In 1965, Steinberg was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who played with the group until his death in 2012. Al Jackson, Jr. was murdered in 1975, after which Dunn, Cropper and Jones reunited on numerous occasions using various drummers, including Willie Hall, Anton Fig, Steve Jordan and Steve Potts.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2008, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
Having two white members (Cropper and Dunn), Booker T. & the M.G.'s was one of the first racially integrated rock groups, at a time when soul music and the Memphis music scene in particular were generally considered the preserve of black culture.
Formed in 1962 in Memphis, Tennessee, Booker T and the MG's ("MG" officially stood for "Memphis Group", and is usually punctuated correctly on LP covers as "M.G.") became one of the most important soul outfits in the history of music. They were indispensable as the house band for Stax Records, backing many rising artists (Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Albert King, and many others), but it was the MGs themselves that put Stax on the map with such singles as "Green Onions", which reached number three on the Pop Charts, and "Hip Hug-Her", which reached number six on the Pop Charts.
The group consisted of four core members: Booker T. Jones on keyboards and organ (as well as many other instruments), Steve Cropper on guitar, Al Jackson Jr. on drums, and Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass. Cropper and Dunn were originally in the first house band for Stax, The Mar-Keys, and later were part of the Blues Brothers, both in the band and in the movie. Various others added horns and other instruments, and a young Isaac Hayes covered the keys on at least one session.
Not only were they blazing new trails with their funky instrumental soul music, but also with their integration of races, as two of them were white (Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper) and two of them were black (Booker T. Jones and Al Jackson), which was very unusual for 1962.
In 2007 the documentary Respect Yourself: The Stax Records Story was released, with interviews and footage in which Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Wayne Jackson and Donald Duck Dunn are interviewed about the history and successes of Stax, among many others Stax' people.
Donald Duck Dunn died in his sleep at age 70 on Sunday, May 13, 2012.
Lewie Steinberg died on July 21, 2016 in Memphis at the age of 82.
(2) As the house band at Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, Booker T. & the MG's may have been the single greatest factor in the lasting value of that label's soul music, not to mention Southern soul as a whole. Their tight, impeccable grooves could be heard on classic hits by Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Albert King, and Sam & Dave, and for that reason alone, they would deserve their subsequent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. But in addition to their formidable skills as a house band, on their own they were one of the top instrumental outfits of the rock era, cutting classics like "Green Onions," "Time Is Tight," and "Hang 'em High."
The anchors of the Booker T. sound were Steve Cropper, whose slicing, economic riffs influenced many other guitar players, and Booker T. Jones himself, who provided much of the groove with his floating organ lines. In 1960, Jones started working as a session man for Stax, where he met Cropper. Cropper had been in the Mar-Keys, famous for the 1961 instrumental hit "Last Night," which laid out the prototype for much of the MG's (and indeed Memphis soul's) sound with its organ-sax-guitar combo. With the addition of drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewis Steinberg, they became Booker T. & the MG's. Within a couple years, Steinberg was replaced permanently by Donald "Duck" Dunn, who, like Cropper, had also played with the Mar-Keys.
The band's first and biggest hit, "Green Onions" (a number three single in 1962), came about by accident. Jamming in the studio while fruitlessly waiting for Billy Lee Riley to show up for a session, they came up with a classic minor-key, bluesy soul instrumental, distinguished by its nervous organ bounce and ferocious bursts of guitar. For the next five years, they'd have trouble recapturing its commercial success, though the standard of their records remained fairly high, and Stax's dependence upon them as the house band ensured a decent living.
In the late '60s, the MG's really hit their stride with "Hip Hug-Her," "Groovin'," "Soul-Limbo," "Hang 'em High," and "Time Is Tight," all of which were Top 40 charters between 1967 and 1969. Since the presence of black and white musicians made them a biracial band, the MG's set a somewhat under-appreciated example of both how integrated, self-contained bands could succeed, and how both black and white musicians could play funky soul music. As is the case with most instrumental rock bands, their singles contained their best material, and the band's music is now best appreciated via anthologies. But their albums were far from inconsequential, and occasionally veered into ambitious territory (they did an entire instrumental version of the Beatles' Abbey Road, which they titled McLemore Avenue in honor of the location of Stax's studios).
Though they'd become established stars by the end of the decade, the group began finding it difficult to work together, not so much because of personnel problems, but because of logistical difficulties. Cropper was often playing sessions in Los Angeles, and Jones was often absent from Memphis while he finished his music studies at Indiana University. The band decided to break up in 1971, but were working on a reunion album in 1975 when Al Jackson was tragically shot and killed in his Memphis home by a burglar. The remaining members were active as recording artists and session musicians in the following years, with Cropper and Dunn joining the Blues Brothers for a stint in the late '70s.
The MG's got back into the spotlight in early 1992, when they were the house band for an extravagant Bob Dylan tribute at Madison Square Garden. More significantly, in 1993 they served as the backup band for a Neil Young tour, one which brought both them (and Young) high critical marks. The following year, they released a comeback album, arranged in much the style of their vintage '60s sides, which proved that their instrumental skills were still intact. Like most such efforts, though, it ultimately failed to re-create the spark and spontaneity it so obviously wanted to achieve. Jones continued with his own musical output through the following decades, often lending his instrumental skills to other artists and occasionally issuing his own albums, such as the 2009 solo effort Potato Hole. Bassist Dunn, intermittently active with festival and tour appearances after the turn of the millennium, had been touring with Cropper and Eddie Floyd in Japan during May 2012 when he died in his sleep in a Tokyo hotel. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi
I Hear a Symphony
Booker T. & the MG's Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
For a feeling that's so new, so inviting, so exciting.
