Customer Reviews

Stax Does The Beatles

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

 

 

"Stax Does the Beatles" is a satisfying collection recorded 1966 to 1972 when the Beatles' music was everywhere on the airwaves. The disc starts with an alternate take of Otis Redding on "Day Tripper" as the band blasts through the track losing the distinctive bass line and adding a potent horn chart. Of the four Booker T & the MGs tracks included on this set, "Got to Get You Into My Life" is an organ and drums duel that is marginally effective. "Eleanor Rigby" achieves a distinctive sound with a processed guitar. Booker T's "Michelle" starts sounding like "Spooky" by Classics IV before the lovely McCartney melody edges to the front. My favorite of their four tracks is the playful version of "Lady Madonna" that sounds like a stalker creeping up on you. Steve Cropper released a 1969 album on Volt with the title track "With A Little Help from My Friends" that appears on this CD with Cropper's furious electric guitar and a stately horn session. A live version of "Yesterday" was recorded by Carla Thomas at the Bohemian Caverns in Washington D.C. in 1967 that milks McCartney's mournful melody of love gone away. The Bar-Kays' instrumental version of "Yesterday" has elements of Spanish horn, their dreamy organ and mellow guitar. They also cover "With a Little Help From My Friends" at times full speed like a march and then dropping into a meditative moment before melody emerges. The Mar-Keys released "Memphis Experience" in 1971 that included a delicious cover of "Let It Be" that delivers the familiar melody with Stax flare. Isaac Hayes' version of George Harrison's "Something" went to #8 on the pop charts and #1 on the R&B charts with an epic rendering of this great tune. Obscure Stax artist Reggie Milner whose career ended when he was run over by a freight train adds vocal pyrotechnics to "And I Love Her." "My Sweet Lord" was George Harrison's big single after the band's breakup. John Gary Williams from the band the Mad Lads adds a spoken interlude that prays for lawmakers who he feels may be unacquainted with justice. The Bar-Kays conclude the anthology with a six-minute version of "Hey Jude" that floats magically like a big yellow balloon. This is a good collection with three takes never previously released and one on CD for the first time. It reminds how varied and amazing the Beatles' output was and how well other musicians could embrace it. Enjoy!

Don't pay too much for this CD. A couple of cuts are fun, but many have not aged well (they sound really old fashioned). As they say, it doesn't have good "legs".

This album is worth 3 Stars. 3 stars because these are all Beatles songs, Sang by soul artists from the 70's and finally compiled by Stax. The reason for the 3 stars only is because these songs were never meant to be played as soul songs therefore none of the tracks is highly memorable.
This album is for any collector, who likes Soul music, and still enjoy to hear Beatles songs sung by other artists.

Maybe I was looking for something different. Ray Charles sang some Beatles. So did Stevie Wonder, Earth Wind & Fire, Billy Preston, Aretha, everybody sang some Beatles. I could not find this disc worthy.