Booker T. & The MG's opened this Creedence Clearwater Revival concert at the Oakland Coliseum, 1/31/70. Seen offstage are John Fogerty, Doug Clifford (w/beard), and Stu Cook (w/glasses). Good article: sites.google.com/site/theelec...
I was there... My friends took me to the concert knowing Creedence was my favorite band. Booker T and the MGs were the icing on the cake. Still the best concert I've ever been to.
My wife once asked me whom I would like to meet since I'm not overly impressed by celebrities. Without hesitation, I said that if I ever saw Booker T. Jones, you better get the smelling salt because I would pass out. The man is amazing. My hero.
Craig Anderson The Laurens Hammond/Don Leslie inventions from a long time ago,moved music to a new level.Felix Cavaliere and gene,and eddie,and dino back in 1965 just knew they were on to something.The rest is history.Electric "geetars" are way over ratted!!!! I play and own two Hammond tonewheel spinets,and a 147 from back in the day.Glorious sound!!! I am also a guitar player inspired by Gene Cornish excellence on the Kessel neck...Craig,you sir have an excellent ear for tonality!!! Hey,check out "Hang em High"....AMAZING!!!!
Of COURSE we can get along. We get along just fine except for those among us who profit when we do not and who seem to move mountains to find ways to separate us. All blacks are victims, all whites are privileged, and other lies they tell in school these days.
again I grew up in the same neighborhood as al Jackson jr. Also I went to elementary,and junior high school with his four childrens,and I would talk to him often whenever he was off the road and came home back to our neighborhood,he would give me advice on what to do in order to be in the music business,it was you have to pay your dues to the business,my cousin is charley pride the only successfull black country singer in this united state,who al acknowledged and love as well little al Jackson jr. as we called him was one best drummers in the world,we love you al rest in peace as we lost you too soon.
+bobby pride Nice story Bobby. Me and my 13 month old daughter love this and nearly all the MGs back catalogue. There's a drummer on youtube who also teaches at a drum tech and he states that Al Jackson Jr was the Memphis sound; that it disappeared when died. I agree! RIP
Big tribute to Al Jackson jr in Memphis this October to benefit stax music. Oct 10th thru 12th. Steve Jordan and Jim Keltner will be here for the event, which will be held at stax and Memphis drum shop and more. Details on sept 12th.
+Turning Point Wow I never heard that but it makes sense. I think I hear him on Al Green's records. I have heard many drummers play "Time Is Tight" but none like Al Jackson, Jr.
I had just my future wife in 1970.We used to go to a club called Take 5 in Leeds and this was one of our favourite songs.We hot married the following year are still together 52 years later.We still listen to this song,a classic.
I remember when this came out in 1969. I was stationed at Fort Lewis, Wa. just before leaving for Vietnam. This song, and 'Love Is Blue' were top instrumentals that year. 'Time is Tight' and 'Green Onions' are American classics.
I saw Steve Cropper and Dave Mason recently at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley. He is a great storyteller as well as a great musician. He played in multi-racial bands in the Jim Crow South which wasn't an easy thing to do.
When Dan akaroyd and John Baluchi asked if they can use soul man and other songs for their lineup with blues brothers cropper wanted in and of course duck was part of the package mat guitar Murphy was a good friend of there’s so it came together in 1980
My mate said this was the music that they play in the entrance hall for heaven, so you know it’s all good from here. Hope they played it for him when he got there.
Year before I got married. In sophomore year I listened to the radio every night and called radio station every night to get this played. After several months the DJ brought me the record!!!!
The greatest players of all time. Unbelievable to watch every single viewing. I just love it and keep coming back to it. I can't dance and I am coloured like a pint of milk, but this makes me feel like I have SOUL 😊
My dad, born 1930, loved Booker T and the MG’s just as I do! I’m 68 and remain thankful for the great music from our youth and the taste my old dad had for music that wasn’t big with his generation!
Same year born as my dad (1930), Berkeley High School (1948), USMC Korean War, etc .... as detailed above, took me to this concert (first one for me!) along with my uncle, and then got the Booker T. and the MGs record .... tried to pay it back by taking him and Mom to see Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band in 1985 in Oakland Stadium, then got a bootleg tape of the show for him, which he used to play in the back yard while he burned, oops barbecued, the chicken summer after summer.... Mom said the concert was too loud ....
These guys were at the forefront of racial equality in the 60's as much as MLK and Malcolm X. They didn't care about the colour of someone's skin or where they were born or what god they worshipped. All they cared about was the making of brilliant music as a mankind and then spreading that word. All four members should be remembered forever, they're music will be.
I watched this concert when it was broadcast on national TV. As a 10 year old listening to am pop radio, CCR and Booker T. & the MG's had hit songs on the radio and were very popular. I watched this on a 26" black and white TV at that time. This rare video is a treasure since this concert footage was never released commercially and is only available from home video. When you watch this, you realize it is all about the music. No glitz, no glamour, just the music. This is a must listen and watch to all music fans. The CCR concert was a classic show too!!! Very up front and in your face with the cameras.
