Your favorite backing band?

Yeah. Booker T and the boys have got to be right up there. A virtuoso in every position...

 

The Attractions, The Rumour, E Street Band are all top notch. There are many including the MGs that just can’t be touched.

 

Funny, I was just thinking of starting a thread like this but with a poll yesterday.

 

One not mentioned. Two dudes and then three dudes. Double Trouble.

 

Definitely! Some great musical arrangements for their material.

The Band
The Rumour
The Attractions
Booker T & The MG’s
The Heartbreakers
The Spiders From Mars

Lots of great backing bands

 

Murph & The Magic Tones

 

Amen.

 

I'm in agreement with several of you regarding the E Street Band, Petty's Heartbreakers, the Attractions, and the Fabulous Superlatives. I'll also give high praise to Rockpile as a backing band for Lowe and Edmunds!

 

Reed's early 80s band:

Robert Quine - guitar
Fernando Saunders - bass
Fred Maher - drums

 

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band were pretty good on the Will The Circle Be Unbroken albums.

 

The Headhunters!

 

Muddy’s band was stellar, and the Hawks propelled mid-60s Dylan before they became the Band.

But for me, the all-time greatest backing band was and still is Booker T & the MGs. Booker, the Colonel, Duck and Al Jackson Jr not only put out classics like “Green Onions” and “Time is Tight” in their own right, but in differing combinations they also played house band for:

-Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, the Mad Lads, Albert King, Mable John, the Bar Kays, Eddie Floyd, Sir Mack Rice, the Wicked Pickett and....

Neil Young.

 

On the basis that Hugh, Zal, Ted and Chris recorded and toured their own excellent album without Alex, I'm inclined to regard them as their own entity too, for what it's worth .

 

John, George & Ringo...only joking.

 

E Street and Crazy Horse are neck and neck at the wire.

 

I love that "SAHB Without Alex" album. Vocally it's always going to be a step back but musically it has got a lot going on. To me it's a Scottish equivalent of something like Automatic Man. Kind of Progressive but with a Steely Dan dimension.

The fact they had to make it at all suggest that maybe they were more backing band than a creative partnership. Very fine line though.

 

Johnny and The Moondogs...

 

Willie Nelson's band...whatever they're called

 

The Attractions

 

Absolutely correct, friend. Sadly, Ola and Rutger no longer walk amongst us.

 

The Funk Brothers is the correct answer.

As people are being quite liberal with the definition I'll also add The Family Stone.

 

James Brown’s various band incarnations notwithstanding, these guys:



Dap-Tone Records’ house band, The Dap-Kings

The late Sharon Jones’ famed backing band, who also backed Amy Winehouse and have worked with Al Green, David Byrne, Sturgill Simpson, Kesha, Sam Smith, Quincy Jones, Ghostface Killah, Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, John Legend and Michael Buble.

 

The Nice. In their early days they were PP Arnold’s backing band.

 

Kasim Sultan and Prairie Prince are killing it on the Todd Rundgren “Clearly Human” virtual tour. Killing it.

 

The Lou Reed Band. His band circa 1990’s and 2000’s.