The Concord Music Group is launching the Stax Remasters Series. It will consist of individual albums originally issued by Stax Records, which — given the caliber of the artists who recorded for the label and the quality of their work — should make for an excellent set of releases. The first three artists to appear are The Staple Singers, Johnnie Taylor, and the subject of this review, Booker T. & The MG\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Booker T. & The MG\u2019s was formed during the early 1960\u2019s by members of the Stax house band. Keyboardist Booker T. Jones, bassist Lewie Steinberg (who was quickly replaced by Donald \u201cDuck\u201d Dunn), drummer Al Jackson, and guitarist Steve Cropper, would back such artists as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Albert King, The Staple Singers, plus dozens more.<\/p>\n
In between backing gigs, they began recording together. Their first hit was 1962\u2019s \u201cGreen Onions,\u201d which topped the American R&B charts and reached number three on the pop charts. Seventeen more chart singles followed as would millions of albums sold.<\/p>\n
The Beatles released Abbey<\/i> Road<\/i>, October 1, 1969, in the United States. Booker T. Jones bought the album shortly afterward and decided to issue a soulful and instrumental interpretation of the music. He immediately had Jackson and Dunn lay down the rhythm tracks with Cropper adding his guitar parts a couple of weeks later. McLemore Avenue<\/i> was released during January of 1970 and remains one of the more creative, excellent, and fascinating interpretations of Beatles music ever released. The title comes from the street where the Stax label was located.<\/p>\n
The original album consisted of three extended medleys and one standalone song. \u201cSomething\u201d was the only individual track and was released as the album\u2019s only single. It begins traditionally but then goes off in a soulful, improvisational direction.<\/p>\n
The first medley clocks in at close to 16 minutes, combining most of Abbey<\/i> Road\u2019s<\/i> best known tracks, \u201cGolden Slumbers\/Carry That Weight\/The End\/Here Comes the Sun\/Come Together\u201d into one long, meandering and funky ode to The Beatles. While Booker\u2019s keyboards are the dominant instruments, Cropper\u2019s guitar work on \u201cThe End\u201d and \u201cCome Together\u201d is pure Memphis R&B and gives the songs a very different flavor from their British rock origins, as he bends the notes far differently than did George Harrison on the originals.<\/p>\n
Side two of the original vinyl release began with the seven-minute fusion of \u201cBecause\u201d and \u201cYou Never Give Me Your Money.\u201d This is my least favorite of the four tracks, probably because it is the least creative. Jones\u2019 organ is somewhat overbearing and takes the overall sound a little too close to being easy listening.<\/p>\n
Most interesting of all is the 10-minute union of \u201cSun King\/Mean Mr. Mustard\/Polythene Pam\/She Came In Through The Bathroom Window\/I Want You (She\u2019s So Heavy).\u201d The connectors that fuse the songs together are short, brilliant bursts of energy by Cropper and Jones, proving that which is brief can also be highly creative.<\/p>\n
If you are keeping track, four songs, \u201cMaxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer,\u201d \u201cOctopus\u2019s Garden,\u201d \u201cOh! Darling,\u201d and \u201cHer Majesty,\u201d are not covered.<\/p>\n
The CD comes with requisite bonus tracks, which are all Beatles covers taken from different periods of Booker T. & The MG\u2019s career. \u201cDay Tripper,\u201d \u201cMichelle,\u201d \u201cEleanor Rigby,\u201d \u201cLady Madonna,\u201d and two versions of \u201cYou Can\u2019t Do That\u201d complete the band\u2019s Beatles catalogue.<\/p>\n
The sound is clear as the music has undergone 24-bit remastering. The liner notes are excellent as they provide a nice history of the music and recording process.<\/p>\n
McLemore Avenue<\/i> is a soulful delight and an essential listening experience, as it takes the music of The Beatles in a unique direction. Best of all, as an instrumental album, the music stands on its own, even though it has been moved from its original form. This CD is a worthwhile addition to any music collection.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":30667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8712],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42339","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-booker-t-the-m-g-s","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42339"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42339"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}