Booker T. And The MG's

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Booker T & the MGs was an important band in the early '60s, not just a good one.

"Green onions" is a tune that no one ever does badly (try Henry Mancini's big band version). The world has to be grateful just for that.

And "Behave yourself"; the beautiful groove to "Comin' home baby" and "Lonely avenue" are real standouts from the first album.

But it's the second that really shows the importance of the band. The B side of "Jelly bread" was imediately MUCH more attractive and interesting to me when it came out. "Aw mercy", recorded 18 months before James Brown brought out "Out of sight", moves the world towards that kind of funk with a beautiful Latin groove and preaching organ. Al Jackson, for me, is the star of the show, but only slightly. "Home grown", Plum Nellie", "Chinese checkers" and "Can't be still" all have that funk groove going on - in slightly different ways. "Can't be still" was the only one to have been recorded after "Out of sight". So "Soul dressing" is my favourite album. I don't think the band ever approached this total groove as a quartet - though The Mar-Keys did with "Honey pot", "Grab this thing", "Hummingbird" and "Angel dust". To what extent BT&MG were involved in those recordings (particularly the later ones) I don't know.

But I agree with NOJ - my favourite individual track of theirs is "Summertime".

MG

Edited August 26, 2006 by The Magnificent Goldberg

[sidewinder]

Nice piece about what Booker is doing these days.

Hes a Soulful Survivor With New Music to Make

Saw him last year with his band at the Bath Festival and it was a thoroughly excellent evening - great atmosphere.

Edited August 7, 2011 by sidewinder