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honestlyfrance · 4 years

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Title: Music on the Eve

Square Filled: Free Space

Warnings: Slight cursing

Summary: New Year’s Eve party, and Sam stumbles upon Bucky alone.

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Bucky Barnes has this extensive and flexible music taste as he hoards every genre into his song list. Tony Stark pays for his Spotify, Pepper Potts and he shares iTunes, and Steve Rogers shares his vinyl records. You can count on him already hearing a song you’ve just heard yesterday on your YouTube recommendations, and you can expect him to have a dance matched to it; Yes, Barnes knows how to appreciate music as much as you would like to think, and he’s expected to bring more to the table as the New Year comes by.

Nine more hours until Stark’s fireworks display, and nine more hours until the Avengers would be screaming until their throats burn out. Sam thinks. Shame on Carol Danvers for suggesting that. He likes the idea though, creating noise. It’s music for him.

Everyone was preparing for Tony Stark’s get-together at his Lakehouse, exclusive only for the Avengers and friends. Sam Wilson was assigned for drinks, and he’s brought as much alcohol as his car can take ( some six cases in the trunk and Natasha Romanoff assures him that she can arrange ten more cases into his car and carry five bottles of aged wine on her lap in the passenger seat ). When everyone heard that Natasha was helping him, they’ve placed bets on how much they’re bringing; the highest bet was twenty cases or so; the two swore to beat that.

Natasha had attached a wagon at the back of his car and at least ten cases sat there ( even then, Sam had told Thor to bring his Asgardian mead and was more than happy to oblige ). The four had also decided to play a scam; Barnes would come early with Steve Rogers ( who were assigned with pool stuff, especially Steve’s vast water guns; where he got them, no one knows ) and then placed a late bet of three hundred euros that at least thirty cases or so would arrive; Sam and Natasha would have sixteen cases plus ten which would be twenty-six, and Barnes would bring four cases of vodka which Natasha would sneak in with to claim it as hers. Steve wouldn’t know, and if he did, “Sam told Buck to hold it for him during the drive since the car was too full.” Fuck yeah, it’s foolproof! and if Tony doesn’t want to lose thirty grand, Thor wouldn’t give his mead to anyone but the super-soldiers, i.e. Steve, Natasha, and Barnes.

“You wearing that?” Natasha asked Sam as he entered the driver’s seat. Her eyebrows were raised as her lips twitched into a comfortable smile. “Looks good on you. Never saw a man pull off that look like you do. Only, like—several.”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “Have you looked at a mirror recently? ‘Cause you look great. Seen it on a mannequin before, but it looks great.”

Sam wore the same suit he wore in one of his interviews as Captain America, the velvet three-piece tuxedo, wherein ( in favor of Bucky’s suggestion right after wearing it for the first time ) he got rid of the maroon tie and unbuttoned the first two buttons, got rid of the silk jacket in favor of some random latte coffee-colored coat that seemed too big for him but looked too good on him to take off, leaving the white button-up and rolled it to his elbows, he also left the velvet pantsuit, he exchanged his loafers for his brown boots, and he seemed all set for the party. He wasn’t exactly the fashion kind, but he had the sense to pull off the attire to the best of his abilities.

Natasha wore a white off-shoulder top and a maroon skirt that reached past her knees. It was a new look Sam saw her wear, more her. Her heeled boots matched his, and she had a velvet plaid scarf around her neck in some intricate braid as well as yellow-tinted sunglasses. Her fiery hair with platinum blonde highlights was pulled into a braid that wrapped around her head that fell into a low bun. She had her dark brown coat wrapped around several bottles of wine—at least seven. She, on the other hand, had a sense of style among them, and she never failed once ( unless her cover called for bad outfits ).

They looked like they were planning on matching, and at that, they laughed heartily until they were gasping.

“Here—little something to pop that color on you.” Natasha removed her scarf around her neck and placed it lazily around Sam’s neck. It did bring out the purple on his suit, and Sam shook his head in amusement at that.

That was some time then. It’s six-hour hours until New Year’s Eve when they arrived.

They were greeted by the Stark family, little Morgan more than enthusiastic as she blew on her colorful horn in greeting on the doorstep. They were then helped by Happy Hogan in placing the cases inside that joined Barnes’s contribution, and they’ve reached thirty or so cases of alcohol ( Steve collected the betting money from everyone and was happy that he was entering the New Year with something in his pocket ). The cases were cracked opened almost immediately once the Asgardians came ( even Bruce had his early share, surprisingly) and three cases were already used. By then when the Guardians came, the party was in full swing.

Sam had a glass in his hand as he walked down the hallway leading to the backyard with Maria Rambeau on his left and Pepper Potts on his right. Rambeau had been talking enthusiastically about some mission she recently has done with Fury while Pepper shared her ridiculous shenanigans with the Avengers just as enthusiastically. Sam would converse about the ridiculous things he’s done for Steve but — he was distracted.

Before they both separated at the doorway, she whispered something to Sam, and Natasha was right: “Bucky was serving looks Tony couldn’t whip out.”

Bucky stood in front of the crowd on a table with Natasha on his arm, laughing and hollering about some story Sam couldn’t bear to hear over the loud drumming music that Peter Quill burdened to play. Something that definitely should’ve buried itself in the sixties. Bucky wore a mustard v-neck sweater and black jeans that clung onto him—fucking cuffed too. He wore his favorite brown boots, caked with mud he couldn’t wash off. He wore a mocha-colored velvet jacket folded to his elbows in which showed the latte color inside of the jacket. He had on those ridiculous gloves Sam dared him to wear as a joke, and the fact Bucky went through it made him laugh.

