Customer Reviews

Green Onions

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is what happens when a group of guys have an unexpected monster smash hit. In 1962, while in the studio jamming, a seventeen year old prodigy named Booker T. Jones, a twenty-one year old guitarist named Steve Cropper, and a couple of veterans of the Memphis music scene came up with something that Stax Records president Jim Stewart deemed good enough for release. Needing a B-side, Cropper suggested working up something Jones had been playing around with some time earlier. What was supposed to be a B-side excited Cropper, and local DJs quickly began to flip the "Behave Yourself" single to the other side, and "Green Onions" began to create quite a stir. Quickly, the sides were reversed, and "Green Onions", with it's groovin' riff, Booker T.'s funky organ lines, and cutting edge guitar bursts courtesy of Cropper became Stax's biggest hit at the time, reaching number three on the national Pop charts and topping the R&B charts. The group, now billing themselves as Booker T. & the MGs (Memphis Group), released this solid, if unspectacular instrumental album later that year.

As could be expected, they weren't really able to recreate the hit single's magic, and besides that title track, the rest of the album comes across today as sounding pretty dated. This album should not be bought to familiarize listeners with Booker T. & the MGs. Cropper, Jones, drummer Al Jackson, Jr., and later Donald "Duck" Dunn (who would replace original bassist Lewie Steinberg) are widely considered to be the tightest, most soulful, and versatile band of all time. They would go on to be the house band at Stax, playing behind Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Albert King, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and more. They provided the blueprint for Soul music, and set a standard of excellence that nobody since has come close to meeting. On their own, they released over a dozen brilliant singles, and several terrific albums.

However, other than the timeless title track, there is nothing on the album that is a "must hear". And "Green Onions" can be found on MGs compilations, box sets, and countless soundtracks. Make no mistake about it though, the album, for what it is, is quite good. This isn't a garage band rushing to sell an album cause they had a hit. Lewie Steinberg was very accomplished, and Al Jackson, though just a few years older than Steve Cropper, had been playing in his father's Jazz/Swing band since he was five years old! And as well as Cropper's groundbreaking work on the title cut, the young white guitarist showed himself to be equally adept at both Blues and Jazz. His playing is both simple and sophisticated, with the underlying element being taste. And Booker T. Jones played like no seventeen year old kid. This being said, there is no real reason to recommend this album, unless you are already familiar with the MGs' greatness, and you want to hear everything they recorded.

"Green Onions" is a great song--a song that sounds thrilling no matter how many times you've heard it. Unfortunately, the "Green Onions" album isn't nearly as exciting and gets kind of tiring after a listen or two. This was the MG's first album and was recorded after the 45 of "Green Onions" hit the top of the charts. The inventiveness and fire evident on the "Green Onions" single is just about impossible to find on the other tracks of this album, though. If you were thinking of getting this so you could hear "Green Onions"--well, don't do it. Pick up "The Very Best of" on Rhino. It has "Green Onions" and about 17 other songs that are just as thrilling. Then, if you want to have more MG's material, pick up "Hip Hug-Her" or "Soul Limbo" or the "Time is Tight" Box set. This album is one that only completists will want.

"Green Onions" was originally recorded as the B-side to what was intended as their debut single, "Behave Yourself," but ended up reaching #1 in the R&B charts and becoming Booker T. & The MG's most famous tune. This album was quickly assembled around those two songs to capitalize on the success of the million-selling single. Along with a follow-up jam, "Mo' Onions," they recorded nine mediocre covers of previous hits by Ray Charles, the Isley Brothers, Jackie Wilson, and Acker Bilt. I'd recommend this album only if you don't plan on investing in the wonderful "Time Is Tight" box set, which contains the best tracks off this disc, the three originals.

You KNOW the three original compositions are, in Dave Marsh's words, "what happens when the best backing group ever decides it's time to step up front and be noticed." (You probably also know how badly underrated is "Mo' Onions" - particularly Steve Cropper's ever-so-understated guitar break; the greatest soul rhythm guitarist of them all before Teenie Hodges came of age could flat play the blues without breaking a sweat or letting the string-bending joyboys intimidate him...the man's middle name was "Taste".) You also know that most of the rest is the kind of filler you used to hear (and cringe upon) at the local skating rink. But if you've got even half the sense of humour as the guys who cut it, this album isn't all that bad. In fact, they actually make "Lonely Avenue" (the classic Ray Charles cut from Pomus-Shuman) work. As album makers, Booker T. and the M.G.s in due course began living up to their classic singles and then some, and would someone PLEASE remind the nimrod from the critic's review at the head of the page that with the horns they were the MAR-KEYS, and not the BAR-KAYS (which was an entirely different band, both before and after they bought it with Otis Redding in that plane crash...)

