It’s one of the more famous shout-outs in music history: During a break in Sam & Dave’s torrid vocal exchanges in “Soul Man,” Sam Moore can be distinctly heard yelling, “Play it, Steve!”

In 1996, the British music magazine Mojo published a list of “the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.” Chuck Berry, the king of rock & roll, claimed the fifth spot; Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards came in fourth; and British bluesman Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac) finished third.

Jimi Hendirx was voted the best. Steve Cropper finished second behind only Hendrix.

It’s impossible to quantify exactly but I daresay it’s a safe bet guitarist Steve Cropper wrote, performed, arranged and produced more Stax Records than any other individual. You don’t even have to listen to the four-CD The Stax Story compilation for confirmation; you just have to read the companion booklet - there he is as co-composer on “Green Onions,” “Knock on Wood,” “Time is Tight” and “(Sitting on the) Dock of the Bay” (and that’s just disc one!).

If there’s a singular “voice of Stax Records,” even if it was most often heard in a supporting role, that voice is guitarist Steve Cropper. We will spend the last month of this 50th anniversary celebratory year with Stax takes on holiday and seasonal favorites. But before we do we’ll close the rest of the calendar with a look at Cropper’s only solo album on Stax, With a Little Help From My Friends.
 

I first heard Otis Redding way, way back probably in 1964 when I was part of the small circle of British R&B fans who loved us some soul music even before it was known as soul music! Otis was ‘the man,’ a hard-edged gritty singer who sang songs like “Pain In My Heart” with the kind of conviction that reeked of authenticity and honesty. Otis was no joke. In fact, I remember distinctly hearing “These Arms Of Mine” in 1964 about a year after it came out (well, I was still listening to Cilla Black, the Beatles and Gerry & The Pacemakers in ’63!). It was stunning. But it would take a year or so before the British record-buying public would cotton on…and then it was with, of all things, a cover of The Temptations’ “My Girl,” Otis Redding’s first UK chart entry! By ‘65, trying to play catch up with our U.S. cousins who had begun to be stung by the Stax soul bug, us soul heads in the UK were fawning over the “Otis Blue” album.

When the Stax/Volt Revue came to the UK in March 1967, each and every night belonged to Big ‘O’”: Otis Redding just tore it up, opening with “Respect”, moving through “My Girl” and “Shake” and the Stones’ “Satisfaction” (which us soul folks believed Otis had really written but given to the Stones – yes, we had conspiracy theories in the world of R&B too!). A few months later, Otis would bowl over a pop/rock audience at the Monterey Pop Festival and by year’s end, he was gone when his private plane crashed into Lake Monoma in Wisconsin.

British fans like our American counterparts were devastated that at a mere 26 years of age, one of the greats in soul music would never grace the stage or recording studio. Fortunately, he did leave some previously unissued material that would see the light of day including the poignantly beautiful “I’ve Got Dreams To Remember,” the standout track on “The Immortal Otis Redding” album issued posthumously in 1968.

That song gives its name to a DVD released through Stax/Concord which is a definitive documentary on a man who would have celebrated his 66th birthday in September. Footage of Otis in action includes his last two performances taped at a local Cleveland television station less than twenty four hours before his death. There are images culled from the Redding family’s personal archives, a recently uncovered BBC radio interview from 1966 and on-camera reminiscences by Mrs. Zelma Redding and daughter Karla. The recollections of guitarist Steve Cropper (of The MGs) and trumpeter Wayne Jackson (of The Mar-Keys) of the first time Otis came to the Stax studios and a first-in-thirteen years interview with Stax co-founder Jim Stewart make this a ‘must have’ DVD for not only all Redding fans but for soul music lovers everywhere. Forty years on, Otis remains the same: a powerhouse pioneer with a one-of-a-kind talent.

David Nathan
a/k/a “The British Ambassador Of Soul”
Owner, www.soulmusic.com, www.soulmusicstore.com, www.soulmusicglobal.com

“In Session,” Albert King with Stevie Ray Vaughan….

What is it about this original American art form that gets to folks? I’m talking about the blues, y’all. Well, I may not be able to define what it is that ‘gets’ to people the world over but I can illustrate it real well. I’m asked to write a blog for Concord Records on a once-in-a-lifetime teaming between two blues men, the iconic Albert King whose playing influenced a generation of British musicians (check Eric Clapton) among others and his acknowledged musical ‘disciple,’ Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The album is entitled “In Session,” derived from a Canadian television series of the same name, recorded initially in 1983 (and later in 1988) and originally released by Fantasy Records in 1999, nine years after Stevie was killed in a helicopter crash at the age of 35 and seven years after Albert (known for his rambunctious, cantankerous manner) suffered a massive heart attack at 69.

At first, I am reluctant. I’ve been listening to the blues in one form or another since my teenage days in London when some of my Kilburn Grammar School pals were attempting to introduce me to the music of Howlin’ Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Hooker and Willie Dixon. We’re talking mid-sixties when kids from Clapton and Jagger to my good school pal Richard Posner. Richard, who still plays guitar, is hosting a blues jam session at his home, he and the rest of the gang thinking that my already-confessed love for the pop/soul of Dionne Warwick, the jazz/folk of Nina Simone and the Motown magic of a bunch of folks will make me an obvious convert to the blues. I found the rawness of those Chess Records’ guys a little too ‘earthy’ for me.

That was ’65. Life’s ups and downs, love’s joy and pain, sometimes being broke, sometimes being lonely, sometimes feeling lost and alone, sometimes not knowing where the rent is gonna come from or how I’m gonna pay my taxes or my credit card bills or when I’m next gonna be lip-locking with who knows who…well, that will give you a taste for the blues.

It’s Tuesday morning. Got up early after a restless night to find that my bank balance ain’t what it should be. I call the bank and we get into it. I turn on “In Session” to listen the amazing interplay between Albert and Stevie and I ‘get’ it. I got the blues and these guys are actually providing me with a sense of understanding or belonging or something. I’ve already experienced “Blues At Sunrise,” one of Albert’s most beloved Stax recordings, a blisterin’ piece he did with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix at the Fillmore West years before. In the words of the late Esther Phillips, I’m gettin’ along alright.

Albert lays it down, challenging Stevie to recreate the Hendrix riff from King’s jam session with Jimi and Janis. Vaughan complies with a right-on-the-money solo. The pair are groovin’ on “Blues At Sunrise,” as they did on Stevie’s own “Pride And Joy,” another key cut on this outstanding set of eleven songs which includes the T-Bone Walker standard “Call It Stormy Monday,” the B.B. King classic “Ask Me No Questions” and “Don’t Lie To Me,” a Tampa Red-penned tune that Albert cut back in ’62. “In Session” is everything my Concord bud David Henson says it is. Brilliant, real, honest, a one-off collaboration that lives and breathes with the obvious mutual admiration between King and Vaughan.

In between songs, there are three short monologues, priceless moments shared between two stellar musicians, now playing in blues heaven where I know they are riffin’ like champs. Meanwhile, I’m down here on the ground (to quote the late Lou Rawls) dealin’ with bills, no lip-lock, L.A. blah’s and such. I got up with blues at sunrise, for real. With Albert and Stevie on my CD player, I believe I’ll make it through….

(With thanks to Dave Henson and David Vienna for persisting with me so I’d write this!)

David Nathan
a/k/a “The British Ambassador Of Soul”
Owner, www.soulmusic.com, www.soulmusicstore.com, www.soulmusicglobal.com