Bucky saw him and showed him his best attempt at jazz hands, cutting himself off to show the black motorcycle gloves with the stupid Captain America logos on them, turning to the crowd as Natasha continued the lively conversation for him.

“I didn’t know Bucky knew to dress,” Rambeau said.

Pepper sighed. “Tony begged me to let him approach Barnes to ask.“

Sam raised an eyebrow. “You still told him to keep his distance?"

Pepper shrugged, a glint in her eye as they stood on the porch. "No. But he has promised to keep his hands to himself about the arm."

Sam hummed as his eyes settled back on Bucky, and it almost seemed ephemeral. Sam almost felt overdressed—Tony had a full-fledged suit, but that didn’t matter. Bucky looks like himself, with his cut hair and beard; sporting clothes Sam knew to be the real him, Bucky was enthusiastic and at the same time was his quiet self.

After a few drinks and more chattering, the party was ready to hit the New Year: everyone had a drink in their hand, some even had grabbed a bottle for themselves ( the vodka was that good ); there had almost been a fight ( Clint Barton couldn’t bear seeing the thirty or so cases, and even argued that Bucky shouldn’t even have bet at the last minute ); Tony had generously awarded several people as Best Dressed, Sam included with five other people ( Natasha, Bucky, Pepper, Rhodey, and Hope Van Dyne took the cake ); and the crowd dissipated into several places—the car park where there was a movie going on, near the lake where most of the girls were sharing two cases of beer on the grass, the gazebo swarming with people around a pool table, some guys on the deck seeing who can throw the farthest rock, and some went inside to listen to the early century music playing ( more of jumping between Bach and Louis Armstrong while Natasha shows people how to drink like a Russian ).

Sam wanted quiet. That’s what he was searching for.

Sam placed his glass on the edge of the pool table and let Rhodey take over him. Wiping the corner of his lips as he took off his coat, Sam greeted some more people as he made his way inside.

Inside, he fixed his collar as he heard some quiet laughter by Maria Hill, Natasha, and Rambeau. Natasha motioned for the stairs, and what overcome Sam to follow her instructions baffled him and scrutinized him. He went up the stairs, and it was almost empty except for the lounge area where all of the teenagers were playing their music from the small speaker Harley Keener brought.

Michelle "MJ” Jones thumbed towards down the hallway, towards where the driveway situated and spoke no further. Sam followed—Why he was following subtle blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments from these people, he did not know.

Sam rubbed the back of his neck as he ended up at the end of the hallway; he tried every door he passed him but they were locked. At the end of the hallway was a window doorway hidden by a curtain, and Sam pushed the door and was immediately greeted by Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra faintly played in the background. He closed the doorway and saw Bucky in the far corner on the armrest of the love seat there reading a book, biting on his flesh thumb as his legs splayed out beneath him. The moonlight and lamp beside Bucky served as his light, and the sudden chill of the night breeze urged Sam to rest his coat on his shoulders.

Bucky didn’t notice Sam, being too indulged in his book to bother to look up—but Bucky knew someone was with him; he heard the creak of the doorway and the footsteps that lingered on the other side.

Sam leaned against the railing as he looked out on the dirt path that faded into the front yard of the house where five cars parked, and if Sam turned to the extension of the balcony on the other side of the building, he would be able to see from above the current drive-in-movie happening.

“You got a nice birds-eye-view there?” Bucky calls out, not looking up from his page.

Sam turns around and grins at the joke, sauntering over to him and sitting at the far end of the red loveseat, throwing the throw pillow at Bucky who caught it. “There’s the light of the party. What? Are the War Machine stories not good enough? Said you’d love it,” Sam said. Bucky sat on the seat now, his feet against the wall as his legs rested on Sam’s lap; with a growing grin he suppressed with his teeth, he continued to read his book, his face suddenly lighting up with The Look.

“No, I love them…” Bucky turns to the next page; he held a paperback novel in his hands, too invested in the middle of the thick story to keep up with the conversation. His eyes were digesting vivid construction, all playing well into his imagination. “He’s funny, really is. I can see them… so vividly.”

“Are we talking about Rhodey or your book? What’s the title?”

Bucky stopped and his eyes peeled out from the book, and Sam could see his blue eyes glint with amusement and thrill. Bucky resigned to show the cover of the book as he draped an arm over his forehead theatrically, Sam smirking as he read The Da Vinci Code and Dan Brown on the worn-out cover covered with plastic.

“Have you read such a masterpiece?” Bucky said, his eyes closing as his companion laughed as he took the book away from him. Sam read the page he was on, and saw the familiar scenes, ingesting them as if he was in the book too.

“I’ve watched it, barely remembering it used to be a book,” Sam saw the exaggerated look of betrayal on Bucky’s face as the man took back the book, burying it even more to his face, mostly to avoid attention to his expressions. Bucky was growing into showing more unwanted emotions and was aware of the fact.

“We gotta watch it together,” Bucky whined, his voice muffled. “Langdon’s amazing. So is Sophie. So is fucking Dan Brown.”

Sam shook his head as he fell into a burst of easy laughter. “Sure. Whatever you say.”

The air settled down into a comfortable silence, with Frank Sinatra playing in the background, and Sam was still trying to figure out where it was. Some pop music was playing behind the wall, and the faint Jazz piano played from below, but Frank Sinatra was a stubborn bitch and ended up taking over Sam’s ears.

After long deliberation, Sam asked: “Where the fuck is that coming from?"

Bucky said, "What?”

“Frank Sinatra. Where is it?”

Bucky, without looking up from his book, raised the red speaker from the floor and onto his stomach, the faraway voice of Frank Sinatra played at a low volume with a few pitter-patter of rain in the background. Bucky raised the volume from his phone and continued to read, his eyebrows knitted in commitment.

