32. Booker T. & the M.G.s - Green Onions (1962)




















Track Listing

1. Green Onions
2. Rinky Dink
3. I Got A Woman
4. Mo' Onions
5. Twist And Shout
6. Behave Yourself
7. Stranger On The Shore
8. Lonely Avenue
9. One Who Really Loves You
10. You Can't Sit Down
11. Woman A Lover A Friend
12. Comin' Home Baby

Review

This is the birth of the stax sound. The stax label invented a sound which later came to define 60's music and this is its birth. If you have heard the Jimmy Smith album Back at the Chicken Shack, you can see where this is coming from. Mix that jazz organ sound with the emerging pop-rock and you get Green Onions.

This album is probably most famous for its renowned title track, even if you don't recognise it by name listen to it and you will have seen it in countless adverts and such. It is still a pretty cool track. The same cannot be said about the whole album unfortunately. Some tracks epitomise the cool 60's sound, some however seem to be little more than lounge music, such as the reworking of Stranger on The Shore or Austin Powers spoof 60 music, like Rinky Dink. This, however, is symbolic of how iconic the album is, the fact that 40 years later when we spoof the 60's we are using songs which sound like those in Green Onions must surely mean something.

So, it is a dated album, with some truly cool tracks and some which make you want to walk around doing 60's dance moves... lot's of waving arms up and down around the house lately. Even the tracks which are little more than unmitigated crap are very enoyable in a kitsch sense of the thing. A hit and miss album, which still deserves a listen due to its influencial nature and the fact that it is just plain fun.

Get it at Amazon US or UK.

Track Highlights

1. Green Onions (by far the best track)
2. Behave Yourself
3. Comin' Home Baby
4. Mo' Onions

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

Yeah Baby Yeah!