We like to think that Stax Records was sort of a melting pot for our city (heck, even our country) by bringing together different musicians from all walks of life — and especially different races — and melding their talents to create some of the best music the world has ever heard.
And for the most part, that's true. I mean, the studio was formed by a white brother and sister team (Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton), working with mostly African-American musicians, tucked away in a very basic recording studio in a former movie theater in a neighborhood that was, at the time, charitably described as "working class."
But the truth is that two of those musicians — the best-known of the white fellows who formed half of Booker T. and the MGs — not only came from the same neighborhood, but they even went to the same school and took classes together.
Looking through a 1959 Panther yearbook for Messick High School, I came across two familiar names and faces, and thought I'd share them with you. Here you have (on the left) Steve Cropper, who was the Stax house guitarist and a founding member of the MGs, the group that assembled in the humble studio on McLemore in 1962.
And that cleancut fellow on the right is Donald Dunn (better known to friends and fans as "Duck") who would join the group in 1965, after the original bassist, Lewis Steinberg, left for other ventures.
The other members were, of course, singer/keyboardist Booker T. Jones and drummer Al Jackson.
The group officially disbanded in 1972, I believe.
Jackson was killed in 1975. Dunn passed away in 2012. Jones and Cropper are still quite active in the music industry. The group was inducted into the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
There's lots of history hidden away in old Memphis high school yearbooks, I keep telling everybody, if you know where to find it. Or heck, just ask me, and I'll find it for you.
PHOTOS COURTESY MESSICK HIGH SCHOOL