Sam chuckled. “That’s cute.” He mumbles.

“Hmm… cuter,” Bucky murmured, covering his face with the book as he slides downwards into the love seat, half his body on Sam as the other man set his arm across the couch and the other arm on Bucky’s leg.

“What was that?”

“Hmm… seen cuter,” Bucky grumbled.

Sam shakes his head, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back, listening intently to the rain background on the song edit. He knew better than to realize it was an edited loop, at least an hour.

Bucky turned his body away from Sam as he rested his chin on the railing, sitting upright; Bucky had his eyes widened as he read the next few lines, but not only that, his chest tightened and he felt his blood rise to his cheeks. Did he call me cute? Fuck, did he? He couldn’t seem to turn the page, and however many times he read the page over and over again, he couldn’t understand it; all he could read was Sam Wilson.

Bucky knew that Sam still had his head leaned back and that only made Bucky tenser than before.

“What,” Bucky heard Sam say. “Getting into it?”

Bucky saw Sam enter the party and knew he was doomed from the start. Bucky started drinking so much, and he had drunk five bottles of beer within the first hour with Valkyrie, or Brunnhilde as he was allowed to call her, grateful that no one had the right mind or acknowledgment that he was a super-soldier, so everyone ultimately never knew that he couldn’t get drunk. Bucky then excused his blushing over his supposed drunkenness instead of seeing Sam in his ( Bucky’s ) coat and the collarbone he showed off. And was that the scarf that he gifted Natasha with? That bitch.

Bucky hummed. “Pretty fucking intense.”

“Tell me about it."

Bucky could feel his heart in his throat, almost choking him as all the heat gathered on his face, and he knew he didn’t need a mirror to know he was red.

Bucky grabbed his beer bottle and sipped at it, and not wanting to turn, Sam had brought the cushioned chair from below the table and brought it across Bucky, sitting on it; Sam propped up an elbow and rested his cheek against his palm, raising an eyebrow as he gave Bucky a patient look.

Bucky hid behind his book, quietly whining to himself.

Sam lowered down the book with his finger, revealing the blue eyes that lingered onto the words inked into a page, and the flustered skin of Bucky Barnes; as far as Sam was concerned, there was no part in the book that could make Bucky this embarrassed. Maybe me, Sam thinks, but that seems too farfetched to consider.

"I love it so much, you don’t understand,” Bucky murmurs, his eyes still on the book as it rests too near his lips. Sam hasn’t lifted his hand off of the book, and he doesn’t plan for it so soon. “The pacing and clues and everything. His cleverness—” Bucky’s eyes met brown ones. “—it’s something.”

Sam tilts his head, smiling. Damn that smile. “That character really is something.”

Bucky hums, not leaving his eyes. “He is, ain’t he…"

"Who are we talking about…”

“Take a wild guess—it’s not the professor anymore…”

Sam chuckles, still not looking away. “So, edited songs? Never should surprise me, but… it did.”

Bucky snorted, looks away only to meet eye contact again. “Why would it surprise you so much? You’ve known me so well I wouldn’t be surprised if you knew."

Sam’s lips parted. "Knew what?"

Bucky dog eared his page and placed it on the flat surface of the railing, burying his lips into his wrist as he looked away for a complete moment; for a moment, Sam saw his cheeks flare. "That…” Bucky scratched his head, avoiding eye contact. “I… can’t get… drunk?” Bucky raises a hand and an eyebrow; the two sharing a short laugh. “No—that, I, too, am a super-soldier."

"I knew that.”

Bucky stops himself, burying his lips into his fist as he closed his eyes. “Fuck, What don’t you know about me?”

Sam sighed, leaning back, looking out toward the horizon. “Well, shit, I don’t know, Your New Year’s resolution?” He said, looking back at him coolly. “Tell me all about it.”

Bucky stares at him, looking something past Sam’s irises in search of something malleable, something tangible. “I want to stay like this,” he tells Sam, and he’s so sure of it. “I want this to be… anything stable… and agreeable."

Sam searches for the same thing Bucky searched in his eyes— something agreeable, something that says, Here. This. This is where we are, where we agree, where we stay. And so Sam says: "No one’s calling for us. What else do you want?”

“Hmm…"

Frank Sinatra plays in the background, and Bucky replays the one hour loop as they stayed still, afraid to ruin the constant they wanted to bring to the next year; they both feared the worst, but who was able to take this away from them? A villain? Another Avengers Fallout? The other? No. Sam and Bucky were so good for each other that they’d have to be joking to leave the other behind.

"Go with me,” Sam says as he searches for some sort of resistance from the other man.

Bucky laughs at some distant memory. “I’ve got you,” he whispers. “in exchange for everything you’ve done for me, I got your six, your twelve, your nine, your everything."

"You have nothing to exchange.”

“Don’t think of it as a favor. Think of it—Think of it as my…"

Sam said, "What?”

Bucky shrugged. “Partnership. Compassion. Love?” His face contorts into something that was convincing itself that he did hear what he did say.

Sam chuckles as he breathes in, hearing the faint bellowing countdown of the people in the far distance, but Frank Sinatra is a stubborn bitch and he’s all Sam and Bucky could hear as the mimicked sounds of gunfire echoed in the inky atmosphere, and in the far distance, if they craned their necks at the right angle, they could see the winking flames of different colored fireworks in the distance over at the other side of the lake. The sounds of fireworks sound too much like bullets firing, but they were too deep into this to be afraid anymore.

Sam sighs. “I like the sound of that."

They don’t share a kiss, although they both knew what the other wanted to bring onto the table as they entered the new year: Music, one that consisted of both of their drumming hearts as they beat against their ribs, aching for release. Music, one they shared, one that their voices will drum together to say, I love you, as always.

