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 permanently replaced 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. In 1960, Jones started working as a session man for Stax, where he met Cropper 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. Jones, who provided much of the groove with his Hammond B-3's floating lines. sound were guitarist Steve Cropper, whose slicing, economic riffs influenced many other guitar players, and organist Booker T. After being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994, they cut That's the Way It Should Be and served as the museum's house band for a time. They split in 1972 and reunited in 1975 for just over two years, during which time they issued the gritty, disco-fied Universal Language for Asylum. Undoubtedly a singles band, their 1962 debut single "Green Onions" (and its best-selling album of the same title) kicked off a decade-long chart run for the band through 1972 that included era-defining hits such as "Hip Hug-Her," "Soul Limbo," "Time Is Tight," and "Hang 'Em High." Of the dozen albums they released before 1971, only three missed the Top 200. In addition to their formidable session skills, they were a powerhouse instrumental recording outfit on their own. Their tight, impeccable, funky grooves could be heard on classic hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Albert King, and Sam & Dave, among many others. They became one of the most important, enduring factors of the label's sound and helped define the groove of the Southern soul genre in the 1960s. & the MG's originally served as the house band for Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. Jones continues to record and tour internationally, both as a solo artist and as head of Booker T.’s Stax Revue.Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Booker T. Along with the band, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. & the MGs, he has worked with countless award-winning artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has earned a Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Best known as the front man of the band Booker T. Jones is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer, and arranger. Indeed, Time Is Tight is both the definitive account of one of modern music’s most influential eras and also a necessary addition to the canon of literature about American music.īooker T. Years in the making, this unforgettable personal journey is so much more than just a musician’s tale. His musical legacy includes enduring compositions such as “Time Is Tight,” “Hip Hug-Her,” and the oftensampled “Melting Pot” and collaborations with the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Sam and Dave-and later Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Barbra Streisand, Carlos Santana, and Willie Nelson. To the loving, supportive family and community in which he was raised, to the creative hotbed of Beale Street, the Harlem of the South from his early friendship with figures such as Maurice White (who went on to form Earth, Wind, and Fire) to the complicated dynamics of the racially mixed MGs-Jones not only was a witness to revolutions but also wrote their soundtracks. Nearly five decades after he first made his entrance onto the scene, Jones paved the way for modern soul music and is largely responsible for the genre’s rise and enduring popularity.įrom midcentury Memphis, where the brutality of segregation was a stark backdrop Not stopping there, Jones continued to push soul music’s boundaries, refining it to its essence and then injecting it into the nation’s bloodstream. & the MGs, whose first recording, “Green Onions,” was an international sensation, selling more than one million copies and winning a place among Rolling Stone’s top five hundred songs of all time. So magnetic was the attraction, in fact, that by the time he turned sixteen, he was, incredibly, already a working musician with a hit song to his name.Īs part of the first house band for Stax Records, he formed the category-defining Yorker)-was captivated by the magic of melody, rhythm, and harmony. Jones-“one of the legends of soul music” (The New Jones-leader of the famed Stax Records house band, architect of the Memphis soul sound, and one of modern music’s most acclaimed figuresįrom an early age, Booker T.
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