The Bar-Kays

This week’s Musical Tree is a story of triumph, tragedy, rebirth, and triumph once again. This is the story of the Bar-Kays. The Bar-Kays would ultimately become the backing band for one of soul music’s biggest performers but let us begin with some brief history about the band. 

The Bar-Kays were made up entirely of students from Booker T. Washington High School in Memphis. The band was comprised of 6 members – Jimmie King on guitar, Ronnie Caldwell on keyboards, Phalon Jones on Saxophone, Carl Cunningham on drums, James Alexander on bass, and Ben Cauley on Trumpet. Five of the six members were black, with Ronnie Caldwell being the only white member of the band. 

As you may recall from last week’s article on Stax Records, Stax was a diversified label that also catered to local musicians. The Bar-Kays formed in 1966 and twice tried to get into Stax Records but were denied both times by Steve Cropper, the guitarist in the Stax house band, Booker T and the M.G.’s. Meanwhile, the Bar-Kays, despite still being in high school, were playing their brand of soul music around clubs in Memphis. Most of the band members were not old enough to even get into the clubs as audience members. Often the clubs would be raided by the vice squad, but more often than not a tip from a well-placed source would warn the club owner, and the band would be hustled off stage and hidden. Once the vice officers left the club, the Bar-Kays would return to the stage and the music would begin again!

In 1967 Carla Thomas took Otis Redding to see the band at one of these clubs and Otis was immediately impressed. Calling them “little boys”, he said that “they sounded like tenfold”. Otis had just dismissed his touring band and was looking for a new band. That night he found it in The Bar-Kays. At the time Otis Redding was the biggest star at Stax Records. Suddenly the Bar-Kays were welcome at the studio, and were even signed to a record deal and cut an album. The 1967 album, titled ‘Soul Finger’, produced a hit by the same name. The title track, one of the all-time great party songs, kicks off with ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb’ before kicking into high groove. Stax song writer David Porter rounded up some neighborhood kids and, for the price of a bottle of Coke, got them to make party sounds and holler “Soul Finger”!

Otis Redding wanted to hit the road immediately with the band, but there was a small problem – all of the band members were still in high school! Otis offered to hire a tutor but the band members’ parents would not have it. So, the tour had to wait until June, after 5 of the 6 members graduated high school (bassist James Alexander still had a year to go). Their first gig backing Otis Redding was a three-night run at the famed Apollo Theater in New York City. They had no rehearsal – Otis insisted that they already knew the songs and therefore didn’t need to rehearse. The Bar-Kays each owned one suit, so there they were in that suit on the first night, no rehearsal, and plenty nervous. They didn’t need to be – the show was fantastic, the audience loved Otis and his new backing band. By the third night audience members that had seen one of the previous nights noticed that they were wearing the same suits and started hollering at the band members to “buy yourselves some different suits”. The clothing didn’t matter – the tour with Otis was a success, and by mid-summer the Bar-Kays ‘Soul Finger’ had risen to number 3 on the Billboard R&B chart and number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

With the start of school in the fall of 1967 touring had to work around bassist James Alexander’s school schedule. In the meantime, the Bar-Kay’s had established themselves as Stax Records “house band number 2”, filling in for Booker T and the M.G.’s whenever they were unavailable or were taking a break. The future looked bright for both Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays. In December 1967 Otis was putting the finishing touches on his song ‘Sittin On The Dock Of The Bay’ and with school approaching the Christmas Break a mini tour was arranged in the Midwest. After playing a date in Cleveland on December 9, the next day the band and Otis flew to Madison, Wisconsin for their next gig. On the approach to the Madison airport the plane went down in the freezing waters of Lake Monona. Trumpeter Ben Cauley was the only survivor of the plane crash. Because the plane could only seat a limited number of passengers, bassist James Alexander was on a different flight. When he landed in Madison he was greeted by the local police and told the news. It was December 10. Otis Redding was gone, and 4 of the 6 members of the Bar-Kays, just out of high school, perished along with him. It was indeed a dark day for music.

This video is from a TV show in Cleveland that Otis and the Bar-Kays appeared on December 9. This captures the greatness of Otis Redding at the height of his powers, with the Bar-Kays providing the sweet, soulful sounds that ultimately build and match Otis Redding’s intensity. Truly a remarkable performance. 

After the plane crash the two surviving members, knowing that their bandmates would want them to continue, began the painstaking task of putting the Bar-Kays back together. They added a new guitar, saxophone, and keyboard player, along with two drummers. One of the drummers was Willie Hall, who would go on (along with fellow Stax alumni Steve Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn) to join the Blues Brothers in 1980. This new incarnation of the Bar-Kays struggled to produce hits, but they were still major contributors at Stax. When Booker T and the M.G.’s decided they were done being the Stax house band, the Bar-Kays easily filled the void and from 1970 until Stax shutdown in 1975 they were the backing band on virtually every recording that was produced at Stax. They backed artists such as Carla Thomas, Albert King, and Isaac Hayes, including on Hayes’ groundbreaking album ‘Hot Buttered Soul’ and his huge hit, ‘Shaft’.

The Bar-Kays sound in the early 70’s would transition from Soul to Funk music. Aided by the Disco movement of the 70’s, the band saw moderate success into the 1980’s. The Bar-Kays still perform today with original bassist James Alexander still in the band after all of these years. Today the Bar-Kays are recognized as one of the pioneers of Funk. Their music has been featured in films such as ‘Spies Like Us’ and Superbad’, and the Sugar Hill Gang’s 1979 hit ‘Rappers Delight’ paid multiple references to the Bar-Kays. 

I had always been aware that Otis Redding’s death took him from the world when he was at his peak, but I was not aware until recently of the story of his backing band, the Bar-Kays. A band of teenagers just out of high school living their dream only to have it snuffed out barely before it began. It is quite a tragic story.  However, the story of the band reforming and achieving great success is quite remarkable and one of the most endearing musical stories that I have ever discovered. Music is truly remarkable in that it can cause both pain and joy, often in the blink of an eye. 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Musical Tree. Feel free to leave suggestions for future articles in the comments. Don’t forget to subscribe to be notified via email when there is a new post. 

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