Whenever you are near, I Hear A Symphony,
A tender melody pulling me closer, closer to your arms.
Then suddenly, oo, your lips are touching mine.
A feeling so divine 'til I leave the past behind.
I'm lost in a world made for you and me.
Oo love me.
Ev'ry time your lips meet mine my baby.
Baby, baby, I feel a joy within,
Don't let this feeling end,
Let it go on and on and on now baby.
Baby, baby, those tears that fill my eyes,
I care not for myself but for those
Who've never felt the joy we've felt.
Whenever you are near,
I Hear A Symphony each time you speak to me
I hear a tender rhapsody of love, love.
Baby, baby, as you stand up holding me
Whispering how much you care,
A thousand violins fill the air now.
Baby, baby, don't let this moment end,
Keep standing close to me,
Oo so close to me, baby, baby.
Baby, baby, I Hear A Symphony, a tender melody.
Ah it goes on and on and on and on and
on and on and on and on and
on and on and on and on and
The song "I Hear A Symphony" by Booker T. & The M.G.'s is a love song that expresses the feelings of being in love with someone. The lyrics speak of a true love that has been given to the singer, and the joy that is felt when the loved one is near. The melody is described as tender and sweet, and it pulls the singer closer to their lover. When their lips touch, the feeling is described as divine, and it is said to leave the past behind. The singer feels lost in a world made for them and their lover, and they plead for their lover to continue loving them.
The song is full of emotion and passion, and it speaks to the universal feeling of falling in love. It describes the joy of being with someone who loves you, and the desire to make that feeling last forever. The lyrics are simple and direct, without any complex metaphors or imagery. This simplicity adds to the emotional impact of the song, making it accessible and relatable to anyone who has ever been in love.
Line by Line Meaning
You've given me a true love and ev'ry day I thank you love,
I am grateful for the true love that you have given me, and every single day I express my gratitude to you.
For a feeling that's so new, so inviting, so exciting.
This feeling that I have is new and it draws me in, exciting me in so many ways.
Whenever you are near, I Hear A Symphony,
Your mere presence creates a symphony in my heart, the most beautiful melody I have ever heard.
A tender melody pulling me closer, closer to your arms.
The tender melody that I hear makes me want to be closer to you, closer to the warmth of your loving embrace.
Then suddenly, oo, your lips are touching mine.
Before I know it, your lips are touching mine and I am overwhelmed by a divine feeling that erases all of my past worries and troubles.
A feeling so divine 'til I leave the past behind.
This feeling that you give me is so divine that it allows me to forget about all the negative experiences I may have had in the past.
I'm lost in a world made for you and me.
Being with you transports me to a magical world that feels like it was made just for us, a place where we can love and be loved without reservation.
Oo love me.
All I want in this moment is for you to love me, to shower me with your affection and tenderness.
Whenever you are near I Hear A Symphony play sweet and tenderly
Every time you are near me, a symphony plays inside my heart, filling it with the sweetest and most tender emotions.
Ev'ry time your lips meet mine my baby.
Whenever your lips meet mine, I feel an indescribable joy and happiness, my baby.
Baby, baby, I feel a joy within,
My baby, my heart is filled with joy every time I am with you.
Don't let this feeling end,
I don't want this feeling to ever end, I want to hold on to it for as long as possible.
Let it go on and on and on now baby.
I want this feeling to go on and on, my baby, I don't want it to ever stop.
Baby, baby, those tears that fill my eyes,
My baby, sometimes I get emotional and tears fill my eyes, not because of anything negative, but because of how good I feel when I am with you.
I care not for myself but for those
When I am with you, my thoughts extend beyond myself and onto those who have never experienced the joy and love we share.
Who've never felt the joy we've felt.
There are people out there who have never felt the kind of joy and love that we share, and I feel blessed and grateful to have you in my life.
Whenever you are near,
Every time you are close to me,
I Hear A Symphony each time you speak to me
I hear a symphony in my heart every time you speak to me, the sound of your voice is like music to my ears.
I hear a tender rhapsody of love, love.
What I hear when you speak to me is a tender rhapsody of love, filling me with an overwhelming feeling of love.
Baby, baby, as you stand up holding me
My baby, as we stand up holding each other,
Whispering how much you care,
When you whisper to me how much you care,
A thousand violins fill the air now.
I feel like a thousand violins are playing in the air, surrounding us with the most beautiful music imaginable.
Baby, baby, don't let this moment end,
My baby, I don't want this moment to end, I want to hold on to it forever.
Keep standing close to me,
Please stay close to me,
Oo so close to me, baby, baby.
Stay as close to me as possible, my baby, my love.
Baby, baby, I Hear A Symphony, a tender melody.
My baby, I hear a symphony whenever I am with you, a tender melody that fills me with so much love and joy.
Ah it goes on and on and on and on and
on and on and on and on and
on and on and on and on and
This feeling that you give me, my baby, goes on and on and on, in an endless symphony of love and tenderness.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Edward Jr. Holland, Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
markeith k
One of the greatest bands of all time Booker t & the mg's
jorge luis hernandez
FIRME