#sbbingo1 #sambucky #winterfalcon #sam wilson #bucky barnes #mcu #marvel #happy new year guys #france: works #france: writing

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thatknittinglady · 5 years

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Thinking about The Joker movie

So I watched the Joker movie, and honestly it is ONE of the only Jokers I can see other then BTAS, I can see Harley falling in love with. Like full on seriously. I can imagine her talking to him and just you know falling in honest to god love. Just by the way he is, and is portrayed. So spoilers of course. This is more of the way I think Harley and Joker would interact with this, rather then a review.

The thing is, that the way its in my head is much like the BTAS way, you know Harley is just like ‘so cool’ and all of that. The old Gothom Hospital was Burned down in the riots and everyone was temporarily housed in Blackgate as Arkham was retrofitted into what it is. Harley is one of the people brought in in order to help categorize the people there as to where they go. So she gets to talk to him and she is just like “look all your records were lost in the fire, could ya give a gal a name?” and being all fairly subdued due to the massive amount of drugs pumped into him he can’t really talk or anything.

So Harley goes on against them and goes ‘look he can barely talk lets let off on the meds’ and people just go. ‘This guy has literally killed three people in this place, yeah no’ but Harley knowing that these things can you know be detrimental to health, goes and lessens the does herself. So she can talk to him and all that, get everything done. A lot of people just got shuffled around a lot so no one there really knows who he is the point of this.

She sets him up for an interview and so asks him his name. “What can I call you? I got them to lessen your meds so things should be better.” She polite and kind and smiles you know.

“I don’t like my name, I like the name Joker.” so Harley wanting to get his trust to open up and all of that is like.

“Okay! How about telling me about yourself Mister Joker? Or can I call you MIsta J?” Harley laughs and you know he’d perk up and smile.

“I like Mista J.”

“Okay, Mista J, can you tell me when your birthday is?” and he’s confused. You know why do you need to know these things. “Well, you were pretty badly drugged, I guess ya don’t remember. But some people tried to burn down the hospital you were in. You’re in Blackgate right now, but we lost a lot of records in the fire. A lot of people quit or were moved, and some people had to be brought in from Bludhaven like me! So no one really knows ya here anymore I’m really sorry about that too.” so they talk for awhile Harley gets the info we all think is real and all that. He’s being all nice and everything since Harley is you know nice, she is happy and just EGEAR.

“I would love to talk to ya again Mista J, we’ll set it up! So long as you’re good and don’t do anything to hurt anyone.”

“of course! I’ll do my best.” so of course the staff is a bit you know mad that she lessened his dose, but after a week and nothing happens they back off. She gets him back to a room to talk and he’s just telling her a mix of lies and truths.

“I just wished he only hurt me, my dad you know. I could take it, I’d act out, so that he’d never hurt my mom. Cause I love her.”

“You are a real hero for trying to keep your mom safe! Not very many people would do that sort of thing!” she taking down notes. “You know I wish my mom is as good as yours.”

“Is she really bad?”

“OH she’s just an alcholic Mista J. I tried to help her so much, get her into programs but she always relaspes. There just comes a time you just have to step back and let a person just...”

“Destory themselves?”

“KInda I guess Mista J. I want her to be like she was when I was little, you know always happy and smiling. But she just isn’t anymore. I figure if she wants to die, then she should just-” *puts her fingers to her head and pulls the trigger* “Make my life easier.”

“You’re a doctor! How can you think that?!”

“Mista J, everyone has those kind of thoughts! The only bad thing is acting on those thoughts!” he starts laughing and she laughs with him. “I’m so happy that you can laugh, you are really laughing right? I want you to be happy Mista J.” so its just, like wow. See a person who is genuine in wanting to help people, but sorta becomes obsessed with him. Someone kinda easy to manipulate, but yet not really. Manipulate in the way that they don’t see the lie being told. Eventually Joker stops eating to manipulate her. Either in an attempt to escape or gain sympathy because these people are not fully trained to deal with them.

“Mista J, why aren’t you eatin?”

“I always used to eat with my mom, todays the aniversy of her death. I just don’t want to eat alone anymore.”

“Well, if you would be nice, and not try to hurt me, or anyone else, i’ll eat with you. We can talk everyday then!”

“Promise?”

“As much as I can! I can’t really promise 100% but I will do everything in my power to do this for ya Mista J!” maybe she like sees a way to get in the head of him, but really he’s gotten into her head. He’s manipulating her.

“So bam! He hits me really hard, and that’s when they finally rescue me, but now I’ve got this thing in my head. I used to think its a condition.”

“That’s what my mom says about her crap. “its a condition, people don’t think that maybe its just the way they are. They blame things on other people right? Because its easier to do that. Do you blame people?”

“Nope. Why would I blame someone else? When I smothered my mom in the hospital I did it because I wanted to.” Harley, blinking just shakes her head laughing.

“Mista J, a guy that says he’d take a punch for his mom isn’t the type of guy to hurt her.” Then she actually touches him, like grab his hand and smile. “I know its hard to tell real things from some bad thoughts in your head. I really wish my mom was better so much I can see her being good again. Like it really happened.” so she doesn’t actually believe he killed his mom.

“I killed three kids, and then a doctor. Two orderlies.”

“Well I know the doctors and the two other guys, why did you hurt them though Mista J?”

“I didn’t like them. They were mean.”

“You’ll tell me if I’m mean right? I don’t want to be mean to you. I want you to be happy.” So you like SEE how this relationship works when Harley does go crazy, when she helps him kills and murder. Eventually, he is just being awkward with the utensils, and looking at her so she gets them to uncuff him for the meals and stuff. She tells him actual truths about herself, but we don’t know how much he is lying or not.

