Tag: Stax Records

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Soul Explosion: The New Stax Reissue

CREDIT: Wayne Moore, photographer; Stax Museum of American Soul Music

“I’m gonna have a hit if it’s the last thing I do!” exclaims Albert King. “Hanging around the studio for three days in a row now, I think ain’t nobody can get a hit outta here but Sam and Dave, Rufus Thomas, or Carla Thomas … I can play the blues myself! Yeah! Gonna get every disc jockey in business across the country. If he don’t dig this, he got a hole in his soul!” King is speaking over a song from half a century ago, but it sounds as urgent as this morning’s news. Such was the galvanizing spirit animating Stax studios throughout 1968 and 1969.

By then, the need for hits had become a matter of survival: Atlantic Records, which had distributed all Stax material through 1967, was enforcing the contractual fine print that made all Stax master recordings the property of Atlantic. Severing relations with the industry giant, Stax, guided by co-owner Al Bell, began cranking out new music at a furious pace.

Wayne Moore, photographer; Stax Museum of American Soul Music

Soul Explosion Summit Atendees with Covers

It was known as the “Soul Explosion,” and Craft Recordings has just re-released a two-LP set by that name that served as the capstone of this Herculean effort. Last year, the five-CD Stax ’68: A Memphis Story gathered every release from the first year of the label’s reinvention. The new double-vinyl reissue, identical in appearance to the original 1969 album, captures the time even more viscerally. Deanie Parker, former head of Stax publicity (and, more recently, president and CEO of the Soulsville Museum), recalls the time wistfully. “That was a time when people loved to read, to see pictures, to touch the album covers, singles, and labels, and have the artists autograph them.”

The vinyl reissue literally brings it all back home. As part of the label’s “Made in Memphis” campaign, the lacquers were cut by Memphis-based engineer Jeff Powell and manufactured at Memphis Record Pressing. And for Parker, the reissue transports her back to that time. “You’d hear something new and think, ‘Oh, this is fantastic! Look what these people did in the studio! Did you hear what they came up with last night?!’ Overnight, something dynamic could happen creatively, and it would modify the strategies that you had in mind earlier in the week, in terms of how we were gonna package it,” she recalls.

Package it they did, with an ever-refined sense of strategy. The Soul Explosion album assembled the biggest hits of 1968, with other diverse potential hits from that productive year. Johnnie Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love,” the label’s first big post-Atlantic smash, is followed in quick succession by Booker T. & the MGs’ “Hang ‘Em High,” Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do),” and other chart-toppers and rarities. The LP was assembled for maximum impact, just before the label hosted a massive summit of industry players in May of 1969. As Parker recalls, “That album was the centerpiece.”

Al Bell recalls, “We were multimedia before multimedia was even a thing! During that one weekend in Memphis, we had large projections on the walls the size of movie theater screens, and we had video interspersed with live performances by all of our top acts. The energy during that weekend was like nothing the music industry had seen before.”

Beyond appearing 50 years after the original release, the timing of the reissue was especially poignant, coming only days after the death of John Gary Williams, the star vocalist of the Mad Lads. The LP’s two numbers from that group, “So Nice” and “These Old Memories.” In more ways than one, “these old memories” will “bring new tears.”
Editor’s note: Memorial services for John Gary Williams will be Saturday, June 8th, at the Brown Missionary Baptist Church, 7200 Swinnea in Southaven, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

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Music Record Reviews

Stax ’68 Compilation to Drop Soon: World Premiere of “Going Back to Memphis”

1968 was an epochal year for Memphis, for America, and for the world. Flip through the book 1968: Marching Through the Streets, by Tariq Ali and Susan Watkins, and you’ll see listed, for every month of the year, hot spots of protest and government clampdowns by the dozens across the globe. America was deep in the Vietnam War, and resistance was rising to a fever pitch. Like today, it must have been easy to imagine that civilization itself was coming apart at the seams.

For Memphis, and its music industry leader, Stax Records, these existential threats were compounded by local circumstances. Sanitation workers, arguably the lowest on the rungs of the South’s caste system, were on strike, protesting low pay and two of their cohort being crushed to death by obsolete equipment. Naturally, the untended garbage, like the city’s decadent rot of racial baggage, began to stink. Inside the Stax offices, they were still reeling from the double bombshells of late ’67: the loss of Otis Redding and many of the Bar-Kays in a horrific plane crash; and the label’s break with Atlantic Records, who claimed not only their star performers, Sam & Dave, but Stax’s entire back catalog.

2018 has been rife with memorials to that year, chiefly in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who’s  assassination came during his support of those striking workers. But this past February, Al Bell, Dr. Zandria Robinson, and Marco Pavé joined in a panel discussion of the year 1968 more generally, and how it compares to our present world. Of course, Dr. King figured heavily in the conversation, but so did Stax’s need to compensate for lost recordings and artists that year, and the way such a project resonated with Dr. King’s message of black entrepreneurial empowerment and independence.

It was all too clear, as Bell described it, that Stax had to fight for its life by immediately creating a whole new catalog. And half a century later, that catalog lives on.

Now, packaged together for the first time, comes a retrospective of all the rich and varied music Stax created as it shifted into overdrive that year. It was a singles-oriented label, of course, and that’s reflected here. Stax ’68: A Memphis Story (Craft Recordings) showcases  the A- and B-sides of every single released over those twelve pivotal months. While most of the tracks have been released digitally in either The Complete Stax/Volt Singles, 1959-1968 – Volume 1 or Stax Singles 4: Rarities & The Best Of The Rest, there is something powerful in hearing these tracks all in one place.

And for the true completist, there are even two tracks that have not appeared on any previous digital compilations: “Used to Be Love” by Lindell Hill and “Going Back To Memphis” by Billy Lee Riley.  The Memphis Flyer is honored to premiere the latter here today.

