At first, their name was thought to be in tribute to producer Chips Moman’s car. Then, it was said to stand for Memphis Group. Bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn would later laughingly tell people it was an abbreviation for “musical geniuses.”
The threat of legal action from the makers of the MG sports car likely created the mystery that built up around the naming of Booker T. and the MGs. “That’s what we kind of heard later,” MGs guitarist Steve Cropper tells us, in an exclusive Something Else! Sitdown. “The lawyers said they are not going to sign off on it. We thought, what do we do?”
It’s not like Booker T. and the MGs were the first one to have a name with an automotive theme. “The original concept was so simple: There were all these bands with car names, like the El Dorados,” Cropper adds. “We had our own band at Stax, the Triumphs. It went on and on. We thought, innocently: The MGs. They shot us down. But we didn’t want to change the letters.”
And so, once the questions arose, so did the alternative theories. Memphis Group ended up sticking, though Cropper still laughs over the late Dunn’s quip. “Duck, through the years, backed that up by saying it stood for ‘musical geniuses,'” Cropper says, chuckling. “I don’t lay claim to that. I’ll give that to Dunn.”
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Rock + Pop): Death Cab for Cutie, Joe Jackson, Toto + Others - January 18, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Blues, Jazz + R&B): Boz Scaggs, Gavin Harrison, Alabama Shakes - January 10, 2016
- Nick DeRiso’s Best of 2015 (Reissues + Live): John Oates, Led Zeppelin, Yes, Faces + others - January 7, 2016
Great band, Booker T. and the MG’s….and what they did behind the scenes as session men were HOF stuff as well. Steve Cropper was the man as well.