Sure, I’ve always dug Steve Cropper… his guitar playing. Ever since the first Booker T. record. I heard that back in the Midwest. Yeah, everybody was playing like him.
~Bob Dylan (to Jann Wenner, 29 Nov. 1969)Memphis is in a very lucky position on the map. Everything just gravitated to Memphis for years.
~Steve Cropper
Booker T & The MG’s – Green Onions:
Well kiss me baba, woo-oooooo….it feels good
Hold me baba
I want to love you like a lover should
Your fine, so kind
I got this world that your mine mine mine mine-ine
From Wikipedia:
| Released | November 11, 1957 |
|---|---|
| Recorded | October 8, 1957, Sun Studio, Memphis, Tennessee |
| Genre | Rock and roll, Rockabilly, Country |
| Label | Sun 281 |
| Writer(s) | Otis Blackwell (under the pseudonym Jack Hammer) |
“Great Balls of Fire” is a 1957 song recorded by Jerry Lee Lewis on Sun Records and featured in the 1957 movie Jamboree. It was written by Otis Blackwell (under the pseudonym Jack Hammer). The Jerry Lee Lewis 1957 recording was ranked as the 96th greatest song ever by Rolling Stone. The song is in AABA form.
Continue reading October 8: Jerry Lee Lewis Great Balls of Fire was recorded in 1957
“I am right. I`m always right. One time I thought I was wrong, I found out I was right. ”
~Jerry Lee Lewis“Just point me to the piano and give me my money. In fifteen minutes I’ll have ’em SHAKIN’, SHOUTIN’, SHIVERIN’, and SHAKIN'”
~Jerry Lee Lewis
From Wikipedia:
| Birth name | Jerry Lee Lewis |
|---|---|
| Also known as | The Killer |
| Born | September 29, 1935 (age 80) |
| Origin | Ferriday, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Genres | Rock and roll, country, rockabilly, blues, Honky tonk, gospel |
| Occupations | Singer, songwriter, pianist |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano, guitar |
| Years active | 1954–present |
| Labels | Sun, Mercury, Sire/Warner Bros, MCA |
| Website | www.jerryleelewis.com |
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer-songwriter and pianist. He is known by the nickname “The Killer”.
Continue reading September 29: Happy 80th Birthday Jerry Lee Lewis
“(Jim Dickinson is)…. that magical musical maestro from Memphis…. he was the kind of guy you could call to play piano, fix a tractor, or make red cole slaw from scratch.”
-Bob Dylan“There are cool cats and there are cool Memphis cats but no one, not Elvis, not Jerry Lee, not even the Wolf came close to epitomizing Memphis and cool like Jim Dickinson did. He was the Top Cat Daddy, an inspiration, a mentor and my friend.
If you knew his music and understood his role as one of the links between black and white culture and between blues and rock and roll, you know what I’m talking about. If he is unfamiliar to you, now’s as good time as any to get to know him, even though he’s checked out of the motel.”
-Joe Nick Patoski
John Brown (from his great 1972 album “Dixie Fried” – words by Bob Dylan):
Continue reading August 15: Jim Dickinson passed away in 2009
.. a workmanlike singer and a very accomplished songwriter, who showed occasional flashes of brilliance.
~The Rough Guide to Soul and R&B“…I’d had nothing directly to do with Motown while I’d been in Detroit, I’d still been around a lotta their artists and seen from a distance how they did things. And so, when I eventually got to Memphis, I could see that it was pretty much the SAME – you know, musicians getting together producing music, with everybody in the same groove… So yeah, working at Stax was very easy, because everybody was open-minded. You know, Al and I first met (legendary MGs guitarist) Steve Cropper at the same time we met Jim Stewart. So what would happen is, Cropper and I would more or less go off to the hotel, sit down and talk about music – and BOOM, almost immediately we’d WRITE something! While Al Bell and Jim Stewart would go off and talk about music and BUSINESS… So yeah, that’s the way it started – and it just moved on from THERE! I later went on to write with Booker T., which was great too. You know, Stax was all about TEAM-work. Like if an artist was recording and needing backing singers, I’d go and sing on THEIR record, and in turn they’d sing on MINE! That’s just the way we DID things.”
– Eddie Floyd (Blues&Soul.com, issue 1067)
Raise Your Hand – Live in Oslo 1967: