Booker T. & The MGs’ version of “Michelle” made it into the R&B Top Ten when it was released as a single from their 1969 album The Booker T. Set. Interestingly, it opens under what sounds like the cool shade of the introductory chords to the ’60s pop classic “Spooky” before Booker picks up and runs with the melody. Their stripped-down saunter through “Lady Madonna” came from this same album and also made it up to #10 R&B single. It’s probably pointless to wonder if their success was due to the popularity of the MGs or the Beatles or both.

After departing the Mad Lads vocal group, lead singer John Gary Williams sang as a solo artist, and his falsetto sweetly complements the melody and underlying sentiments of “My Sweet Lord,” a single released in ‘72.

Here appearing for the first time on CD, Reggie Milner’s “And I Love Her” was the B-side for a long-forgotten ‘69 single (”Habit Forming Love”). The instrumental backup somehow transplants the Beatles’ light and airy melody into a lush soul garden - two rhythm guitars and full rhythm, string and brass sections - tended by Milner’s yearning vocal.

Stax / Beatles closes with the Bar-Kays’ instrumental jam on “Hey Jude” from their ‘69 album Gotta Groove. It’s their trademark sound, with harpsichord, electric guitar and trumpet passing around the melody, and this tune - especially its famous coda - nicely lends itself to this kind of instrumental extension. This signature performance from one of the gemstone bands on one of the world’s most historic soul labels, in tribute to the most influential pop quartet in history, forms a fine conclusion to Stax Does the Beatles.

In the current music industry environment that an R&B pioneer like Stax man Eddie Floyd can have a brand new album released is cause for celebration it itself: that his first record in six years happens to be on the (reactivated) label which first brought him to public prominence is a double joy!

In a recent phone chat, the Alabama-born soul brother who scored his biggest hit with the now perennial much-covered “Knock On Wood” in 1966 spoke about “Eddie Loves You So,” the recently-released Stax album produced by the Boston-based team of Michael Dinallo and Ducky Carlisle, best known for their work with The Radio Kings.

How the album came about: “I was contacted by the producers and I was surprised that they had done research on my songs. I had worked as a guest with the Radio Kings which is how I came to know them. I basically left it up to them in terms of material and they went back to my days as a member of The Falcons…”

Songs on the album: “Well, “Til My Back Ain’t Got No Bone” was done by William Bell at Stax – I never recorded it back then myself. The producers heard the version that was done by Esther Phillips and that was the one they used as the basis for my recording of it on the new LP. “I Will Always Have Faith In You” was a song that Carla Thomas did it at Stax – although actually Billy Eckstine did it first! I’ve been asked many times why I never recorded songs like that which I wrote and I’d say it just depends on timing. The producers liked the swing tempo of “You’re So Fine” which I did with The Falcons and that’s why they chose it… For me, it’s exciting to do songs like “Til My Back” and “You Don’t Know What You Mean To Me,” which I wrote for Sam & Dave…”

His career: “It feels really good that people still want to hear my music all over the world. About forty years ago I went to a place called Surinam (in South America) and the people wanted to hear “Got To Make A Comeback” which was the ‘B’ side of “Knock On Wood.” It had been No. 1 there back then. I went back last year and the reaction was fantastic. Same thing with “Consider Me” which I did again for the new album. I remember way back I was on a tour of the West Indies with King Curtis and on the second night, I put that song in my show and the people loved it. I’d have to say that I’m enjoying my career now more than ever. It’s truly been a blessing.”

David Nathan
A/k/a the British Ambassador Of Soul
Secretary, The Rhythm & Blues Foundation (www.rhythmblues.org)
Owner,
www.soulmusic.com,
www.soulmusicstore.com,
www.soulmusicglobal.com

Within the highly political music biz world, there are some producers and songwriters who amass a body of great work that - for the most part – goes relatively unnoticed in terms of being accorded due public recognition. A cursory look at All Music Guide (www.allmusic.com) reveals pages of songwriting and producing credits for Leon Ware – and that’s aside from the nine albums he’s had as an artist. You’ll see names like Marvin Gaye, Minnie Riperton, Quincy Jones, Maxwell, Isaac Hayes, The Main Ingredient, Michael Jackson, The Average White Band, John Legend and so on.

In soul music circles, Leon is revered and appreciated: in the UK, Europe and Japan in particular, he can perform before sold-out crowds who literally sing along with tunes from his impressive catalog of music. I can still recall being at The Jazz Café in London and witnessing a full house of diehard Ware fans joining in with Leon on classic like “Why I Came To California” and “Rockin’ You Eternally”!

It’s thus particularly heartening that the powers-that-be at Stax/Concord had the insight and good sense to have Leon record a brand new album – and what a treat it is. “Moon Ride” takes the listener on a wonderfully sensuous journey and given that Leon’s stock-in-trade is making some of the most romantic music on the planet, it’s a sublime trip that as his official Concord bio states “brim(s) with soulful intimacy, evoking images of candle-lit nights, between-the-sheets tenderness and romantic anticipation.” He is, as the bio, continues “a minister of smouldering sexuality expressed through music and “Moon Ride” is a brilliant testament to his skill as a love-healing mood-maker.”

The cool thing is that you don’t have to be in love or in a relationship to enjoy “Moon Ride.” In fact, if you’re a single guy like me, the feelings evoked by slow jams like “Just Take Your Time” and “(To Serve You) All My Love” just want to make you find that special someone to share the music with! Leon himself unashamedly confesses that his music is designed to provoke thoughts and indeed action – in the arenas of romance and sensuality: “I use the bedroom as my temple, sex as a religion and music as my ministry, sensuality and spirituality blended together at the same time.” As the man who masterminded Marvin Gaye’s classic 1976 album “I Want You” (originally intended as a Leon Ware LP until Motown’s Berry Gordy and Marvin persuaded Leon to let Marvin record it), Leon knows a thing or two about making the kind of music designed to set a mood for love. A track like the hypnotic “Loceans” on “Moon Ride” is perfect backdrop for an evening of closer-than-close one-on-one-ness while “Smoovin’” (a personal favorite of mine) provides the environment for a seductive set up!

All of which is to say that “Moon Ride” is a spectacular addition to the Ware catalog of superb music. If you haven’t yet had a taste of Leon’s special brand of love music, treat yourself – and if you have one, your significant other – to a ride that is satisfaction guaranteed!

David Nathan
A/k/a the British Ambassador Of Soul
Secretary, The Rhythm & Blues Foundation (www.rhythmblues.org)
Owner,
www.soulmusic.com,
www.soulmusicstore.com,
www.soulmusicglobal.com

Stax Does the Beatles opens with a previously unreleased Otis Redding version of “Day Tripper.” The way this burns with the feeling of a live recording, even though it’s a studio take, and transforms its melody into an up-tempo stomping soul two-step is typically terrific Redding. David Porter strains hard but his version of  “Help!,” which first appeared on his ‘71 concept album Victim of the Joke? An Opera, falls short of Redding’s mark.

Booker T. Jones was probably Stax’s biggest Beatles fan and leads several of these tributes. The MGs swim through swirling, psychedelic waters in “Eleanor Rigby,” which first appeared on their ‘68 album Soul Limbo and made it up to #14 R&B single; their uneventful but welcoming glide through “Got to Get You Into My Life” was previously unreleased (and ironically comes from the aforementioned Beatles’ Revolver album).

Next, Stax / Beatles programs two of its most successful tracks back to back. The Mar-Keys’ straight-up instrumental treatment of “Let it Be,” from their ‘71 album Memphis Experience, is just plain nice and sweet, its throaty saxophone singing the lead vocal and comforting, sanctified rhythm track bringing your blues back home. “Something,” from his breakout ‘70 solo album The Isaac Hayes Movement, made it up to #8 Pop and #1 R&B single. Hayes throws every tool in his toolbox - horn section, rhythm section, string section and vocal section, even electric violin - into this drastic, classic rearrangement.