This by far is one of the most underrated Booker T albums of all time, sure it only contains two of Booker Ts top hits which are Green Onions and Mo' Onions, but it also contains a lot of bluesy, pre-funk jams that inspired Booker T and the MGs to continue recording. Before Green Onions Booker T and the MGs were a blues band that would play blues riffs like Behave Yourself and a lot of the riffs were slow and churchy sounding. I think this album shows the MGs for the truly diverse music geniuses they were. They could play slow, soulful blues that fit the nightclub scenes in the 60s, as well as play up-beat, funky grooves like the fast paced Green Onions. I have both this and the very best of Booker T and the MGs on my itunes and feel like having both these CDs gives me the best variety of their songs from their older blues riffs, to their more modern funk. Only two of the songs on this CD are on the very best of Booker T, so you aren't losing much by getting both. Sure it isn't the greatest Booker T album, or it doesn't quite rock as hard as their later albums like Hip Hug Her, but it still is filled with just as much soul and has the distinguishable Booker T organ sound. In my opinion it is a must own for any soul/Booker T fan just for the early hard to find recordings.

Despite the magic of the title tune, this album shows signs of having been rushed out as a cash-in. The choice of material is poor, and the interpretations are somewhat uncertain. If you must own 'Green Onions' (the tune), get it on a compilation, and spend your Booker T & the MGs budget on one of the later albums (which are utterly brilliant...).

One thing you can count on with musicians such as Booker T Jones,Steve Cropper,Al Jackson and Donald "Duck" Dunn is that all of them are extremely talented people. Their ability to maintain their trademark instrumental precision with extremely soulful licks and exchanges is now well renowned. Many bands have since attempted,to varrying levels of success to approximate this approch and in the 60's the sound served this band so well that they became the main Stax house band during that era while making remarkable singles under their own name. Of course the title track and it's shadow "Mo Onions" are by all accounts the strongest general tunes on this album;songs that people who may not even know the name of the band will recognize and that encompassess the very best in their precision based instrumental bluesy soul music. One thing that's important to mention is this album was recorded in 1962 and at that time (with the possible exception of Ray Charles) even artists such as James Brown were not so much thinking in terms of album oriented music as much utilizing the long playing medium to collect together singles into collections that sounded cohesive even if they really weren't. And so as the case with this album. Considering that Stax hadn't been around too many years before this was released there's some similarities to an earlier Stax band known as The Mar Keys so on likeminded tunes such as "Rinky-Dink" which as that band had done used the idea of precision and melody together. It's a bit stiff than the usually fairly loose approch the MG's had,and I need to add there is a difference between precision and loosness. A similar situation occurs on other interpretations of songs such as "Twist And Shout" and "Lonely Avenue" although the secular gospel wail of "I Got A Woman" comes across a lot better as they let loose a lot more rhythmically. "Behave Yourself" and "Stranger On The Shore" do a bit better overall due to the fact they showcase a slower,more forboding blusiness that allows the soul of their musicianship to shine through to a greater degree. Even though this isn't their first album it probably isn't the place to begin appreciating the MG's music. For most other reviewers are right:the band packed it's trademark punch more on singles so a well assembled compilation such as the recent Booker T. & The MG'S :The Definitive Soul Collection but for those who have such a collection and want to investigate the spirit of their music in it's original context this isn't a bad place to go actually.

I love this CD!!! It transports me back to 1962 and I listen to the music of the Green Onions all of the time now. I have it in my CD player in the car, and as far as I am concerned, this music is the absolute best way to usher in Summer of '07.

This may not be worthy of 4 stars but its nearer that than 3 for me. These guys were the backing band in the sixties for the Stax/Volt labels. Most of the records you hear by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave etc had these guys playing, and theres a good reason for that, they are very good musicians.

Everybody knows 'Green Onions', it remains a classic instrumental, apparently made-up in the studio. The cover of 'I Got A Woman' motors along, propelled by some infectious drumming from Al Jackson. A change of pace for track 6 gives the guys to show off their blues playing on 'Behave Yourself'. This is a lovely slow blues, which builds up a head of steam and gives Booker T a chance to show off his Hammond playing.

Their are really only two reasons not to buy this album. Firstly the tracks are all instrumentals, so theres no point buying this if you like to listen to lyrics. Secondly the Hammond Organ sound Booker T uses a lot of the time does sound a little dated now (especially on 'Stranger on the Shore') and its used on most of the tracks. However contrary to the previous reviewers I found this to be an enjoyable album in its own right regardless of what the group did later in their career.