Our Boxing day Laurel Canyon Classic (No. 246) is one we have been saving for a while for a special occasion. This instrumental song was first recorded in 1962 over 50 years ago by Booker T & The MGs in Memphis, Tennessee. It is currently ranked as the 85th greatest track of all time, as well as the best track of 1962, by Acclaimed Music. The song originally called Funky Onions was later renamed Green Onions. The group were very influential in shaping the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The tune is a 12-bar blues with a rippling Hammond M3 organ line. The guitarist Steve Cropper used a Fender Telecaster on Green Onions as he did on all of The M.G.s instrumentals. youtu.be/OQgftmOeK_c Original members of the group were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson, Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla and Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. They also released instrumental records under their own name, such as the 1962 hit single Green Onions. As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of the most prolific, respected, and imitated of their era. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.s Having two white members (Cropper and Dunn), Booker T. & the M.G.s was one of the first racially integrated rock groups, at a time when soul music, and the Memphis music scene in particular, were generally considered the preserve of black culture.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 10:46:40 +0000
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