Booker T & The MG's Green Onions CD

Booker T. & The MG's: Booker T. Jones (organ); Steve Cropper (guitar); Lewis Steinberg (bass); Al Jackson, Jr. (drums).
Recorded in Memphis, Tennessee in June & August 1962.
Includes liner notes by Bob Altshuler.
There's not a note or a nuance out of place anywhere on this record, which was 35 of the most exciting minutes of instrumental music in any category that one could purchase in 1962 (and it's no slouch four decades out, either). "I Got a Woman" is the single best indicator of how superb this record is and this band was -- listening to this track, it's easy to forget that the song ever had lyrics or ever needed them, Booker T. Jones' organ and Steve Cropper's guitar serving as more-than-adequate substitutes for any singer. Their version of "Twist and Shout" is every bit as satisfying. Even "Mo' Onions," an effort to repeat the success of "Green Onions," doesn't repeat anything from the earlier track except the tempo, and Jones and Cropper both come up with fresh sounds within the same framework.
"Behave Yourself" is a beautifully wrought piece of organ-based blues that gives Jones a chance to show off some surprisingly nimble-fingered playing, while "Stranger on the Shore" is transformed into a piece of prime soul music in the group's hands. "Lonely Avenue" is another showcase for Jones' keyboard dexterity, and then there's the group's cover of Smokey Robinson's "One Who Really Loves You," with a ravishing lead performance by Jones on organ and Cropper's guitar handling the choruses. Just when it seems like the album has turned in all of the surprises in repertory that it could reasonably deliver, it ends with "Comin' Home Baby," a killer jazz piece on which Steve Cropper gets to shine, his guitar suddenly animated around Jones' playing, his quietly trilled notes at the crescendo some of the most elegant guitar heard on an R&B record up to that time. ~ Bruce Eder
Released in 1962, the first full-length album by Booker T. & the MG's, GREEN ONIONS, revolves around the classic, slow-burning, organ-led instrumental title track. It's impossible to overstate the importance and impact of this, the band's biggest chart hit, which oozes smokey cool as Steve Cropper's strangled guitar cries and Booker T.'s terse keyboard bursts criss-cross over a framework that prefigures everything from funk to dub. Al Jackson and Lewis Steinberg keep the rhythm firmly in the pocket here and on covers such as "I Got a Woman" and the chill, down-tempo blues of Acker Bilk's "Stranger on the Shore." Together, the MG's (short for Memphis Group) developed a collective groove that would prove crucial to the development of '60s soul.Q (3/95, p.121) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...Tight, smokey and studiously economical, much of this 1962 debut is as sharp as 'Green Onions' itself....These tunes still sound smart, sharp and swinging."