Have you ever wondered why songs by the electric Sam & Dave or the sweltering Otis Redding have that same tight, grooving sound? Well it’s because of the Mar-Keys and members like Steve “The Colonel” Cropper on guitar and Donald “Duck” Dunn on bass (also of Blues Brothers Band fame) along with other all-stars like Isaac Hayes, Charles “Packy” Axton, Al Jackson Jr. (amazing drummer) and Booker T. Jones. The Mar-Keys were the house band for Stax Records from the late 50′s through the late 60′s and backed up the likes of Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, and Rufus Thomas just to name a few. They evolved into Booker T. and The MG’s and finally The Bar-Kays all the while expanding on blues and jazz roots and laying the groundwork for modern funk and soul. They were cranking out jams like “Grab this Thing” while James Brown was honing his groundbreaking sound in The Famous Flames and several years before Brown defined funk with ‘Cold Sweat” in 1967. This song is from a collection called That Memphis Sound which is now out of print.
Mar 012010
