#SongLyricSunday Memphis Soul Stew January 10

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This week our host Jim Adams for Song Lyric Sunday has given us the prompt to profile MA song. We need to feature a song that begins with the letter M or A.

Take some time to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this music challenge, and even better, read as many of them as you are able to as you will probably find many enjoyable songs and it is quite possibly that you will learn a thing or two.  

Here are the “rules”:
• Post the lyrics to the song of your choice, whether it contains the prompt words or not.  If it does not meet the criteria, then please explain why you chose this song.
• Please try to include the songwriter(s) – it’s a good idea to give credit where credit is due.  Your post can be as long or as short as you want it to be.
• Make sure you also credit the singer/band and if you desire you can provide a link to where you found the lyrics.
• Link to the YouTube video, or pull it into your post so others can listen to the song.
• Ping back to this post or place your link in the comments section below.
• Read at least one other person’s blog, so we can all share new and fantastic music and create amazing new blogging friends in the process.
• Feel free to suggest future prompts.
• Have fun and enjoy the music.

The doldrums of winter have many of us seeking comfort food. One great dish on a cold day is a stew cooked low and slow. My song selection is a stew, a song by King Curtis called “Memphis Soul Stew”.

King Curtis’s birth name was Curtis Montgomery but he was known as Curtis Ousley. If you know the songs “Charlie Brown” and “Yakety-Yak” by The Coasters you know King Curtis’s work on the saxophone. He was a session musician on both tracks. He also led Aretha Franklin’s backup band known as The Kingpins.

King Curtis was a fantastic R&B tenor sax giant. He was born in 1934 and died in 1971. Curtis was stabbed on August 13, 1971, during an argument with a pair of drug dealers outside of his New York City apartment. Just five months earlier he appeared with Aretha Franklin and the Kingpins at the Fillmore West on March 5, 6, 7. Those concerts led to two albums. The first was for Aretha Franklin called Aretha Live at Fillmore West and King Curtis had an album dubbed Live At Fillmore West

The band lineup for The Kingpins were no slouches including Billy Preston and Bernard Purdie.

Here is the line-up Cornell Dupree – guitar, Jerry Jemmott – bass guitar, Pancho Morales – congas, Billy Preston – organ, Bernard Purdie – drums, Truman Thomas – electric piano. And The Memphis Horns: Jack Hale, trombone; Roger Hopps, trumpet; Wayne Jackson, lead trumpet; Andrew Love, tenor sax; Jimmy Mitchell – bari sax.

The lyrics are not complex but unique. Where else you going to hear “I need a pound of fatback drums”

I am going to give you two videos the first is a live performance and doesn’t have as many musicians as the second video which is just audio.

The second is the track off the Live at Fillmore album it is longer and more soulful.

Memphis Soul Stew comes out you low and slow but it will still warm your soul and make you feel okay on a winter day. Give it a listen.