School of Music should recognize Booker T.

During the mid-1960s, Booker T. Jones was a music student at IU. On weekdays he would get up for 7 a.m. theory classes before spending countless hours practicing the trombone in the music school. All in all, Booker T. Jones led the life of a normal college student during the week.\nThen came the weekends.\nAfter classes finished on Friday, Jones would hop in a car and drive hundreds of miles to Memphis, Tenn., where he recorded some of the sweetest and most influential music of the rock and roll era.\nBecause during the '60s, Jones was the leader of Booker T. and the MGs, the house band at Stax Records in Memphis. Featuring a roster of talent that included Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Albert King, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus Thomas and Carla Thomas, Stax was the country's pre-eminent soul label.\nThe music produced at Stax provided a gritty, sweaty alternative to the smoother, more polished Motown sound. While Berry Gordy called his label "Hitsville U.S.A.," the folks at Stax rightly boasted that they were "Soulsville U.S.A." Over the course of 15 years, Stax churned out music that was both influential and timeless, affecting generations of future rock and soul artists.\nAnd Booker T. and the MGs were the foundation of it all. Jones and his bandmates -- guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and drummer Al Jackson -- became the prototypical soul band, establishing a precedent and a standard for soul music that still exists today.\nThe band provided the backbone for such classic cuts as Sam and Dave's "Soul Man," Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour," Otis Redding's "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" and Albert King's "Born under a Bad Sign."\nThe guys were also a productive band in their own right; in 1962, they recorded "Green Onions," the finest instrumental in rock history, and they went on to produced hits like "Hip Hug-Her" and "Time Is Tight."\nOh yeah, and while he was changing music history, Jones also earned an IU music degree.\nBut that's something the IU community never hears about. The School of Music is adept at trumpeting its reputation for producing a myriad of outstanding musicians, and well it should. But the school almost never acknowledges that Booker T. Jones graduated from its hallowed halls. It never boasts the fact that such an influential musician went through its prestigious program.\nAnd that's because the School of Music continues to believe popular music is not as important as classical (read: "real") music. The school -- and the university administration as a whole -- will not admit that there is another whole world of music beyond Mozart and Chopin. They won't admit that current, modern music like jazz and blues and -- gasp! -- rock and roll is just as valid as a Wagnerian opera or Vivaldi suite.\nAnd it's time that changed. It's time IU invited Jones back to campus and presented him with an honorary doctorate. It's time the School of Music recognized the contributions and impact of people like him. It's time admit that rock and roll is important too. It's time the school brought itself into the 21st century.\n"Roll over Beethoven," Chuck Berry said, "and tell Tchaikovsky the news." Damn straight.