Stax: A 50th Anniversary Celebration

Memphis-based label Stax is, along with Motown, Atlantic and (possibly) reggae's Trojan a label that has become a term for a sub-genre of music. I often find myself saying "listen to those Stax-y horns", for example. You can refer to a "Stax-sounding song" just as easily as you can a "Motown-sounding" one. 

The label also had an iconic logo in the finger-snapping image.

Stax was based in the South of the US and its sound is what is often known as "Southern soul". Semi-funky guitar (often played by the excellent Steve Cropper) is usually to the fore, along with that distinctive punchy horn sound, and the vocals have a huge gospel influence, straight out of that fertile breeding ground for Southern vocalists - its churches. Like Motown's Funk Brothers, Stax had a house band and they were the mighty Booker T. & The MGs. They appeared backing many other artists' recordings. Blues was also a big thing at Stax, either in its own right or as a heavy influence on its soul recordings. 

This excellent compilation (released in 2007 to mark the label's 50th Anniversary - it began as Satellite Records but changed to Stax in 1961 and ran in conjunction with Volt records until around 1968) has a chronological track running order. I like that - you can hear the development of the label's sound through its year-on-year releases. It begins with a rock 'n' roll-influenced ballad in Carla Thomas' Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes), for example, and similar early sixties-style numbers from The Mar-Keys and William Bell, before things really begin to take shape with Booker T.'s iconic Green Onions. Stax was on its way.

Let's knock on wood, 'cos time is tight....

The artists included on here are a veritable US black music sixties/seventies hall of fame - Booker T., William Bell, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Eddie Floyd, Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers......Many of these artists have been covered individually by me in more detail. Check them out via the links highlighted here.

Stax was notable, initially, for the fact that unlike Motown, it didn't use strings. It was instinctively raw, down 'n' dirty, gritty soul. Use Sam & Dave's Hold On I'm Coming or Eddie Floyd's Knock On Wood as perfect examples. Or for a sexy one, try Carla Thomas' B-A-B-Y, with its glorious deep bassline. For energetic semi-instrumental party fun, you surely have to go for The Bar-Kay's raucous romp, Soul Finger. Girl group lush soul? The Emotions' So I Can Love You. Wanna get loved-up? It's Isaac Hayes' Walk On By or Never Can Say Goodbye. Feel the funk in your soul? The Dramatics' Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get. Can you dig it? Shaft is your man. Or simply for full-on soul it has to be Otis Redding's (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay. Simply great, pure, essential music. Oh, and don't forget those brackets. 

My favourites on here are too many to list, but I will pick out a few - Rufus Thomas's quirky Walking The Dog (also covered by The Rolling Stones), Eddie Floyd's chunky Knock On Wood (covered live by David Bowie on 1974's David Live album), Soul Finger by The Bar-Kays, Albert King's über-gritty blues Born Under A Bad Sign, Booker T.'s Soul Limbo (especially for 70s UK cricket fans) and Time Is Tight (for UK chart rundown fans), the soulful duet Private Number by William Bell & Judy Clay, William Bell's lovelorn lament I Forgot To Be Your Lover, Sam & Dave's brassily glorious Soul Man, Lynda Lyndell's enthusiastic What A Man, Johnnie Taylor's possessively paranoid Who's Making Love and Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone, Jean Knight's sassy Mr. Big Stuff, the funky Watcha See Is Watcha Get by The Dramatics, The Staple Singers' gospel-influenced and uplifting I'll Take You There and If You're Ready (Come Go With Me), Mel & Tim's romantic Starting All Over Again and Shirley Brown's telephonically-confrontational Woman To Woman. 

Is that a good enough list to start with? Damn right it is. 

All truly killer songs and that is only scratching the surface. As with so many of these compilations I have been reviewing recently, there's not a bad track on here. Stax had a huge influence on artists like Southside Johnny, Steve Van Zandt and Bruce Springsteen as well as more contemporary soul artists such as Curtis Harding and Leon Bridges. Too many to mention, actually.

Also worth checking out is the six CD series Stax Chartbusters - six 18-track selections with no obvious order to them (a bit like their Motown and Reggae Chartbusters equivalents). They also contain, oddly, several songs that are not on The Complete Stax Singles three box series. I can only presume that they are album tracks. Anyway, the sound quality is excellent on them and they are a fertile hunting ground for Stax material you may not otherwise have heard. 

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