Stax ’68 Compilation to Drop Soon: World Premiere of ‘Going Back to Memphis’

Riley was one of Sun Records’ rockabilly stars in the previous decade, scoring hits like “Flyin’ Saucers Rock & Roll” and “Red Hot.” This track for Stax, however, is pounding blue-eyed soul, more like Tony Joe White with the Memphis Horns. And this is representative of what Stax was reaching for in 1968, as they sought to diversify. Earlier subsidiary labels like Volt and Hip were given new attention, and others, such as Enterprise, were created. Riley’s release on Hip marked his return after perhaps the longest and most fortuitous AWOL in music history. In 1962, Riley’s first session for the label fizzled out when the artist inexplicably disappeared. The rhythm section made the most of it anyway, and the B-side they cut that day, “Green Onions,” helped put Stax on the map.

Six years later, Riley was part of the Stax family’s wider reach, which also included an Arkansas boy who would later score hits with George Harrison and Eric Clapton: Bobby Whitlock. He had risen up through the garage and frat band scenes, and Stax was his ticket to wider recognition. The Memphis Nomads, aka the Poor Little Rich Kids, are another group to sprout from that scene. And then there were the white artists who were so immersed in classic soul that they brought there own convincing variations on it to the label, as with  Linda Lyndell, whose “What a Man” was later lifted by Salt n’ Pepa. 

Other diverse sounds are showcased here as well, including jazz, as in the Eddie Henderson Quintet’s transformation of “Georgy Girl,” or Isaac Hayes’ groovy “Precious Precious.” But ultimately, such diversity is overshadowed by the raw soul that was Stax’s specialty, and there’s plenty of that here. In retrospect, it’s stunning that a single year, begun in desperation, brought us Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Sam and Dave’s “I Thank You,” Eddie Floyd’s “I’ve Never Found a Girl (To Love Me Like You Do),” Booker T. and the MGs’ “Soul Limbo,” or Johnny Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love.”

And, as with Stax Singles 4: Rarities & The Best Of The Rest, the B-sides offer up plenty of gems as well, from Otis Redding’s “Sweet Lorene,” a personal favorite, to the girl group sound of the Goodees’ “Condition Red.” And, this being 1968, the turmoil of the era’s topical issues is echoed in everything from William Bell’s Otis memorial, “Tribute to a King,” to the Staple Singers’ classic “Long March to D.C.” The political content is further raised by historically informed liner notes from Andria Lisle, Robert Gordon, and Steve Greenberg.

Parallel with this release, we in Memphis also reap the benefits of two exhibits that help us journey back to those troubled times. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music currently features The Sound of ’68, with photographs and mementos that document life inside Studio A at Stax Records as seen by Don Nix, an early member of the Stax family who later became a songwriter, producer, and solo artists for the label, and Alan Copeland, the drummer for the Poor Little Rich Kids.
Alan Copeland

Jim Stewart with members of the band Poor Little Rich Kids

And be sure to also see Give a Damn! Music + Activism at Stax Records, the foundation’s exhibit now installed at Crosstown Arts. It presents artifacts of the label’s increasingly political content, culminating in the desk and work space of Black Moses himself, Isaac Hayes.
Ronnie Booze

Isaac Hayes’ epic desk

Still, all activism aside, and returning to the music at hand, the chief topic echoing through Stax ’68: A Memphis Story continues to be love and it’s many permutations, from feel-good stompers like “Lovey Dovey,” by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas, to William Bell’s classic “I Forgot to Be Your Lover.” For all the crises of 1968, Stax soldiered on with its trademark celebratory vibes. And that may be what still helps us the most through these dark days, fifty years on.

Note that pre-ordering the set, which is released on October 19, will give you access to several gratis tracks: “Long Walk to D.C.” by The Staple Singers, “Used to Be Love” by Lindell Hill, “Send Peace and Harmony Home” by Shirley Walton, and today’s premiere track, “Going Back to Memphis” by Billy Lee Riley, which will be available outside of the Flyer‘s site on October 12th.

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Music Music Blog

David Porter and Friends: Bringing Memphis to the World, and the World to Memphis

CREDIT: Focht

Focht

David Porter

David Porter, who worked with Isaac Hayes to craft some of Stax Records’ most compelling songs, is a busy man. Though he’s not often seen onstage, this Saturday he will host a one-of-a-kind evening of conversation and performances, featuring a diverse sampling of his friends from over five decades in the record business. Here, he talks a bit about the star-studded event, and the community cause he’s hoping it will benefit.

Memphis Flyer: Tell me a little about the show you’ll be hosting. It’s a rather unique format.

David Porter: This is the second David Porter and Friends show that I’ve done at the Horseshoe Casino. The first one was a sellout. And I had Samuel L. Jackson, the actor, I had Julius Irving, the athlete. I had Isaac Hayes, and J. Blackfoot. And the casino had been actively wanting me to do this show again for several years. I just agreed to do it for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to create a bit more attention for a nonprofit that I was the founder of, the Consortium MMT. But the primary focus of it was me putting some friends of mine together. Included in that, I will have Stevie Wonder, who was the first recipient of the Epitome of Soul Award, present the award on this show to William Bell.

Alex Burden

William Bell

It’s a great opportunity to present the Epitome of Soul award to William. We were going to present the award a year ago, and we were working with Shelby Farms but we were not able. There was a storm that happened and kinda messed it up. It was flooded and all, and so we decided not to opt on that. And so because we did have the award, and had named William Bell as a recipient even before he won a Grammy, we wanted to be sure and not let another year go by. So this show was a great opportunity to do that.

But the show’s structure is akin to The Tonight Show, a talk show with entertainment. I have friends of mine that I sit on a couch with, on the stage, talk about their careers, we have videos of their lives, we have a fun discussion that’s in-depth. I’ll be doing that with Stevie Wonder. I’ll be doing that with William Bell as well. With Ray Parker, Jr. as well. With Richard Roundtree, the star of Shaft. It is that kind of event. The reason I call it “and Friends” is because I create a personal kind of connection for the audience, with people that they’ve certainly heard about and seen, but never had this kind of view of them, with them talking about their lives in such a candid way. Involved with that are performances by these artists as well.

I suppose you’ve assembled a select house band for the event?

