There was no shortage of star power. Neil Young, George Harrison, Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, Lou Reed and Bob Dylan himself, of course, appeared on 1993’s Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration.
But Booker T. and the MGs were the fulcrum – along with a certain harp-blowing bard, of course – for much of what made the original concert event so memorable.
Young copped to it, asking surviving members Steve Cropper, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Booker T. Jones to participate in a subsequent worldwide tour. Of course, Young couldn’t be confused with simmering soul men like Otis Redding, Sam Moore or Wilson Pickett – but that only strengthens the argument for the uniquely malleable talents of Booker T. and the MGs.
There has been perhaps no more chameleon-like figure in rock than Neil Young, and he came to understand – after listening to Cropper, Dunn and Jones work through Dylan songs by a dizzying array of artists on the bill at Madison Square Garden – that they had a shared sensibility. Who cares if precious few would’ve matched up these two entities on stage?
The proof, however, is everywhere on The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration. In Booker T. and the MGs’ first three tandem appearances, they back up Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed and Johnny Winter. That’s before they give rangy new context to Young’s raucous takes on “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues” and “All Along the Watchtower.”
Elsewhere, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Eric Clapton and the O’Jays are featured one after the other – each of them, somehow, fronting a group featuring these same Booker T. and the MGs. Most sidemen would have pulled both hamstrings trying to keep up. Not these three.
They skip along with a loose and happy-looking Harrison, who with Petty and Dylan had then recently helped form the Traveling Wilburys. They then gird an all-star group once the guest of honor arrives, tearing through Dylan’s “All My Back Pages” and “Knocking in Heaven’s Door.”
Additional items associated with an expanded reissue of Bob Dylan: The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration included bonus tracks from Clapton, Sinead O’Connor, John Mellencamp and Nancy Griffith. Just as interesting but far less heralded was Booker T and the MGs’ groove-kissed take on Dylan’s “Gotta Serve Somebody.” It illustrates, in microcosm, everything that made them perfect for this concert, not to mention the pending tour with Young.
Along the way, the MGs blend jagged rock (this nascent band met, after all, on a date backing a rockabilly singer; Booker T. Jones later sat in on Soul Asylum’s Grave Dancers Union while Steve Cropper worked with Jeff Beck, Levon Helm, Ringo Starr, Rod Stewart and a host of others); down-home country inflections (that was Jones producing Stardust by Willie Nelson); and, of course, their always-delectable brand of finger-licking soul.
Three decades later, it’s easy to marvel over the big names on this bill. George Harrison, after all, was making his first appearance on an American stage in nearly 20 years. But pay close attention, all the same, to Booker T. and the MGs. Those typically anonymous guys were the glue that held everything together, both at Madison Square Garden and on countless albums still to be discovered by fans of the many Bob Dylan acolytes gathered on this memorable night.
Booker T. and the MGs proved, once again, that they could do it all.
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