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DONALD V. DUNN
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1941-2012
As a member of Rock'n'Roll Hall Of
Famers Booker T. & The MGs, Donald "Duck" Dunn was
house bass player at the legendary Soul/R'n'B label, Stax, where
his meaty playing helped define one of the most distinctive and
enduring sounds in popular music. Among the timeless recordings
Dunn held down the bottom end of, are Respect, Dock Of The Bay
and I've Been Loving You Too Long, by Otis Redding, Wilson
Pickett's In The Midnight Hour, and Hold On I'm Coming by Sam and
Dave, not to mention sessions with Neil Young, Eric Clapton and
Jerry Lee Lewis.
Today, Dunn keeps the classic Stax sound alive and kicking as
part of The Blues Brothers Band. Originally hand picked by John
Belushi and Dan Aykroyd - the Jake and Elwood characters in cult
film, The Blues Brothers.
"I like to keep things spontaneous," says Dunn of their
live show. "That's my way of playing. Even though we're
playing the same songs every night I like to think I can change
it a little bit and use my input or creativity or whatever in any
way that makes the band feel better. If I make the band smile, I
make everybody smile."
Born in Memphis in late November,
1941, Dunn was given his nickname by his father as the two
watched a Donald Duck cartoon on TV. "It was just one of
those things that stuck," he recalls. "Most of my
school friends and even a few of my teachers called me Duck."
Although a grandfather he never knew played fiddle, there was no
music in Duck's immediate family. "My father was a candy
maker. He made peppermints and hard candies. He didn't want me to
go into the music industry. He thought I would become a drug
addict and die. Most parents in those days thought music was a
pastime; something you did as a hobby, not a profession."
Duck tried to conform: "I worked for my dad in the candy
factory for a while. I also had a job with an electrical company
repairing long range air raid sirens." In his heart, though,
Dunn always knew where his talents lay. I picked up a ukulele
when I was about 10 and I started playing bass when I was 16. I
tried the guitar but it had two strings too many. It was just too
complicated, man! Plus, I grew up with Steve Cropper. There were
so many good guitar players another one wasn't needed. What was
needed was a bass. I mostly learned just by listening to records.
I don't know how to explain it but I knew if I could do it, I'd
be good at it! My first bass was a new Kay, one of the cheaper
models."
And, of course, it was slightly less than Duck wanted. Smiling at
the memory, he adds: "When I used to look in the music store
windows and see the Fenders hanging there, I was like a kid at
Christmas. The Kay was fine but you knew if you could get your
hands on a Fender you would do better. I bought my first Fender
in '58 and I still have it at home. I lost it once and I got it
back," he pauses. "It's a Precision, with a maple neck.
I just always took it for granted, never worried about the
setting or action. It was a Fender, man, I didn't care!"
Influenced by blues and R'n'B stars like BB King and Ray Charles,
Dunn and Cropper formed their first band, The Royal Spades, in
high school. "The name came from poker; a royal spade flush,"
explains Duck. "We played anything from Jerry Lee Lewis and
Little Richard to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley stuff. We were a
white band trying to play rhythm and blues music, kinda the first
in Memphis to do that. We used to play for, like, five dollars
and a few free beers. It was just a joy to play."
The Royal Spades evolved into the Mar-Keys, who had a hit with
Last Night soon after Dunn graduated from high school. Cropper
subsequently left the band to become a full-time session musician
at the Stax studio. He urged Dunn to follow him and the two
became part of Booker T's MGs, which in turn become the house
band at Stax.
"I would have liked to have been on the road more but the
record company wanted us in the studio. Man, we were recording
almost a hit a day for a while there. But I never knew how
popular that music was until I came to England with Otis Redding
in 1967." He adds with a chuckle: "I think most of the
English people thought I was a pick-up bass player. Without being
racist they probably thought that being affiliated with that
music, Donald 'Duck' Dunn was black!"
What else does he remember of that visit? "Otis would follow
Sam and Dave and he would peak through the curtain during their
set, worried as he could be, to see if he could outdo Sam and
Dave. I used to watch him do that every night! Before that tour,
though, we were all in admiration of Motown. We were thinking why
don't our records sound like Motown? Now we listen to them and
they hold up real well today."
Like many recognisable sounds from Sun to Motown, the Stax sound
evolved by happy accident from a blend of musicians who worked
well together. "Everyone contributed," remembers Duck.
"Sometimes, if I couldn't find something to play maybe
Booker found the bass line. Or maybe Steve Cropper. It was a real
family-orientated company. No one had any particular ego. We were
a
real team."
In many instances, plenty of song riffs and rhythms famously
emerged from spontaneous jam sessions on the play-out of the
previous recording. "When we came to the fade-outs, almost
everyone would change their rhythm or the notes they were playing.
That was the fun part of it. When we got to the end we all knew
we could relax and do what we wanted to do."
In common with most musicians from that era, the people who
created the Stax sound came away with less money than they
deserved. "I always look back and say I should have made
more," sighs Duck, slowly. "It should have been more
lucrative, but it wasn't. We were cheated a little bit. But with
the music and what I learned... it doesn't matter. I have no
regrets."
One session that stands out for Dunn was backing Jerry Lee Lewis
on his early '70s soul slanted album, Southern Roots. The
sessions have passed into rock lore as a four day drug-soaked
party with hangers-on passing out on the studio floor and the
world and his wife sitting in.
"It was just craziness!" concurs Duck. "All it
needed was Keith Richard! One song I particularly remember was
When A Man Loves A Woman. If you listen to that record, he's
incredible. And that was one take. Jerry Lee is crazy, he's
outrageous, but I think he's the best rock'n'roller that ever
lived."
Dunn's greatest pleasure, however, came from the music he created
with the MGs. Having scored a million seller with the
instrumental Green Onions in 1962, the band continued to hit the
charts well into the '70s. Among their biggest successes were
Hang 'Em High and Time Is Tight, both from movie soundtracks,
also Soul Limbo, a Caribbean-styled number later to become very
familiar as the cowbell-intro'd theme tune of the BBC's test
cricket coverage.
When Booker T. disbanded the MGs and left Memphis for California,
Dunn and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., kept the band's name afloat
with an album, MG's, although it was released to little interest.
In autumn 1975, Jackson was shot dead when he disturbed an
intruder in his home. The incident left a deep impression on Dunn,
who today opines: "I think the gun issue is the biggest
issue. When I came to England in 1967 and saw the bobbies, as
they used to call them, with no firearms... That's the way it
should be. I'm really a firm believer in no guns."
1977 saw the first of several reunions of Booker T. Jones, Dunn
and Cropper and the band recorded two more albums during the next
20 years, eventually receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award at
the 1995 Rhythm & Blues Pioneer Awards. Since his appearance
in the hit 1980 movie The Blues Brothers, Dunn has also been part
of popular R'n'B revue, The Blues Brothers Band, which also
features Steve Cropper. Of his lifelong musical relationship with
Cropper, Dunn says: "Steve and I are like married people. I
can look at him and know what he'll order for dinner. We don't
hang out as much as we used to. I moved to Florida and he moved
to Nashville. We used to play a lot of golf together and we've
kind of separated. But when we play music together we both know
where we're going."
He died in Tokyo after a concert
on May 13, 2012.
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