Green Onions [Original recording remastered]

Booker T. & The MG's | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 24, 2012)
• Original Release Date: 2012
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Fantasy
• ASIN: B0089X38EU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,008 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

The Stax Remasters series is dedicated to revisiting classic albums from the monumental Stax catalog of classic Soul music. This entry to the successful series, Booker T. & The MGs Green Onions, is newly re-mastered and includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 55 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Birth of a Dynasty June 13, 2003

By thestaxman

Format:Audio CD

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.

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't buy this for "Green Onions"! April 1, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Audio CD

"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.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Nicely remastered classic Stax CD with two "Live" MGs tracks as a bonus. August 11, 2012

By Steven I. Ramm TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Audio CD

"Green Onions" was the first Lp record by Stax studio musician Booker T. Jones and his three partners-in-(musical)crime released after their hit single "Green Onions". Like most albums of the 1960s, it contains both the A and B sides of the single ("Behave Yourself" was originally to be the "A" side with "Onions" on the reverse) and a bunch of covers (hits for other artists). The 12 tracks on the issued 1962 release include nine of those covers , with two Ray Charles songs, (Mr.) Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore", and Phil Upchurch's "You Can't Sit Down" among them.

For those who know the group from their later albums, you'll find out in the new liner notes written by Rob Bowman (an expert on Stax's history) that bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn was not with the band at the time this album was released. Lewis Steinberg - the original member is here.

For this remastered release, Concord Music Group (which owns the Stax catalog now) added two "bonus tracks" - live recordings from a 1965 Stax Revue in Los Angeles (previously released on another Stax CD) which features Dunn on bass. Both are repeated songs. "Green Onions" is the first; "Can't Sit Down" is the second (but the live version clocks in at nearly five minutes - almost twice the length of the studio recording.

The original liner notes from 1962 are also reprinted in the enclosed 12-page booklet.

You can hear the remastered sound once you get half-way into "Mo Onions" (the only other original composition) when Steve Croppers guitar kicks in. Nice!

If you don't have the original. This is worth picking up.

I hope you found this review both informative and helpful.

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"