Remembering Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn’s Quiet, Sweeping Influence

The bassist usually doesn’t get much attention. Occasionally, a flashy player hogs the spotlight with slapping, popping, and soloing, but it’s usually just a quiet guy holding down the low end and staying out of the way. For many listeners, Duck Dunn probably seemed like the latter sort of rudimentary player. That’s probably the way he would have had it, too. But it would be a mistake to think of Dunn, who died in his sleep at 70 Sunday, as a background player. In fact, he is probably the most influential bassist of the last 50 years, with an impact in every pop genre save country.

Even if you’ve never heard of Dunn, you’ve heard a lot of his playing. That’s him easing into Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” Those are his monster arpeggios chugging along under Wilson Pickett’s “Midnight Hour.” It’s his syncopation at the bottom of Sam and Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Comin’.” And that’s him in The Blues Brothers, too. As a member of Booker T. and the MG’s, the house band at Stax, he played on most of the great Memphis soul hits. […]

But it’s not just the inevitable head-bopping that accompanies the classic Stax sides that makes Dunn an immortal. It’s his influence.

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    Point of order. Of course Duck Dunn influenced country music. The ENTIRE recording roster of STAX was steeped in country...

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    YO RIP to Donald Duck Dunn….dude was so Ill….you’ve known him all along…and didn’t even know it. Peep out the classic...

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