Archive Review: Otis Redding’s Live On the Sunset Strip (2010)

Showcasing three sets recorded live in April 1966 at Hollywood’s world-famous Whisky A Go-Go club, Otis Redding’s Live On the Sunset Strip presents the music exactly as it went down, 28 songs complete with introductions and the opening emcee. To say that Redding’s performances these nights were nothing short of amazing would be an understatement. The soul shouter had made the jump from Southeast favorite to national star on the strength of his cover of the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” and the hits would just keep coming even past his death in December 1967.

Otis Redding’s Live On The Sunset Strip

With Redding’s three sets stretched across two discs, there is some duplication of the songs performed on Live On The Sunset Strip, but considering the overall quality of the singer’s dynamic performances, who’s counting? While some of these songs will be instantly familiar to soul fans – the bluesy torchsong “These Arms of Mine,” the big band R&B revue rave-up provided “Satisfaction,” and the tearjerking “Mr. Pitiful” are all highlights here – Live On the Sunset Strip offers a deeper look at Redding’s multi-faceted talents. The beautiful “Chained and Bound” is a romanticist fantasy featuring Redding’s pleading, soulful vocals while his original “Respect,” a big hit for Aretha Franklin, is a staggering bit of original rock ‘n’ soul music.

It’s with the second disc of Live On the Sunset Strip that you’ll find some surprises, however. While Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long” benefits from an incredibly moving performance, and the underrated, emotionally-charged “Security” is 1960s-era soul music at its best, who could have prepared for an Otis Redding cover of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night.” Shorn of its pop roots, the song is re-imagined here as an old-fashioned R&B romp with a driving rhythm and rowdy vocals. Redding even tackles the Godfather himself with a raucous ten-minute jam on James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag,” complete with some good-natured stage banter by Redding. The performance is both a tribute to Redding’s talents and a respectful nod to Brown.    

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Parts of these Whisky shows have been previously released, beginning with 1968’s In Person At the Whisky A Go-Go, and reprised in 1982 with the Recorded Live album. These historical performances made their first appearance on CD in 1993 as Good to Me: Recorded Live at the Whisky, but they’ve never been released to this extent until now. Redding’s star would keep rising from here, the singer scoring more hits and delivering a stunning performance at the Monterey Pop Festival. As shown by Live On the Sunset Strip, however, Redding already had it going on. Well worth checking out for fans of classic soul music. (Stax Records, released May 18, 2010)

Archive Review: Various Artists - The South Side of Soul Street (2013)

Collectors of Southern soul are a dedicated bunch of crate-diggers, and we have them to thank for the re-discovery and reissuing of a lot of long-gone, all-but-lost soul classics. A lot of Memphis and Muscle Shoals sides have been rescued for the digital era because of their efforts, and not just those recordings released by Stax Records, but a wealth of small-label craziness that would have slipped into obscurity if not for the fanaticism of collectors hoarding old sides from Excello, A-Bet, Dial, and other small independent labels.

Witness the legacy of Minaret Records, a small R&B imprint from Valparaiso, Florida that was re-purposed by producer Finley Duncan as a logical outgrowth of his Playground Recording Studio. Originally a country-leaning label in the early 1960s, by the end of the decade Duncan had moved the label into blues and R&B with Nashville partner Shelby Singleton. Although Minaret never scored any major chart hits during the label’s short existence as a soul imprint, they could boast of a roster of classic soul, blues, and R&B talents that would have done any other label proud.

The South Side of Soul Street

The South Side of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976 is a two-disc, 40-song collection that offers all of the A and B-sides from the Minaret catalog for the first time, most of these songs out-of-print for decades and fetching premium prices. Listening to The South Side of Soul Street is a revelation, one great song after another cascading from your speakers like honey dripping from a hive. Singer Big John Hamilton was the anchor of the Minaret roster, and he’s represented here by a whopping 20 songs, performances like the grand, heartbreaking “I Have No One” or the Memphis-styled groove of “Pretty Girls” presents the head-scratching question of why Hamilton didn’t become a big league star. His debuts with singer Doris Allen are of a similar high quality as his solo cuts, “A Place In My Heart” especially effective, the contrasting male and female voices bolstering the emotional impact of the lyrics.

Minaret was about more than just Big John Hamilton, though, and artists like Genie Brooks – whose funky-fresh “Fine Time” positions him as the label’s Wilson Pickett – along with Johnny Dynamite and Gable Reed all possessed a certain star quality. Dynamite’s “The Night the Angels Cried” is a hard-driving R&B tearjerker with great soul vocals and bleats of horn while Reed’s “I’m Your Man” is a emotional plea for amour delivered in the best Otis Redding style, wiry guitar licks filling in between tears. Brooks’ “South Side of Soul Street,” from which the set takes its name, is bold, brassy, and swings like a blacksmith’s hammer, the song a perfect funk-drenched snapshot of Southern soul circa 1969.

Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976

Willie Cobbs is best-known as a blues shouter, but the lone single he made for Minaret, “I’ll Love Only You,” is a mighty powerful R&B bonfire, with some fine Steve Cropper-styled git-pickin. The single’s “B” side, “Don’t Worry About Me,” is equally entertaining, with bluesy harp loping alongside Cobbs’ smoky vocals and shots of horn. Doris Allen should definitely been a bigger star, her larger than life voice and undeniable charisma pumping up standard R&B tracks like “A Shell of A Woman” and “Kiss Yourself For Me” with the intensity of an Etta James.

Leroy Lloyd and the Dukes are obviously rockers at heart, their instrumental “Sewanee Strut” bouncing off the walls with bluesy horns, machine-gun drumbeats, and an infectious rhythm. By contrast, Lloyd’s instrumental “A Taste of the Blues” is a slow-burner, smoldering piano accompanied by lively hornplay and smart fretwork by Lloyd that reminds of Freddie King. Willie Gable’s “Row, Row, Row” is the single outlier here, a sort of lusty talking-blues styled R&B tune based on nursery rhyme melodies and lyrics that is just flat-out weird. The singer’s “Eternally” plays much better, Gable traipsing across familiar soul turf with a torch-song ballad that places his wavering voice in a better light.
 

