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Creedence Clearwater Revival invited Booker T. Jones, Donald "Duck" Dunn and Steve Cropper of the Booker T & the MGs to hold a jamming session at the Factory in Berkeley, California, on January 30. 1970. Booker T drummer Al Jackson wasn't able to participate due to sickness.
It was quite a natural collaboration since Creedence Clearwater had always admired this Stax label house band. John Fogerty and others in the band had already met Steve Cropper at Stax Studios in Memphis 1969 and changed phone numbers.
In the jam session at the Factory, they played rock and soul, 12-bar blues, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding and their own songs.
The session was filmed and recorded professionally. A two-minute snippet of playing was seen in In Concert TV special which was first broadcast in the USA in June 1971. The TV special has never been released officially.
The Cosmo's Factory jam session has been available on poor sounding bootlegs for years. "Down on the Corner" was released as a bonus track on the 40th Anniversary Edition CD of Creedence Clearwater in 2008. Other numbers of the night are still collecting dust in vaults.
After the session at 2am, Creedence Clearwater and Booker T & the MGs played a basketball game at the Factory. Later on the following day, Creedence Clearwater Revival performed one of their finest gigs at Oakland Arena, Oakland, California.
The session might have influenced to the later recordings of Creedence Clearwater. It's sometimes suggested that John Fogerty's interest in putting Hammond B3 on Pendulum was a direct nod to Booker T & the MGs and the mutual admiration both bands had for each other.
Creedence Clearwater and Booker T. and the MGs combined their forces again in summer 1970 when the two bands toured together in the United States. After many years, Booker T. Jones and Duck Dunn performed with John Fogerty again in the studio concert Showtime Special which was exposed on American television in summer 1985. Unfortunately, it has never come out as an official release.
John Fogerty, Booker T. Jones, Duck Dunn and Steve Cropper also collaborated in the nationally televised Rock And Roll Hall of Fame Opening Concert in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, on September 2, 1995 when Fogerty performed "Born on the Bayou" and "Fortunate Son". Next year, the concert saw an official release on the album Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Opening Concert.
In the Cleveland concert, while introducing his backing group, John Fogerty labeled Booker T. & the MGs as the greatest rock and roll band of all-time.
The set list:
Jam Warm Up
Ninety-Nine And a Half (Won't Do)
Proud Mary
Travelin' Band
Born on the Bayou
Down on the Corner
Ninety-Nine And a Half (Won't Do) -Reprise
I Put a Spell on You
Final Jam
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