Sunday 23 May 2010

The Mar-Keys "Memphis Experience"

The Mar-Keys

"Memphis Experience"
( LP Stax Records, 1971 )
Catalog # STS 2036


Tracklisting:
A1 - Cloud Nine
A2 - After The Affair
A3 - Reach Out I'll Be There
B1 - Angel Dust
B2 - Hummingbird
B3 - Let It Be
B4 - Creeper's Funkatrations

Personnel & Credits:
Steve Cropper - guitar
Donald "Duck" Dunn - bass
Charles "Packy" Axton - tenor sax
Don Nix - saxophone
James Terry Johnson - piano, drums
Wayne Jackson - trombone, trumpet
Jerry Lee "Smoochie" Smith - keyboards
Booker T. Jones - keyboards
Isaac Hayes - organ
Al Jackson, Jr. - drums

Review:
The Mar-Keys had a history of strange personnel changes; their previous LP (1969's Damifiknow!) had basically been Booker T. & the MG's-plus-horn section playing under the Mar-Keys name. Yet Memphis Experience was even stranger, demonstrating that the Mar-Keys at this point meant nothing more to Stax than a name that could be exploited. Three of the seven cuts were Bar-Kays outtakes that were scrapped when that band underwent one of its own numerous reorganizations. The rest of the album was recorded by an assortment of Memphis musicians. The result was serviceable period instrumental soul-funk, occasionally creeping into psychedelia (especially on the nine-minute "Cloud Nine," with several minutes of weird screams and whispers). It's an oddity in the Stax discography, related to the rest of the Mar-Keys' releases in name only, and not worth paying attention to unless you're determined to track down every available Stax recording. The album was combined with the 1969 Mar-Keys LP Damifiknow! onto a single set reissue in 1994.
By Richie Unterberger
(AMG. Copyright © 2010 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.)

By Celo

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

password:
myfavouritesound

E-mile said...

Celo, thanks! it has been AGES since I heard this...looking forward to get re-aquainted [:-)
peace, E-mile

Bob said...

love the version of cloud nine, especially the cheesy added sounds !

thanks !

bob

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