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Like most of the Southern soul labels at the time, Duncan used a house band of talented, albeit largely unknown players like guitarists Larry Shell and John Rainey Adkins, as well as guest musicians like the Memphis Horns and Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham who all struck sparks in the recording studio when playing behind these great singers.

The South Side of Soul Street includes a nice booklet with a few rare photos and extensive liner notes from music historian Bill Dahl, a guy that knows his stuff and, more importantly, loves the music as deeply as any crate-digger. It’s the music that does the talking on The South Side of Soul Street, though, the album a phenomenal tribute to the unsung artists that created these great performances. If you’re a fan of 1960s-era soul music – and who isn’t – and you haven’t heard The South Side of Soul Street, what the heck are you waiting for? (Omnivore Records, released August 13th, 2013)

Archive Review: Various Artists - Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years (1995)

This nifty little box came to me courtesy of old friend Cary Baker, who had great taste in music as a critic, and even better taste as a publicist. If not for him, I might have completely overlooked Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years as, unfortunately, a lot of music lovers may do as well. It’s a shame, too, because this is a wonderful collection, on par with anything that Atlantic, Rhino, or Capricorn have done these past few years.

Hi Records was founded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1957 by a trio of Sun Records session musicians. They found financial backers for the project, and began to kick out a series of jazzy, almost big band instrumental hits and R&B vocal tunes. The label’s discovery and signing of the talented Willie Mitchell proved to be a fortunate stroke of fate as well as a wise business decision. As an artist, Mitchell was to pull Hi from the brink of bankruptcy with a string of R&B hits that stretched throughout the 1960s; as a songwriter and producer, he became the cornerstone of Hi’s entire operation. The first disc of Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years showcases a number of Mitchell’s hits, including “20-75,” “The Crawl,” and “Everything Is Going To Be All Right” with the Four Kings.

It was during the early ‘60s that Hi Records was to make its greatest impact on the pop and rock music worlds, scoring hit after hit from a pair of Mitchell-produced artists, Al Green and Ann Peebles. Green began his career with a series of solid covers, songs like the Beatles’ “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” the Box Tops’ “The Letter,” or the Motown classic “I Can’t Get Next To You.” When he began working out his own material, he struck literal gold, and his hits topped the pop charts for the better part of the decade: “Let’s Stay Together,” “Tired of Being Alone,” “I’m Still In Love With You,” and others.

Although Peebles didn’t experience nearly the success that Green did on the pop charts, she held her own, singing her heart out in a series of soulful, sultry R&B hits like “(I Feel Like) Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” “I’m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down,” and the classic “I Can’t Stand The Rain.” Hi Records was about more than just Green and Peebles, however, with artists like Ace Cannon, Otis Clay, Syl Johnson and O.V. Wright contributing to the label’s legacy.

Each benefited from Willie Mitchell’s enormous production skills, spurred on to give their greatest vocal performances by Mitchell’s quiet genius. The Hi house band, led by Teenie Hodges, cranked out a steady groove and a trademark sound that matched that of Stax, their cross-town rivals. All the above artists and more are included among the 68 songs collected on Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years, with other highlights including Johnson’s “Take Me To the River,” Clay’s “Trying To Live My Life Without You,” and Cannon’s “Drunk.”

Hi Records was sold in 1977 and, in the midst of the dreaded disco years, never regained the success and prestige that it had enjoyed for twenty years. When Mitchell left his post two years later, the label lost its greatest asset and with him, any chance of recapturing its past glory. Along with Stax Records, however, Hi Records helped to define what would become known as the “Memphis sound,” as influential a force on the future of rock and pop music as there has ever been. Hi Times: The Hi Records R&B Years showcases the reason behind this influence, a valuable collection of vital music, songs that sound as fresh and electric today as they did at the time of their release. Highly recommended... (Hi Records/The Right Stuff, released 1995)

Review originally published by R Squared zine

Archive Review: Various Artists - Movin' On Up, Volume 2 (1995)

A musical documentation of the struggle for equality and justice by people of color, the Movin’ On Up series is interesting as both a historical and an artistic artifact, a time capsule preserving the voices of a movement and a moment in American social and cultural experience. Whereas the first volume concerned itself with the fight for civil rights in the 1960s, volume two captures the thoughts and dreams and fears of the African-American community as they fought for the respect and dignity that they deserved during the riotous and uncertain ‘70s.

The collection of artists gathered here is an impressive one, indeed. Performers such as Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and War utilized their positions of popularity with audiences black and white to spread a lyrical message of unity, equality and brotherhood. Many of these songs were risky at the time of their release, ground-breaking works that continue to influence artists of all styles and genres, even today. Among the highlights to be found on Movin’ On Up, Volume Two are Curtis Mayfield’s haunting “We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” Marvin Gaye’s beautiful “Inner City Blues,” “The World Is A Ghetto” from War, Stevie Wonder’s landmark “Living For The City,” Gil Scott Heron’s “Winter In America,” and The Isley Brothers’ electric “Fight the Power.” The Staples Singers, Labelle, Donny Hathaway, The O’Jays and others are also represented on the disc.

Sadly, a few of the voices found on Movin’ On Up, Volume Two have been silenced by time and tragedy, others by the forced obscurity of commercial oblivion. Many, though, are still vital, creative artists, contributing to a still-influential body of work. The Movin’ On Up series serves to remind all of us of the importance of these artists, and that although a lot of work has been done, we still have a long way to go before we achieve the goals that these musical contributors fought for so long ago. (The Right Stuff, released 1995)

Review originally published by R Squared zine

Book Review: Randy Fox's Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story (2018)

One needn’t be a historian to recognize the widespread changes that the United States experienced in the wake of World War II. As the country’s industrial capacity turned from servicing the war machine to manufacturing washing machines, American society experienced an economic boom unparalleled in American history. With the growth of a relatively-wealthy consumerist society also came a post-war “baby boom” of children that largely came of age in the 1950s and ‘60s, further turbocharging the economy.

As the U.S. economy grew, so too did the country’s appetite for entertainment, which resulted in a rapid growth of the film and music industries as well as technological advances that resulted in an expanding number of radio stations across the country and prompted the evolution of television programming. Large numbers of teenagers and adults had disposable cash to spend in the 1950s, which directly fueled the sales of pop, country, and rhythm & blues records that both parents and their children would hear playing on their favorite radio stations.

Mr. Ernest Young would step into this growing market for music in the late 1940s. The Nashville businessman had made a respectable living from placing popular coin-operated ‘flipperless’ pinball machines in stores, restaurants, and bars in the Middle Tennessee area. Patrons would rack up “free games” on the machine that were paid off in cash, making it a form of gambling in the eyes of the strict Southern Baptist church. It was a dirty business, though, requiring regular pay-offs to the police in order to continue operations without being raided and your machines seized. By the end of the decade, Young had divested himself of the pinball business to focus on a new and profitable fad – jukeboxes, which played 7” vinyl records.

Jukeboxes took in nickels and, if placed in the right environment (like, say, the Elliston Place Soda Shop), would spit out tidy profits. But records had to be swapped out frequently, so that the jukebox had a good selection of current hits to ensure regular plays, leaving the operator with a surplus of 45rpm records. Young responded to the challenge by opening Ernie’s Record Mart in downtown Nashville, where he sold new and used 45s (from his jukebox stock). With regular advertising on local clear-channel AM radio station WLAC (a 50,000-watt behemoth that could be heard from Canada to the Caribbean and across most of the United States), Ernie’s Record Mart branched out beyond its retail storefront, launching a successful mail-order operation. The store would ship out records to eager buyers across the globe throughout the 1950s and well into the ‘70s.

Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story

Young realized that he could “double dip” and make more money if he produced records as well as selling them so, in 1951, he launched Nashboro Records as a label specializing in African-American gospel music. Nashboro would release records that would subsequently be promoted during WLAC’s Sunday night gospel program and sold via mail order by Ernie’s Record Mart. Author Randy Fox’s excellent book Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story tells the rest of the tale, how Young expanded his operation to include a song publishing company and, most importantly, forming the legendary Excello Records label in 1953 to take advantage of the growing popularity of R&B and blues music.

Excello Records is a name well-known to rock ‘n’ roll aficionados, record collectors, and music historians who obsess over such things. The Nashville-based label made a deal with a Louisiana-based producer (J.D. Miller) to provide master recordings which resulted in Excello releases by artists like Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim, Tabby Thomas, and Lazy Lester, among others – classic sides that would spark the imagination of musicians and fans on both sides of the pond. Excello also released music by homegrown R&B singers like Marion James, Roscoe Shelton, and Arthur Gunter, whose song “Baby Let’s Play House” would be covered by Elvis Presley, resulting in a financial windfall for both the artist and Excello’s in-house publishing company.

Fox’s Shake Your Hips tells a story of, basically, three different companies, beginning with the original version of Excello as founded by Ernest Young, writing of its importance and influence on popular music. The second version of Excello/Nashboro was owned by the local Crescent Company, which bought the entire operation – the labels, the publishing, the record store, and the mail order business – from Young when he retired in 1966. Crescent wisely kept longtime employees Shannon Williams and Dorothy Keaton, and hired a sympathetic manager in Bud Howell to run the labels. This version of the company continued to thrive well into the 1970s, with Williams’ love of gospel music and production talents allowing Nashboro to expand its influence in the black gospel community while Excello would ride workhorse Slim Harpo while trying to capture a measure of the growing soul, funk, and rock ‘n’ roll markets.

The third company, however, was the broken-down version operated by Los Angeles-based music firm AVI, Inc. which bought the operation from Crescent in 1980. The company’s fortunes had been waning for several years, with neither Excello nor Nashboro able to grow their market share in the face of ever-changing trends in music. Both labels had essentially ceased to exist by 1977, releasing their final records mere months before founder Ernest Young’s death later that year. AVI’s interest in the labels’ properties was negligible save for a few licensing deals. AVI itself was purchased by an investment group led by a former Motown executive, which resulted in a slate of CD reissues of Excello label releases during the mid-to-late 1990s. They would, in turn, be subsequently gobbled up by the multi-national Universal Music conglomerate in 1997, with UMe barely scratching the surface of the deep Excello catalog since.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

That, in a nutshell, is a capsule history of Nashville’s Excello Records label. Fox’s Shake Your Hips provides the full story of this historic independent record label with a narrative delivered at a breakneck pace. Fox’s well-researched tome is chockful of details on artists and record releases without ever getting bogged down in arcane minutiae. It’s a quick read, and a fascinating story for any true-blue R&B fan – I ran through the book in two (lengthy) sessions – Fox managing to capture the zeitgeist of the era within the pages of Shake Your Hips.

A casual acquaintance of mine from my Nashville days, I can avow that Randy Fox is particularly suited to documenting Excello’s storied history; he’s been walking this particular beat of obscure R&B history for a long time and is deeply knowledgeable of the music and its artists. It’s a tale of a different time, to be sure, but an important one nonetheless, Shake Your Hips an entertaining as well as educational history of a record label that made waves beyond its commercial fortunes. If you love the music of Slim Harpo, Lightnin’ Slim, et al or simply love old-school R&B music altogether, you owe it to yourself to check out Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips. Grade: A (RPM Series/BMG Books, published November 20th, 2018)

Buy the book from Amazon.com: Randy Fox’s Shake Your Hips: The Excello Records Story

The Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, R.I.P.

 

Rolling Stone magazine tribute  

U.S.A. Today tribute

 

Soulsville U.S.A. A Celebration of Stax

As we’ve written about over the last couple of months, 2017 is the 60th anniversary of the legendary Memphis-based label Stax Records. As part of the year-long celebration of all things Stax-related, the good folks at Concord Music Group and Rhino Entertainment have been collaborating on some essential soul releases, but probably none as cool as this one...

