The Meters or Booker T and the MGs - YOU MUST CHOOSE!

Booker T & the MG's. Every time.

Vote towards Meters - funky organs sounds bug me

I lean toward Meters myself, mostly because of Zig Modeliste's drumming.

Well yeah, that helps

Booker T - less is more, Al Jackson was all about the simple pocket. Some of the MG solo tracks have dated a little, but they're way ahead as far as backing up other artists (Otis Redding!).

Meters - More is more, they got that crazy NOLA beat science shit. Those studio tracks are like perfect little sculptures of funkiness. Unfortunately I'm not that familiar with their back-up work.

WINNER: THE METERS!

Aong the artists backed up (at one time or another) by the Meters, you have Allen Toussiant, Lee Dorsey, Earl King, the Neville Brothers, Betty Harris, La Belle, and uh...Paul McCartney and Robert Palmer.

Who?

Oh shit, I forgot Dr. John!

Jordan - that's mostly a bunch of regional N.O. acts.

(I was just kidding)

I must choose? I don't wanna.

Love both of them. The MGs' solo instrumental stuff varies--some great shit like "Hip Hug Her" and "Melting Pot," some totally unncessary remakes of the hits o' the day. I for one don't find anything dated about their backing of Otis Redding, in fact I listen to it for *them* more than I do for Otis Redding, a lot of the time.

The Meters also did some unncessary covers of the hits of the day. Their early stuff on Josie is of course the best...with my nod going to "Look-Ka Py Py," I love "Rigor Mortis" and "Dry Spell" and "Pungee." "New Directions" isn't my fave nor is most of their Warner Bros. albums, they were trying to be a vocal group and they weren't. Their backing on the Lee Dorsey records is superb, and I probably prefer Lee Dorsey these days to almost anyone on Stax. Also very fine on the Wild Tchoupitoulas album from the '70s. Both groups: organ was a bit extraneous on the Meters' recordings; Booker T. is very tasteful, spare, I prefer his playing to Art Neville's. But the organ sound can be a bit of drag on Booker T.'s stuff--I listen to it for Al Jackson and Cropper.

I have to choose, eh? Well, it's not fair. But I guess I prefer New Orleans style over Memphis, ultimately, altho they're pretty much two sides of the same coin. Memphis plays straighter, of course; it's more "workmanlike" and all that. No one can touch Modeliste but Al Jackson is so superb, it's not really fair, not fair! So, reluctantly, I choose the Meters, in some projected Great Leap Forward in which we're forced at gunpoint to make such impossible choices and then moved onto collective farms where we can have only one great funky instrumental group to listen to by candlelight.

xpost--"regional New Orleans acts"??!! Quite a region, then.

shit, I just love Lee Dorsey--his last LP, "Night People," from '78, doesn't even feature the Meters and it's superb. Toussaint, Toussaint...

love 'em both, would take the Meters tho.

Heh, yeah, but there's no doubt the Stax/Volt catalog is better known.

Re: the "dated" comment, I was mostly thinking of some of the covers and some tracks that tried on more syncopated JB-ish funk, which wasn't really the MGs' thing. I can't think of any track names, unfortunately.

What I love about the Meter's studio recordings is that the songs were allowed to be these short little gems. That 70s live album recorded on the McCartney's boat is pretty hot, but it's also VERY jammy and rockish (as are the current Meters).

Gotcha, Jordan. I dunno, though, remember that *later* Stax didn't use Booker T. and the MGs as much--they began to subcontract it out during the Don Davis era of Stax. I don't think it's Booker T. playing on Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There" or "Mr. Big Stuff," which was, I believe, cut in Jackson, Miss. Stax music changed after about '68; before that it was much more a small-scale, house-band operation. The reason I'm saying this is that I just can't recall off the top of my head anything the MGs did that overtly sounds like James Brown, you know? Maybe I'm forgetting something.

I think it's true that the Stax catalog is better known than the stuff done in New Orleans during the same time. Lee Dorsey didn't really have many big, big hits..."Ya Ya" and "Working in the Coal Mine" are about it; I don't think "Get Out of My Life Woman" and "Yes We Can" weren't huge hits? The latter was done by the Pointer Sisters, right?

should be, "I don't think that "Get Out of My Life" and "Yes We Can" *were* huge hits" ...need coffee.

Time out for the great Lee Dorsey:
Can You Hear Me
Go-Go Girl
On Your Way Down

Vote for MG's BECAUSE of the organ and also for Donald "Duck"

"That 70s live album recorded on the McCartney's boat is pretty hot, but it's also VERY jammy and rockish (as are the current Meters)."

I've seen 'em twice live once with whatsisname, Sammy? Batiste replacing Zig on drums and again after Nocentelli left and they got that other guy. And yeah, they totally changed from funky to rockish without Nocentelli. Not bad at all, but it really didn't seem like the same band. I think their decision to bill themselves as "the Funky Meters" now reflects that, although it's ironic they added funky to the name while subtracting substantial amounts of funky from the music.

