Customer Reviews

Soul Limbo

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

 

 

Soul Limbo was somewhat of a milestone for Booker T. & the MGs. Until 1968, the Stax label in Memphis where the MGs played on countless hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Albert King, Wilson Pickett, and so many others, had been distributed by the mighty Atlantic label in New York. When this deal ended, there was a flurry of activity in Soulsville U.S.A. as the label rushed to get as much product as possible on the market.

So Stax was in "limbo", and the MGs saw the company through. The carribean flavored title track (later famously used as the theme for Cricket on the BBC) was among the first hits (along with Johnnie Taylor's "Who's Makin' Love") that Stax scored.

The MGs' albums at this point had been getting better and better peaking with 1967's terrific Hip Hug-Her. This has their usual mix of inspired covers and cutting edge originals.

One of their most well known and highest charting records was their epic rendition of Dominic Frontiere's "Hang 'em High" from the Clint Eastwood film. There's also the infectious "Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy", a funkdified reworking of "Eleanor Rigby", and an absolutely superb Jazz piano showcase for Booker T. Jones with the standard "Willow Weep For Me".

Guitarist Steve Cropper's and especially drummer Al Jackson, Jr.'s work here once again affirms their superiority over ordinary humans. Jackson really stands out on Aretha Franklin's "(Sweet, Sweet Baby) Since You've Been Gone" and both are on fire on the smokin' original "Heads or Tails" and the Jones and William Bell written Albert King classic "Born Under a Bad Sign" which also features great B-3 organ bursts from Booker. Their versions of the Franklin and King songs makes the album worth searching out, as the other tracks already mentioned (and the great original "Over Easy", the B side to "Hang 'em High") all appear on the 1997 box set Time Is Tight.

They just don't make 'em like this anymore. This is one of the finest instrumental sets ever released and one of the most essential in the discography of Booker and his Memphis Group.

"Soul Limbo" is the first and best album of the MG's later Stax period (the earlier records were released on Stax but owned by Atlantic--it's a long story). As on the earlier "Hip Hug-Her" album, the mix of up-tempo to slow/atmospheric tunes is perfect and only "Foxy Lady" now seems kind of weak. The playing and the sound is more refined and "jazzier" than on the earlier LP's. The MG's version of "Be Young Be Foolish" is so much better than the original vocal version! The cover photo is an incongruous classic along the lines of Sonny Rollins' "Way Out West" cover photo. Putting a bunch of Memphis studio cats on the beach with a lovely lady was an inspired idea!