Don's Tunes - Steve Cropper Time is what?

Steve Cropper makes a surprise appearance with the group at Hunter College, New York City, 21st January 1967. 

(Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives)

Steve Cropper: I've been asked that. "How'd you play so tight with Al Jackson if you were in a big studio with no headphones?" Real simple, I watched his snare drum out of the corner of my eye and came down with his left hand. It's just one of those things. We were tight like that. I know I was playing with feeling, but there's a little delay when you just play to yourself what you hear. What you're hearing and what you're seeing are two different things. It's more like the doppler effect.

Listening to your stories, it sounds like so much of being a songwriter is just constantly having your eyes and ears open.

Mmhmm. If you're not aware and you're not channeling stuff, you're not going to get the message. You got to open yourself up to it and be ready for it when it hits. You never know where ideas are coming from. I'll give you another example. "Mr. Pitiful."

I was driving home from the studio one night, listening to the radio and the DJ said, "Here's another one from the great Mr. Pitiful." He was talking about Otis Redding, but I'd never heard him been called that before. I went home, but that was still in my head. I get up the next morning and go to take a shower, right before I had to pick up Otis to go to work. I started humming a song, "They call me Mr. Pitiful, everywhere I go / They call me Mr. Pitiful / This everybody now know..."

So I go pick up Otis and sing the song for him. I said, "I got a great idea we need to work on." By the time we got to the studio, he had most of it done. That was the first song we showed the band when we walked in. We cut it first. Two or three takes and it was done.

Corbin Reiff Interview 

Don's Tunes

Booker T & the MGs 'Time is Tight' live in Stax Studio, 1969

Booker T & The MG's - 'Tic Tac Toe' live [Colourised] 1967 Live in Norway

Booker T. & MGs, "Soul Limbo" on Letterman, April 30, 1991 

I always post Green Onions ( and why not) but here’s another slough of hits