Yes. Gary Goin, who has been associated with me for more than 20 years, who is a known musician here, and has bands of his own that tour to casinos in other parts of the country, is the house band for this show. It’s the Gary Goin Band. There’ll be a ten piece band on that stage.

Will you be performing as well?

I’m not gonna be performing. I’m the host of the event. I interview people, though I talk about my career, certainly. Some of my material is performed and showcased. But I’m just like Jimmy Fallon, except a lot of this involves friends of mine. For instance, Stevie Wonder is going to sing a tribute to William Bell. I’m gonna refresh people on the success and the magnitude of success that Ray Parker, Jr. has had in his career. People don’t know. People don’t know that one of the most accomplished songs in the songbook of America is “Ghostbusters”. They don’t know that. They have no idea how well this man lives. Conversationally, it becomes extremely entertaining and informative for an audience to experience that. But then also to see that he’s still performing is also special.

William Bell… very few people in this area know the magnitude of William Bell’s success. They don’t know that he had a record company in the 2000’s that had a number one major record on the label that he started. And then he just won a Grammy this year. To be able to see a guy talk about his life and career and go through all that and get up on a stage and be able to perform in a quality way is a special thing. And then, how many people can see Stevie just sit on a couch and talk?

It has that personal dimension because you’ve known all these folks for years now.

Yes. Exactly. And see I’ll also be showing them some information on a nonprofit that I started in 2012, and why I started it and why I wanted to give something back. And what it all means and why it’s impacting lives and that whole thing. And so it’s gonna be an entertaining show, I can tell you that.

Well darn, I was hoping to hear you perform something off [1974 Stax album] Victim of the Joke?

Porcelan

Ha ha! Well, I still could do that but no, this is not me performing. This is me just showcasing and talking about other talents. And also I have an artist who’s on my new record label, Made In Memphis Entertainment (MIME): Porcelan, who is doing very well right now. She’ll be performing. And she’s a knockout. I mean she’s a tremendous talent. She’s a local Memphis talent who was performing with some of the booking agencies around here that have bands playing in the circuit for colleges and private parties and the like. And I heard about her and I wanted to hear her. Then I met her and was blown away. She’s 26 years old, just a beautiful young lady and extremely talented. And so we created an artist development with her and now we’ve got a record, “The Real Thing Don’t Change,” that’s getting noticed nationally. She’s a Memphis kid, born here in Memphis, went to Westwood High School in Memphis.
 

David Porter and Friends: Bringing Memphis to the World, and the World to Memphis


So MIME is quite distinct from the Consortium MMT?

Without a doubt. MIME has a 16,000 square foot building at 400 Union. We have three recording studios, state of the art. We have a roster right now of four artists, we’re gonna have as many as ten artists on our label. We just released the first record on Porcelan in September, we’re getting ready to release her album, as well as two others, the first quarter of 2018. I’m very excited about this company. 

MIME headquarters

Additionally I’m just really really pleased about being able to do something as a give back with the Consortium. What we wanted to do, and I wanted to do, was give a significant give-back that could carry on well into the future. So I developed a nonprofit that dealt with giving aspiring songwriters, record producers and recording artists an opportunity to learn from many of us that have had success doing it, whereby they can incorporate whatever their natural instincts are into what they do with this additional knowledge, and use that part of it that complements what they’re looking for. And so I started the program with a clearly focused emphasis on three areas: songwriting, recording and performing. And inside of that I developed a curriculum, for lack of a better word, that follows processes from A to Z with that.

It was not a profit center for me, I make no salary from it. Matter of fact, I started it with my own money. I got many of my friends who knew that I wanted to do this for the right reasons, and they were comfortable with giving their time to participate. So what I got them to do, I have 135 plus videos of some of the biggest names out there, talking about the steps they use in their various processes. For instance, Valerie Simpson, her and her husband, Nick Ashford, of Ashford and Simpson, in addition to being great artists they were great songwriters. So Valerie is on film in our catalog, talking about her creative steps as a songwriter. Jimmy Jam, who produced Janet Jackson, is another example. I have him on video talking about his steps in producing records. And what he does in order to make that effective. I have Philip Bailey, of Earth, Wind and Fire, talking about what artists need to do not only to preserve their voices, but to reinforce their voices in a more credible way to last through a long career in this business.

And the talents in the program, they have to do independent studies to show what they’ve learned. And then I sit down and talk with them individually about how their progress has gone, and if we feel that they could be a credible reflection of the talent pool that’s coming out of our area, we then lobby other record companies and music publishers to come look at these talents. We don’t sign any artists, they’re free to do whatever they wanna do with their music, and who they associate with. But we just try to better prepare them to be more effective. And the program is really impactful on young folks. In a really emotional way. I don’t wanna sound like people crying and that kinda thing, but it’s really like that because it’s really impacting people.

David Porter and Friends takes place on Saturday, November 11, 2017, at Horseshoe Tunica’s Bluesville Showcase Nightclub in Tunica, 8:00 pm.

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Music Music Blog

Staxtacular 2016 at Soulsville

The Soulsville Foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year takes place this Friday (January 29th) at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. Memphis Grizzlies forward Vince Carter will help host this year’s party, and the evening will feature music by Marcella & Her Lovers, The Garry Goin Band, and a special set from the Stax Music Academy. The Soulsville Foundation is also partnering with The Rec Room to create the “Rec Room South” in the Stax Music Academy building during the event. Tickets to Staxtacular are $175 each and may be purchased by calling (901) 261-6338 or by cicking here. Tickets are also available at the Stax Museum and at the Grizzlies Den Team Store inside the Grand Lobby of FedExForum. Check out videos from Garry Goin and Marcella & Her Lovers below. 

