The genius that is Duck Dunn

[ArwinH]

Sometimes you just can't deny green onions, no matter how simple it is....it sure does groove like there's no tomorrow.

 

I've definitely saat up with my bass as I watched the blues brothers many times. Duck's got great feel during the country tunes too! In a bp article he had said that he as a kid was always watching grand ole' opry, so he definitely had a little country in him.

 

I always digged ray charles' song in the blues brothers too, some very nice melodic but totally in the pocket playing there.

 

Also, you can't forget "In the Midnight Hour".

[ihategarybettman]

quote:

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Originally posted by bassdrummer:

Just goes to show how much bass players appreciate a great drummer that other drummers may not have even heard of.

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I'm a drummer and one of my favorites is the late, great Al Jackson, Jr. (I also love Duck Dunn). The man had feel for days; any article I've read on the MGs included quotes from the other members saying that the whole sound of the group stemmed from Al Jackson's feel and sense of time. It just confirms what I and most drummers and bassists already know: if you hear a great bassist, you know he's working with a great drummer, and vice versa.

[dhomer]

I, too am a huge fan... The band I'm working with now really is a takeoff from the Blues Brothers. The night I auditioned and took the job, I mentioned the fact that the bass in this group really needed the "Duck Dunn treatment" in terms of tone and phrasing, and the guys wholeheartedly agreed. I have taken a lot of style cues from the Blues Brothers movie and made them a part of me.... I guess if someone asked me who one of my biggest (recent) influences was....

[Newf]

Originally posted by ihategarybettman:

It just confirms what I and most drummers and bassists already know: if you hear a great bassist, you know he's working with a great drummer, and vice versa.

Amen!!!

[Jode]

Watching "The Blues Brothers" on TV for the umpteenth time right now. Just saw "Shake Your Tailfeather" with Ray Charles. DAMN, does the Duck tear it up on that song.

[anambrose]

Well that tears it. I would have to ask Mr Dunn to dinner right along with Jaco and Mingus and I'm going to put the flatwounds on the 5 string and work my ass off to come anywhere close to Duck's tone,timing,pocket,intensity.Each one beautifully mad in their own way.Not only is the number of credits stunning but the quality of the people he worked with and what they produced is quite mind boggling.Full agreement on Mr Jackson's drumming as I believe he was known as MR POCKET which he was. All you have to see is an old British TV show with Otis and Booker T&MG 's doing Try a Little Tenderness and you'll see why almost no one under 60+ will tell you they were just covering a BingCrosby tune.They made the song theirs.

[ZZ Thorn]

I finally got this book a few weeks ago and my humble opinions:

 

It's good, but Duck Dunn is no James Jamerson. These songs are really, really easy to learn. It made me further appreciate how much Jamerson was doing in a pop format.

 

It's Duck's feel and swing that make him so awesome, cuz what's on the page isn't much. "Feel" is so hugely important, and no one proves that more than Duck.

 

I'd really recommend it for people who are just beginning to read music. It'd be a great, fun way to start reading.

[BargeOn]

Some of you may know about producer Tom Dowd and his influence. There is a great documentry of him from 2003 called the Language of Music Link

 

There is one section where, for just a few precious moments of back stage footage you catch Duck and Steve Cropper horsing around on stage behind Wilson Picket and a very brief shot of Duck's right hand thumping out Green Onions.

It doesn't last long but it's one of many reasons to catch the DVD if you can.

 

John

[Dan South]

I just ordered What Duck Done - thanks for the link!!

 

Duck Dunn may have the best feel on the planet. He doesn't play a lot of notes, but man, it's tough to duplicate that smooth, liquidy groove that he lays down song after song. Pure musical magic! You can't help but smile when a Duck Dunn bassline is playing.

[Jazzman61]

Hello All:

 

I'm new to this network, and - hope I won't be exiled for this - I play guitar as well as bass.

 

Booker T and the MGs have never really gotten their props, in my view. Among performers in the know, they've always been legends and rightly so, but the average Joe on the street doesn't know them at all. That's a terrible shame to this old Southern boy.

