- Red Vinyl
- 4 Vinyl Pressing
- Gatefold LP Jacket
- Release Date: 9/10/2021
With apologies to groups like The Meters, Bar-Kays, and Average White Band, when it comes to all-time great instrumental R&B bands, for most folks Booker T. & the MG's represent the gold standard. And with good reason'or, actually reasons! First of all, as the house band of the hallowed Stax label, The MG's pretty much invented the sound of Southern soul, playing on records by everybody from Otis Redding to Wilson Pickett to Carla Thomas. Second, on their own as Booker T & the MG's, they came up with some of the most indelible instrumental jams of all time, including'but by no means limited to!''Green Onions.' And, third, each member of the band was an absolute monster on their instrument, to this day revered and copied by untold numbers of musicians. Indeed, by the time the mid '60s rolled around, bands on both sides of the Atlantic wanted to sound like Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr, and Lewie Steinberg (replaced about halfway through this collection by the great Donald 'Duck' Dunn). And what was that sound? Well, a typical MG's tune started from the bottom-up, resting on the rock-solid drumbeat of Jackson and the in-the-pocket bass work of Steinberg and, later, Dunn, over which keyboardist Jones and guitarist Cropper traded slinky and/or stinging licks. But these cats weren't just riff-happy groove masters; Jones basically codified the classic Hammond organ sound and Cropper's guitar tone remains the Holy Grail of anyone who's ever picked up a Fender Telecaster. Together, they recorded 49 single sides for Stax under the name of Booker T. & the MG's, and you'll find the first 29 (yes, 29!) of 'em right here, released on a single CD or double-LP pressed in red vinyl. As with all of our singles collections, we have very carefully vetted these songs to make sure they are the correct mono single versions, with mastering by Dan Hersch at d2 Mastering, and tape research and sourcing by Mike Johnson and Aaron Kannowski with help from Bill Inglot. Ed Osborne has contributed detailed notes and discographical information, too, and the set's produced by Real Gone's own Gordon Anderson. As for the music, it pretty much speaks for itself: 29 songs, 15 of which reached the charts, including, along with 'Green Onions,' such classics as 'Boot-Leg,' 'Hip Hug-Her,' and 'My Sweet Potato.' Get ready to get into the groove and stay there for a nice, long while!
Tracks
- Green Onions
- Behave Yourself
- Jellybread
- Aw' Mercy
- Home Grown
- Big Train
- Chinese Checkers
- Plum-Nellie
- Fannie Mae
- Mo-Onions
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Soul Dressing
- MG Party
- Can't Be Still
- Terrible Thing
- Boot-Leg
- Outrage
- Be My Lady
- Red Beans and Rice
- My Sweet Potato
- Booker-Loo
- Jingle Bells
- Winter Wonderland
- Hip Hug-Her
- Summertime
The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 2 (1968-1974) (2-LP, Red Vinyl) - "The house band at Stax, Booker T. & The MG's were so good, so tight, that each member'guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald 'Duck' Dunn, drummer Al Jackson, Jr., and keyboardist/bandleader Booker T. Jones'is a legend in his own right. Playing behind such superstars as Otis Redding, Carla Thomas, and Wilson Pickett, the group forever defined the sound of Southern soul. And on their own'man, they just couldn't be topped, with a total of 12 Pop and 15 R&B hits during their unparalleled tenure at Stax. That's why they are the greatest instrumental R&B band of all time'and, not incidentally, a potent symbol of racial integration and harmony from a time when such diverse outfits were rare. We already brought you 29 of the 49 single sides The MG's recorded for Stax on The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 1; now we're back with the other 20, assembled for the first time ever!'after a painstaking search for the best sources available, and, like on all of our singles collections, carefully vetted (by engineer Aaron Kannowski) to ensure that the versions you're hearing are exactly what disc jockeys were spinning off their 7-inch singles on to the airwaves back in the day. In this case, that means the first 15 songs on this CD/2-LP set are in mono, the last 5 stereo, all discographically documented in meticulous fashion by liner note writer Ed Osborne, whose essay maps every move Booker T. & The MG's made during the late '60s through the early '70s and beyond. But most of all, The Complete Stax Singles Vol. 2 (1968-1974) is one incredible listen, featuring such classic songs as 'Time Is Tight,' 'Soul-Limbo,' 'Melting Pot,' their versions of Domenic Frontiere's 'Hang 'Em High,' The Beatles' 'Something,' and Simon & Garfunkel's 'Mrs. Robinson,' a bunch of hard-to-find B-sides, and more, all played by basically the best band that ever lived!
Tracks
- Soul-Limbo
- Heads or Tails
- Hang 'Em High
- Over Easy
- Time Is Tight
- Johnny, I Love You
- Mrs. Robinson
- Soul Clap '69
- Slum Baby
- Meditation
- Something
- Sunday Sermon
- Melting Pot
- Kinda Easy Like
- Jamaica This Morning
- Fuquawi
- Sugarcane
- Blackside
- Neckbone
- Breezy