Staxtacular 2016 at Soulsville

Staxtacular 2016 at Soulsville (2)

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Music Music Blog

The Maitre D’s at Stax

The Maitre D’s are Memphis’ only Booker T and The MG’s cover band, and the group features long time Memphis musicians like Joe Restivo and Graham Winchester. On Friday, December 11th, the band will be performing classics from the Booker T and MG’s Christmas Album with special Stax Records guests sitting in on the performance. DJ’s Zac Ives  and Eric Plumley will spin some soulful holiday tracks before and after the set. Check out the classic Booker T and the MG’s Christmas album below, then get to Stax Records this Friday by 6 p.m.. Admission is $10, or bring a non-perishable item for the Mid-South Food Bank for half-off the door price. Nothing quite says Christmas in Memphis like holiday music at Stax!

The Maitre D’s at Stax

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Music Music Blog

What We Listened to this Week: Stax Soul Singles Vol. 3

This week was all about the Stax Soul Singles Box set, a 10 disc retrospective that the Concord Music Group was nice enough to release. Volume 2 covers 1968 through 1971 and this box covers 1972 through 1975. Both volumes feature stalwart Stax R&B artists including Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays and William Bell, as well as bluesmen Little Milton, Albert King and Little Sonny, and “second generation” Stax hit makers like Jean Knight, the Soul Children, Kim Weston, the Temprees, and Mel & Tim.

What We Listened to this Week: Stax Soul Singles Vol. 3 (4)

While Volume 2 of this collection focuses on the era when Stax was forming its own identity, Volume 3 covers a very different era, one of success and excess, right before Stax was on the verge of shutting down. During this time period the label recorded a wealth of of different styles of popular black music, ranging from jazz and easy-listening to the blues and even the beginning stages of disco. 

What We Listened to this Week: Stax Soul Singles Vol. 3 (2)

In 1976, faced with involuntary bankruptcy and an unsuccessful distribution deal with CBS Records, Stax was forced to close its doors. In his liner notes for Vol. 3, compilation co-producer Bill Belmont writes, “Stax’s difficult and inglorious end in no way diminishes its vital contributions to rhythm and blues and soul. Today, the music of Stax maintains a strong and steady presence, heard continually in cover versions by major artists, in movies and on television. Simply put, the Memphis Sound lives.” 

What We Listened to this Week: Stax Soul Singles Vol. 3 (3)

Stax Soul Singles Volume 3 in all it’s glory.

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Music Music Features

Soul You Can See

In this year dedicated to celebrating the 50th anniversary of Stax Records, the hits just keep on coming, with the latest batch of Stax product: independently packaged DVDs, two released this week, one released in late September.

Co-directed by local filmmaker/writer Robert Gordon and his partner Morgan Neville, the two-hour documentary Respect Yourself was broadcast this summer as part of PBS’ Great Performances series, but an expanded version was released on DVD October 2nd.

Consisting of interviews — both new and archival — with most of the key players, including a rare contribution from Stax founder Jim Stewart, Respect Yourself gives a chronological telling of the Stax story that mostly hits the obvious high (and low) points.

For those who know the music and the story behind it, much of Respect Yourself may feel like rehash. It is a primer, but with so much attention given to Stax locally this year, it’s easy to forget that most people — most music fans, even most Memphians — still aren’t that familiar with the details of Stax. And Respect Yourself reinforces what an amazing story it is: an artistic entity whose very success was rooted in racial partnership and shared/mixed culture in the middle of the civil-rights-era South; a record label whose thrilling music embodied — like perhaps no other cultural product of the time — the hope and ultimately broken promise of racial integration in the ’60s and ’70s. This story can’t be told enough, and Respect Yourself tells it well.

Early on, tireless label booster Deanie Parker allows that “Stax Records was an accident,” pointing out that siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton never intended to start an R&B record label when they opened a recording studio in a converted theater on McLemore Avenue. The implication is that Stax was ultimately the product of the neighborhood it became a part of.

In terms of reviewing the basic spine of the Stax story, Respect Yourself offers a neat, multi-viewpoint retelling of the Otis Redding origin story — that day Redding showed up as another artist’s “valet” and pestered his way to the microphone — with Booker T. Jones speaking eloquently about knowing he was part of something special and staying in the moment.

There’s also a great segment on the Stax family’s visit to the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, with Memphis Horn Wayne Jackson talking about the culture clash between the long-haired, unkempt hippie crowd and the relatively clean-cut Stax crew, who showed up with matching suits and dance steps: “We must have looked like a lounge act or something. But it killed ’em. And when Otis walked out onstage, it was over for everybody.”

Those good times wouldn’t last, and Respect Yourself deftly shows how the tragic four-month stretch between December 1967 (when Redding died in a plane crash) and April 1968 (when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis) transformed the label.

There are also less obvious pleasures and insights in the film. During one interview segment, Jones sits at his organ and replicates the sax riff that, as a teenager, he played on the early Stax hit “Cause I Love You,” a duet between Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla. Similarly, there’s a graceful moment when, during a newly filmed segment, William Bell stands in front of a piano manned by Marvell Thomas and sings his Stax standard “You Don’t Miss Your Water.” These dynamic segments are so good, you wonder why there aren’t more like it.

And even those who think they’re pretty familiar with the Stax story may learn a few things: the extent to which the Lorraine Motel was used as a second home — for both work and play — for Stax artists (reflected, in part, by a vibrant color photo of Carla Thomas emerging from the Lorraine pool); the revelation that the label’s iconic finger-snap logo was the brainchild of later-period executive Al Bell and thus post-dates most of the classic music it’s associated with; the level of violence that infected the label in the aftermath of the King assassination.

But as fine as Respect Yourself is, most established Stax fans will crave more depth, and the two other recent label-specific DVD releases provide it. Released concurrently with Respect Yourself is The Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway, 1967, which captures one set on the fabled Stax European tour. Filmed in black and white, this 75-minute concert features performances from Booker T. & the MGs, the Mar-Keys, non-Stax performer Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave, and Otis Redding.

This is a more subdued affair than you might expect, with an extended Conley performance of his hit “Sweet Soul Music,” in particular, coming across as filler. But just having sustained footage of Sam & Dave performing is a revelation, even if the material here isn’t as exciting as the concert footage featured on Respect Yourself. Certainly, the footage reinforces the degree to which Sam Moore outshines Dave Prater vocally. And Redding, closing the show with “Try a Little Tenderness,” towers over them all.

