Green Onions

It turns out when you take the repetitive lyrics out of the blues and play them electronically, they seem to actually be a little more interesting. There are no sappy lyrics here, just stripped down blues riffs and covers that make heavy use of an organ. Organs aren't my favorite instrument sound. They remind me of church. But they kind of lend a smoothness and electronic sound to this album that I enjoy. As suspected Booker T. Played organ in church growing up. But it almost sounds a bit sacreligious here as if he's rebelling against the normal church organ sound. It also felt a bit jazzy at times with flair added to sections to spice them up a bit. I generally liked this album even though it's not music I would typically listen to.

This is the GOOD early 60s stuff. Love how stripped back it is, just organ, guitar, and drums. Super funky. The cover is so perfect too.

You know how everyone thinks Otis Redding songs would be way better without the vocals? Well finally an album that's just the band!

Ok, Mo' Onions is just (as the title implies) another version of Green Onions.

Other than those two, the rest are a bit weaker. I don't think you can make good instrumental songs simply by taking a song with a vocal and playing the vocal line on an instrument; I think good instrumentals tend to be designed as instrumentals from the ground up.

Bit o'brass, bit o'shuffle, bit o'Hammond.

It's interesting having a solely instrumental album for a change, and there's some nice songs in here... but it's a bit limited.

This is really good for a couple songs, but listening to the whole thing front to back might not be the move.

What’s not to love? Classic record, you’ve probably heard all of these songs and not known it.

Reminds me of Forest Gump.

This album is a glorified compilation of royalty-free music. It wasn't unenjoyable to listen to, and I even recognized a couple of the tracks, but everything felt so uninspired and robotic. I can only listen to a certain amount of 12-bar-blues variations without any lyrics. T1- "Green Onions" is going on the playlist. What a waste of a spot on this list.

2/5

Very good but repetitive to me after a while. But funky and cool

I don't think I'm that big of a fan of Green Onions. The songs all sounded the same and not a single one really stood out to me (except for You Can't Sit Down). Normally, Instrumental albums can be good but they need to have some kind of way to keep the songs from sounding too similar and this album unfortunately does not have that. It was pleasant to listen to but not very interesting at all.
Best Song: You Can't Sit Down
Worst Song: Stranger on the Shore

Great album...exactly what I expected it to be which was just a solid jazzy album. 3.5/5

I like this, but apart from the iconic title track, I don't love it. Still though, it's a very pleasant one to listen to!

The opening title track is great. It's appeared in so many movies, (maybe too many movies), it's overly familiar.

The whole album feels a bit lounge background music, whilst still good, it's samey, not quite the main attraction.

cebolinhaa

Best part about these older albums is how short the songs are. Makes them far more digestible.
This album seems to definitely have some iconic riffs in it, as often a song would start then I would recognize it moments later. Issue is that you never expect these riffs to be a small part of another two to three minutes. I mean, nothing overstays it's welcome, but nothing is extremely notable either, past the before mentioned riffs.

The only song I've ever heard by Booker T. & the M.G.'s is the namesake of this album, Green Onions. It was in the film Pulp Fiction. Because of this, I am looking forward to today's listen because Green Onions is a rockin' song!

What I discovered is more of the same for the whole album, funky, bluesy, fast, dancing music. This album is fully instrumental, which worried me at first, given my short attention span, but it was such a great album, and the songs didn't drag on like some instrumental works tend to (Avg. song length is ~3 mins).

The heavy inclusion of the Hammond Organ front and center has a tendancy to remind you of being at a baseball game, but the way that Booker T. Jones plays the shit out of the organ quickly brings you back to reality. There is one point during the song "Lonely Avenue" where Booker T. is playing so fast, that the electric keyboard can't keep up, creating a clipping sound as the keyboard tries to deliver all the notes (perhaps a downfall of the electric vs acoustic organ). I also enjoy the way each instrument has its time to shine in the spotlight, making it seem like the band is just having a ton of fun jamming together.

This was a phenomenal album, I wish it was longer. I will definately listen again.

Favourite songs: Green Onions, Mo' Onions, Lonely Avenue, Rinky Dink, You Can't Sit Down, Twist and Shout, "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend"

Least favourite song: Stranger on the Shore, Behave Yourself

4/5

I love when I put on an album here thinking I don't know anything about it, and then a song like Green Onions plays and I go, oh, yeah! I know that! Just didn't know the band or the name. The album is enjoyable. I can appreciate it for its historical significance, especially since the band became the "house band" for a ton of great artists. I'd listen again, mainly as background music, but I don't think it's anything I need to hear again.

Instrumentals, although a few recognisable and interesting ones. Not great, other than as background music I guess.