On September 22nd, 2017 the two labels will add points to their cosmic karma with the release of Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax. A three-CD collection featuring a liver-quivering 60 tracks in total, the set spans the early 1960s through the mid-‘70s and features music from such soul legends as Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the M.G.’s, Carla Thomas, the Dramatics, William Bell, the Staple Singers, and Sam & Dave, among many others. The collection also includes new liner notes by journalist Jeff Slate.

An update, of sorts, to the best-selling Stax 50: A 50th Anniversary Celebration box set that has sold better than 100,000 copies since its 2007 release, Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax ups the ante by including rare tracks by lesser-known (tho’ no less talented) Stax label artists like Mable John, Little Milton, and the Soul Children alongside hits from folks like Rufus Thomas (“Walking the Dog”), Eddie Floyd (“Knock On Wood”), Jean Knight (“Mr. Big Stuff”), and Shirley Brown (“Woman To Woman”) as well as the aforementioned label stars. Check out the complete track listing for Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax below and you’ll agree that this is some of the best soul music every made!

Disc 1
1. The Veltones - Fool In Love
2. Carla Thomas - Gee Whiz
3. The Mar-Keys - Last Night
4. William Bell - You Don't Miss Your Water
5. Booker T. & the MG's - Green Onions
6. Rufus Thomas - Walking The Dog
7. Wendy Rene - After Laughter (Comes Tears)
8. Otis Redding - I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)
9. The Astors - Candy
10. Sam & Dave - You Don't Know Like I Know
11. The Mad Lads - Don't Have To Shop Around
12. Carla Thomas - Let Me Be Good To You
13. Mable John - Your Good Thing (Is About To End)
14. Eddie Floyd - Knock On Wood
15. Sam & Dave - Hold On! I'm Comin'
16. Otis Redding - Try A Little Tenderness
17. Carla Thomas - B-A-B-Y
18. Booker T. & the MG's - Hip Hug-Her
19. The Bar-Kays - Soul Finger
20. Otis & Carla - Tramp

Disc 2
1. Albert King - Born Under A Bad Sign
2. Sam & Dave - Soul Man
3. Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
4. Eddie Floyd - Big Bird
5. Ollie & The Nightingales - I Got A Sure Thing
6. Booker T. & the MG's - Soul Limbo
7. Linda Lyndell - What A Man
8. Judy Clay & William Bell - Private Number
9. Eddie Floyd - I've Never Found A Girl (To Love Me Like You Do)
10. The Staple Singers - The Weight
11. Johnnie Taylor - Who's Making Love
12. Carla Thomas - I Like What You're Doing (To Me)
13. William Bell - I Forgot To Be Your Love)
14. Booker T. & the MG's - Time Is Tight
15. Rufus Thomas - Do The Funky Chicken
16. The Emotions - So I Can Love You
17. Isaac Hayes - Walk On By
18. Johnnie Taylor & Carla Thomas - Just Keep On Loving Me
19. The Staple Singers - Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)
20. Rufus Thomas - (Do The) Push And Pull (Part. 1)

Disc 3
1. Jean Knight - Mr. Big Stuff
2. Johnnie Taylor - Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone
3. Isaac Hayes - Never Can Say Goodbye
4. The Dramatics - Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get
5. The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
6. Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft
7. The Bar-Kays - Son Of Shaft
8. Little Milton - That's What Love Will Make You Do
9. The Soul Children - Hearsay
10. The Dramatics - In The Rain
11. Isaac Hayes - Do Your Thing
12. Frederick Knight - I've Been Lonely For So Long
13. The Staple Singers - I'll Take You There
14. Mel & Tim - Starting All Over Again
15. Temprees - Dedicated To The One I Love
16. The Dramatics - Hey You! Get Off My Mountain
17. Johnnie Taylor - Cheaper To Keep Her
18. The Staple Singers - If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)
19. The Soul Children - I'll Be The Other Woman
20. Shirley Brown - Woman To Woman

Also on That Devil Music.com:
Sam & Dave - Stax Classics CD review
Carla Thomas - Stax Classics CD review
Otis Redding - Live At the Whiskey A Go Go CD review 

Buy the box set from Amazon.com: Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax

Isaac Hayes’ The Spirit of Memphis box set

Here’s a ‘gimme’ for your Christmas list…on September 22nd, 2017 Craft Recordings will release The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976), a four-disc, career-spanning retrospective of the great Isaac Hayes’ storied career. The set is packaged inside a 60-page hardcover book that includes a slew of rare photos and memorabilia, as well as an essay by one of my favorite music historians, Robert Gordon (no relation) that includes an interview with Stax Records founder Jim Stewart and contributions from Floyd Newman (member of original Stax session band the Mar-Keys) and Sam Moore (one half of soul legends Sam & Dave), among others. The set also includes a replica 7” vinyl single of “Laura, We're On Our Last Go-Round,” Hayes first commercially-released recording.

Hayes’ story is that of the American dream. Born in rural Covington, Tennessee near Memphis Hayes was the child of sharecroppers and he grew up working in the fields. He began singing in his local church at the age of five and would later teach himself to play piano and organ, flute, and saxophone. Hayes began his career by playing clubs and juke-joints at night while he worked at a meat-packing plant in Memphis by day. Hayes began his recording career as a session player for Stax Records, later hooking up with songwriting partner David Porter to write hit songs for artists like Johnnie Taylor, Carla Thomas and, most notably, Sam & Dave. Hayes and Porter also produced several Stax artists, the pair helping to define the “Memphis soul” sound.

Hayes released his debut album, Presenting Isaac Hayes, in 1968; when the jazz-flecked improvisational collection failed to chart, he radically changed musical directions, re-writing the book of soul in the process. Working with producer Marvell Thomas (brother of Carla, son of Memphis music legend Rufus Thomas) and backed by the Bar-Kays (guitarist Michael Toles, bassist James Alexander, and drummer Willie Hall), Hayes recorded one of the most influential albums of all time with 1969’s Hot Buttered Soul.

