RIP Sam Moore, of the legendary Sam and Dave.
Soul icon Sam Moore, half of the Grammy-winning duo Sam and Dave, died Friday at age 89.
Moore — who with his late partner Dave Prater cut some of the best-known records of the genre with hits like “Soul Man” and “Hold On! I’m Comin’” — died in his Florida home after an unspecified surgery earlier in the week, though his cause of death has yet to be determined, his wife Joyce Moore told Rolling Stone.
His former partner Prater, with whom he shared a sometimes contentious relationship, died in a car accident in 1988.
The trailblazing black artists were known for their high-energy live performances and became in the 1960s one of the top acts on the legendary Memphis-based Stax Records, alongside stars like Otis Redding and collaborators Isaac Hayes and David Porter.
Moore was born in Miami on Oct. 12, 1935, and like his eventual partner grew up singing in church, cutting their teeth separately on the southern gospel circuit before they joined forces in 1961 at an amateur night at the Miami’s King of Hearts Club, according to a Stax spotlight on their careers.
Prater supposedly forgot the lyrics to the song “Doggin’ Around” when Moore joined him and a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame partnership was forged.
The harmonizing, hard-dancing pair had already gained a name for themselves and signed with Atlantic Records but they quickly were moved to subsidiary Stax, where they recorded with “house band” Booker T and the MG’s and started a run of 10 consecutive top 20 R&B hits with “You Don’t Know Like I Know,” the bio said.
In 1968, Atlantic’s distro deal with Stax was axed and the duo were left working with the larger company as whatever personal relationship they had deteriorated.
Booker T and the MGs (for Memphis Group, natch) was another legendary outfit, one of my all-time favorite instrumental combos; their Christmas album in particular is nothing short of truly stellar stuff, start to finish. Booker T Jones; Donald “Duck” Dunn; one of the most amazing guitarists ever to wrap his hands around a Tele neck, Steve “the Colonel” Cropper—I ask you, what’s not to like? Cropper started off playing with yet another legendary outfit, the Mar-Keys, who were responsible for one of my verymost favorite songs EVAR. To be specific:
LOVE that ooky-spooky-kooky organ. Bizarre thing: peeping out now and then from behind the tenor sax man and/or trumpeteer is what looks suspiciously like a Marshall Plexi rig, which in 1961 didn’t even exist yet. Hrm…
- Entries
Some of the greatest bands of all time are virtually unknown by the public at large.
Booker T. and the MGs had a few hits (Green Onions and Time Is Right being most well known). The sheer scope of Pop and R&B hits they played on is staggering though.
Sam and Dave. Otis Redding. Early Wilson Pickett. Just to name a few.
Others in that same vein:
The Funk Brothers (Motown)
The Wrecking Crew (Just about everybody on the Coasts)
American Studios
Muscle Shoals
Chess Records (Willie Dixon and crew)
Oh and do yourself a favor and buy a Sam and Dave Greatest Hits package. They were much more than just a couple of crossover hits.
I’ve heard of Booker T, Otis (siting on the dock of the bay) Redding, Pickett, and Muscle Shoals (I think, weren’t they a Southern Band?).
But, except for Otis Redding, I can’t name a single song by them.
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, like the MGs and LA’s legendary Wrecking Crew, were recording-studio backing bands–hired guns, what we in the biz call “session cats”–so as such you wouldn’t necessarily expect any hits from ’em, or to know their names. In fact, for the hit records they played on they weren’t usually given a liner-notes credit, either as a band or as individuals. They were anonymous, behind-the-scenes worker bees, an all-business arrangement which suited everyone involved just fine. If they were looking for professional satisfaction, their pay envelope would be the sole source of it. They weren’t stars, they weren’t headliners, they weren’t “name” attractions, and almost certainly never would be. Which was exactly how they wanted it.
The MGs are the exception that proves the rule, with “Green Onions,” “Time Is Tight,” “Hip Hug-Her,” and a cpl-three other chart-toppers to their name. Did some session work myself at Hit Factory in NYC; although it paid well (union scale, which back then was a straight $500 a day, O/T pay neither offered nor expected, regardless of hours put in or number of overdubs and/or retakes required; you walked into the tracking room, set up your gear, went to work, and kept hacking away at it until the engineer/tech/producer in charge of the session had gotten what he wanted; in a recording studio there simply ain’t no such thing as “overtime”–any fool who so much as mentioned that Skittles-pooting unicorn in jest would be stared at by every other person in the joint like he was some kind of dangerous lunatic), it was the hardest gig I ever did have.
In order to qualify for a session-man job, you must be able to sight-read charts and dive right on in with total confidence in your ability to do whatever is asked of you. No blue notes; no clams; no faltering; no shucking and/or jiving. As a session-man, you’ll play just about every kind of music there is, from radio/TV ad jingles to gospel to jazz to MOR pop to rock to country to…you name it, really, whatever style, genre, or sub-genre walks through the studio door and presents itself that day. VERY challenging, VERY demanding, VERY stressful, VERY high-pressure. Blow a solo or chorus, miss a cue, swallow your gum and cough when the red light is on and tape is rolling–make the smallest, slightest mistake and BLAMMO, you’re gone. You won’t be getting any more callouts either.
As it happens I had a friend, Neil, who worked as an engineer at Hit Factory and went on to churn out hit records for AC/DC, Robert Plant, Eric Clapton, Madonna, and quite a few other big names as a producer after he moved out to LA. He’s the one who first suggested I give session work a try, taking my number down in the notebook that lived beside the Studio 2 mixing console and promising to call me with paying work. Like most Manhattanites I needed every thin dime I could lay my hands on, so I agreed to Neil’s unexpected recruiting pitch despite the fact that I’ve cordially loathed being in the recording studio from the first time I ever set foot in one. I hated the session-man gig too, but I must also admit it was rewarding in certain ways, even fun now and then. Same-same with taking in students who wanted guitar lessons: hated every minute of it, did it anyhow.
At one point I had nine (9) one hour per week students, occasional session-guitarslinger gigs, and one night a week bar shifts at four (4) LES dives. This killing pace meant that eventually something had to give, and eventually something did: I dropped everything but the bartending and felt as if the weight of the world had lifted off my shoulders at last. What the hey, my and my then-GF’s share of the rent was a measly $600/month, which I could cover bartending on your typical packed-to-the-rafters Friday night at No-Tell Motel on Ave A, right across the street from the northwest corner of Tompkins Square Park. My other regular barman slots at Mona’s, Sophie’s, and Babyland were just icing on the cake, so I never looked back.
To this very day this professional musician still hates tracking, overdubbing, mixing, mastering, recording studios in general, and taking in guitar students with the heat of a thousand suns. Curiously, I have no real objection to tending bar, Harley mechanicking, or driving big rigs for a living. Go figure, eh? Which strange conundrum brings me to…
JOBS I JUST WON’T DO:
I’m sure there are others, but that’ll do to be going on with.
Jimmy Page
John Paul Jones
Glenn Campbell
Leon Russell
Some session musicians who went on to have hits on their own.
Jimmy Page supposedly played on thousands of things including TV and commercials etc
Biteme Diaper Wrangler has to be the Worst Job EVAH!!!
“I have no real objection to tending bar, Harley mechanicking, or driving big rigs for a living.”
No man should object to those activities 🙂