Typical stories about the pioneering Booker T. and the MGs involve their inspirational impact on a series of later stars — including Eric Clapton, Neil Young and Sharon Jones, among many others. But what about those times when the situation was reversed?
Booker T. Jones remembers a moment, in 1970, when the presence of headliner Creedence Clearwater Revival offstage pushed them to dizzying new heights: “The best that the MG’s ever played, as far as I can remember, was in Oakland at the Coliseum,” Booker T. Jones tells the East Bay Express. “We had been rehearsing with Creedence Clearwater, and we went on stage to play ‘Time Is Tight.'”
Something special was in the air. The song starts out as a low moan, with nothing but Jones’ churchy keyboards, before Steve Cropper adds a mournful guitar. Then the late Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson Jr. assume a tasty cadence, and Booker T. and the MGs simply floor it. The resulting groove could have brought down buildings. A smile curls up Cropper’s face, and then — when the camera cuts backstage — we see that everybody in CCR is smiling, too.
“Cropper started that song, and it’s the best that he, and I think the whole band, ever played the song,” Jones confirms. “[Creedence] were standing backstage watching, you can see them in the film [embedded above]. I don’t know, I guess because we were trying to impress them or something. We had spent the week with them; we had become really good friends. It was inspirational. It’s still inspirational.”
A connection already in place was strengthened. Creedence Clearwater Revival had, of course, covered the Steve Cropper co-written track “Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won’t Do)” on their 1968 self-titled debut. Booker T. also took part in a loose collaborative session with CCR in 1970. “They were cheering us on,” Jones remembers. “We had jammed all night, a couple of nights before. It was really an inspired moment for the MG’s.”
Creedence Clearwater Revival’s subsequent show on that magical evening in Oakland was later released in 1980 as The Concert. Booker T. and the MGs performed with John Fogerty in 1995 as part of the opening ceremonies for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. An excerpt from CCR’s jam with Booker T. Jones subsequently appeared on the 40th anniversary edition of Willy and the Poor Boys in 2008, as well.
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The MGs were trying to impress CCR? Whoa. Turns my rock history on its head. Mr. Jones, Mr. Cropper, those guys worshipped you. They had the chops but you invented the chops. As Hit Parader once put it, you could almost hear the non-existent horns during CCR’s “99.5”.
Booker T played with JC Fogerty on his Warner Brothers concert around the time of Centerfeld.