Featuring just four extended songs (two per side), including a twelve-minute cover of the Bacharach/David tune “Walk On By” and an eighteen-minute cover of Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” Hot Buttered Soul broke all the rules for “radio-friendly” content while still peaking at #8 on the pop charts (#1 R&B), Hayes contributing to the ushering in of AOR FM radio. Several hit albums would follow, including the equally-innovative and influential Top Ten 1971 release Black Moses and that year’s chart-topping soundtrack to the hit movie Shaft.

Isaac Hayes photo courtesy Stax Archives

Each disc of Hayes’ The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) documents a different facet of the artist’s lengthy career. The first disc documents his early work as a songwriter and producer for Stax, including songs by Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Mabel John, and even country legend Charlie Rich. The second disc showcases Hayes’ work as a solo artist with singles recorded for Stax subsidiaries Volt and Enterprise Records, including an early single as “Sir Isaac and the Do-Dads (“Blue Groove” b/w “The Big Dipper”). Disc two includes such Hayes’ classics as “By the Time I Get To Phoenix,” “The Look of Love,” “Never Can Say Goodbye,” and the smash hit “Theme From Shaft” (so ubiquitous in the early ‘70s that my high school had a “Shaft Gang”).


Disc three of The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) offers examples of Hayes’ uncanny ability to cover a song and make it entirely his own, including “Walk On By,” “I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself,” and “Never Gonna Give You Up.” The third disc also includes six live tracks recorded at the Operation PUSH Black Expo in November 1972, half of which have never been previously released, including Hayes’ takes on “The Ten Commandments of Love” and “Stormy Monday.”

The fourth and final disc in the set is titled “Jam Master,” the disc featuring Hayes jamming in the studio on seven songs, five previously-unreleased including covers of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” the Shaft soundtrack outtake “Black Militant’s Place,” and a 33-minute psychedelic jam on “Do Your Thing” with the Bar-Kays. The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) is being released as part of Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, the set the effort of a year’s work and coming hot-on-the-heels of the recent digital release of Hayes’ Enterprise albums, which were re-mastered from the original analog tapes by engineer Dave Cooley at Elysian Masters. Vinyl reissues cut from these new masters – including Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses – will be released later this year. 

There can be no debating that Isaac Hayes was one of the most influential and innovative artists in the history of soul music. Hayes’ songs have been sampled over 1,000 times by hip hop artists like 2Pac, Kanye West, Jay Z, and the Wu Tang Clan as well as by rockers like Portishead and Massive Attack. Hayes influence reached beyond the R&B chart to impact artists as diverse as Prince and Henry Rollins of Black Flag, among others. The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) is a landmark collection of great music created by a legendary artist.

Buy the set from Amazon.com: Isaac Hayes’ The Spirit of Memphis 

 

CD Review: Carla Thomas's Stax Classics (2017)

Widely known as the “Queen of Memphis Soul,” singer Carla Thomas was born into Memphis music royalty. The daughter of local music institution Rufus Thomas – a popular and talented Bluff City deejay, comedian, and singer who recorded for labels like Chess, Sun, and Stax Records – Carla was one of three musical siblings, including singer Vaneese Thomas and keyboardist Marvell Thomas. A member of Memphis’ Teen Town Singers (which also once included Isaac Hayes), Thomas sang with the group from the age of ten until she graduated from high school.

At the age of eighteen, Thomas recorded her first single – a 1960 duet with her father titled “Cause I Love You” – released by producer Jim Stewart’s pre-Stax label Satellite Records. She would subsequently become one of the fledgling Stax label’s biggest stars, scoring some 18 R&B chart hits circa 1960-1969, occasionally crossing over to the pop charts and taking her place as arguably the best soul singer, male or female, that Memphis had to offer. The budget-priced Stax Classics offers up a dozen fine Thomas performances, mixing (most of) her chart hits with some obscure album tracks to showcase the underrated singer’s enormous voice and talent.

Carla Thomas’s Stax Classics

Carla Thomas’s Stax catalog comprises a mere six albums, but it was with those little 7” vinyl flapjacks where her talents truly shined. There were hard choices to be made, I’m sure, in what to include and what to exclude when piecing together Thomas’s Stax Classics collection, but in the end the producers assembled a fairly representative (and entertaining) twelve tracks. Thomas’s Stax Classics set opens with “B-A-B-Y,” the singer’s biggest and most enduring hit (#3 R&B, #14 Pop), and a perfect vocal showcase. There’s an innocence and youthful energy at play on the side (Thomas would have been only 24 years old when it was released), but also a knowing, sensual purr that is emphasized by the judicious use of Stax’s horn players.

Thomas and Otis Redding were the biggest-selling female and male artists on the label’s roster so somebody (OK, probably Stax main man Jim Stewart) had the bright idea of having the two talented singers wax an album of duets like those which Motown’s Marvin Gaye had so much success with at the time. “Tramp” was a Top 30 hit single off the 1967 album King & Queen, the song a lively call-and-response between the two singers that is playfully argumentative as Thomas and Redding talk-sing a humorous, melodramatic tale. Sadly, Stax Classics doesn’t include either of the other two Thomas/Redding hits from that album (including a scorching take on “Knock On Wood”), but since the label is reissuing King & Queen on vinyl this summer, I’ll forgive them.

Carla & Rufus Thomas

The collection also includes “Cause I Love You,” Thomas’s duet recorded with her father Rufus which didn’t chart, but is a gem nonetheless. The teenaged Carla’s soulful vocals were nearly fully-formed and offer a sweet counterpoint to her dad’s gruff but affectionate singing. The song doesn’t feature a strong melodic hook, but it does offer a fine foot-shuffling rhythmic line. “I Like What You’re Doing (To Me)” is one of Thomas’s most underrated releases, the 1969 single displaying a fuller range of the singer’s voice and her ability to inject emotion into even the most rote of lyrics. The ballad “Comfort Me” went absolutely nowhere when released in 1965 tho’ I can’t imagine why. Standing proudly on the fine line between classic R&B and pop-influenced early rock ‘n’ roll, Thomas delivers a wonderful vocal performance amidst the crooning backing vocal harmonies and swells of instrumentation.