“You know what would make me really happy?”

“Yes! Please tell me!”

“Flowers. Can I gift you some flowers?”

“Oh my goodness Mista J! You are a charmer! I adore flowers!” she tells him her favorite flowers and just praises him for this sort of thing. “I think its really important to tell a girl you like her through flowers like the old way. It’s so romantic, I think all romance has left the world.” Then we see something kinda scary, when she gets home there are flowers. In her apartment, her favorite flowers. So of course this is kinda scary, but then that’s it. Its just flowers.

“Mista J, did you send flowers to my place?”

“Yes I did, the door was open when the delivery guy came by. Is that okay? Did you not like them.” *puppy dog face* and Harley is more concerned with loosing ground then her fear.

“No! Of course I love them! It just a little surprising! But surprises aren’t bad at all.” Then slowly, like a month, and eventually comes the time to get everyone moved. Harley’s work is basically done, and is ready to go to Bludhaven.

“I don’t want to go there, people are still so mean to me. Can’t I be transferred to your hospital?”

“I’ll do what I can Mista J.” and he kisses her. The orderlies come in and start beating him. So she grabs one of the sticks and actually beats them off him. You know defending him. So she actually can’t help him be transferred anymore, and now knows that she has to help this guy, because she feels like she is the only one who cares. So in the last meeting, she slips him a note. Basically asking him to behave and she’ll get him to Bludhaven. And during the transfer actually takes him, and gets him away from the trucks getting him out and away.

Then the shoe drops, and they basically get jumped by Joker goons, and she is kidnapped. Then probably tormented, hurt, but she is just trying to help Joker. And soon just does it. Like one of the orderlies is brought up and she kills him, and finds that you know what. Killing is easy and not really that bad anymore. I mean seriously.

All these thoughts and scenes are in my head because THIS guy is one of the few iterations I can see HARLEY falling in love with. In helping and all that jazz you know.

#joker #joker movie #BTAS

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ulyssessklein · 6 years

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Steve Cropper – On the Road with Dave Mason with the Rock and Soul Review Tour 2018

By: Rick Landers

Steve Cropper – Photo credit Dawn Studios

It’s uncanny how someone with the legendary musical chops, legacy of songwriting masterpieces and world-class reputation can fly below the radar of popular culture.

Steve Cropper has moved in the world of music with with such popular icons as Elvis Presley Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Johnny Cash, Booker T. Jones, Dave Mason, Little Richard, and hundreds of other well-known musicians, yet he’s mostly known within music celebrated circles.

Cropper is one among them and a highly respected equal in the pantheon of musical inventiveness and hip, hepcat coolness, but he appears to be quite comfortable without the whirl of celebrity that can wrestle one away from the freedom of a private life.

When a teen in high school, Steve and his friends formed a band called The Mar-Keys, a group that had an instrumental, “Last Night” that charted at #3 on Billboard. He and his childhood best friend, Duck Dunn, would also later find themselves trading or conjoining guitar licks, with Booker T. and the MGs, a milestone group that gave us a groove jazz raunch called “Green Onions”. The song has a magnetic groove and an occasional cat-like turgid growl of a riff from Cropper’s Telecaster. Today, over fifty years later, the dual bass lines of Dunn and Cropper remain cool and timeless.

Steve would hang with Otis Redding and co-write “Sitting on the Dock of a Bay”, work with Wilson Pickett as a co-writer of “In the Midnight Hour”, Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man” has the ink marks of Cropper embedded in it and as a Stax session player his Telecaster can be heard on scores of releases.

And later as a member of The Blues Brothers with John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, Cropper and Duck would rub shoulders with such luminaries as, Aretha Franklin, John Candy, Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, Carrie Fisher, James Brown, Twiggy, John Lee Hooker and other musician-actors.

There’s more, there’s much more, but we can only hope for an autobiography of the man Mojo magazine ranked as the best guitar player in the world.

Today, we find Steve Cropper out on the road with another guitar master and singer-songwriter, Dave Mason (Traffic), who has his own fascinating story to tell. Their Rock and Soul Revue launches this week. We can expect to hear many of the hit songs that they’ve appeared on, like “Green Onions”, “Dear Mr. Fantasy”, “All Along the Watchtower”, “We Just Disagree”, or at least we can hope that they’ve included songs that will pull back the curtain of time for many of us and introduce the best of classic rock and soul to a new generation of fans.

Steve Cropper and Dave Mason Rock & Soul Review Tour 2018

TICKETS ON SALE HERE

******

Rick Landers: I was hunting around while researching for our interview for an autobiography of you, but it looks like you haven’t written one. Is there a book out on your life, that’d be pretty cool to read?

Steve Cropper: No, people they’ve been asking me that for 25 years I don’t know if I do or not, I’ve thought about it several times and about taking off a month or two and write a book.

I know, I should have been writing and done it a long time ago, all the time.

I’d like to take the project and do it. That’s how I am. Like great painters who paint one painting an hour here and on this painting an hour, move it around and never get bored.

I don’t think of it that way, I’d rather start from scratch and wind up with an end result. I can kick my own butt, because people ask me all the time, “Is there a book?” “When you gonna write a book?”.

Rick: A friend of mine, bassist Mark Gougeon, played with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, recently told me he loved Duck Dunn’s bass playing and recalled playing “Liberty” while on tour with Mitch. Do you remember the song?

Steve Cropper: Liberty! Absolutely. Those guys are great.

Rick: I recall seeing you guys at Detroit’s Cobo Hall with Wilbert Harrison and Creedence Clearwater Revival and you guys got a standing ovation from that huge crowd, and blew everyone away. You guys were great, so I just want to say a belated thank you!

