Sure, I’ve always dug Steve Cropper… his guitar playing. Ever since the first Booker T. record. I heard that back in the Midwest. Yeah, everybody was playing like him.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner, 29 Nov. 1969)
Memphis is in a very lucky position on the map. Everything just gravitated to Memphis for years.
~Steve Cropper
Booker T & The MG’s – Green Onions:
Continue reading “October 21: Happy 79th Birthday Steve Cropper”
Otis Redding was soul, but Otis Redding was country, too. That was a point on which he always insisted, and that was the way others saw him. His strength was his simplicity, even if the simplicity was hard-won. The basis for his music was sincerity, not spectacular showmanship; he was at heart a stand-up singer whose power came from his ability to inspire…
~Peter Guralnick
Check out: Robbie Robertson: The night Bob Dylan offered Otis Redding to record Just Like a Woman
Sitting on the dock of the bay:
Continue reading “September 9: The Late Great Otis Redding was Born in 1941”
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Rules:
Please feel free to publish your own favorite songs from 1972 in the comments section…
Written by Bob Dylan in the summer of 1962. It was first recorded in Columbia Records’ Studio A on 6 December 1962 for his second album The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan – released May 27, 1963. The lyric structure is based on the question and answer form of the traditional ballad “Lord Randall”, Child Ballad No. 12.
Oh, where have you been, my blue-eyed son?
And where have you been my darling young one?
I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard
And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, and it’s a hard
It’s a hard rain’s a-gonna fall.
Continue reading “1963: 20 songs released in 1963 you must hear”
Designated “Double Dynamite,” “The Sultans of Sweat,” and “The Dynamic Duo,” Sam Moore and Dave Prater joined forces to form the world’s greatest soul duo and one of the most thrilling live acts of the 1960s.
–Memphis Music Hall of Fame
Samuel David Moore (born October 12, 1935) is an American vocalist who was a member of the soul and R&B group Sam & Dave from 1961 to 1981. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame (for “Soul Man“), and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame.
Continue reading “Five Awesome Stax Classics By Sam & Dave – Happy 84th Birthday Sam Moore”
Donald “Duck” Dunn (November 24, 1941 – May 13, 2012) was an American bass guitarist, session musician, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn was notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.’s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in blues and gospel-infused southern soul which became known as Memphis Soul
A 2 minute history of Donald “Duck” Dunn:
“We were recording almost a hit a day for a while there. But I never knew how popular that music was until I came to England with Otis Redding in 1967.”
– Donald Dunn (about the Stax period)
As the bassist for Booker T. & the MG’s, Donald “Duck” Dunn became, like James Jamerson at Motown, the man who provided a groove for an entire generation to dance to. In Dunn’s case it was the legendary Memphis record label Stax/Volt, where he laid down basslines for soul stars such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and Albert King, helping to create one of the largest bodies of soul and R&B music that exists.
~Steve Kurutz (allmusic.com)
Continue reading “November 24: The late great Donald Duck Dunn was born in 1941”
Check out:
The year 1962 – short summary
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Rules:
AND lists like this are supposed to be fun! Don’t take it too seriously.
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Here we go…
Continue reading “1962: 20 songs released in 1962 you must hear”