The Isaac Hayes/David Porter collaboration “When Tomorrow Comes” is another such soul-pop hybrid with lush instrumentation supporting Thomas’s soaring vocals. Although the song crept onto the pop chart at #99 in 1967, it could have been a huge hit if it had received significant airplay on mainstream AM radio. Released later that year, “Pick Up the Pieces” is what we would consider “classic soul” these days, Thomas knocking out another powerful mid-tempo ballad, her vocals flying high above crescendos of orchestration and an undeniable melody. An obscure album track from 1965, “I’ve Got No Time To Lose” shows Carla in Irma Thomas (no relation) mode, belting out the lyrics with strength and feeling that fuses contemporary ‘60s soul with gospel fervor. Thomas’s edition of Stax Classics closes out with the 1969 track “I Play For Keeps,” the song’s overall vibe similar, musically, to the sound that the Fifth Dimension was scoring hits with at the time. Strip away all of the gratuitous strings and instrumentation, though, and you’ll find a lovely soul-pop performance with Thomas’s magnificent voice front and center.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

After the release of her final Stax album, 1971’s Love Means… and an appearance in the 1972 Wattstax film, Thomas largely turned her energy away from chasing hits and towards improving her community. Although the singer toured every now and then during the 1980s, her work with the “Artists in the Schools” program allowed her to inspire Memphis teenagers, earning Thomas a prestigious ‘Pioneer Award’ from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, an honor that placed the singer in the company of fellow R&B and soul legends like James Brown and Solomon Burke.

Carla Thomas’s Stax Classics entry is one of the strongest in the series, showcasing the singer’s dynamic voice and charisma over the course of a dozen songs. However, I’ve knocked a point off the grade for one major omission – the lack of Thomas’s first big hit, 1960’s “Gee Whiz (Look At His Eyes),” which was released by Stewart’s Satellite Records label and distributed by Atlantic Records. Peaking at #5 on the R&B chart and #10 pop, the song helped put Thomas on the map and led directly to her subsequent string of hits for the Stax label. If you can include “Cause I Love You,” which is of a similar vintage, then you have to include “Gee Whiz.” Nevertheless, Thomas’s Stax Classics is a treasure of mid-to-late ‘60s soul and pop performances that is available on CD for a pittance. The Rev sez “check it out!” Grade: B+ (Stax Records, released May 19, 2017)

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CD Review: The Dramatics' Stax Classics (2017)

Originally formed in Detroit in 1964 as the Dynamics, R&B legends the Dramatics recorded singles for a number of independent labels during the mid-to-late 1960s, including Golden World and Sport Records, where they scored a minor R&B chart hit with “All Because of You.” The band signed with Stax Records in 1968 but, after releasing one unsuccessful (albeit impressive) single – “Your Love Was Strange” – the Dramatics took off for greener pastures.

The band’s association with the Memphis music institution wasn’t over, though; producer Don Davis re-signed the Dramatics to the Stax subsidiary label Volt Records in 1971 after they’d teamed up with Motor City songwriter and producer Tony Hester. With Hester’s well-written, soulful songs in hand, the band’s wonderful vocal harmonies drove songs like “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get, “In The Rain,” and “Fell For You” to the upper reaches of the R&B and pop charts.

The Dramatics’ Stax Classics

The classic Dramatics line-up featured vocalists Ron Banks, William “Wee Gee” Howard, Elbert Wilkins, Willie Ford, and Larry “Squirrel” Demps, and that’s what you saw (and heard) on the band’s biggest hit, “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get.” A molten slab o’ soulful wax, the May single release dominated the AM radio airwaves during the summer of ’71, its syncopated, Latin-tinged rhythms and vocal harmonies leading into an infectious chorus that blew out of your car speakers like a gale of fresh air. The song charted Top Ten (R&B and Pop) but its November follow-up – the Afro-Cuban flavored “Get Up and Get Down” – fared less well commercially. An underrated entry in the Dramatics’ singles catalog, the song evinces a sly, funky groove and vocals that remind of Curtis Mayfield via the Four Tops. “Get Up and Get Down” was a rhythmic dance-floor foot-shuffler with symphonic strains that should have performed much better on the charts than it did (#16 R&B, #78 Pop).

By contrast, “In The Rain,” which followed in February 1972, became the Dramatics’ only R&B chart-topper (and achieved a respectable #5 position on the Pop chart). A moody, ambient ballad with a gorgeous instrumentation and a heady bass line to anchor the whimsical, bluesy lyrics it displayed a facet of the band that differed from their preceding singles. “Hey You! Get Off My Mountain” was a mid-tempo ballad with session pro Dennis Coffey’s filigree guitar licks, haunting harmony vocals that made good use of all the singers’ ranges, and an explosive chorus that helped drive the song to #5 on the R&B chart (#43 Pop). The single’s B-side, “The Devil Is Dope,” is a scorching anti-drug creed reminiscent of the Temptations, the song’s memorable chorus and orchestral scoring providing a larger-than-life feel to the song. Drenched in soul but offering gospel and rock undertones, “The Devil Is Dope” would have made for a strong single release on its own.