I love how Booker T puts some funk into every chord, always messing with tones, never taking the easy way through a melody. And what a backup band. Pure joy!
Just finished watching several drum covers of this. It really is Al Jackson, Jr. and then everyone else when it comes to drummers for me. No drummer I’ve ever heard holds a candle once you start digging in to the stuff he played on. Booker T. Jones is a genius which is a word I don’t toss around lightly & Steve Cropper & Duck Dunn play exactly how I would if I could play guitar & bass, but everyone looked up to Al Jackson.
I saw a video of Booker T and the MGs doing Green Onions. I didn't who Al Jackson was at the time but it was so obvious that he locked the band down--a human metronome.
I listen to them all day at work. For a long time id been wanting to see them and al in action. I came across this video a few years back man i almost cried. I dont know if theres a bigger fan of Al jackson than i am😂😂😂 i love the whole group. But al was an entirely different beast. This video is gold.
Like myself at thirteen years old, seated behind the stage and one row up, at the Sam Houston Coliseum, July, 1970. It was quite a show: Wilbert Harrison (Work Together, Kansas City) as a one-man band; Booker T. and the M.G.'s doing this song and Green Onions; Creedence Clearwater Revival...Handsome Tom Fogerty sailing his spent guitar picks up at us girls; I caught one, and had it for years in my jewelry box. The amplifiers were mountainous and almost deafening, the Coliseum being like a cavernous echo chamber; so loud that my parents heard CCR's finale, Keep on Chooglin', playing--while standing outside on the sidewalk waiting to pick us up. If you listen to CCR's Pendulum album, you'll hear how much John Fogerty's organ playing was influenced by that of Booker T.
It's really cool that at the beginning of the 60's when this band was started and jim crow was still around that a couple white men and a couple black men could get together and just make great music.
Sad that we lost ace drummer so tragically, plus Donald "Duck' Dunn more recently. Booker T and Steve Cropper are still with us, still making good soul music...
I heard this song on my parents' stereo back when I was about six. Just a white latino kid from Monterey Park, but was enraptured by that bass-line. Shoot to 2006. Was an accomplished rock/blues bass player and joined a friend's band that played only 60's songs. AND 'Time Is Tight' was on their song list. I didn't even need to practice it....I just said 'let's roll, guys'. Gotta be in the top 10 R&B/Rock tunes of all time.
Time is Tight, takes me back to an all night party in 1969, at Monks Road, Lincoln. This was on the turntable all night, cos' everyone forgot to bring any records !! Hank at Lincoln remembers it well.
Look how HAPPY Booker T is from note #1!! Then it drops & we all go to heaven🙏(loving CCR mooching in backstage loving their heroes) amazing footage thank you
Only Booker T & Steve Cropper still with us. I'd do or give anything to be able to go back in time, & see all the legends performing, before they became legends!❤
Robert M Trolinder can you imagine when some of these guys from various groups got together and played together on stage? George Harrison put together some of those times. Those guys must have been really stoked about that.
Fantastic....and look at Steve's Rosewood Telecaster....perfection ...and Booker's Hammond.....and the whole thing being held together by Duck and Al ...plus another thing watching this , two blacks , two whites... beautiful music...the world could take a lesson from these guys...
Systemic racism my ass, this is music the way it should be, playing together and enjoying it. I have listened to a number of mixed race bands over the years and music is where race and art truly combine.
In the mid 1960s, I was at Woodberry Forest School in Virginia, and we had Booker T. and the MGs play for one of our big dances. That was a real experience. Watching them play and hearing their music was so much fun. Those were the days. Amen to that!
How great to watch this and know that Steve Cropper is still with us at 78, (79 on 10/21/20) and Booker T. is here, too, at 75 (DOB 11/12/44). We used to use this one on a cartridge at our radio station, if the live sports broadcast was somehow disconnected. That's one heck of a vest on Cropper, here.
One of the local TV stations did a special on this concert featuring behind the scenes with Creedence and Booker T and the MGs jamming together. I'm sure it is probably hiding in a film vault somewhere in the Bay Area just waiting to be seen on RU-vid. The show is still in my Memories. Great music then, Classic music now.
Hit that freaking snare drum, Al! Hit it hard!! World-Class Musicians one and all.. The Soaring organ of Booker ,Al's rock solid drumming, Duck supplying a fat bottom, and Stevie Cropper being the funkiest of all funky guitar players
This recording , Time is Tight, was played over and over at an all night party in Lincoln in 1969, Ther party started at midnight, we all gathered in the grounds of the Usher Art Gallery, then walked to the house on Monks Road. Everyone had forgotten to bring any records, but someone brought Booker T and the MG;s "Time is Tight" and it was played all night, stayed with me ever since.
