Soulsville U.S.A. Mark R

Furman Magazine Volume 45 Article 4 Issue 4 Winter 2003 1-1-2003 Soulsville U.S.A. Mark R. Crosby '84 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine Recommended Citation Crosby, Mark R. '84 (2003) "Soulsville U.S.A.," Furman Magazine: Vol. 45 : Iss. 4 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarexchange.furman.edu/furman-magazine/vol45/iss4/4 This Article is made available online by Journals, part of the Furman University Scholar Exchange (FUSE). It has been accepted for inclusion in Furman Magazine by an authorized FUSE administrator. For terms of use, please refer to the FUSE Institutional Repository Guidelines. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY FANTASY RECORDS EXCEPT AS NOTEO. n early January of this year, I flew out to San Francisco to spend two days I at Fantasy Records. The purpose of my visit was to listen to old recording sessions from the 1960s and '70s that took place at the long-gone Stax Records recording studio, once located in Memphis, Te nn. Stax went bankrupt back in 1975, and Fantasy had acquired most of its assets, including the original master tapes of such hits as "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," "Soul Man" and "Theme From Shaft." This was my third visit to Fantasy to listen to the Stax tapes. The five-story Fantasy Records build ing, located in Berkeley, just across the bay from San Francisco, is somewhat modern looking, with a tinted-glass and white concrete-slab exterior. The Stax tapes are kept on the second floor, in a vault-like room behind a door you'd think was for a hall closet. No nameplate; no number. Behind it are literally thousands of tapes representing the collections of several labels owned by Fantasy, including Stax. The floor-to-ceiling racks filled with Stax tapes run 1 00 feet or so along the room's concrete floor. They remain in their original "pizza-pie" boxes, stacked like books in a library, spines out, with handwritten names to a local church for a dollar. In 1989, like Otis Redding, Booker T. and the MG's, after remaining vacant for almost 15 Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, and Sam years, the studios, which had been in and Dave - some of the stars who recorded an old movie theatre, were torn down to at Stax back in its heyday. make room for a community center that As with my previous visits, my task was was never built. For the ardent Stax fan to collect taped material from between takes, bent on visiting the Stax site, nothing including engineer and artist talk, various remained except some terracotta tiles misfires, false starts, and slates ("take one"). embedded in concrete near the former In time, with the help of Fantasy's recording studio's front entranceway. engineers, I was able to piece together I say "ardent" fan because that's what a fair amount of such material, resulting you had to be to find Stax. Not only was in a one-of-a-kind audio track of what cutting the building itself destroyed, but the Stax a record at Stax sounded like. site was squarely within one of the worst parts of Memphis, a poverty-stricken am an attorney. I live in New York. neighborhood in steady decline since Stax How and why I wound up being closed more than a quarter-century ago. I asked to do this, as well as so many A cast-iron historical marker, erected by the other things relating to Stax, requires an state of Te nnessee, was the only obvious explanation. But first let me say a thing indication that anything at all had taken or two about Elvis. place on the corner of East Mclemore In Memphis, Elvis is big business. Avenue and College Street. Huge business, actually. Elvis fans con Of course, it was not always so. tribute more than $150 million a year to On that very spot nearly a half century TOP: THE BROTHER-AND-SISTER TEAM OF ESTELLE AXTON the Memphis economy, making Graceland ago a young white couple with no industry AND JIM STEWART FOUNDED STAX IN 1959; FOR YEARS. the second most visited home in the United experience began working with neighbor States, after the White House. hood talent, both white and black, to forge ALL THAT INDICATED WHERE STAX HAD BEEN WAS A STATE If, on the other hand, you had in mind from the rich Memphis heritage of river and HISTORICAL MARKER ON AN EMPTY LOT. seeing where Stax stars like Redding race a new music, a music of the soul. BOTTOM: THE STAX HOUSE BAND. BOOKER T. AND THE MG"S. recorded "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," It was the sound of an improbable and WAS INDUCTED INTO THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME or where Sam and Dave recorded "Soul untested partnership -two races exulting IN 1992. IN FRONT: ORGANIST BOOKER T. JONES. STANDING. Man," you'd have your work cut out for you. in an attempt to bridge disparate cultures, FROM LEFT: DONALD ""DUCK"" DUNN ON BASS. STEVE CROPPER After Stax went bankrupt in 1975, the to share the best of lessons learned from ON GUITAR, AL JACKSON ON DRUMS. empty, padlocked studios were turned over hardships known firsthand by each. ABOVE: THE STAPLE SINGERS WERE MAJOR PLAYERS IN BOTH THE GOSPEL AND SOUL MARKETS. RIGHT: A WORKING SESSION IN THE STUDIO AT STAX, WITH, FROM LEFT, ISAAC HAYES AT THE PIANO; HIS SONGWRITING PARTNER, DAVID PORTER; SAM MOORE AND DAVE PRATER (SAM AND DAVE), PERHAPS SOUL MUSIC'S GREATEST DUO; AND GUITARIST STEVE CROPPER. BELOW CARLA THOMAS HAMS IT UP WITH AL JACKSON, DRUMMER FOR BOOKER T. AND THE MG'S. Otis Redding. Sam and Dave. Rufus with his older sister, Estelle Axton (the name Thomas. Booker T. and the MG's. Isaac Stax came from the first two letters of their Hayes. The Staple Singers. More than last names), he probably had not heard 800 singles, 300 albums, 237 top ten hits of Berry Gordy. For Stewart, the model and 15 number ones. for success lay just around the corner It was the never before heard sound at Sun Records, with its impresario, Sam of Stax Records. Phillips. Elvis, who had been discovered by Phillips, recorded at Sun, as did the likes o many people, Stax was (and is) the of Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny southern counterpart of Motown, its Cash. T far more famous and economically With money borrowed from his sister, successful rival. Unlike Stax, the name Stewart leased an old movie theatre in Motown is known by even the most casual a racially mixed neighborhood in south music fan and is synonymous with songs Memphis and converted it into a bare-bones made famous by such performers as recording studio. Stax was open for busi Smokey Robinson, The Supremes, The ness. Sun's homespun startand smashing Te mptations, Marvin Gaye and so many success left Stewart with the impression others. Motown's commercial success, that all he needed was a rockabilly star most say, was the result of founder Berry of his own. Gordy's genius in taking what was pre Plenty of curious hopefuls stopped dominately a Southern-influenced, African by almost immediately, and Stewart was American sound and presenting it in an happy to give almost anyone who came in acceptable way to white audiences. the front door a shot at recording their music. the employees hung the name Soulsville, Besides having tremendous songs and Among the performers who walked in off USA, on the old theatre's marquee. In time, exceptional talent, Motown paid careful the street was Rufus Thomas, who'd had the entire neighborhood became known attention to the appearance and demeanor a hit with Sun Records a couple of years by the same name. of its artists. Dressed as if going to the earlier. Rufus brought along his 16-year senior prom, Motown stars would perform old daughter, Carla, and together they nlike Motown, Stax did not aim its carefully choreographed shows, often recorded Stax's first hit record, which was music specifically at white listeners. backed by a full orchestra. The company played and sold only in the Memphis area. U Owing in large part to the neighbor even employed a diction coach. Motown's The local response to "Cause I Love You" hood talent around Stax and the success "crossover'' appeal was unmistakable, as was strong enough to attract the notice of its first hit with Rufus and Carla, the hit after hit added fame and fortune to the of New York-based Atlantic Records, and "little label that could" brought forth its Detroit label. not long afterward Stax, with Atlantic as own sound - a "Memphis" sound. It was Stax had no such marketing strategy. distributor and partner, began cranking out the untouched sound of people, both black When Jim Stewart, a white banker and part the hits. and white, making music for themselves time country fiddler, founded Stax in 1959 Taking pride in their newfound success, and having fun doing it. 4 Most songs were laid down all at once, live. Feeling the music was all that mattered. Often the company would press a record for distribution simply because a take "felt" right, no matter its imperfections. To this day, the music recorded at Stax comes across with the same rawness and power as when it was first released. What mattered most to the musicians and singers was getting that feeling down on tape, and that feeling remains as fresh and powerful today as when first felt by the Stax artists themselves.

Load more