Booker T & The M.G.’s, McLemore Avenue (1970)

I bought this LP just a few weeks ago. I hadn’t heard of it before. I’m a fan of Booker T & The M.G.’s from Green Onions first of all and from all their work with Stax. Then I found this album – an instrumental set of covers of material from The Beatles’ Abbey Road. That’s a sure bet – I love Abbey Road (as I said here). And I really love Booker T & The M.G.’s. It’s not a song-by-song set of covers, in fact it’s just two big long medleys and then two shorter tracks on each side. But it’s great. And the title references where they came from. Just as The Beatles’ Abbey Road is named after the street where EMI was positioned, 926 East McLemore Avenue is the home of Stax – the EMI for Booker T & The M.G.’s. The other reason I love this album – far from being any sort of novelty-record – is that it was recorded just a few months after Abbey Road was released. I love that. That’s influence. That’s inspiration. That’s paying tribute. You just get in and nail your own version of tunes because you knew they meant something. I like that a lot. And this album is going to be played a lot more.

Sample Track: Medley: Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight, The End, Here Comes The Sun, Come Together

The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown