Check the credits for the new John Oates solo album `1000 Miles of Life`. You’ll notice the legendary Steve Cropper.
Oates, of Hall & Oates fame, has just released his second ever solo album. There are a number of names of the album, including Blind Boys of Alabama, but the Cropper name sticks out.“Steve Cropper is one of my heroes,” John tells Undercover News. “When it comes to electric guitar and R&B guitar playing he is without peer. He is just one of those guys. When I was a kid listening to those Stax/Volt records I just wanted to play like Steve Cropper. For me to get him to play on the album and get to form a very good friendship with him (I played with him a number of times this summer), it was a real blessing for me. Sometimes I pinch myself and say “man, this is just too great to be true”. He is a great person. He has a very unique style and sound. Getting him on this track was just fantastic”.
Cropper is a member of the legendary Booker T & The MGs. He hit the pick screen in the Blues Brothers but he is also one of the world’s most successful songwriters and producers with songs such as ‘(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay’ to his credit.
Hall was still a kid when Cropper was making his first hits and that sound hooked him onto R&B.
“All the R&B that was happening in the 60s, the interesting thing about that era of music in the US was that it was regional,” he says. “You had the Philly sound. You had the Chicago sound with Curtis Mayfield. You had the Motown sound that everyone knows. You had the Memphis sound that was Stax/Volt and Cropper was part of that Memphis thing. Even though my roots are Philadelphia, I was highly influenced by the Stax/Volt sound of Wilson Pickett and Sam & Dave. Those records were very influential to me in terms of my songwriting and playing and arranging. You are right. It really came from the mid 60s era when those guys were in their prime doing classic American R&B”.
Cropper plays electric guitar on the title track ‘1000 Miles of Life’.
John has released the album independently.
Check it out at www.johnoates.com
Check it out at www.johnoates.com
Next week, Undercover will bring you the full interview with John Oates.
