Fried Glass Onions is a great title, and one with a good idea attached to it—retool
old Beatles classics with the soulful sound of Memphis R&B. The liner notes
try to justify the existence of these fourteen new tracks by explaining that
the Fab Four almost recorded in the city during the mid-Sixties, but it’s
unnecessary, mainly because the group almost did a ton of things and because
Beatlemusic and Memphis soul are two of the more durable musical styles in history.
Still, you’d have an easier time validating the existence of a Memphisized
version of U2’s “Rattle And Hum.” (Let me write that one
down.)

This is not to suggest that FGO is an all-star collection; in fact, most of
the artists featured here have a tenuous collection to popularity at best.
Like Austin
(and New Orleans, for that matter), Memphis is a town filled with unsung talents,
and the project heads here made sure to strike a good balance between obviously
bluesy Fab cuts like “Get Back,” “Yer Blues,” and “Old
Brown Shoe” and popular but decidedly non-bluesy milestones like “Two
Of Us,” “Blackbird,” and “The Long and Winding Road.” From
that perspective, the only real revelation is Z-Da’s ”Day Tripper,” which
unearths an earthiness barely hinted at in the original. Several soul miracles
are performed, however, most notably Bertram Brown’s Hi-styled interpretation
of “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl” and a Sam and Dave-style take
on “Two Of Us” by Bob Simon and Eddie Harrison.

As usual with these sorts of experiments, some of the songs prove bad fits
(a jazz reconstruction of “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” and a funked-up “One
After 909”) and some are virtually pointless, like an instrumental but
otherwise copycat version of ”A Hard Day’s Night” and a seemingly
straight-up remake of “Across The Universe” that has nothing to do
with the sound of the city in question. Then again, there’s not much Memphis
in Jackie Johnson’s lovely, lyrical “Blackbird,” but it’s
beautiful just the same. Besides, it’s not as if the band in question didn’t
musically contradict itself, either.