Steve: Absolutely!

I wanted to do some more, and his people made him (Booker T. Jones) a big offer, but he went off to do something else.

Steve Cropper: I was in a band that use to play in garages, In high school we were already playing jobs in our senior proms in our junior year. We were pretty good, I like to think we were, because we also played all the hits of the time. So, the schools in Memphis would hire us because we’d play all those song. They couldn’t afford those bands they were listening to, The Royales and Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. They could afford us and we was just glad to play.

Rick: Early on you and your high school band, the Mar-Keys had a hit “Last Night”, that was a number one hit, wasn’t it?

Steve Cropper: It was number three. I couldn’t figure it out. I don’t know, forty odd some years to figure out why it was a hit. I recall the first time I played it in the living room on the console record player, my mom started doing the twist!

I’d have to say it was probably one of the first twist instrumentals. Because Hank Ballard and the Midnighters did it, Chubby Checker on American Bandstand did it. I never thought of “The Twist” when we did ”Last Night”. Pat Boone covered it. (Steve sings the two notes) It’s that simple, two notes.

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Rick: I understand that some people don’t think you were on that record. Want to set the record straight here?

Steve Cropper: Ah, history books say Steve Cropper wasn’t even ever in the Mark-Keys, because there’s no guitar on the record. Aha, but I was on the session, on the record. If you listen to the record you can you can hear a hold down on the organ. One C note I think, I’m holding it down.

So Smoochy, being Jerry Lee “Smoochy” Smith could play, Smoochy who wrote the lick (Steve sings the lick) That was his lick. We knew it was a hit lick. He wanted to play it. And, they wanted to play a piano solo. So, I held that note down for him when he played.

Rick: So, you were in The Mark-Keys and you’re definitely on that record and we’ve got that done.

Steve Cropper: Playing together in band together in high school.

Rick: Were you surprised to hear Screaming Jay Hawkins sing “Bite It”?

Steve Cropper: I was more surprised when Little Richard, he took “Green Onions in ’62. It just had Penniman as the writer. He probably didn’t know who the writers were.

They turned it around real easy. I mean, Little Richard turned out to be a friend of mine and I never mentioned it to him. I know he didn’t do it on purpose. But, he took “Green Onions” and wrote some kind of verse to it.

Rick: Let’s talk a little about guitar. When you were first drawn to guitar I recall that a lot of bands, their lead instrument wasn’t guitar, it was saxophone. So, what drew you to the guitar?

Steve Cropper: Ah, that’s a good question. I think because some of my buddies in school played guitar.

You reminded me of Joey Dee and the Starlighters and “The Peppermint Twist” and their saxophone player use to hang from the ceiling in this club they played in Philly or wherever it was. He’d play that solo upside down. [Laughs].

But, I don’t know we’re influenced by Chuck Berry, people like that, and influenced by Lowman Pauling from the Five Royales, because Duck and I went out and saw them one night. We played this little club downstairs and the guy who owned ite said, “Nobody will come see you guys.” So we had the night off. So, Duck and I got tickets and it was the Beverly Ballroom and we got to see Lowman Pauling play live and it just blew us away.

I went home and he use to hang his guitar way down by his knees. Well, Chuck Berry did that too, but Chuck would take a regular strap and hang the guitar down there. So, I get home that night and I’m rouncing through my closet and my Mom gets up and asks, “Steve what ya doing?” and I say, “I’m trying to find some old belts.” And I did that. I finally found them, put them together and had a long strap.

Rick: Do you still have it?

Steve Cropper: Ah, no wish I did. Wish I had the guitar too. I’ve got pictures of it.

Rick: What kind of guitar?

Steve Cropper: A Byrdland at that tine.

Rick: What got you into Teles?

Steve Cropper: Well, I started doing sessions and I found out that the Tele worked a lot better, it was more versatile for sessions than a Gibson was. Nothing to do with Gibson.

If you hit chords on a Gibson, it’s gonna distort slightly and with the Telecaster, it didn’t. Now, I never picked up on the Strat, because that’s more a player’s guitar. And that’s what Dave Mason does, most of his guitars are built on the Strat.

I’m a Tele guy, always been one. Even though the one I play now wasn’t made by Fender. I have several. Nothing against Fender, not at all, there’s nothing political there or anything, nothing against those guys. I love those guys and they love me. And I know Henry Juszkiewicz. He lives down the road and I can walk to his house.

And it was all about endorsing. I’m just one of those guys. I don’t endorse things. You know, I go down and buy my own strings.

I did endorse a guitar for a long time, with Peavey. And the reason I did it was Harley Peavy said he’d make me a guitar for under a thousand dollars. I said that’s what I’ve gotta have. It’s called a Cropper Classic, made for about six or seven years – it’s a good guitar.

Dexterity-wise they’re not fast. They’re a very tight guitar if you play it properly. And a lot of the rock guys did the Les Paul and the other ones did the Strats, because it’s a faster instrument. You can play more notes faster. The Tele is real tight, but it’s great for chords and rhythm lines and that kind of stuff. And you can play a lot of notes.

Especially in the Stax days, and before the Stax time, I use to double the bass lines a lot. There was a lot of them like that. Even on “Last Night”, on “Green Onions” I basically doubled the bass on it, it’s basically a Fender bass (Duck Dunn) and an Esquire (Steve Cropper).

The one I used on “Dock of the Bay”, the single stuff, is in the Smithsonian now. I gave it to them,. The other one, I think they got on display already. The other one is the frog inlay guitar. And it’s a the blonde neck Telecaster I used on Rod Stewart’s Atlantic Crossing album. On “Tonight’s the Night” and on all of those songs, I used it on the whole album and I think he had four or five hits on that one.

