On the Beat: Visit a legendary label in superb documentary series
Source: JournalStar.com
Author: L. Kent Wolgamott
L. Kent Wolgamott
Entertainment reporter/columnist
Author twitter Author email Follow L. Kent Wolgamott Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today L. Kent Wolgamott
In the late 1950s, Jim Stewart, a part-time fiddler in a country band who worked at a bank, and his sister Estelle Axton started a record label in Memphis, Tennessee, they called Satellite Records to release country, rockabilly and pop recordings by area artists.
In 1960, Satellite moved its operations to an old movie theater at 926 East McLemore Ave. in black south Memphis and recorded disc jockey Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla doing "Cause I Love You," which became a regional hit, flipping the label to R&B and leading to a name change for the label.
The change was to Stax Records, which over the next 15 years invented and popularized Southern soul, becoming a legendary imprint surrounded by a mythology of its origins, success and demise.
"Stax: Soulsville U.S.A.," a four-part documentary series now airing on HBO and streaming on Max, enlightens and entertains as it tells the label's story, eschewing the myth for the more complicated reality while rounding up some "you-are-there" vintage footage and hearing from many of the label's principals.
People are also reading... Nebraska volleyball's Harper Murray releases statement in response to legal woes Lincoln Police identify 14-year-old suspect, 16-year-old victim in fatal stabbing After recruiting snag, Kahmir Prescott regained his edge with belief from Nebraska Lincoln couple opens coffee concept that caters to parents of young children Fast-falling rain wreaks havoc in eastern Nebraska, forcing road closures, water rescues Lincoln's Nelnet no longer a student loan company, exec says Amie Just: Friday night football at Memorial Stadium is bound to be a logistical nightmare Nebraska braces for rounds of storms and potential severe weather, forecast here 14-year-old boy arrested after teen killed in northeast Lincoln stabbing, police say Amie Just: New Memorial Stadium plan makes sense, but South Stadium deserves upgrade Will severe storms affect weekend plans in Nebraska? Nebraska football hosting Big Ten Friday night game on Fox Recruiting notebook: Top-100 recruit deciding between Nebraska and Alabama Lincoln singer Bryan Olesen takes third on 'The Voice' Lincoln's Bryan Olesen awaits fate on 'The Voice'
That list includes Stewart and Al Bell, the Stax promotion director who became the label owner during its '70s renaissance. They are the stars of the show, so to speak, as director Jamila Wignot keeps the focus on the label more broadly and folds it into a story of America during the racial upheaval of the '60s and '70s.
Thankfully, there's no tiresome star-splaining from the likes of Bono and Dave Grohl, who seem to turn up in every music documentary to instruct we mere mortals on the import and creation of the music.
In fact, the only "outside" voice heard during the series is that of historian Rob Bowman, whose indispensable 1997 history of the label, "Soulsville U.S.A.," provides much of the framework for the documentary, a tale fleshed out by the research of Deanie Parker, Stax's director of publicity, who provides much of the series' backgrounding narrative.
Nor, as some critics of the series have noted, does the documentary account for many of the label's top artists, only mentioning Eddie Floyd, whose "Knock On Wood" was a Stax smash, William Bell and briefly showing the Staple Singers.
That kind of focus would make for a very different series than the one Wignot has created.
But it does provide looks at pivotal figures for the label -- Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the house band, Rufus and Carla Thomas (she's still with us and provides her view of things from the beginning of Stax through its end), and Otis Redding, who was key to Stax crossing over to the white audience before his tragic 1967 plane crash death.
Wilgot's chronological, what's-happening-inside-the-label-approach can move too quickly past pivotal events in Stax history, such as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel, the home away from home for the Stax musicians and out-of-town visitors to the label.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack
Stax, about a mile from the motel, was shaken by the assassination on multiple levels.
As M.G.'s bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn told me in 2007: "I was standing outside with Isaac Hayes and David Porter and Al Jackson. I happened to be the only white guy standing outside, and a cop pulled up and went, 'Are you in trouble?' It was the most embarrassing day of my life. We never went through that. Musicians aren't like that."
But the ramifications of King's killing, Jones says, drove a wedge into his band, from which it never recovered -- no further details are provided.
But those are minor quibbles about what to this long-time Stax fan is by far the best-ever documentary treatment of the label and its artists.
It's eye-opening to see Booker T. demonstrate the change of a chord pattern that resulted in "Green Onions" and made Booker T. & the M.G.'s a hit, view an incendiary Sam & Dave live performance, and watch Isaac Hayes transform from a staff writer to an innovative star.
That came after Atlantic and Warner Bros. Records put the screws to Stax, taking the label's master tapes and some artists, including Sam & Dave, as it broke a distribution deal -- one of the many examples of record-business skullduggery exposed in the documentary.
Determined to bring Stax back, Bell becomes the center of the second half of the series, as he turns Stax into a fully independent label, helps Hayes become a global superstar and, with a roster of artists new and old, draws more than 100,000 black people to the Los Angeles Coliseum for the Wattstax concert.
That concert was filmed and much of the final hour of the movie comes from it. That's nothing new for Stax aficionados. But placed in its historical/cultural context, Wattdtax becomes the label's last and greatest achievement.
The demise of Stax, as detailed by Bell, who was charged with embezzlement during the label's mid-1970s unraveling, is heartbreaking, as a regime change at CBS Records, which distributed Stax product, kept its records out of stores and a near bank failure combined to force the label into bankruptcy.
Again, I knew all of that before watching "Stax: Soulsville U.S.A." But it's poignant to see the evidence of the gradual death of the label and to hear Stewart, Bell and Parker reflect on the death of their dream.
"Stax: Soulsville U.S.A." clocks in at close to four hours -- each of the episodes is in the 50- to 65-minute range. And I can attest, for Stax fans, it's easy to watch all four back to back.
And it's a safe bet I'll be watching it again sooner rather than later -- I already revisited a few scenes while writing this. It's simply a great music documentary about a label and its music that deserved that level of treatment.
20 iconic rock songs written on the spot 20 iconic rock songs written on the spot '(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones 'Yesterday' by the Beatles 'My Generation' by the Who 'I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better' by the Byrds 'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Airplane 'Fortunate Son' by Creedence Clearwater Revival 'American Woman' by The Guess Who 'Paranoid' by Black Sabbath 'Life on Mars?' by David Bowie 'Dust in the Wind' by Kansas 'Barracuda' by Heart 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love' by Queen 'Rock the Casbah' by the Clash 'Here Comes the Rain Again' by Eurythmics 'Every Breath You Take' by the Police 'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush 'Sweet Child O' Mine' by Guns N' Roses 'Losing My Religion' by R.E.M. 'Black Hole Sun' by Soundgarden 'Doll Parts' by Hole 20 iconic rock songs written on the spot
Reach the writer at 402-473-7244 or [email protected]. On Twitter @KentWolgamott
0 Comments Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0
Tags Entertainment Stax:soulsville Usa Stax Records Booker T. & The M.g.'s Booker T. Jones Sound Recording Concord Music Group Music Of Tennessee Music Soul Music African-american Music Music Of The Southern United States American Record Labels Rhythm And Blues Be the first to know
Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. L. Kent Wolgamott
Entertainment reporter/columnist
Author twitter Author email Follow L. Kent Wolgamott Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification.
{{description}}
Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.
Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today