The Dramatics’ very first single for Stax – “Your Love Was Strange” – shoulda, coulda been a smash when it was released in October 1969. Showing a clear evolution of the band towards its popular ‘70s-era sound, the song is deep-fried in Motown production technique with obvious Temptations-inspired harmonies (something the band largely moved away from as they developed their own vocal magic), a minor up-tempo rhythm and singing strings. It’s a strong performance, slightly derivative but not much more than anything else on the radio in 1969. Released in August 1973, “Fell For You” would be the band’s last R&B chart hit for Volt/Stax, peaking at #5 while hanging around at #45 on the Pop chart. A low-key ballad with some impressive vocal gymnastics, producer Hester took full advantage of the band’s vocal abilities on the recording. The B-side to “In The Rain,” the uplifting “Gimme Some (Good Soul Music)” is a textbook example of fine pop songwriting with a soulful performance, the band’s soaring vocals wrapping around an inspirational lyrical message in what could have been another monster AM radio hit if it had been released as a solo single.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

This budget-priced Stax Classics set pulls its material mostly from the Dramatics’ Top 20 hit album Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get, but also includes a number of other minor hit singles and rare B-sides from their Stax/Volt tenure. The band only hung around Memphis for three quick studio albums and a live set circa 1971 to 1974 before jumping ship from Stax to ABC Records and, later, MCA Records, where they enjoyed modest success as they incorporated disco moves into their sleek soul music. If only for their timeless early ‘70s hits, the Dramatics’ Stax Classics is worth your time and a little bit of money for a whole lot of great soul music. Grade: B+ (Stax Records, released May 19, 2017)

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Omnivore reissues classic Arthur Alexander album

The good folks at Omnivore Records have been on a roll as of late, what with current or upcoming reissues of classic recordings from Big Star, Alex Chilton, and Game Theory to their credit. One title that may fly under your radar, however, is the archive label’s reissue of soul giant Arthur Alexander’s self-titled 1972 album, which will be released with six bonus tracks on July 28th, 2017.

An extremely talented songwriter and too-frequently-overlooked singer and stylist, Alexander scored a number of minor R&B chart hits throughout the 1960s with songs like “Anna (Go To Him),” “You Better Move On,” and “Soldier of Love,” many of which were recorded at the Fame Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and featured musical contributions by the studio’s legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.

Alexander only released three albums during his lifetime, this self-titled 1972 “comeback” set for Warner Brothers Records the best-known of the trio. Recorded in Muscle Shoals and produced by bassist Tommy Cogbill, the album features such talents as guitarists Eddie Hinton and Reggie Young, drummer Kenny Malone, and keyboardists Shane Keister and Bobby Emmons. It’s Alexander’s incredible vocals that imbue the album with great heart and soul, however, and whether he’s singing his ass off on originals like “Go On Home Girl” and “In the Middle of It All” or co-writes with Donnie Fritts like “Come Along With Me” and “Thank God He Came,” Alexander always poured 110% of himself into a performance.

Arthur Alexander photo courtesy Omnivore Recordings

Arthur Alexander, the album, also includes the singer’s versions of several tunes penned by noted Nashville songwriter Dennis Linde, Alexander bringing a bit of country soul to songs like “I’m Comin’ Home,” “Call Me Honey,” and “Burning Love” (later a huge hit for Elvis Presley). The Omnivore reissue of Arthur Alexander includes the album’s original twelve tracks as well as six bonus tracks – two of which are previously unreleased and from the original recording sessions – including the singer’s two non-album follow-up singles for Warner Brothers.

By the end of the ‘70s, Alexander was out of the music biz, driving a bus until his classic self-titled album was reissued in 1993. Inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1990, Alexander returned to performing, releasing his third and final album, Lonely Just Like Me, before his premature death in 1993 at the age of 53 years old. Alexander’s music had an impact, though, his songs covered by artists as diverse as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Jerry Lee Lewis, Otis Redding, Humble Pie, George Jones, Pearl Jam, and many others.

The reissue includes new liner notes by music historian Barry Hansen (a/k/a Dr. Demento), who was a Warner Brothers staff writer when the album was originally released. In his original notes, Hansen wrote “Arthur is especially proud of the variety and versatility of his work on this album. All of it is strong medicine, and should be a fine antidote for a lot of bad scenes.” In these tumultuous times, as in ’72, we could all use a little more soul in our lives, and few sung it as well as Arthur Alexander. If you don’t know him, now’s your chance to rediscover this underrated artist.

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CD Review: Isaac Hayes' Stax Classics (2017)

To an entire generation of young ‘uns, Isaac Hayes is best known as the voice of the popular character ‘Chef’ on the long-running TV series South Park. For us graybeards, however, we remember Hayes as one of the boldest and most innovative of the many talented singers, songwriters, and musicians to come out of the Stax Records hit factory in Memphis, Tennessee.

Hayes was much more, of course – he was a film actor (Hustle & Flow, Escape From New York) who also enjoyed various TV roles (The Rockford Files, Stargate SG-1, etc) – as well as a music producer, label executive (Hot Buttered Soul Records), and a humanitarian lauded for his work in Ghana. As a songwriter, often working with partner David Porter, Hayes wrote hits for a number of Stax artists including Sam & Dave (“Soul Man”), Carla Thomas (“B.A.B.Y.”), and Johnnie Taylor (“I’ve Got to Love Somebody’s Baby”), among others. During his lengthy career, Hayes won an Academy Award for his theme from the movie Shaft as well as a multiple Grammy® Awards.

Isaac Hayes’ Stax Classics

For our intents and purposes here, we’re going to focus on Hayes’ contributions to our culture as a performer and songwriter, both of which are perfectly showcased by this Stax Classics collection. Featuring a dozen sizzling tracks culled from Hayes’ tenure as a Stax recording artist circa 1968-1973 and originally released by the Stax subsidiary Enterprise Records, the emphasis here is on Hayes’ success as a singles artist but it also includes a few of his longer, complex, and ground-breaking album tracks. Stax Classics leads off with “Theme from Shaft,” which has become Hayes’ signature song; a muscular blend of funky grooves, thrilling wah-wah guitar licks, and cinematic storytelling, the song also displays Hayes’ proclivity towards orchestrating his music with lush tones and colors. The song was Hayes’ biggest hit, hitting #1 on the pop chart while only rising to #2 on the R&B chart.

Hayes’ 1969 album Hot Buttered Soul – considered a classic of American soul – offered up only four songs, including lengthy jams on Burt Bacharach’s “Walk On By” and Jimmy Webb’s “By the Time I Get To Phoenix” that ran 12 and 18 minutes, respectively, and featured incredible instrumental flights of fancy. Hayes recorded “Walk On By” only a few years after singer Dionne Warwick had scored a #6 chart hit with the song, but his imaginative take earned him a Top 30 single nonetheless. “By the Time I Get To Phoenix” fared slightly less well commercially, but still went Top 40; his Stax Classics offers the truncated single edits of both songs, which still sound great even in shorter form. The Jackson 5 hit “Never Can Say Goodbye,” taken from Hayes’ other bona fide classic, 1971’s Black Moses, is slowed down and dressed up with a dreamy soundtrack and wistful, yearning vocals that would drive the song to #22 on the pop chart and the album to Top 10 status.

