Farewell To The Meathead, Closing Credits

by Kevin Burton

   I’m supposed to be good with words, but sometimes there just aren’t any.

   I’m having trouble expressing my distress at the violent death of Actor/Director Rob Reiner. Reiner and his wife Michele were found dead Sunday and their son Nick is now facing two counts of murder. Sadness, disbelief, anger, despair, they are all in there. But something else is going on that I can’t yet describe.

   Tell you what though, most of the week I’ve had the All In The Family closing theme song, going through my head. Reiner of course, before his work as a director took off, played Michael Stivic, aka the Meathead, on the groundbreaking 70s show.

   No, not “Those Were the Days,” that was the opening theme, sung by Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton.

  The song that played at the end of the show is a piano-driven instrumental, and now I find out it’s called “Remembering You.”

   That’s just too much. Really hard to take.

   That a man who was so woven into the fabric of my 70s upbringing would meet such a violent end, is just stunning to me in a way I can’t explain.  It’s disheartening, demoralizing. Until now my every thought of Reiner has been of admiration and joy.

    And my final thought is, of course, closing credits. When our brief, seeming sit-com-like half-hour life is over, there will be closing credits, written by God.

   What will mine say? What will yours say? What did Reiner’s say?

   I also want to note the passing of longtime Stax Records producer and guitarist Steve Cropper.

   Do yourself a favor, get on You Tube or wherever and find a Steve Cropper interview. He wasn’t a household name perhaps in the way Reiner was, but his talent and influence were gigantic.

   Thousands of rockers have given millions of interviews. Cropper was just so infectious when he talked rock and roll and the things happening around Memphis in the 60s. He made you think you were there, or want to be there for sure.

   If you had somehow not been exposed to rock and roll and learned of it from a Cropper interview, you would it would make you want to run out and check this thing out.

   See also John Sebastian (still with us thank God). His interviews are a ton of fun.

   Here is part of a Steve Cropper tribute written by Greg Brodsky that talks about Cropper and the part he played in the accidental smash hit, “Green Onions.”

   “Steve Cropper, the legendary guitarist, songwriter and producer of many of music’s biggest hits as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the house band for soul label Stax Records, has died at 84. The news was first reported by Variety Dec. 3, via his son, Cameron.”

   “The cause of death was not immediately known, although some reports said Cropper had been suffering from pneumonia; he died in Nashville.”

   “While at the Memphis-based label, Cropper co-wrote hits, played guitar behind, and produced such legends as Otis Redding (“[Sittin’ On] the Dock of the Bay”), Eddie Floyd (“Knock on Wood”) and Wilson Pickett (“In the Midnight Hour”). As the guitarist for the M.G.’s, Cropper, along with the band’s namesake organist Booker T. Jones, drummer Al Jackson Jr. and bassist Lewie Steinberg, replaced in 1965 by Donald “Duck” Dunn, performed on hundreds of sessions, shaping the soul of American music,” Brodsky wrote.

   “Jones and Cropper tell the story of how – along with Steinberg and Jackson – they accidentally created a masterpiece. The quartet was booked to record demos, but the scheduled singer arrived too hoarse to record. Instead of packing up, the band stayed and started noodling on a blues riff.”

   “Jim Stewart, the owner of Stax, was engineering the session that day. He liked what he heard and began recording the band without telling them. When they finished, he liked it so much that he wanted to release it immediately as a single. The group agreed and returned to the studio to write and record a B-side for the new song they named ‘Behave Yourself.’”

    “Back in the studio, Cropper asked Jones to play a riff he’d played during a recent show. Jones recalls the moment: ‘I’d forgotten those riffs…so I asked Steve to stand next to the organ and help refresh my memory. I played several licks before Steve stopped and shouted, ‘That’s it!’ He identified the opening notes of what would become ‘Green Onions.’ The song burst to life on the spot.”

   The next day, Cropper took the then-unnamed B-side to a local DJ, who played it on the air four times in a row. The station’s phones lit up with callers asking where they could buy the song. Naturally, “Green Onions” graduated to the A-side. The single reached number 1 on the R&B chart and number 3 on the Hot 100.”

   It’s sad to lose Cropper and Reiner. It’s good to know Cropper had a more peaceful sendoff. Even so, closing credits….