For more Redding, check out the hour-and-a-half-long documentary Dreams To Remember: The Legacy of Otis Redding, which was released on September 18th and, for serious Stax fans, is the most interesting DVD in this current batch.

Though the interview subjects are oddly limited — Steve Cropper, Wayne Jackson, Jim Stewart, and Redding’s widow, Zelma, mainly — Dreams To Remember offers the depth that Respect Yourself — charged with covering an entire label rather than just one artist — can’t match.

Because Cropper co-wrote so many songs with Redding (in addition to working on the recording sessions themselves) and because Jackson, as a trumpet player, was uniquely attuned to Redding’s musical instincts, these men are positioned to offer considerable insight into Redding’s music. And they do not disappoint.

Cropper talks about coming up with the idea for “Mr. Pitiful” after hearing WDIA disc jockey Moohah Williams tab Redding with that moniker for his begging, pleading vocal phrasing. Cropper tells of how Redding took Cropper’s song concept and immediately worked out the song’s chorus.

For “I Can’t Turn You Loose,” Cropper reveals that there wasn’t time before the session to write multiple verses, so Redding kept repeating himself to keep up with the energy of the song, resulting in a recording that functions like the classic Stax instrumentals.

Cropper also talks about how his guitar playing for Redding, in particular, was rooted in country music and how Stax liked to try and reinvent songs they covered, turning ballads into fast songs and fast songs into ballads, or writing new intros and outros unconnected to the original songs.

The most famous example of this was Redding’s take on the standard “Try a Little Tenderness,” which Stewart dubs the best record Stax ever made. Cropper talks about how drummer Al Jackson’s double-click beat with his drum sticks and Cropper’s own Latin-style guitar lick create a “Drifters kind of groove” before Redding carries the song away into something else altogether.

“Nobody will ever sing ‘Try a Little Tenderness’ the way Otis Redding sang it,” Cropper says.

The most interesting area of this technical talk comes in a discussion on the horn work on Redding’s records. Jackson gives a colorful explanation of how Redding would gather his horn players together and instruct them on what to play by singing the various horn parts.

This dynamic was made explicit on “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa,” which Cropper says he and Redding wrote at a Memphis Holiday Inn on Third Street. (Because of Redding’s touring schedule and because he didn’t live in Memphis, he was only available to Stax two to three days out of a three-month period, according to Cropper, which made for some intense, prolific writing and recording sessions.) The nonsense syllables that make up the song’s title (and chorus) were Cropper’s interpretation of the saxophone sound Redding would make when arranging horn parts.

“When I wrote with Otis, I wrote about Otis,” Cropper says, before launching into song himself: “I keep singing these sad, sad songs/Sad songs is all I know.”

The relationship between Redding and his horn section that “Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa” takes as its subject is given visual accompaniment here in a splendid bit of black-and-white footage (also seen on Respect Yourself ) where Redding sings the song, sitting down, with his horn section around him. This performance literalizes the call-and-response quality between Redding and the horn section, Redding turning to Jackson or one of the other players after the chorus with a generous offer of “your turn.”

Stewart ties this all together with an insight about the absence of back-up singers on Redding’s recordings. Stewart points out that Redding used his horn sections as a stand-in for what back-up vocalists would be for other artists.

This performance footage isn’t exactly real, however. It seems to be lip-synched, which is the case with many of the television performances shown on Dreams To Remember. Zelma Redding talks about how much her husband struggled with these lip-synched performances, because he rarely sang his songs the same way and often forgot the exact lyrics on the recordings. “I look at some of the footage and say, Lord have mercy,” Zelma says.

In addition to this insight, Dreams To Remember is packed with plenty of standout footage, including a goofy promotional video for the duet single “Tramp,” with Redding wearing overalls and riding a donkey around a farm to play up the “country” character he plays on the song.

Concert footage includes an awesome rendition of Sam Cooke’s “Shake” at Monterey and, most poignantly, a performance of “Try a Little Tenderness” on Cleveland television the day before Redding’s death. Unlike the other television appearances, this one is live, as is clear when Redding ad-libs the phrase “mini-skirt dress” in the opening lines.

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Postscript

“‘If Loving You Is Wrong’ sealed Stax’s distribution deal with CBS Records,” Eric Ingram proudly notes, describing Luther Ingram’s rise from Ike Turner’s opening act to Southern soul superstar.

The main act on Johnny Baylor’s KoKo Records — picked up as a Stax subsidiary when Baylor, a former Army Ranger and reputed member of the Black Mafia, came to Memphis to act as a strong arm for the label’s artists — Luther Ingram was born in Jackson, Tennessee, and raised in Alton, Illinois, where he sang in church and formed a family group called the Gardenias. After a dead-end deal with Decca Records, he struck gold with songs such as “Pity for the Lonely,” “My Honey and Me,” “Always,” “Do You Love Somebody,” and “Ain’t That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)” during his KoKo era, which lasted from 1968 to ’78.

“KoKo was supposed to be equal to — if not better than — Motown,” Eric explains today. “My father wanted to be part of that, but he hooked up with a bunch of crooks, and it all went south.”

Case in point: “If Loving You Is Wrong,” which was originally written by Stax staff songwriters Homer Banks, Raymond Jackson, and Carl Hampton and recorded (but never released) by the Emotions. “The title was there, and a song had been written before my father got to it,” Eric confirms. “But it was up-tempo, and it had different words. When it was given to my father, he took it home and sat on the porch with my uncle Gene, working on it for hours. He changed the whole song around, but he never got credit for that.”

In ’72, the same year that “If Loving You Is Wrong” soared up the Billboard charts, the FBI detained Baylor, who was holding $130,000 in cash and a check from Stax Records for half-a-million dollars, at the Birmingham airport. The IRS seized the funds, spearheading an investigation that would eventually bring Stax to its knees. But for the time being, it was business as usual, and Luther continued his association with KoKo for several more years.

