I post a weekly diary of historical notes, arts & science items, foreign news (often receiving little notice in the US) and whimsical pieces from the outside world that I often feature in "Cheers & Jeers".
OK, you've been warned - here is this week's tomfoolery material that I posted.
CHEERS to Bill and Michael in PWM, our Laramie, Wyoming-based friend Irish Patti and ...... well, each of you at Cheers and Jeers. Have a fabulous weekend .... and week ahead.
ART NOTES — an exhibition entitled Generations: A History of Black Abstract Art— with works from the 1940’s to the present — is at the Baltimore, Maryland Museum of Art through January 19th.
Now in Baltimore through January 19
BUSINESS NOTES — the South American nation of Chile has been trying to diversify from relying on copper (having 28% of the world’s output) into another metal it has in abundance, lithium— with hopes of not only mining, but also to make components for car batteries, the fastest-growing part of the market — yet is having difficulties making-this-happen.
FROM THE smoking-gun tape of June 23rd, 1972—
xPRESIDENT: Who the hell is Ken Dahlberg?.
— Nixon's Transcripts (@ThisIsWatergate) September 11, 2015THURSDAY's CHILD is named Cobweb the Cat— an English kitteh who went missing two years ago, but able to be returned to her family due to her microchip.
Cobweb the Cat
WHILE IT IS HARDLY the first dating venture in the nation, the hollowing-out of Japan — where 40 of 47 districts have lost population to cities — has led to services not from traditional match-makers ... but rather local governments, seeking to match the surplus of women in cities to men in small towns.
xA male cat in China named Xiaopi was left unattended at a boarding facility, where he proceeded to mate with five female cats in one night.He was so exhausted from his eight-hour sex marathon that he required a glucose IV drip the next day.🤦â€Â♀ï¸Â😸https://t.co/QQw90a3Sjq
— GIGAnimals (@giganimals) October 9, 2019FRIDAY's CHILD is named George the Cat— a Scottish kitteh who has boarded buses, trains and automobiles ... and has even been seen behind a bar.
George the Travelling Cat
BRAIN TEASER - try this Quiz of the Week's News from the BBC.
THE OTHER NIGHT yours truly hosted the Top Comments diary with a look at back-to-back reunion weekends: high school for the first, family for the second (mixed in with the annual Drinking Liberally conference, with guest speakers Michael Moore and Rep. Jerry Nadler).
FATHER-SON? — former Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) — quite possibly hoping to run again as Congressman1 — and current Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA).
Pete Sessions (born 1955)
Eric Swalwell (born 1980)
...... and finally, for a song of the week ...........................… if all they had done was act as the house band at the Memphis soul music Stax/Volt record label, Booker T. and the MG’s would have merited a significant place in history. After all: if your label has singers such as Rufus and Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Otis Redding, Albert King, Isaac Hayes, Wilson Pickett, Don Covay and the Staples Singers recording for it .... well, the MG's thus appear on many soul music classics. But they also had their time in the limelight, with several instrumental hit singles in the 1960's, plus a level of respect from the rock music world-at-large. Not for nothing did John Lennon refer to them as "Book a Table and the Maitre D's".
The original quartet was made up of organist Booker T. Jones as well as Al Jackson, Jr. on drums, Lewie Steinberg on bass ... and the only non-Memphis native, guitarist Steve Cropper whose family moved there from Missouri when he was age nine. Booker T. Jones had been hanging out at the Stax studios in his youth, and was hired as a session man, where he met-up with Cropper, who had already been performing in a band called the Mar-Keys - and after leaving them, he became the Stax label's de facto A&R man and engineer.
In 1962, they were paired up with drummer Jackson and bassist Steinberg, to back-up a rockabilly singer who left after finishing the session. Stax founder Jim Stewart left a tape in while the four musicians started jamming on a blues in F that became the band's signature tune, Green Onions - which reached #3 in the pop charts, and was eventually named by Rolling Stone as #183 in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
In 1965, Steve Cropper felt that the sound of the band wasn't quite right .... at which time he asked an old Mar-Keys bandmate to replace bassist Lewie Steinberg .... and so Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn joined and helped establish the "classic line-up" of the band.
Some notes about the band: (a) about the name "Booker T. and the MG's" - for years the band denied that the "MG's" portion came from the British sports car (fearful of a lawsuit) ... instead, they maintained that the acronym was short for "Memphis Group". (b) Duck Dunn noted that when the band was driving through Memphis, they might be stopped by the police, asking Dunn "if he was OK" ..... (riding with two black men, apparently). (c) Many guitarists, who are criticized about playing "too many notes", are often recommended to listen to Steve Cropper (known for his economical yet edgy playing, (d) Cropper also co-wrote several of Stax's hit records: Knock on Wood by Eddie Floyd, Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding and In the Midnight Hour by Wilson Pickett, and (e) after the shooting of Martin Luther King in 1968, the band-members said the racial vibes at Stax were no longer as warm.
But the band backed-up Otis Redding at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, and would have performed on their own at Woodstock in 1969 ... except that Al Jackson was fearful of boarding the necessary helicopter to do so. They had other hits such as 1967's "Hip Hug-Her" (#37 in the pop charts), "Groovin" (#21) and three in the Top Twenty during 1968: "Soul-Limbo" (#17), "Hang Em High" (#9), and their highest-charting hit in six years, Time is Tight (at #6).
In 1971, they released their most critically-acclaimed album Melting Pot - although its most popular tune Kinda Easy Like only reached #45 in the pop charts. The band, though, had started to disintegrate (slowly) since 1968. Not due to any dislike or major policy differences: just that the members had other works they wanted to pursue. Jones had gone to study at Indiana University's noted music program, Steve Cropper became a producer in Los Angeles and Al Jackson became Al Green's regular drummer. They still did session work in Memphis, but little as a band after 1971.
They planned to reunite in 1975 ... which was derailed when Al Jackson, Jr. was murdered in his home (which is still considered mysterious to this day). Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn went on to appear in the "Blues Brothers" film (and tour with the band) which helped remind people of the MG's legacy.
The surviving members (Dunn, Jones and Cropper) reunited from time-to-time: In 1992, they were in the back-up band for the 1992 Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary concert, and in 1994, they released a comeback album - their first in seventeen years - that included cover versions of "Gotta Serve Somebody", "Just My Imagination" and U-2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". In 2002, the band backed Neil Young on his "Are You Passionate?" album (as well as on tour) and in 2004 served as a house band for Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas.
The death in 2012 of Duck Dunn at age 70 may well have been the final chapter of the MG's story (although an autobiography from Booker T later this month may shed some new light). But wotta story it was: appearing on more than 600 Stax/Volt recordings (including many hit singles), were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 and were named by Rolling Stone as #93 on its 100 Greatest Artists of All Time list.
In the early 1960’s (Dunn, Jones, Cropper, Jackson)
.. and later in the 60’s (Cropper, Jones, Dunn, Jackson)
From their last album, a song (somewhat) uncharacteristic of their sound was this instrumental, Sunny Monday — with an intro influenced by Mason Williams’ “Classical Gas” — before changing into their recognizable sound.
x xYouTube Video