Melting Pot (Booker T album)

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Metling Pot
Metling Pot cover
Studio album by Booker T. & the MGs
Released January 1971
Recorded 1970
Genre Southern soul, Instrumental rock
Length 40:10
Label Stax
STS-2035
Producer Booker T. & the MGs
Professional reviews
Booker T. & the MGs chronology
McLemore Avenue
(1970)		 Melting Pot
(1971)		 The MG's
(1973)

Melting Pot is a 1971 studio album recorded by Booker T. & the MG's for Stax Records. It is the final album to feature the group's classic lineup of Jones, Cropper, Dunn, and Jackson, and featured longer jam-oriented songs for the first time on an MG's album.

Contents

[edit] Background

By 1970, band leader Booker T. Jones had become estranged from Stax, as he protested the changing atmosphere under the leadership of executive Al Bell and producer Don Davis. [1] Jones left Memphis, Tennessee, where Stax was headquartered, and moved to California. Guitarist Steve Cropper had gone weary of the new Stax atmosphere as well, and opened his own studio in Memphis, spending less and less time at the Stax studio. [1] Melting Pot was recorded in New York City between MG's gigs, as Jones refused to record in Memphis and wanted the band to create a different sound for the new album. [1]

The album's title track was edited down to single release, and issued by Stax as a 45 in spring 1971. [1] "Melting Pot" peaked at number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and at number 16 on the Billboard Black Singles chart. [1]

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and Al Jackson, Jr. save for "Kinda Easy Like", by Jones, Cropper, Jackson, and Lewis Steinberg.

  1. "Melting Pot" - 8:15
  2. "Back Home" - 4:40
  3. "Chicken Pox" - 3:26
  4. "Fuquawi" - 3:40
  1. "Kinda Easy Like" - 8:43
  2. "Hi Ride" - 2:36
  3. "L.A. Jazz Song" - 4:18
  4. "Sunny Monday" - 4:35

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Production credits

  • Recording engineers - Ron Capone, Gordon Rudd, Rik Pekkonen, Shelly Yalkus, Jay Messina, Steve Cropper
  • Remix engineer - Steve Cropper
  • Cover photogapher - George Rodriguez
  • Art director - The Graffiteria/Stan Hochstadt
  • Art supervisor - Herb Kole, Larry Shaw]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Bowman, Rob (1997). Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records. New York: Schirmer Trade. p. 216-219. ISBN 0825672848