AT EASE PACK MAN

Yee haw, Boogaloo Time just posted a bunch of swinging Hammond B3 cuts, including "Bullseye" by the Martinis and that gives me a great reason to direct you to an old post with stuff by the Martinis and other tracks from bands that included Packy Axton. If you don't know Packy Axton, he was the son of Estelle Axton, co-owner of Stax. And he was a bit of a partyer. That annoyed a few people at Stax, the wrong people. He was kind of a fuck up. Which is, of course, his appeal in these parts. 

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Listen:
The Martinis - Bullseye mp3 at Boogaloo Time
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
Visit:
Vital Organs - Nine more Hammond obscuros at Boogalo Time
Who Wants a Drink - Three more Packy Axton things

OH HELL YEAH

Just goofing off, I ran across some choice Mar-Keys stuff over at Groove Addict. For those of you who don't know, and you should know this, the Mar-Keys were the horns of Stax. In other words, you've heard them all over Stax stuff, often with Booker T and the MGs. backing others on songs you've heard a thousand times. Their own records are usually slower paced, trodding grooves. In a good way. Because their big one was "Last Night" and another song on the same LP was titled "Morning After", it would be tempting to call them hangover soul, but they're more like still slightly buzzed soul.

If you're familiar with "Last Night" I recommend listening to it last, as a chaser after hearing the others. Crank it up and let it rip. The louder, the better. They don't make 'em like this anymore. 

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Listen:
The Mar-Keys - Last Night mp3 at Beware of the Blog
The Mar-Keys - Morning After mp3 at Groove Addict
The Mar-Keys - Cleo's Back mp3 at Groove Addict
The Mar-Keys - Too Pooped to Pop-Eye mp3 at Groove Addict

WHAT?! YOU'RE HUNGOVER?!!

Have a few too many last night? Then I have just thing for you. The soothing sounds of the Martinis. Perfect for a dull throbbing day on the couch, or at least a couple minutes of it. You'll want to stick it out until at least the :42 second mark. That's where Packy Axton comes in. He feels your pain. In fact Packy Axton probably felt your pain more than a few times, and probably to a higher degree than you ever will, amateur.

Axton paid the price for being King of the Party. He managed to get kicked off of Stax, the record label he had already had a hit on. A record label that was in full stride, coming into its glory years as a hit making machine. Just the fact that he got eighty-sixed is bad enough. It's worse when you consider that the label was co-owned by his mother and uncle. Oh, the indignity. Just soak on that aspirin hound. Packy Axton makes you look like a beginner.

Axton on the left. Post Dramamine.

Axton continued to make music regardless, with other bands on different labels, but without Stax on the label the records went nowhere. He died at the age of 32, in 1974, reportedly from cirrhosis of the liver. Yeah, it's all fun and games, isn't it? The lesson? Pace yourself. You only have so many drink tickets.

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Listen:
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
The Mar-Keys - Last Night mp3 at Rock 'n; Soul Ichiban While still on Stax.
The Pac-Keys - Dig In mp3 at Office Naps
The Packers - Go 'Head on mp3 at Public Collectors
The Pac-Keys - Stone Fox mp3 (via divShare) at Burn Wood Tonight Once you get to DivShare, click on the green "Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds while the timer counts down. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

WHO WANTS A DRINK?

Were you getting all kinds of nuts last night? Dragging a little today? Spend the day on the couch? That's why seasoned pros call it amateur's night. Pacing is everything. Just don't forget that the next time. Even if you swear there won't be, believe me there will. So, if you are hurting, if I was you I'd duck out of that first song below before it hits the :42 second mark. (If you have a hungover roommate and are one for cheap kicks, play that part loud.) The song is "Hung Over" by the Martinis, featuring Packy Axton, who knew a thing or two about partying. He was the son of Stax Record's co-founder Estelle Axton, and his wooping it up was a determining factor in his not so graceful exit from the Stax stable, and that was a big deal because besides being the son of one of the owners, he was a member of the Mar-Keys, who gave the label one of their first big hits, "Last Night".

The others down there are other post-Stax bands that Axton was in. He died at 32 in 1974, reportedly from cirrhosis of the liver. Consider that a lesson from a dead man.

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Listen:
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
The Mar-Keys - Last Night mp3 at Rock 'n; Soul Ichiban
The Pac-Keys - Dig In mp3 at Office Naps 
The Packers - Go 'Head on mp3 at Public Collectors

The Pac-Keys - Stone Fox mp3 (via divShare) at Burn Wood Tonight Once you get to DivShare, click on the green "Download" button, and scratch your head for fifteen seconds while the timer counts down. When the button reappears, you're good to go.

INSTRUMENTAL WHAT NOT

Aw, the good ol' days. When a band decided their groove was so good, they just kept it long and put it out as parts one and two on opposite sides of the same record. In this case, it could be that they pressed two different takes, because part one has fuzz guitar, part two does not. (What the hell?)  It's an Allen Toussaint production, on his Sansu label, and as far as I'm concerned he could get away with "Hot Tamale (Part 37)" and I'd still listen. The Prime Mates were led by Al Fayard, Toussaint's his former band mate in the Stokes, and there's a groove here that despite Toussaint's involvement, doesn't really have that New Orleans thing going, it sounds more like something from Packy Axton. With the rhythm section doing some serious plodding, coupled with he organ and chunka chunka rhythm guitar, it would make a boss reggae cover. Yeah, Jackie Mittoo, now that I think about it.

