lead singer on the track. I didn’t get that in the mix because they completely subdued every lyric in the whole song and the melody too. I was trying to pick out what I heard in the song lyric-wise and then I recalled that was a single record. I just now was thinking about “Itching In My Heart,” some of the lyrics. Steve: Was that a single? Let me make this comment: Whoever mixed the stereo killed the record. The melody of the tune was running so, I don’t know what she said. I would rather have heard an ensemble, or some other instruments there, because it just laid there, it didn’t really say anything. It seemed to have been over-arranged at points and then while I waited for her to really say something, it was the baritone that took the solo which said nothing to me. Īl: Yeah, the groove was there, you know, the same four stomp beat. They played it well but they just didn’t have that, that melody to it that their other songs used to have, sing-along type things.ĭiana Ross has got something in her voice though that just seems to be –– well, she just appeals to me, not in a particular name, she sings a little. Yeah, I did like “Baby Love.” I think this one was too fast. Not so far back as “Baby Love” or any of that. I don’t like what they’re doing now either, but the old stuff I dig. That’s not the best thing I’ve ever heard Diana Ross and the Supremes do. The whole world puts on an act until they get intoxicated and that’s the time they really become themselves and that’s where it’s at.ĭuck: They keep getting back to that Motown bass player, don’t they? You know, I don’t know. Steve: They’ve got to because that’s when they start becoming themselves. The rhythm is there, the arrangement is there, the lyrics are there and so is Junior. I’ve only seen him a couple of times and he’s a groovy guitar player. Like he recorded by himself, but he is really at another speed or maybe he’s just that fast. I believe Wayne Bennett is on guitar and it sounds as though he is playing it at another speed. I’d like to get a hold of more material like that. That’s a good piece of material, that’s a perfect tune. Here, then, is a musician’s eye view.Īl: What can you say about a tune like that? It’s there, all the ingredients are there. Guitarist Steve Cropper, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Duck Dunn comment on selected tracks. ![]() It was so extensive, in fact, that there wasn’t room for all of it in that issue.Īs promised, we are running the remainder. 16, we ran an extensive interview with one of the top Memphis bands, Stax recording artists Booker T. ![]()
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