Fast-forward a few decades to when Eric hired attorney Fred Davis to regain ownership of his father’s songs. “So far, we’ve gotten 26 of them back,” he reports. “Some of them are really good songs — some are Top 20 songs — but “If Loving You Is Wrong” became such a monster that it drowned most of them out. I plan to bring them out as new songs with new artists. Of course, my dad had that unique voice. But I’ve got some good singers that he’d given the thumbs-up to.”

Just 69 years old, Luther Ingram died of heart failure on March 19th, following an extended bout with diabetes and kidney disease.

Eric is currently developing a feature film called If Loving You Is Wrong. “It’s a combination of Fatal Attraction and What’s Love Got To Do With It,” he says. “When I first heard that song, I was only 8 or 8 years old, and everybody wanted to know if that was happening with my family. They thought my father was having a three-way love affair. But it was actually happening with somebody my father knew. The movie’s story is about the song — about infidelity — rather than about my father, although I’ve got so many stories from him about what happened back in the day that I want to do a Stax Records story as well.”

On March 26th, Luther Ingram was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Bellevue, Illinois. For more information about his career, visit LutherIngramMusic.net.

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Cover Feature News

Visiting Royalty

CREDIT: Courtesy EMI Records

From the limousines the Beatles sent to meet the Stax-Volt Revue at Heathrow Airport in March 1967 to Booker T. & the MGs’ McLemore Avenue album, released three years later as a homage to the Fab Four’s Abbey Road, there was plenty of mutual appreciation flowing between England’s biggest export and Memphis’ homegrown heroes.

“The Beatles came to the club we were playing in, the Bag O’Nails in London, and bowed to us,” MGs bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn remembers with a chuckle. “It made me feel like a million dollars, I guess. To tell you the truth, when the Beatles were on Ed Sullivan, the Dave Clark Five appeared the following week, and I turned to my wife and said, ‘Now there’s a good band.’ She was going crazy over the Beatles, and I didn’t want to like them.”

“Of course, George [Harrison] wasn’t there,” MGs guitarist Steve Cropper laments. “It was an honor. It was really great. But the guitar player wanted to meet the guitar player. Later on in the ’70s, I met him in Beverly Hills, and we got to hang out some, which was a big thrill for me.”

Yet few classic-rock fans know that exactly a year before the London meeting, the Beatles were slated to cut an album at Stax Records.

On March 31, 1966, the Memphis Press-Scimitar newspaper reported that the Beatles were due at 926 East McLemore on April 9th, spending two weeks working a new album before embarking on an extensive U.S. tour.

“There was a close relationship between England and what we were doing down here,” Cropper explains. “Otis [Redding] enjoyed playing for English audiences, because he was so respected over there. And the Beatles started out as a cover band, listening to a lot of Sun material like Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis.”

“The thing that was interesting to me was the fact that the Beatles’ tunes were rhythm-and-blues tunes,” says Johnny Keyes, a staff songwriter at Stax in the ’60s. “The same thing with the [Rolling] Stones. All of these British artists had more respect for our music, especially the blues, than the people who lived in Memphis.”

Brian Epstein, the Beatles’ manager, arrived in town in early April to suss out the studio and security situation, and everything seemed ready to go.

Courtesy EMI Records

“All the secretaries were saying, ‘You have to promise not to repeat this, but the Beatles are coming!'” Keyes recalls. “We had a songwriters’ meeting, because we thought they were looking for rhythm-and-blues material. Ronnie [Gorden, the Bar-Kays’ keyboardist] happened to be around, so he and I worked on a tune called ‘Out of Control,’ which had lyrics like, ‘Without you pretty baby, I’m like a dog without a tail/Like a church without a bell.’

“In the meantime,” says Keyes, “the information leaked out. Girls were coming into the Satellite Record Shop about to cry, saying, ‘If you talk to Paul McCartney, please, please let me know.’ Word spread, and WHBQ came in and asked [Stax co-owner] Ms. [Estelle] Axton about it, but she played coy with them.”

“I was so excited about it,” says Deanie Parker, the former Stax publicist who went on to serve as the CEO and president of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music. “I was seeing dollar signs. I talked to Jim Stewart and said, ‘If the Beatles do come here, will you give me permission to take the carpet up, cut it into squares, and sell it?’ Honey, I was gonna make me some money.”

“Everyone else was worrying about the logistics — how were we gonna get them from the airport,” Keyes says. “We were gonna put them up at the Holiday Inn Rivermont, but Elvis Presley said it would be better if they stayed at Graceland. It went back and forth, and Epstein ultimately left town because he didn’t want to get in the middle of it. The session never happened.”

Instead, the Beatles stayed home, cutting Revolver, which featured the Stax-inspired “Got To Get You Into My Life,” at Abbey Road, before showing up in Memphis for a one-night concert at the Mid-South Coliseum on August 19th.

“I was very disappointed,” Parker admits, “mostly because it blew my little enterprise.”

“I remember getting the call,” Cropper says. “Who knows what might’ve happened? ‘Tax Man’ could’ve been ‘Stax Man.'”

But in July and December 1973, the Stax studios were taken over by another pop giant: Elvis Presley, who recorded several sides, including “If You Talk in Your Sleep,” “I’ve Got a Thing About You Baby,” “My Boy,” and a cover of Chuck Berry’s “Promised Land” at 926 East McLemore.

“The staff was notified that after-hours the building wouldn’t be available to us because Elvis’ production crew asked for privacy,” says Parker. “It was off-limits to us for a week. I didn’t even go into the studio, because I could see Elvis around Memphis. Anytime I’d drive down Bellevue, he might be out on his motorcycle. Having Elvis at Stax was just matter-of-fact, just another session.”

“By the time Elvis showed up, I had already left to start my own studio, Trans-Maximus,” Cropper says. “But I think George Klein influenced him and made him aware of what was going on at Stax. George called me one day when I was still over there and said, ‘Elvis would like you to write him a song.’ We never really came up with anything, but Elvis had some gospel chops, and he knew his soul.”

Dunn, who was present for Presley’s sessions, says, “When Otis [Redding] sang, he projected. When Sam and Dave sang, they projected. With Elvis, he didn’t bellow it out, but it came out big. To end up so forceful, he was the softest singer I ever heard.

