{"id":3098,"date":"2012-09-26T05:18:59","date_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=3098"},"modified":"2012-09-26T05:18:59","modified_gmt":"2012-09-26T09:18:59","slug":"album-review-booker-t-the-mgs-green-onions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2012\/09\/26\/album-review-booker-t-the-mgs-green-onions\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Booker T & the MG’s – Green Onions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Author Rob Bowman<\/strong> knows his stuff. More specifically, he knows his Stax. As one of a very short list of scholars on the subject of the legendary influential (and troubled) Memphis-based record label, Bowman wrote what may be the definitive work on Stax, Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records<\/em>, first published in 1997. It’s nearly four hundred pages in small type, and dense with facts and anecdotes, but it’s essential reading.<\/p>\n

And it’s Bowman’s liner notes that grace the 2012 reissue of a classic Stax LP, Green Onions<\/em> by the Stax house band, Booker T & the MG’s<\/strong>. Released in 1962, Green Onions<\/em> is a classic of the genre: instrumental southern soul. The band played on 95% of all Stax releases through 1969, Bowman reminds us. And their own catalog included 23 singles and eleven albums, including the fascinating Beatles<\/strong> tribute, McLemore Avenue<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But on their first album, the band was just coming together. Having recorded a pair of excellent songs (one of which was the immortal single that gave the LP its name), they did what pretty well all bands did in the pre-Beatles era: they went back into the studio and cut ten more songs \u2013 all but one a cover, and the remaining track a sequel-of-sorts called \u201cMo’ Onions\u201d \u2013 so that they could capitalize on their fame and tap into the burgeoning long-player market.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreen Onions\u201d is a perfectly compact tune: with Booker T. Jones<\/strong>‘ spare and assured Hammond M3 (not, as many have surmised, the much larger B3) lines trading licks with Steve Cropper<\/strong>‘s country-influenced yet devastatingly rocking riffage, the song doesn’t just walk, it stomps<\/em>. Al Jackson Jr.<\/strong>‘s straight-ahead and precise drumming syncs up perfectly with Lewie Steinberg<\/strong>‘s bass work. (Bowman’s concise liners provide helpfully boiled-down biographies for each member of the quartet, showing their pedigrees and helping to explain why their style was all-killer-no-filler.)<\/p>\n

A number of the covers will be familiar to fans of early 60s pop: \u201cRinky Dink\u201d; a version of \u201cTwist and Shout\u201d that predates The Beatles’ recording by four months; Ray Charles<\/strong>‘ \u201cI Got a Woman\u201d; and so on. The MG’s versions stake out a territory that is true to the melodic intent of the originals, yet full of the band’s soon-to-be-recognized signature style.<\/p>\n

Booker T & the MG’s would be important even if they hadn’t cut \u201cGreen Onions.\u201d They were one of the first racially mixed bands, in a time and place when one put such aggregations together at one’s own peril. As the house band at Stax, they lent assured backing to a stellar list of artists (Otis Redding<\/strong>, Rufus Thomas<\/strong> and many more) that allowed those artists to concentrate on what they had to do; you never needed to worry about the band when Booker T & the MG’s were there. Green Onions<\/em> is an important piece of history, and of the puzzle that helps explains the group and Stax as a whole. And it’s a lot of fun as well.<\/p>\n

The 2012 Concord\/Stax reissue appends two tracks: live versions from the 1965 various-artists showcase Funky Broadway: Stax Revue Live at the 5\/4 Ballroom<\/em>. The live run-throughs of \u201cGreen Onions\u201d and \u201cCan’t Sit Down\u201d are both taken at a faster pace than their studio counterparts, and feature bassist Donald \u201cDuck\u201d Dunn<\/strong>, who had recently replaced Steinberg. Dunn would remain with the band to the end and when it re-formed; he passed away earlier this year. Jackson died tragically in 1975. But, as they say, the music lives on.<\/p>\n

\"\"Postscript: On a related topic, mere days ago I returned from Nashville TN, where I took part in this year’s Americana Music Association Conference and Festival. A highlight of that was Booker T. Jones’ acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Award. He also joined the event’s house band onstage at the Ryman Auditorium for a few numbers (including, of course, \u201cGreen Onions\u201d) and added his organ (this time a B3) stylings to live performances by Alabama Shakes<\/strong>. But perhaps the best Booker T-related event was his interview at the Country Music Hall of Fame (conducted by Robert Gordon<\/strong>, another of those short-list Memphis experts). I was fortunate enough to score a front-row seat for the 80-minute conversation. And if that weren’t enough, I got to ask Jones a question about the band’s 1970 McLemore Avenue<\/em><\/a>. The entire interview is worth your time; my (nearly off-mic but condensed and restated by Gordon) question comes at the 41:13 mark.<\/p>\n