Hayes’ original “Do Your Thing” is a master class in ‘70s-era funk, the Top 30 charting pop hit offering shimmering horns, Hayes’ fluid baritone vocals, and a groove so damn tasty it’s like drinking hot sauce straight from the bottle. Stax Classics offers more than the just the chart hits, though, allowing the raucous, funky original tune “Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic” (from Hot Buttered Soul) to run its full, nearly-ten-minute jaw-dropping album length. If the song doesn’t get your feet shuffling, then you’ve probably assumed room temperature while listening to the album. The instrumental track “Run Fay Run,” from the soundtrack of the 1974 Blaxploitation film Tough Guys for which Hayes wrote the score and co-starred in, is another delightful slice of cinematic soul with brilliant washes of instrumentation and pulse-quickening rhythms while “Soulsville,” from the 1971 soundtrack album Shaft, is an anything-but-traditional R&B tune that showcases Hayes’ soaring vocals and delicate touch on what is an intelligent, socially-conscious story-song.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Released as part of Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, the Stax Classics series highlights some the label’s biggest stars from the 1960s and ‘70s, each budget-priced album offering a dozen songs that transcend the obvious hits to provide a more balanced portrait of the individual artist’s talents. The Isaac Hayes’ edition of Stax Classics does a great job in portraying all the many facets of this talented, pioneering, legendary artist, Hayes’ influence extending far beyond the world of R&B to such diverse artists as Prince and Henry Rollins. For newcomers, Stax Classics provides a heady introduction to Hayes’ charms, and if it prompts listeners to pick up copies of Hot Buttered Soul or Black Moses, so much the better… Grade: A (Stax Records, released May 19, 2017)

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CD Review: Sam & Dave's Stax Classics (2017)

The duo of Sam & Dave stood out even amidst a stable of talent as diverse and legendary as that blessed upon Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee. The legendary R&B duo of Sam Moore and Dave Prater performed together for two decades, from 1961 to 1981, delivering a string of hits that were influential far beyond their chart success. The pair struggled through their early days, and couldn’t buy a hit until they were signed to Atlantic Records by producer and A&R man Jerry Wexler. Sensing their potential, Wexler sent them to Memphis to record for the Stax label, which was distributed by Atlantic at the time.

Wexler’s largesse was pure genius. While at Stax Records, Sam & Dave largely performed material penned by the in-house songwriting team of Dave Porter and Isaac Hayes. This partnership would result in ten consecutive Top 20 R&B chart singles and three Top 10 albums for Sam & Dave, as well as lucrative “crossover” success as the duo made thirteen straight appearances on the pop chart as well as two Top 10 singles. They also helped popularize soul music with white audiences and, in doing so, created an indelible musical legacy that persists to this day. Sam & Dave songs have been recorded by artists as diverse as ZZ Top, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello, Bonnie Raitt, and the Temptations, among many others.

Sam & Dave’s Stax Classics

As part of Stax Records’ 60th anniversary celebration, the label is revisiting its legendary hitmakers with new CD/LP/digital collections under the Stax Classics banner. Sam & Dave’s Stax Classics opens, appropriately, with the pair’s first Top 20 pop hit, 1966’s “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” which was also their first R&B chart-topper for the Memphis label. With deliciously rowdy vocals soaring above deep rhythms, it’s the ‘go to’ song for many Sam & Dave fans. Better known, perhaps, is their enduring signature song, 1967’s “Soul Man,” also written by Hayes and Porter and featuring an infectious, sing-a-long chorus, brassy horns, and some funky pickin’ by Col. Steve Cropper. Their second chart-topping R&B hit, “Soul Man” narrowly missed dominating the pop world as well, peaking at a respectable #2 on the pop chart. The last of the duo’s trio of larger-than-life hits, 1968’s “I Thank You” evinces a sly funky groove that would subsequently inspire everybody from George Clinton to Sly Stone in the years to follow. “I Thank You” was also a Top 10 pop hit would peak at #4 on the R&B chart.

There’s more to Sam & Dave than those three hits, however, some of the best of which is showcased on Stax Classics. Their cover of Sam Cooke’s “Soothe Me” breathes new life into an obscure track with an enchanting performance that succeeded artistically if not commercially (it was only a modest hit). Sandwiched in between their big hits, 1965’s “You Don’t Know Like I Know” offers a uniquely Sam & Dave spin on what could have been a Motown hit while the soul classic “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” is provided a bluesy, almost gospel fervor that would later inspire Elvis Costello to cover the song. With a loping groove, piano tinkling, and a heavy bass line, “You Got Me Hummin’” juxtaposes the two singer’s voices against each other to great effect as the horns punctuate the song’s mesmerizing rhythm. The album-closing “I Take What I Want” mimics the Ray Charles’ hit “I Don’t Need No Doctor” with its strident rhythms but Sam & Dave take it up a notch with a subtle albeit strong vocal performance dancing atop a surging guitar riff.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

There have been a lot of variations on a Sam & Dave “greatest hits” compilation released through the years, including 2009’s sixteen-track The Very Best of Sam & Dave album and the one that the Reverend originally bought back in the day, 1981’s twenty-one track The Best of Sam & Dave, both of which are still available if you look hard enough. The budget-priced Stax Classics does a fine job of distilling the duo’s immense legacy to a lean ‘n’ mean twelve tracks, however, offering crystalline remastered sound and fresh, informative liner notes for both the newcomer and longtime fan. This is soul music at its very best, excellently performed by the legendary duo of Sam & Dave. Grade: A (Stax Records/Rhino Records, released May 19, 2017)