Rick: I was watching a video of you guys and back in the day a lot of bass players used big thick picks, but Dunn is playing finger style. I was a bit surprised to see that.

Steve Cropper: With Duck what people don’t know was his sound is like he’s playing with pick, but he had real, real stiff fingernails and he’d play the upstroke and would pop it. He’d start with a finger and he’d pop off and the last thing you’d hear was his fingernail hitting the string and it sounded like he was playing with a pick.

He came up with some pretty great bass lines. He was good when he played with other people he played with too. Duck was something. He knew a lot about music. He didn’t know whole hell of a lot about bass [Laughs] But, he could play these lines!

He played so solid and create these lines and and when he played with a good drummer he was dead on. You put him on his own and he’d go “Where do I go?”. I asked him in to do some handclaps one time. I realized, I won’t do that again!

I needed some handclaps, so Duck was out there in the hall and I said “Hey man, come in hear and do some hand claps.” Oops! [Laughs]

Rick: I was listening to Nudge it Up A Notch with Felix Cavaliere. And on “To Make it Right” You got a really cool groove going and in the first couple of bars I heard this Curtis Mayfield thing.

Steve Cropper – Photo credit: Dawn Studios

Steve Cropper: There ya go, yeah. I loved Curtis. He was great. Booker knew more about what Curtis was actually doing. I would stand down stage and watch him play and still couldn’t figure out everything he was doing. And one of the neat things was we got to do a tribute one time for the Grammies and they did a tribute after he passed away

Rick: Les Paul had a tribute for his 95th birthday at Carnegie Hall, were you there?

Steve Cropper: Naw, unfortunately. We did a thing here at the Ryman, And they had bunch of musicians come in and play, and his own band was there. I did go down and play on that.

Rick: Can you tell us about your own studio?

Steve Cropper: The thing about the studio, the old one it’s not there, [Laughs] they finally ran me out of a town or made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. And I said,”Okay”, We moved to a 22-story high rise, however, we are now in the RCA building the one RCA built for Elvis Presley in ‘64. And we took over the little room in the back, called Studio C and I think Dave Cobb has Studio A, and B is a museum and has been for a long time.

First session I ever did in Nashville, and I was still in high school or just out. I drove up here and played a little session, another session in that Studio B. I don’t even remember what the song was, I remember the time doing it and all that, but don’t remember the who the artist was.

Rick: Did you ever go swimming in Webb Pierce’s guitar shaped swimming pool about a block away?

Steve Cropper: No, I know where that is, at the motel up there? I can walk to it from RCA real easy. There’s a room Billy Burnette stayed in and they told him that Elvis stayed in that room one time.

Rick: How long have you known Dave Mason?

Steve Cropper: Forever. But, I’ve been Europe working and he’s here. so there you go.

He told me the other day that he was at the concert I did in ’67 at Hammersmith Odeon. He was there with a bunch of guys. I don’t know how old he was, he’s younger than me, a little bit. I was 26 then, Elvis and I were both 26 then.

Rick: Let’s talk about your Rock and Soul Revue tour with Dave?

Steve Cropper: I think my pr guy Dennis Bootright, I didn’t tell him I wasn’t going back to Europe, he might have taken it that way. We had a new album out with the Blues Brothers band and we put it out around October, November and it ran about four months, usually albums today now run about four days.

This one kept going because colleges kept picking it and playing it,

And, I said maybe this is the one they’re looking for. Well, it’s kind of run its course now, I guess. I don’t know if you’ve seen it, it’s called, The Last Shade of Blue Before Black. It did real good. We were all surprised it did as good as it did.

And I had mentioned on a gig last year, and told the guys I know we need some work in the States, but we don’t want to stop playing Europe. And they only way to do that is to get a new album and the guys jumped on it. We had more songs than we could possibly record for three albums. So, we recorded it they mixed it and it turned out real good,

Rick: On the tour with Dave Mason are you going to be recording for a DVD?

Steve Cropper: We will and we already did one, up in North Carolina, recorded a show which someone will edit and turn it into a DVD that fans can buy as merchandise, if they want. And it will be basically the same show, I don’t think we’ll change it that much.

After we finish we said, “Well, that was fun!” And there was nothing about changing things. There was no comments on the ride home about changing things, or doing this first or doing this last, or changing the arrangements. Just keep the show going.

I don’t know if we’ll do it for some show. There’s some songs we took out that Dave might want to put back in, which is okay. We’ll just do that, do that and with the band, and some days we do have to rehearse again before we open.

We open up in Kansas City I think on the Fifth (July), and Dave wants to rehearse again on the Fourth. My wife says, “The Fourth!?” I think I’ve actually only stayed at home only three or four times in some thirty odd years. We’re usually in Europe and they don’t celebrate it, of course! [Laughs]

So, we just stick around the hotel and find something on tv, sometimes bicycle racing. They show a lot of that over there. And the Grand Prix, they cover that a lot. We watch either bicycling or cricket, and sometimes tennis.

Rick: Did you ever play the Grande Ballroom in Detroit?

Steve Cropper: I don’t think we ever played we did that, we went to a few shows with the Mar-Keys, I went back to recording, then we went out with Booker T and we went out to rock festivals,

Rick: I think of “Green Onions” in terms of Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”, Santo’s and Johnny’s “Sleepwalk”. It was very cool and slinky song, a real classic. I’ve gotta say that I’ve much preferred it when it’s played at a slower tempo.

Steve Cropper: I think when we played it too fast, Duck and I would look at each other, but then where’s the fire? So, we just had a rule, if it starts fast, you keep it fast, you don’t slow things down back to where it’s suppose to be. You just keep it up there. That’s all you can do. If you play it too slow, it’ll stay that way. We were sticklers on that. The groove was what counted.