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Listen:
The Prime Mates - Hot Tamales (Pt 1) mp3 at Super Sonido
The Prime Mates - Hot Tamales (Pt 2) mp3 at Super Sonido (Go there to get it. Bottom of the post.)
Al Tousan (Allen Toussaint) - Cow Cow Blues mp3 at Rock 'n' Soul Ichiban 
The Martinis (w/Packy Axton) - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45 

Jackie Mittoo - Ghetto Organ mp3 at 8106

PACKY'S HERE TO HELP

I just came back from the main drag down the street, which is all of three blocks long yet has a dozen bars. It's Saint Patrick's Day, which you'd think I would have noticed from all the people wearing green. But what I noticed first was the high percentage of shit-faced bar hoppers. In one block, three different people being held up by friends, and two cars pulled over. On one block. So, it seems it might be a little late for any sort of Irish music. Might as well get an early start on the hangover music. For my money, no one has done that better than the Martinis, a band that featured one Packy Axton, the son of Estelle Paxton (co-founder of Stax Records) who probably knew thing or two about hangovers. Despite his mother's role, and the fact that he was a member of the Mar-Keys, he was shown the door at Stax due to his partying ways. He died in 1974, reportedly from cirrhosis of the liver.

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Listen:
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
The Pac-Keys - Dig In mp3 at Office Naps 
The Packers - Go 'Head on mp3 at Public Collectors

WHO THE HELL WERE THEY?

Here we go. I've been poking around smelly bins of music minutiae for years, and I still run into stuff I can't find anything about. In this case, a band called the Parkays. First off, it may be just a small coincidence that the first time I ever heard of the Parkays is when the Mystery Suggester hipped me to their groovy "Last Date" a while back. Soon afterward, she pointed me towards the Martinis "Hung Over."

Exhibit A: The Martinis featured one Packy Axton, a sax player who was in the Mar-Keys, and partied his way out of a steady gig at Stax (owned by his mother and uncle). He went on to form a series of combos, among them bands called the Packers and the Pac-keys. Exhibit B: You will note that similarities between the Mar-Keys' "Last Night" and the Parkays' "Green Monkeys." Exhibit C; The similarities in band names, the Mar-Keys, the Parkays, and the Pac-Keys. Exhibit D (the only sketchy one): All references to the Parkays point to the ABC-Paramount label, who, though based in New York, "licensed finished masters from independent producers and purchased regionally-released records for national distribution" (according to the Wikipedia entry for the label).

This is where I get off. I may continue the poking around later, and I may not. Who knows? I might get a wild hair and become the unofficial biographer of the Parkays, seeing as how there doesn't seem to be anybody else stepping forward. Maybe I'll just start a Parkays Locator Club. Wanna join?

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Listen:
The Parkays - Green Monkeys mp3 at Diddy Wah
Visit Diddy Wah for another Parkays cut
The Mar-Keys - Last Night mp3 at Rock 'n; Soul Ichiban
The Pac-Keys - Dig In mp3 at Office Naps
The Packers - Hole In the Wall mp3 at The Hound Blog

PACKY SAYS "HI"

Roughly a week ago, the Mystery Suggester recommended the song "Hung Over" by the Martinis. Like a lot of songs that happen to hit the spot, it opened up a rabbit hole. That would be the Packy Axton hole. Axton was in the Martinis, and as it turns out, a compilation was recently released with a bunch of various projects that he was involved in. (The Mystery Suggester had sent me a YouTube audio clip, so I'm thinking it was a coincidence.)

As I sauntered down the Axton rabbit hole, it became apparent that his contribution to the Memphis R&B sound was pretty significant. He started out with high school buddies Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn (who you had better know), in a band called the Royal Spades. His mom, Estelle Axton, and uncle, Jim Stewart were just starting a record label, Satellite Records, which would become Stax. The band recorded "Last Night," credited to the Mar-Keys when released, right as the label was getting off the ground, and it became a hit. While his mom, uncle, Cropper and Dunn later benefited mightily from the Stax hit parade that would follow, Axton pretty much sabotaged his opportunity. As his drinking and partying becgan to escalate, he fell out of grace with Stewart and Cropper, and by 1965 he was persona non grata at Stax. He continued to record with several instrumental combos, the Pac-Keys, the Packers, and the Martinis, among others. His drinking finally did him in, and in 1974, while living back at his mom's, he died. He was 32.

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Listen:
The Mar-Keys - Last Night mp3 at Rocky-52.net
The Pac-Keys - Dig In mp3 at Office Naps
The Packers - Hole In the Wall mp3 at The Hound Blog
The Martinis - Hung Over mp3 at Rare Funk On 45
The Pac-Keys - Stone Fox mp3 (via divShare) at Burn Wood Tonight (At DivShare, click on green "Download" button)
Two more Packy Axton cuts at Soul Sides (One from the Pac-Keys and one from the Martinis.)
Other non-Packy Axton unrelated, yet also swinging instrumentals:
The Del-Rays - Night Prowl mp3 at Office Naps
Lorenzo the Hat & the Mad Hatters - Fun-Key mp3 at Office Naps
Visit:
Packy Axton - Profile at The Hound Blog
Packy Axton - Profile at Go Memphis
Packy Axton - Late Late Party compilation at Light In the Attic
Booker T. and Beyond at Office Naps