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Booker T [extended]
- Greatest Hits [Stax, 1970]
A-
- Melting Pot [Stax, 1971]
B+
- Home Grown [Dunhill, 1972]
C
- Evergreen [Epic, 1974]
C+
- Soul Men [Stax, 2003]
***
See Also:
Consumer Guide Reviews:
Booker T. & the MG's: Greatest Hits [Stax, 1970]
Because the sound of the organ invites textured vagueness as surely as that of the vibraphone does tinkly fluff, there are better ways to hear such themes as "Eleanor Rigby" and "Something" (both hits for another group, by the way) than on Booker's Hammond B-3. But when the improvs begin, we're back in riffland, where such spare, exemplary soul melodies as "Hip Hug Her" and "Time Is Tight" were born--and where Mr. T. can get back to fleshing out (and heating up) the disciplined cross-rhythms of his Memphis Group. A-
Booker T. & the MG's: Melting Pot [Stax, 1971]
Here the Memphis motorvators surpass the somewhat boxy rhythms that have limited all their albums as albums except for Uptight, which had vocals. Al Jackson's solidity, a linchpin of rock drumming as surely as Keith Moon's blastoffs and Charlie Watts's steady economy, is unshaken by the shifts the arrangements demand, and his deftness permits a more flexible concept in which Booker lays back some on organ and Steve Cropper gets more melodic input. A Vegas-jazz ("L.A. Jazz Song" is a title) boop-de-doo chorus upsets the balance of side two pretty badly, but for the first twenty minutes this is unbelievably smooth without ever turning slick. B+
Booker T. & Priscilla: Home Grown [Dunhill, 1972]
This is mostly sententious and silly--it includes a 12 minute version of "Who Killed Cock Robin?" that the artist says was inspired in Heaven but I suspect was concocted in Limbo--but radio programmers should listen to "Maggie's Farm," in which (by genius or chance) the conversational and musical elements of Dylan's delivery are split almost prismatically. I like these people and I wish everything they did was that good. C
Evergreen [Epic, 1974]
This laid-back funk has body; it's physically attractive. And it's nice that T can put his own mild voice to his own mild lyrics like any other rock aristocrat. I might even agree that the candor of its complacency (one song puts down streetlights, another celebrates T's in-laws, the Kristoffersons) is refreshing. Actually, though, it pisses me off. C+
Booker T. & the MG's: Soul Men [Stax, 2003]
Never Before Available Covers of 25 of Your Favorite '60s Hits! ("Harlem Shuffle," "Downtown") ***
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