“He’d have an imitator come in and lay down the track with the band,” Dunn says, “and then they’d overdub his voice. I was actually a little nervous. He was Elvis: You didn’t just walk up and talk to him. As far as being buddy-buddy with him, you didn’t do it.”

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Cover Feature News

B-side Players

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

This isn’t another story about Isaac Hayes. Or Sam & Dave, Otis Redding, and Booker T. & the MGs. While their voices and faces sold millions of Stax records during the company’s heyday, dozens of lesser-known musicians contributed their talents to the little label that did. Stax drew from Memphis’ deep reservoirs of talent — from its beginning in a garage on Orchi Road in the late 1950s to its bitter forced bankruptcy in 1975 — for its featured artists and for its supporting cast. Most of the studio musicians Stax employed for recording sessions lived in the city, and many have stayed. Memphis must have more residents who’ve played on Top 10 records than any city outside New York, L.A., and Nashville.

In honor of Stax’s 50th anniversary, we’ve dug up a few hidden treasures. The recognition these artists have received falls well short of the significance of their contributions to the Memphis sound. They have witnessed and participated in pivotal moments in Stax history and now share their stories.

In the beginning … a fan club and a pompadour

Charles Heinz goes back to the garage-studio beginnings of what was then Satellite Records. He recorded four sides for the label that would be Stax — including the local hit “Destiny” — in 1959, a time in the label’s evolution that predates its foray into rhythm and blues (the soul genre as such didn’t yet exist, either) and is, subsequently, overlooked in Stax history. It’s hard to find any mention of Heinz, a lifelong Memphian, beyond the wall of records in the Stax Museum, and his tracks were not included in the “complete” Stax singles box set released in 1991 or the Stax 50th-anniversary double disc released this year.

The artists whose records Satellite released before Heinz are dead or unaccounted for.

Justin Fox Burks

Heinz had a fan club and a pompadour back then. He sang in nightclubs with the Bill Black Combo and other bands. After his brief stint as a local pop star, he devoted his career to church music. He retired as music director of Central Church and helped found Redeemer Evangelical, where he conducts the choir and orchestra today. Here is his story in his own words:

“My influences were Mahalia Jackson and Mario Lanza. He was a tenor for the Metropolitan Opera. I would study things that they’d sing at the Metropolitan and then go out and sing rock on the weekends. It was an interesting combination. The soul that Mahalia Jackson put into songs connected with the instruction of how to sing correctly. It’s like a baseball player. Fundamentally, he’s got to know how to hit, but he’ll use his own style.

“I went to White Station and was singing with a group there that included Jim Dickinson on piano. I was introduced to the people at Stax, Satellite at that time, and they wanted me to record. In about ’59, Jim Stewart was looking for artists. Chips Moman and I wrote ‘Destiny.’ It was on the charts here in Memphis for about 10 weeks.

“We recorded at Pepper [also known as Pepper Tanner studio, formerly located at 2076 Union Avenue]. Stewart rented that studio to record, and they later did some overdubbing on McLemore. Bill Black played bass — I really enjoyed him.

“At that time, Satellite was not going in a rhythm-and-blues direction. With Carla and Rufus [Thomas] coming on, that changed things quickly. [Satellite] was going in a pop direction, but when they bought the studio on McLemore, it brought a lot of African-American people in [from the surrounding neighborhood], and they went in a rhythm-and-blues direction.”

The other Jerry Lee

Justin Fox Burks

Jerry Lee ‘Smoochy’ Smith

Ask fans of early rock-and-roll to name their favorite piano-thumping Jerry Lee, and they’re guaranteed to say Lewis. But another ivory-tickler named Jerry Lee from Memphis has made his own mark on American music: Jerry Lee “Smoochy” Smith. Like his better-known namesake, Smith began his music career in the studios of Sun Records, where Smith played on recording sessions from 1957 to 1959. Smith wrote a riff that launched Satellite’s first million-seller and helped the company make a name for itself. Literally.

“I was playing in a band, and my guitar player was Chips Moman. Chips was the engineer at Satellite. We were playing one night at the Hi-Hat Club. In one of the songs, I throwed in a little groovy piano sound. Chips, having the ear for music he has, turned around and said, ‘Where did you get that?’ I said, ‘I made it up. It’s a rhythm-and-blues-type riff.’ He said, ‘Come on by the studio, and let’s put that down.’

“Chips called me one night and said, ‘I’ve got a group over here [at the McLemore Avenue studio], and we’re working on that riff you put out.’ He had added the horns in there. They were blowing two notes against my rhythm pattern. I said that sounds pretty good. I forgot about the song for a while. It stayed on the shelf maybe six months.

“Meanwhile, Jim Stewart had gotten in touch with Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records. Wexler came down to listen to some of the songs that had been recorded to see if he liked any of them. Chips played every song that they did. Wexler told him he didn’t hear anything that knocked him out. He was fixin’ to leave, and Chips said, ‘I’ve got one more song. This is an instrumental.’ He played it, and Mr. Wexler said, ‘Now that’s what I’m looking for. Only thing, I’d like for you to put a saxophone ride in it.’

“Chips called a session, and we went and recorded it. He added two horns, Gilbert Caple and Floyd Newman. Gilbert played the saxophone ride. Floyd, he’s the one that said, ‘Awww, last night.’ He came up with that.

“I wasn’t but 21 years old when we recorded that. It took us four weeks to get it where we wanted it to be. I played organ and piano on it. I didn’t have much faith in the song. It started climbing the charts. We went on the road, and finally it hit #1. It turned out to be a great song. We recorded it in 1961, and I’m still drawing royalties on it.

Justin Fox Burks

Howard Grimes

“The song has been put in movies, and a lot of different people have recorded it. One year, the NBA used it as their theme song. Every now and then something happens with that song, and I’m making more money off of that song than I did when it first came out. It has kept me going over the years.”

