A five-disc box set, Stax ’68: A Memphis Story (Craft Recordings/Stax), documents the aftermath.
“It was a feeling of being lost and being numbed,”
remembered Deanie Parker, who worked in various capacities at Stax
beginning in 1963 and later helped establish the Stax Museum of American
Soul Music. “Two weeks later, after the plane crash, a big delivery
trunk pulled in front of Stax’s building, bringing in these two huge
trunks that were still dripping water, because they were retrieved from
the lake where the plane crashed. In the most tactful way, we made sure
to get those things in the trunks back to those victims’ loved ones.”
Redding’s legacy opens Stax ’68 with the wistful
“(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” a single that was rushed out in
early January 1968. The single succeeded Sam and Dave’s 1967’s hit “Soul
Man” as Stax’s top-selling record. Following Redding’s immortal song is
its more upbeat B-side, “Sweet Lorene,” which sounded more like his
patented gritty soul.
Other references to Redding’s untimely death on Stax ’68 surface
on Eddie Floyd’s surging “Big Bird,” a song about his attempt to fly
from the UK back to Georgia to attend Redding’s funeral. A more direct
homage is William Bell’s plaintive “A Tribute To A King.” Bell, a close
friend of Redding, wrote the song for the singer’s family with no
intention of it officially being released.
“I fought against it being released, mainly because I
didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to capitalize on a friend’s
death,” Bell said, which in part explains why “A Tribute To A King” was
issued as the B-side to his sauntering ballad, “Every Man Oughta Have A
Woman.”
Soon after losing Redding and most of the members of the
Bar-Kays, Warner Bros. purchased Atlantic Records, Stax’s distributor.
The 1965 contract between Stax and Atlantic contained a clause stating
that the Memphis label could sever ties with Atlantic if Jerry Wexler
ceased being the company’s sole owner. Stax took advantage of that
provision, but to its detriment. The contract also stipulated that
Atlantic owned Stax’s masters and rights of reproduction, leaving the
Memphis imprint without a catalog. Stax also soon learned that Sam and
Dave, one of its biggest acts, actually was signed to Atlantic.
In racially segregated Memphis, Stax was an oasis where
black and white musicians collaborated. But on April 4, 1968, civil
rights leader Dr. Martin Luther Jr. was assassinated at Memphis’
Lorraine Motel, throttling the decade’s idealism.
“We were essentially a happy people within the Stax
Records walls,” Parker recalled. “But every time we stepped outside the
door into real Memphis, we had to deal with the fact that there
were many men on the streets and around the corner who couldn’t feed
their families, because they couldn’t get a decent wage. Some people in
the Memphis community were very hostile toward Stax, because we
represented a lifestyle for the future.”
Bell perceived a financial fallout following the unrest around King’s assassination.
“There was looting and rioting in different cities that
we’re touring in, and record sales were down, because a lot of the
stores had been bombed out. It just had a trickle-down effect,” he said.
In the eeriest of circumstances, singer Shirley Walton
was recording vocals for “Send Peace And Harmony Home,” a soul anthem
originally written as a gift to King and included in the box set, on
April 4. She reportedly struggled connecting to the song until receiving
word of King’s slaying. Stunned and sadden by the news, she and the
musicians finished the session, which was released the following month.
The new box set contains additional socially conscious tunes evoking the
civil rights movement, specifically efforts from the then-newly signed
Staple Singers—“Long Walk To DC,” “The Ghetto” and “Got To Be Some
Changes Made.”
Facing seemingly insurmountable challenges—both
societally and within the business itself—Al Bell, a former radio disc
jockey, rose through the Stax ranks under the leadership of its
founders, Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton. After he became executive vice
president and eventually principal owner, Bell famously orchestrated the
simultaneous release of 27 LPs in mid-’69 to help build the imprint a
new catalog.
But before he implemented that plan, Bell secured a deal
with Gulf and Western’s Paramount Pictures division to fund Stax’s
post-Atlantic operations. He also launched a new sub label, Enterprise
Records—named after the vessel in Star Trek—to capture the ears of a broader listenership.
“I had a good feel for the diversity of music
appreciation from the African American consumer,” he said. “So, I went
after blues, soul, the Motown sound and jazz.”
Enterprise originally was designed as a subsidiary label focused on jazz, even though Isaac Hayes’ soul-funk classics Shaft and Hot, Buttered Soul were issued under its auspices. Nevertheless, Stax ’68 features
Hayes’ instrumental soul-jazz gem “Precious, Precious” and the
blues-drenched “Going To Chicago Blues.” For jazz fans, though, the most
engaging Enterprise cuts on the set might be two rare tunes by
trumpeter Eddie Henderson: the sunny, mid-tempo “Georgy Girl” and the
swaggering “A Million Times Or More.”
The rarities and oddities that comprise a portion of Stax ’68 actually are
what makes it an intriguing release. For sure, it contains some
well-known favorites from Booker T. and the MG’s, Rufus Thomas, Albert
King, Carla Thomas and Johnnie Taylor. More fascinating, however, are
songs like Derek Martin’s “Sly Girl” (which borrows judiciously from the
1965 Four Tops hit “It’s The Same Ole Song”) and Daaron Lee’s
honky-tonk take on Johnny Taylor’s “Who’s Making Love.” DB
from http://downbeat.com