Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwr… Read Full Bio ↴Booker T. Jones (born November 12, 1944) is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, record producer and arranger, best known for fronting the band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s.

Born in South Memphis, Tennessee, Jones was a child prodigy, playing the oboe, saxophone, trombone, and piano at school and serving as organist at his church. He attended Booker T. Washington High School, the alma mater of Rufus Thomas and shared the hallowed halls with future stars like Isaac Hayes's writing partner David Porter; saxophonist Andrew Love of The Memphis Horns; soul singer/songwriter William Bell and Earth, Wind, and Fire's Maurice White.

Jones's first entry into professional music came at age sixteen, when he played baritone saxophone on Satellite (soon to be Stax) Records' first hit, "Cause I Love You", by Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas.

While hanging around the Satellite Record Shop run by Estelle Axton, co-owner of Satellite Records with her brother Jim Stewart, Jones met record clerk Steve Cropper, who would become one of the MGs when the group formed in 1962. Besides Jones on organ and Cropper on guitar, Booker T. and the MGs featured Lewie Steinberg on bass guitar and Al Jackson, Jr. on drums (Donald "Duck" Dunn eventually replacing Steinberg). While still in high school, Jones wrote the group's instrumental "Green Onions", which not only became a hit in 1962, but remains an enduring classic more than 40 years later.

Over the next few years, Jones would divide his time between studying classical music composition, composing and transposition at Indiana University, playing with the MGs on the weekends back in Memphis[1], serving as a session musician with other Stax acts, and writing songs that would become classics. He wrote, with Eddie Floyd, "I've Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)", Otis Redding's "I Love You More Than Words Can Say", and, with William Bell, Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign." The latter would later be popularized in the cover version by power trio Cream.

In 1970, Jones moved to California and stopped playing sessions for Stax, after becoming frustrated with Stax's treatment of the MGs as employees rather than musicians. While still under contract to Stax, he appeared on Stephen Stills' eponymous album (1970). The 1971 album, Melting Pot would be the last Booker T. & the MGs album issued on Stax.

Jones produced three albums with his former wife, under the name Booker T. & Priscilla, as well as making the charts as a solo artist in 1981 with "I Want You". He produced Priscilla's sister Rita Coolidge, Bill Withers's debut album Just As I Am (on which he also played several instruments), and Willie Nelson's album Stardust. He has also lent his trademark keyboards to everyone from Ray Charles to Neil Young to Natalie Merchant. Jones currently still plays with Booker T. & the MGs and his own Booker T. Jones Band.

Jones was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, and was honored with a Grammy award for lifetime achievement on February 11, 2007.

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Progress
Booker T. Jones Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

If not today
Maybe tomorrow
If not tomorrow
Maybe in a week
No matter how far I push it
It needs to find me
Progress

I see out
From the top of my apartment
Oh on the screen
On my TV
Out in the street
Oh in the bedroom yeah
In all the closets
It surrounds me
We're making progress
(Together or on our own)

Progress

Cold grace

Progress

Overall Meaning

Booker T. Jones's song "Progress" is an invitation to move forward and achieve success, regardless of how long it takes. The first verse emphasizes the importance of perseverance and how progress may be delayed. However, the singer is hopeful and confident that they will eventually achieve their goals. In the second verse, the singer describes how progress is everywhere they look, in the streets, in their bedroom, and in their closets. They see it on their TV screen, and while looking out from their apartment. Progress is inescapable and omnipresent, and the singer recognizes that "we're making progress" both individually and collectively.

The chorus, which simply repeats the word "progress," serves as a reminder of the overarching theme of the song. Progress may be challenging, but it is achievable with hard work and determination.

Line by Line Meaning

If not today
If my progress does not happen today

Maybe tomorrow
It may happen tomorrow

If not tomorrow
If my progress still does not happen tomorrow

Maybe in a week
It may happen in a week's time

No matter how far I push it
No matter how much effort I put into it

It needs to find me
My progress needs to happen naturally and come to me

Progress
The realization of my progress

I see out
I look outside

From the top of my apartment
From the highest point of my living place

Oh on the screen
I see it on the screen

On my TV
On my television

Out in the street
I see it outdoors

Oh in the bedroom yeah
I can see it in my bedroom

In all the closets
Even in the storage spaces

It surrounds me
I am surrounded by the evidence of progress

We're making progress
The people around me are also achieving their own progress

(Together or on our own)
Whether we collaborate or work independently

Cold grace
Unsympathetic but relentless progress

Progress
The realization of my progress

Lyrics © WORDS & MUSIC A DIV OF BIG DEAL MUSIC LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: BOOKER T. JONES, JAMES EDWARD JR OLLIGES

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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