Committed to Soul from the North Side of Dublin

I don’t know about you, but with January gone, 2024 is already starting to feel old. For now, let’s focus on something much more cheerful, which has become one of my favorite writing tasks each month: Turntable Talk!

For this round, Dave asked us to share our thoughts about a great movie soundtrack. The first thing that came to mind were theme songs from James Bond 007 pictures, but I felt that’s not really what our dear follow blogger had in mind. Since I’m not exactly a movie expert, I started to get a bit anxious. Sometimes a dose of anxiety can jolt the brain, and suddenly different soundtracks started popping up, including my pick: The Commitments!

The 1991 musical comedy was directed by Alan Parker, a name I recalled in connection with ‘80s dramas and thrillers like Mississippi Burning and Angel Heart. I had forgotten Parker also directed Pink Floyd – The Wall and Fame, both pictures that are topically closer to The Commitments.

The comedy tells the tale of Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins), a young lad from the North Side of Dublin, Ireland, who is determined to put together a band of other young working-class folks to play Stax-style soul: The Commitments. The film was based on the 1987 novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle.

To fulfill his dream of managing a soul band, Rabbitte puts an ad in a local paper and holds auditions at his parents’ house. After he assembles a group of mostly individuals with very little experience, they get a drum set and a piano. Rabbitte secures the remainder of the equipment on credit from a shady black market dealer. They find a rehearsal space, practice furiously and eventually become pretty good.

Their first gig at a local church community center starts great but ends in disaster after their great lead vocalist Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), who is full of himself, accidentally hits bassist Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey) with his microphone stand, leading to a chain reaction of exploding amps and a power outage.

As the film goes on, tensions among the members rise. Veteran trumpeter Joey “The Lips” Fagan (Johnny Murphy), who claims he played on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and performed with all kinds of different high profile artists, seduces each of the three female backing vocalists, one after the other. Meanwhile, Deco becomes increasingly obnoxious, making drummer Mickah Wallace (Dave Finnegan) want to punch him in the face, which he eventually does.

After two additional gigs that end in chaos, Joey tells Rabbitte he could get his friend Wilson Pickett to perform with the band. Rabbitte sees a huge breakthrough opportunity for the group and invites a bunch of journalists to their next gig at a music club where Pickett is supposed to appear with them. While The Commitments put on a great gig, the Stax star doesn’t show – that is not in time. As Rabbitte leaves the venue, angry that Joey allegedly fooled him, Pickett’s limousine pulls up next to him, and the driver asks for directions to the club – suggesting Joey for once had not stretched the truth! The film ends with a funny monologue of Rabbitte giving an update on each of the Commitments’ former members after the group had broken up.

The film ends with a funny monologue of Rabbitte giving an update on each of the Commitments’ former members after the group had broken up.

While I hope the above summary provides a good idea about the plot, I find it impossible to convey the film’s hilarious humor without any video excerpts – not to mention the great music! Here’s the official trailer.

Here’s another snippet.

I realize I’m nine graphs into this post and haven’t discussed any specific music. Let’s get to some of the great songs from the soundtrack!

Here’s one of my favorites, Mustang Sally, written by Mack Rice in 1965 and popularized by Wilson Pickett a year later.

Another highlight is Chain of Fools, penned by Don Covay and first released by Aretha Franklin in November 1967.

Next up: Try a Little Tenderness, written by Jimmy Campbell, Reg Connelly, and Harry M. Woods, was first recorded by the Ray Noble Orchestra in December 1932. The Commitments’ rendition mirrors the popular version by Otis Redding, which appeared in November 1966.

Let’s do another Wilson Pickett classic, In the Midnight Hour, a song he co-wrote with Steve Cropper, guitarist of Stax house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s. This gem was released in June 1965.

Notably, the film’s band characters were mostly inexperienced actors who were cast because of their musical backgrounds and their resemblance to the characters in the novel. Together with casting directors Jon Hubbard and Russ Hubbard, Parker was searching the Dublin local club scene to find young music artists to cast for the movie.

The only actor who did not play their instrument was Joey, the trumpeter. Parker had actually hoped to get Van Morrison to play the part. Apparently, Rory Gallagher was considered as well. Given the instrument was the trumpet, I don’t understand why Parker wanted any of them other than for their fame. Eventually, Parker cast Murphy, a veteran film and stage actor.

Parker spent five weeks rehearsing with the cast before actual filming began. Music supervisor G. Marq Roswell, who had identified songs for the film, also oversaw the recording sessions. Since Parker wanted the rehearsal and performance scenes of The Commitments to be as realistic as possible, all tracks were recorded live on set.

The estimated budget to make The Commitments was quite small, amounting to $12-15 million, which translates to about $35 million today. Surprisingly, the film only grossed just under $15 million in North America. In contrast, it was the highest grossing film in Ireland of all time, generating IR£2.23 million ($3.5 million). In the UK, it made £8.29 million.

Eventually, the film was also turned into a musical. It premiered in September 2013 in London and had an initial run there until November 2015. It has since had two tours of the UK and Ireland. The most recent came to an end last year. I still fondly remember watching the theatrical release of The Commitments in a small independent movie theater in Tübingen, Germany, where I was a graduate student at the time. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorite music-related films.

