General Article name: Green Onions
Genre: Black/Soul/Blues/R&B/Gospel Product type: LP (Vinyl) Label: Wax Time Number of tracks: 14 Tracklist LP - 1 1. Booker T. & the MG's - Green Onions 2. Booker T. & the MG's - Stranger On the Shore 3. Booker T. & the MG's - Rinky-Dink 4. Booker T. & the MG's - Lonely Avenue 5. Booker T. & the MG's - I Got a Woman 6. Booker T. & the MG's - One Who Really Loves You 7. Booker T. & the MG's - Mo' Onions 8. Booker T. & the MG's - Can't Sit Down 9. Booker T. & the MG's - Twist and Shout 10. Booker T. & the MG's - Woman, a Lover, a Friend 11. Booker T. & the MG's - Behave Yourself 12. Booker T. & the MG's - Comin' Home Baby 13. The Mar-Keys - Squint-Eye 14. The Mar-Keys - Sit Still   Description Description

There's not a note or a nuance out of place anywhere on this record, which featured 35 of the most exciting minutes of instrumental music in any category that one could purchase in 1962 (and it's no slouch multiple 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. 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

Bruce Eder

Contributors Artist: Booker T. & the MG's Record Label: Wax Time