 

Great Duck numbers? There are tons!

 

1. One of you already mentioned "You Tell Me" by TP; great intensity by DD on that one.

 

2. "The Shape You're In" Eric Clapton

 

3. "I agree that "Shake Your Tailfeather" takes no prisoners! I learned finally when I was starting out on P-bass and it was a workout and a half. What a killer groove!

 

4. Lots of late BT and the MGs material was very fine. If you can, check out the LP that Duck and Al Jackson did with a new guitarist and keys player. It was actually very good - the record was called simply "The MGs". I collected it years ago on vinyl but one can probably find it easily on the internet nowadays.

 

5. DD always plays appropriate to the needs of the song. He has a good sense of humor, too - listen to Otis Redding's "Ton of Joy" Duck does a humorous little reply when Otis sings "Stes me on fire but I'm willing to burn, children!"

 

There are so many others - too many to mention.

 

I agree that Al Jackson's pocket was unbelievable. The only guy who could sound like him - really - was another Memphis drummer named Howard Grimes. Grimes played with AJ on records by Syl Johnson, and picked up elements of his style. But yeah, Duck and Al sounded so good together; it must have torn Duck up terribly when he died. Ever hear "Booker's Notion"? That's a great BT and the MGs record, in a trio. Steve Cropper was absent for some reason, so the group did it as a threesome, with Duck, Al and Booker on piano and organ. Just wonderful.

 

anyone know what Duck played through for amplification in the old days? I know about his P-bass, but what about his amp and strings. Flabtwound strings, LaBella maybe? Some sort of Ampeg amp, probably since it looks like he still uses them.

 

Thanks for the posts -

[Jazzman61]

Forgot some!

 

Wilson Pickett's early stuff done at Stax has some killer DD playing, check out "It's All Over", "99 and a Half", "Danger Zone" and the better known but still killer "In the Midnight Hour" and ""634-5789". Can't do no better than that, folks!

 

Speaking of killer bass lines, wo plays on Wilson Pickett's ""Don't let the Green Grass Fool You", "Engine Number 9" and the other Philly Soul stuff he did in the early 1970s? Who ever it was had the funk!

[Jazzman61]

Must be getting old...my memory is failing. One of you mentioned James Jamerson and how his playing compares to Duck's. It's comparing apples and oranges in my opinion. Motown became very quickly after its inception a very professionalized studio and recording setup. Many of the guys were jazz players who did session work, and most of them were sight readers. The tunes became more andmore ehavily arrnaged as time went by. Listen to "My Whole World Ended" by David Ruffin for an example. Full rhythmn section, brass, strings, backup singers, the workers.

 

Stax on the other hand, saw musicians working with more of a minimalist setup, arrangements worked out by playing and little written out ahead of time, at least that's what the history I've seen says. Jamerson got to stretch out on numbers that worked with very complex, busy basslines, i.e. such as "I Was Made to Love Her". Most of Stax/Volt's stuff - at least for the singers - was more basic, modfified blues changes, two or three chord vamps and standard type progressions. Jim Stewart, the owner, got on Booker's case if the sound got too sophisticated. A busy bassline wouldn't have been appropriate for most of those songs. Later in Stax' history, when the tunes did get more intricate and arranged, such as on some of the Johnny Taylor sides, Duck shone. Check out "I Could Never Be President" or "Take Care of your Homework" or "Who's Makin' Love?"

DDs playing is very hot and funky and totally in the pocket.

 

FYI: Many people confuse who played bass on which Motown records. James Jamerson gets the lion's share of the credit now due to his untimely death, but let's not forget that Carol Kaye played on many of the classic Motown sides from the golden era, along with Bob Babbitt and a few others. Jamerson was an alcoholic, like his brilliant drummer pal, Benny Benjamin. Those guys were geniuses but got so unrealiable eventually that new players had to be brought in. Carol Kaye has a nice website for anyone interested in her long and distingusihed career.