* This post was originally published on A Sound Day on February 16, 2024. It has been slightly reformatted.

Sources: Wikipedia; YouTube

How the “Nastiest Thing” One Musician Could Think Off Didn’t Become a Throw-Away

Once again, Dave from A Sound Day recently reached out to a bunch of fellow bloggers to invite their thoughts on the latest topic for his monthly recurring fun feature Turntable Talk. This time, his ask was to write about an instrumental we like a lot. Following is my humble contribution, which was first published on Dave’s blog on January 12.

While it’s safe to assume most of us had things we happily kissed goodbye or wish could get rid of once and for all when 2023 came to its close, it’s great to see when beloved things continue. In my mind, the latter include Turntable Talk, which remains one of the most fun blogging activities each month thanks to fellow blogger Dave who always comes up with great topics!

For Round 22, Dave asked us to forget about the words, if you will, and share some thoughts on an all-instrumental we dig. If you’re familiar with my music taste, you know how much I love vocals, especially when sung in perfect harmony. As such, you might think I may have a hard time finding an instrumental I really like. Well, not really.

In fact, I knew right away which tune I would write about. Then I thought, ‘well, perhaps not so fast!’ After all, there are multiple instrumentals I dig, such as Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme, The Shadows’ Apache, Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross and The Allman Brothers Band’s Jessica. Heck, even my favorite hard rock band Deep Purple penned a great instrumental titled April.

After I had thought about the above and a few additional instrumentals, I decided to go Brooklynite, cheerfully concluding ‘fuhgeddaboudit!’ So I went back to my initial pick, hoping nobody else will choose it: Green Onions by Booker T. & the M.G.’s.

Why Green Onions? Coz it’s a friggin’ awesome tune with a cool sound and a simple, yet infectious groove that makes you want to snip your fingers or engage other parts of your body to move along! Green Onions also is an instrumental with a nice background story.

Originally, the 12-bar blues with its distinct Hammond organ sound was composed by Booker T. Jones when he was 17. This was around 1961 and, as such, predated The M.G.s. At that time, remarkably, Jones already was a professional musician and had played baritone saxophone on the recording of Cause I Love You by Carla Thomas and Rufus Thomas – the first hit single for Satellite Records, which soon would become Stax Records.

The M.G.s who in addition to Jones (organ, piano, keyboards, guitar) originally featured Steve Cropper (guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass) and Al Jackson Jr. (drums), came together in 1962. Serving as Stax’ house band, they played on countless recordings by the label’s artists, such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and Rufus Thomas. And rockabilly singer and Sun Records recording artist Billy Lee Riley.

When on a Sunday in June 1962 Riley didn’t show up for a scheduled recording session, Booker T. & the M.G.s began jamming to a tune Jones initially had written on piano but felt it sounded better with a Hammond organ. Stax co-owner Jim Stewart liked what he heard and decided to record the track, Behave Yourself, with the idea to release it as a single. Once it was in the can, they needed a B-side. That’s when the magic happened.

Jones started playing his “old” composition on the Hammond. The other members of the M.G.’s began improvising to it. The end result was Green Onions, which initially was titled Funky Onions. However, Stewart’s sister and Stax label co-owner Estelle Axton (Stax = Stewart-Axton) felt Funky Onions sounded like swearing. Therefore, it was renamed Green Onions.

After they had recorded Green Onions, Cropper took a copy of the tune to Memphis radio station WLOK where he was friendly with morning DJ Rueben Washington. All Washington needed to hear was part of the track. He cut off the record that was on the air and started playing Green Onions several times. The phone lines lit up quickly and the rest is history.

Green Onions, which subsequently became the A-side of the single, peaked at no. 3 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 in late September 1962. The track also topped the R&B Singles chart for a combined (non-consecutive) four weeks.

About 17 years later, in December 1979, Green Onions entered the UK Singles Chart after it had been featured in Quadrophenia, a 1979 British drama film that was loosely based on The Who’s 1973 rock opera of the same name. Eventually, it peaked at number no. 7 in late January 1980 and stayed on the British chart for 12 consecutive weeks!

I’ll leave you with a few quotes related to Green Onions, as documented by Songfacts:

“If we released this as a record, what would you want to call it?” “Green Onions,” was Booker T. Jones’ reply. “Why ‘Green Onions'” Jim asked. Booker T: “Because that is the nastiest thing I can think of and it’s something you throw away.” – dialogue between Jim Stewart and Booker T. Jones

“‘Green Onions’ appears to be a simple song, but every time I play it, I have to pay attention. I have to remember, and school myself on how the notes go, because it’s just not as simple as it sounds.” – Booker T. Jones

“When you’re a successful songwriter, you might see your songs get in movies, cartoons, commercials. But I never knew that I would be a co-writer on a song for adult diapers (laughs). For four years ‘Green Onions’ was in a commercial for Depends. That song’s gone from adult diapers to pita chips and now it’s in a dog food commercial. As soon as they get through with it someone else will use it.” – Steve Cropper

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; YouTube