4. Booker T. & The M.G.sGreen Onions
CF: I was probably about 14 years old and ‘Green Onions’ was a number one hit. It was just a real cool jam. It’s jazzy but at the same time funky. There was a lot of space in between the notes and a tremendous groove. Then of course I found out later that this was the famous Stax band that backed Otis Redding and Sam & Dave and Carla Thomas.
TW: It was just such a watershed moment to hear a band without a lead singer drowning out all the parts. It was an aural landscape. You could just be drenched in it and go to another place listening to this music without the narration of a singer. It was a groove and it was beautiful.
Selected in other Baker’s Dozens: Dennis Bovell
