McLEMORE AVENUE

(Stax STS-2027, April 1970)

Billboard Top 200 Chart Peak: #107
Billboard R&B Chart Peak: #19

Produced by: Booker T. & The MG's


Track Listing

    SIDE ONE

  1. Golden Slumbers (1:29)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    2. Carry That Weight (1:11)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    The End (3:51)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    Here Comes the Sun (4:51)
    (George Harrison)

    Come Together (5:28)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

  2. Something (4:09)
    (George Harrison)
    SIDE TWO

  1. Because (4:07)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    2. You Never Give Me Your Money (3:21)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

  2. Sun King (2:12)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    3. Mean Mr. Mustard (1:09)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    Polythene Pam (1:12)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (1:27)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)

    I Want You (She's So Heavy) (4:41)
    (John Lennon/Paul McCartney)


Quotes

"I was moved by the Beatles. I thought they were doing really great things. They started to write these beautiful melodies and this stuff was coming from left field. Their records didn't each sound alike ever. Not very many people were doing that. Their approach, to me, was basically like our approach, real rough, real raw. It made me think that what we were doing was okay for the pop market, not just the R&B market. It really changed my musical concepts quite beautifully."

—Booker T. Jones

"I though Abbey Road was [the Beatles'] best album. I thought they had the best melodies up to then on that album...That seemed like one unit, so I wanted to copy that one unit instrumentally. I was just completely excited about it. At that point I wasn't thinking about making money or anything. I just wanted to do a tribute to the music. I was reaching a point where I was feeling I was coming to a creative zenith. It was all or nothing for me."

—Booker T. Jones

"Booker told me every note to play. I hadn't even heard the Beatles album. I might have heard a cut on the radio but I had not sat down and listened to the album like they had. He showed me the changes and sat down to teach me the songs. I strictly played to what I heard Booker play. [When I heard] the Beatles' versions of those tunes, I went 'Holy shit!' I was very surprised. I didn't know those songs at all."

—Steve Cropper

Notes

The MG's covered only thirteen of the seventeen songs on Abbey Road. The ones omitted, presumably for time and conceptual reasons, were "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "Oh! Darling," "Octopus's Garden," and "Her Majesty." The songs also have a different running order than the Beatles album.

The album cover, mirroring the Abbey Road one, was taken in front of the Stax studios at 926 E. McLemore Avenue in Memphis.

The lone single taken from the album is "Something," which slimmed down by thirty seconds for radio play. It was coupled with a non-album track, "Sunday Sermon," written by Stax labelmate Art Jerry Miller.

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