Stax for a long time was seen as the slightly bruised sister of Motown, and you either liked one or the other. However, both studios had quite similar ways of working - staff writers; house band; featured artists. The most famous arrangement of the house musicians, of course, was Booker T and the MGs: Booker T Jones on Organ; Steve Cropper on Guitar; Donald "Duck" Dunn on Bass; and Al Jackson Jr on Drums. Like the Funk Brothers at Motown, they were a crack team of session musicians who were expected to walk into the studio, lay down a track in a couple of takes, and then move on to the next one.
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| Still a really cool logo. |
Unfortunately, keys aside, I'm not a crack session musician, but I did my best! If I'd had more time, I'd have done a more authentic-sounding sax arrangement - the Stax horns were always so much cooler than this one here. Plus only having an alto sax makes things sound rather thinner than I'd like.
However! I did play around with the panning on this track, to make it sound like a 3-track recording: Bass, Guitar, Drums and Organ recorded on track one (centre); Horns and tambourine recorded on track 2 (left); vocals and hand claps on track 3 (right).
But enough of that - it's time to donate! http://www.justgiving.com/songaweek.
Anyway, I've got to rush - off to see my teenage heroes Primus tonight. My God have mercy on my eardrums.