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Rick: Do you play acoustic much?

Steve Cropper: I don’t. I did a little but, now days it really hurts my dexterity. I can’t play one. All those country guys, they know how to string it with looser strings.

I don’t play with a capo either. So, it’s a stretch for me.

About the Royales, on my album I’d written that all of the songs were written before 1958. But, I did some research later and found out they were all written prior to 1953. Lowman wrote most of those songs in the ‘40s.

So, what happened, I grew up on those songs and what had happened was King Records bought them and bought the masters and re-released them.

Rick: They were on Appolo before that, right?

Steve Cropper: Something like that, a lot of those guys came out of spiritual groups. Church groups. Lowman probably did too, probably came out of church. But after that hit run, the Royales went back to the church.

Rick: To wrap this up, let me ask you one more question. How’s your golf game compared to your wife’s? And be honest!

Steve Cropper: [Laughs] Well, my wife is on the golf course course right now and my daughter’s a sub-scratch golfer.

I am and have played all my life. And I thought, you know I married this girl and she’s a scratch golfer which is great, her Dad’s a scratch golfer, which is great and I thought maybe some of that knowledge will rub off. It didn’t. [Laughs]

I walk with them and their caddies and I know the world they live in, they’d rather be a guitar player than hitting a golf ball. I don’t know what it is. It’s funny. Most of those golfers are frustrated musicians and most musicians are frustrated golfers.

Rick: I’d like to mention a few names and get some quick responses from you. Let’s start with Otis Redding.

Steve Cropper: Well, my definitive thing is he was the most non- prejudiced human being I’ve ever came in contact with. I mean that sincerely. You really gotta understand the word prejudice and how they talk about other people, and Otis was just the opposite. One of the nicest guys you’d ever want to meet. And then Allen (Allen Jackson) said one time, “You know Otis had a million dollar smile”. What he meant by that, he said that if you saw him and you was a hundred yards away, he was already smiling at you and by the time you got up to him you were his new best friend. That’s how Otis was. A good guy, best I’ve ever met.

Rick: Duck Dunn.

Steve Cropper: Well what do you say about a guy you were with from the sixth grade on? He was your best friend. It would take books to describe it. Real great.

He’s the “go to” guy, and you know if you wanted something, if you wanted somebody to talk to, you get on the phone and talk to him. We were pretty close.

Rick: So, you found your values were right on with his.

Steve Cropper: Very much. We agreed on everything. Music and everything.

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Rick: John Belushi.

Steve Cropper: Well, he had a heart of gold, a very talented guy and he also had a big appreciation for music. I don’t think a lot of people knew that he was a drummer and a singer and he was good at both, and an actor, all those things, Never refused an autograph, that’s one thing about his stardom. He never sent anybody away never, never said he didn’t have time. Takes a big heart.

Rick: Jeff Beck:

Steve Cropper: The most talented musician I think I’ve ever worked with. .

Rick: A lot of people put him up at number one or two, with Hendrix.

Steve Cropper: As a guitar player, that’s hard to say. [Chuckles]

Rick: Of course, well that would be Steve Cropper right?

Steve Cropper: [Laughs].

Incredible guitar player. From the time I produced him, what I observed was that he got better with age

But, I get asked all the time in interviews if we’re talking about guitar stuff, I get asked who’s your favorite guitar player and I say, Jose’ Feliciano. And they go: “Well he plays acoustic player, guts stings.”

And I say, “Yeah, but you’ve never heard him play, and I did.”

Rick: A monster guitar player.

Stever Cropper: He’s a MONSTER, big word, all in capitals. You got it. There’s no one better than Jose’. But, he didn’t make it as a guitar player, he made it as a singer. And playing his flamenco style guitar.

Rick: Mitch Ryder.

Steve Cropper: What do I say about Mitch? Very famous guy, a lot of hit records, a lot of talent. We became really, really good friends when he came down to Stax, down in Memphis and I think I told you I ran into him many, many years later and it was like nothing had happened and it was like “Wow!, here ya are!” [Laughs]

Rick: Jerry Wexler.

Steve Cropper: Well, he’s probably one of the most knowledgeable guys and he really did devote his time and appreciation to great musicians.

And to give you an example of that; He called me one night and I was still living in Memphis and this was many years ago and he said, “Steve I recorded a guy last night, and I promise you he played every lick you ever thought of playing. [Pauses]

It was Mark Knopfler and it was after “Sultans of Swing”!

And I never get tired of listening to it. I don’t listen to it often, but when I hear it on the radio I go, “Wow!”. He is so good and didn’t they get inducted this year, didn’t they?

Rick: I’m not sure, but I was going to say he doesn’t use a pick.

Steve Cropper: Yeah, You know, I slow myself down, but I do both. I play a lot of things with a pick, I have to play those chords with a pick to get those shanks, you know we call “shanks” those real sharp, like on “Green Onions” and all that. And I learned to, instead putting it in my teeth, I learned to cradle it and then play with my fingers. But, then it kind of slows me down, but I’m still playing with my fingers a lot. Call myself a fingerpicker, Knopfler can play it all. Knopfler can play everything! I love the way he [Mark Knopfler] went with his music, I really enjoyed that. And I got to play with who he played drums with, Terry Williams, and went and played a show with Dave Edmunds.

Rick: Getting back to Jerry Wexler, do you know what he wanted on his tombstone?

Steve Cropper: Nope.

Rick: More bass! [Both laugh]

Steve Cropper: More cowbell!

Steve Cropper and Dave Mason Rock & Soul Review Tour 2018

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