Smith’s song, “Last Night,” recorded by the Mar-Keys, was the first million-seller for Satellite Records. It came to the attention of a California record company, also named Satellite Records. The California Satellite offered Jim Stewart the name outright for a hefty fee. Rather than pay or risk legal action from the California company, Stewart opted to rename his company. By combining the first two letters of Stewart’s last name with the first two letters of his sister Estelle Axton’s married name (she had bought into the company a couple of years earlier), a new brand was born: Stax.

“That was my shot, and I missed it.”

The lazy, laid-back beat that drove Al Green to the top of the charts in the late 1960s and early ’70s is one of the distinctive elements of the Memphis sound. Hi Records producer Willie Mitchell cultivated that groove at his Royal studio located one mile from Stax’s McLemore Avenue site. A different drummer, though, would have turned out different tunes. Name a hit from the Hi Records heyday and chances are Howard Grimes played drums on it. Though he made his mark at Hi, he got his start at Stax as a child prodigy.

Grimes lives a block away from the Stax Museum, yet, he says, he’s never been asked to participate in events there. “They don’t acknowledge me,” he says. “I don’t let it bother me, though I used to.

“I was self-taught on the drums. My mother had them big old 78 records of Big Joe Turner and Ray Charles. I’d play on the pots and pans. My granddaddy used to listen to the Grand Ole Opry. I’d sit and listen to it with him.

“I could hear the drums from the school over there on Smith Street where I lived in North Memphis. I came to Manassas in ninth grade. That’s when I took an interest in band — Mr. Able was the band teacher there. Mr. Able and them were into jazz, listening to Max Roach, Art Blakey, and these drummers. They started tuning me in.

Justin Fox Burks

Charles Heinz

“Mr. Able singled me out as a drummer that he felt would be successful. He used to let me out of school — I got an opportunity to record up there at Satellite. Rufus Thomas decided to cut a record one day, and it was suggested that I play on it. I was excited ’cause I had never recorded before and didn’t know whether I could do it. I was 12.

“I went up there and met Ms. Axton and Mr. Stewart. Chips Moman was the engineer. He was the most kindhearted man I’d ever met. He believed in me for some reason. It was Bob Talley’s band: Alfred Rudd, Wilbur Steinburg, Talley — he was a piano player but played trumpet on that session — Booker T. Jones, long before he became the MGs … Me and Booker were the youngest ones up there. The record was called ‘Cause I Love You.’ [Released in 1960 between Charles Heinz’ only two singles.]

“After that, they brought me back, and I cut Carla Thomas’ ‘Gee Whiz.’ [Released in late 1960, it was Satellite’s first national hit.] Something went wrong with the machine, so we did the session at Hi [Willie Mitchell’s studio at 1320 Lauderdale]. Marvell Thomas played piano, I played drums, and they had the Memphis Symphony, Noel Gilbert and his two kids. Sam Jones and the Veltones were the back-up singers.

“They called me back for William Bell. I also cut with Wendy Rene, Prince Conley. And I did a lot of instrumentals with the Mar-Keys. I never got any royalties. I got statements but never any money.

“A lot of [rumors] have come out over the years. Someone said that Al Jackson [Jr.] tutored me. Al Jackson never tutored me — I was before Al Jackson.

“[Stax] gave Booker T. an opportunity to record one day. I don’t know where I was, usually I was at home, but that day I left home. When I got back, my mother told me [Stax] had called. I was the staff drummer, but I called them back, and they said they had got someone else. I found out it was Al Jackson. Steve Cropper had recommended him. He called [Jackson] in that day for ‘Green Onions,’ and the rest is history. That was my shot, and I missed it.”

The man who kicked Isaac Hayes out ofthe high school band

High school bandleaders have had an influence on Memphis music that is huge and overlooked. To name just two, the great jazz orchestra leader Jimmie Lunceford taught at Manassas in the 1920s, and Harry Winfield tutored future Stax luminaries at Porter Junior High.

Emerson Able started teaching music at Manassas in 1956 and instructed many, including Grimes, who became prominent musicians. The most famous of his former pupils is the one who got away.

While a student at Manassas, Isaac Hayes couldn’t decide between Able’s band class or voice class. “I told him, ‘Go on,'” recalls Able. Hayes didn’t hold it against Able and later hired his old teacher to join the Isaac Hayes Movement. “Hayes introduced me on stage as the man who kicked him out of the school band,” Able says.

“I was not one of the musicians that hung around Stax. I had a job. They had been doing a lot of ‘head’ tunes at Stax [i.e., a song played from memory or verbal instruction rather than sheet music], and that can be very time consuming. A head tune is like ‘Last Night,’ a simple tune that they can pick up on. Basically, that was the Stax sound.

“Musicians didn’t always get credit for what they had recorded at Stax. They were doing what they called demos. You’d go down, record a demo, and they’d pay you 12 bucks. They have you to believe that it was only a demo, and they’d have you back to cut it [i.e., record for the purpose of releasing the material rather than practicing on a demo]. Then they’d [release] it and have you believe you’re not on there. Some of us could identify our errors, and we knew it was us.

“Another game they’d run, they’d make a demo, then play it on WLOK for a while. If [African Americans] in Memphis like a record, we’ll like it anywhere. So they’d test it on black listeners here, and if it got a lot of requests, they’d make a record out of it.

“Onzie Horne [Hayes’ arranger] brought me into Hayes’ band. That’s when we hit the road. We had charts, he had accomplished musicians, and we never would have gotten through all of that shit had it been a ‘head’ thing.

“We lost the music [traveling] between San Francisco and Los Angeles for Wattstax. We didn’t know it was missing until it got there. We assumed the airlines lost it. We had to write the music from memory before Wattstax.

“The other thing that happened, the tune we originally did for Wattstax was a Burt Bacharach tune [probably “Walk On By”]. After we recorded it at the Coliseum in L.A. and got back to Memphis, we had to go back out there. Bacharach would not give permission to use the tune [in the Wattstax film]. They fixed up the Coliseum, and we shot again.

“We’re supposed to be getting monies off of that, but we ain’t getting shit.”