I love them both, but Al Jackson is my favourite drummer ever, and I love Dunn and Cropper almost as much; and they back an enormous number of recordings I love unreservedly. So, despite Booker T who I don't care for hugely, I'm going with the MGs.

I think it's Russell Batiste on drums, and that guitarist from the Neville Bros.. I hate that guy. The thing is, Leo's got his own band now, and Zig has his own band, and they all play in New Orleans doing the same type of music, and none of them are close to as good as the sum of the parts. Can't they all just get along?

Eddie, I think "Melting Pot" may be one of the Meters songs I don't like. :> Could be wrong though, I haven't actually listened to it for a few years.

melting pot is a booker t & the mg's track. unless the meters have a song called melting pot too.

skidmore otm, al jackson is buddha.

I meant Booker T, sorry.

I cast my vote for:
Booker T and The MGs.

whoever once opined that Memphis was a producer's town but New Orleans had better drummers was probably right, as much as I revere Al Jackson and Howard Grimes (and Jody Stephens and Richard Rosebrough {sp?}). I remember reading this cool Rolling Stone interview with the MGs, long ago, in which they sat around with Jann Wenner or someone and just listened to records. It was very influential to me--the way the MGs would say, "yeah, that Stones song, 'Connection,' is a groove but I wish Watts woulda played it a little straighter right there," or "he lost it in the outchorus, he did a turn there and it didn't lead back in," or some such. They were so concerned with underplaying and making it simple, which of course I admire and try to emulate when I play music. I guess the older I get the more I admire the way the Meters or New Orleans musicians get something else in the mix that you don't find as much in Memphis music of the classic era, it's just a little more bent or elliptical. They're two rich towns for music but I suppose New Orleans is the richer? I dunno. I do know the food is better in New Orleans and the women are prettier.

...and drunker!

did the meters work on Gris Gris? if so, that wins.

i'm pretty sure they worked on Dr John's Desitively Bonaroo. the song Stealin' on there fucking kills it and Thes from People Under the Stairs sampled it on the Dr Oop "Deep Impact" 12" that i love.

Man! The Meters or Booker T???

Booker T, but damn, what a hard choice.

I always felt like Booker T. and The MGs were holding back in the studio -- I wish there was more live stuff available. (Anything out there besides the one track on the Stax Live in London revue thing?)

In the Stax documentary, there's a very brief clip of them playing Green Onions on some TV show, and it kicks so much harder than it does on the record.

Anyway, I say The Meters put out better stuff, but if you count the stuff on which they're both back-up bands, I'd pick Booker T & The MGs

I too would love to hear more live Booker T and The MGs! I think I have three live tracks (two on a Best Of comp and the other a storming version of Green Onions on a Mojo CD) - can anybody here direct me to where I can get anymore?

Missed dis thread the first time around.. Meters for me, easy. Booker T/MG's seem like much more of a novelty. But maybe I haven't heard the right albums/songs.

oh, and that was IAN JOHNS0N now HPENCIL. sorryt

Wow, I'm surprised. Nothing against the MGs, but the Meters are godhead.

Fire On The Bayou is the only Meters LP i own, actually.. but I tend to buy any Meters 45s I find through the mid70s..

anyone see Meters on tour recently? they were in Chicago last weekend, but I missed them

Yeah, I saw them. I caught the Saturday show, the second show of the two nights. It was unbelievably great, I was grinning from ear-to-ear the whole time. Seriously, couldn't believe I was sitting there watching those four back together onstage again. Top five show of the year for me.

Only real disappointment was that they didn't play much Josie stuff. They played "Cissy Strut" and "Message From the Meters" and one or two others ... but that was it. I guess someone said they did "Look-A-Py-PY" the night before. oh well. We got a great "Africa" though, where they changed the lyrics to "New Orleans"! awesome. Also, they played "He Bite Me"!! Like, the third song in the set! That blew my mind.

Leo did have a tendency to wank a bit ... I mean he is an incredible player but a couple of the solos could have benefitted from a little more, um, economy. but they looked to be having fun and just getting off on playing. George Porter was the star of the show, dude just looks like he has so much fun playing, and his bass just SOUNDS so amazing. so fuckin heavy and godhead.

you in Chi now, Dominique?

booker t! great pop music.

booker t

i love the Meters work with Lee Dorsey, countrified funk at its best

I know it's a particular weakness of mine, being more inclined to choose splashiness while overlooking subtlety (cf. Keith Moon vs. Charlie Watts), but the hell with it: I'll still take the brilliance of Ziggy Modeliste over the brilliance of Al Jackson. Meters win. (By the way, I do not play the drums.)