Oh, Man

Oh, Man

Wayne Jackson points out another element that helped break the record. "The disc jockeys used to love that record. We left a hole in it with nothing. They got to say it ['last night']. It was a great gimmick." One such disc jockey was Memphis's Dewey Phillips, famed for being the first to play Elvis Presley on his "Red, Hot and Blue" show on WHBQ. Jackson claims, "Phillips made 'Last Night' happen. He played that record over and over. We sold three thousand records in Memphis, which was total saturation of the market. On the two bar break Dewey could be heard hollering 'Open your Budweiser and pour it in. Freeze it and eat it."

"Last Night" was to be the first of a long line of hard edged instrumental recordings by a number of Stax artists, including the Triumphs, the Barracudas, Sir Isaac & The Do-Dads, most significantly Booker T. and the MG's, and eventually the Bar-Kays.

The Mar-Keys-Last Night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX5T9GvSnbY

Sir Isaac & The Do-Dads-Blue Groove:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUG9UV0DMRk

The punningly named "Yank Me (Doodle)" (another title conceived by Estelle Axton) was one of those late night sessions (i.e., cut when nobody cared) that James Cross engineered. For all intents and purposes, the 45 was Packy Axton's last ditch effort to get something going for himself at Stax.

The Barracudas-Yank Me (Doodle):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUfCRqTZwyo

Packy Axton, Johnny Keyes as the Martinis:

"The Martinis' BAR recording is hysterical. According to Johnny Keyes, "When Packy got enraged, in a fit he'd let loose this yell - 'Arghhh" - We did an instrumental and when it came to the break, he did the yell." Everyone, except Estelle, laughed about it afterward, saying it sound like he was throwing up, hence the title "Hung Over." Estelle hated the yell, thinking it was uncouth, and argued incessantly to leave it off the record. This is one battle Estelle lost."

The Martinis-Hung Over:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhrsHkIZJjc

"Lady A", Estelle Axton passed away in 2004.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/28/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries

Rob Bowman wrote the notes to the Complete Stax Singles collection, and also a book, "Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records"
https://www.amazon.com/Soulsville-U-S-Story-Records/dp/0825672848
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmIzNX0Cr7k

Comments

  1. Timothy StreetSeptember 1, 2016 at 8:35 AM

    I played out the grooves on my Booker T & the MGs album
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB5VD_Z5Zvg

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drew McCarthySeptember 1, 2016 at 3:57 PM

    Rufus Thomas:
    "...Stax, and me, had that funky stuff,
    that big bass thing that come out at you,
    reached out and grabbed you!
    That was the difference between Stax and Motown.
    Motown had the sweet.
    Stax had the Funk."

    ReplyDelete

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