Duck Dunn's passing earlier this week was really sad news to me. During the '60s and '70s, he was the in-house bassist for Stax Records which, in my opinion, was the greatest soul/R&B label that ever existed. Their in-house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, are arguably the best in soul music as well, and so you can guess Dunn played a big part in developing that signature Stax sound. Some of his classic contributions are for the songs "Dock of the Bay" by Otis Redding, "In the Midnight Hour" by Wilson Pickett, and "Hold On, I'm Comin'" by Sam & Dave.
He originally was pretty bad at playing guitar. His schoolboy friend who lived down the street from him in Memphis, Steve Cropper (another very important name/musician to know in the Stax lexicon), formed a local band called the Royal Spades. Duck didn't want to be left out, so he decided to buy a bass and learn how to play. He did leave the Royal Spades, which turned into the Mar-Keys when initially recording for Stax, but then morphed into Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The band also released instrumental records, most notably their "Green Onions" (1962) single which reached Top 5 of the Billboard pop chart. Duck came back to work with Booker T. Jones and Cropper after that hit around 1964, replacing bassist Lewie Steinberg. Hip Hug-Her (1967) and Melting Pot (1971) are two of the band's classic instrumental LPs which feature Duck.
Anyway, I could go on and on about Stax and find more tidbits on Duck himself, but basically everyone should know the music of this label: Otis Redding (my favorite vocalist, period), Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, Mavis Staples, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, and many others. Once you discover the greatness of their music and become obsessed like me, I recommend these two books, Sweet Soul Music: Rhythm and Blues and the Southern Dream of Freedom by Peter Guralnick and Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records by Rob Bowman. I actually wrote a mini-review of the latter over at Goodreads (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/114774756) a while back, if you're interested.
Rest in Peace, Duck.
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