Donald "Duck" Dunn

Donald "Duck" Dunn
Background information
Birth name	Donald Dunn
Also known as	Duck
Born	November 24, 1941 (1941-11-24) (age 69) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Genres	Rock, soul, rhythm and blues
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer, actor
Instruments	Bass
Years active	1960–present
Associated acts	Albert King, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Eric Clapton, Mar-Keys, The Blues Brothers
Website	www.duckdunn.com
Notable instruments
Lakland basses

Donald "Duck" Dunn (born November 24, 1941) is an American bass guitarist, record producer, and songwriter. Dunn is notable for his 1960s recordings with Booker T. & the M.G.'s and as a session bassist for Stax Records, which specialized in blues and gospel-infused southern soul and Memphis soul music styles. Dunn also performed on recordings with The Blues Brothers, Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Albert King, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Guy Sebastian, Rod Stewart, Bob Dylan, Roy Buchanan and Arthur Conley.

Biography

Early life

Dunn was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He was nicknamed "Duck" while watching Disney cartoons with his father one day, Dunn grew up playing sports and riding his bike with fellow future professional musician Steve Cropper. After Cropper began playing guitar with a friend named Charlie Freeman, Dunn decided to pick up the bass guitar. Eventually, along with drummer Terry Johnson, the four became "The Royal Spades". The Messick High School group picked up keyboardist Jerry "Smoochy" Smith, singer Ronnie Angel (also known as Stoots), and a budding young horn section in baritone saxophone player Don Nix, tenor saxophone player Charles "Packy" Axton, as well as trumpeter (and future co-founder of The Memphis Horns) Wayne Jackson.

1960s: First bands

Cropper has noted how the self-taught Dunn started out playing along with records, filling in what he thought should be there. "That's why Duck Dunn's bass lines are very unique", Cropper said, "They're not locked into somebody's schoolbook somewhere". Axton's mother Estelle and her brother Jim Stewart owned Satellite Records and signed the group, who would have a national hit with "Last Night" in 1961 under their new name "The Mar-Keys". The bassist on "Last Night" was Donald "Duck" Dunn, but he left the Mar-Keys in 1962 to join Ben Branch's big band.^[1]

Booker T and the M.G.s was founded by Steve Cropper and Booker T. Jones in 1962. The original bassist, on early hits such as "Green Onions", was Lewie Steinberg; Dunn replaced him in 1965. Drummer with the band was Al Jackson, Jr..

Late 1960s-1970s: Session musician

Stax became known for Jackson's drum sound, the sound of The Memphis Horns, and Duck Dunn's grooves. The MGs and Dunn's bass lines on songs like Otis Redding's "Respect" and "I Can't Turn You Loose", Sam & Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'", and Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign", were influential. After Dunn, Cropper, Jackson, and Jones recorded 1967's Hip Hug-Her album, they became known as more than just the Stax house band that did "Green Onions".

As an instrumental group, they continued to stretch themselves on McLemore Avenue (their reworking of The Beatles' Abbey Road album) and on their final outing, 1971's Melting Pot, where Dunn's basslines continue to be a source of inspiration for rap and hip-hop artists. In the 1970s, with Jones and Cropper gone from Stax, Dunn and Jackson remained, playing and producing. Even though they felt more and more alienated by new political forces above, they stayed with the company.

1980s-2000s

Dunn went on to play for Muddy Waters, Freddie King, and Jerry Lee Lewis, as well as Eric Clapton and Rod Stewart. He was featured bass player for Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty's "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" single from Nicks' 1981 debut solo album Bella Donna, as well as other Petty tracks between 1976 and 1981. He reunited with Cropper as a member of Levon Helm's RCO All Stars and also displayed his quirky Southern humor making two movies with Cropper, former Stax drummer Willie Hall, and Dan Aykroyd, as a member of The Blues Brothers band. Dunn played himself in the 1980 feature, The Blues Brothers, where he had one of the most memorable lines, "We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline!". He later reprised his self-depicting role in 1998's Blues Brothers 2000. He was usually depicted smoking a pipe whilst playing. Dunn has recently supported Neil Young live and in the studio and still plays with Cropper and Jones, usually with the late Al Jackson, Jr.'s cousin Steve Potts on drums, as Booker T. & the MGs.

In June 2004, Dunn, Cropper, and Jones served as the house band for Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festival. The group backed such guitarists as Joe Walsh and David Hidalgo on the main stage at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas.^[2]

In 2005, Dunn's first grandchild, Michael, was born. In the 2000s, Dunn was in semi-retirement, although he still performs occasionally with Booker T & the MGs at clubs and music festivals. In 2007 Dunn and several Booker T. & the MGs members (Lewie Steinberg, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, and Barbara Jackson, the widow of Al Jackson) were given a "Lifetime Achievement" Grammy award for their contributions to popular music.

Donald "Duck" Dunn (left) and Steve Cropper (right) tour Australia with Guy Sebastian (center) in 2008 for The Memphis Tour

In 2008, Dunn worked with Australian soul singer Guy Sebastian touring The Memphis Album. Dunn and Steve Cropper arrived in Australia on 20 February 2008, to be Sebastian's backing band for an 18-date concert tour, The Memphis Tour.^[3]

Dunn is credited with performing on a version of the standard 'I Ain't Got Nobody' alongside Booker T Jones, Steve Cropper and Michel Gondry in Michel Gondry's 2008 film Be Kind Rewind.

Dunn currently lives in Florida.

Musical equipment

During his time in the Blues Brothers film, Dunn used a sunburst Fender Precision bass with a rosewood fretboard and a red pickguard. In 1998, Dunn collaborated with Fender to produce a signature Precision Bass, a candy apple red-colored model based on the late 1950s style, with a gold anodized pickguard, a split-coil humbucking pickup and vintage hardware. The Duck Dunn P-Bass became the basis for a Skyline Series signature bass made by Chicago bass company Lakland a few years later, which is still available in an updated version featuring a thinner Jazz neck with cream binding and rectangular block inlays. Lakland actually produces a US-made version of the bass sporting a graphite-reinforced quartersawn maple neck with rosewood or maple fingerboard, a Lindy Fralin split-coil humbucker (also available with optional DarkStar and Chi-Sonic pickups) and a chrome-plated ashtray pickup cover.^[4] He is currently using an Ampeg SVT-4PRO head and SVT-810E 8x10 cabinet through his endorsement deal with Ampeg.^[5]

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Eric Clapton Crossroads Guitar Festival DVD Video R2 970378, 2004.
3. ^ February 24, 2008 12:00AM (2008-02-24). "Happy Guy Sebastian bares his soul | Herald Sun". News.com.au. http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23253104-5006024,00.html. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 
4. ^ [2]^{[dead link]}
5. ^ "Artist Profile - Donald "Duck" Dunn". Ampeg. http://www.ampeg.com/artists/artist.php?artistID=29. Retrieved 2011-07-07. 

External links

• Donald "Duck" Dunn's official website
• Donald "Duck" Dunn at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Dunn, Donald Duck
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	November 24, 1941
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death