CD Review: Various Artists' The Best of Wattstax (2023)

The Wattstax concert was one of the most consequential and influential live events in pop culture history. Organized by Stax Records as a benefit show to commemorate the anniversary of the 1965 riots in the Watts community in Los Angeles, the concert was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20th, 1972. Performers included nearly the entire Stax roster at the time, stylistically running the gamut from soul, gospel, and blues to jazz and funk. The label released a double-LP set of the concert’s highlights a few months later to critical acclaim. The event was also filmed by producer David L. Wolper and directed by Mel Stuart (best known for 1971’s Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory); released in 1973 as Wattstax, the concert film won a Golden Globe Award for “Best Documentary Film.”

In recognition of the event’s 50th anniversary, CraftRecordings has released the entire freakin’ concert in various formats (more about which below). We’re only going to look at the condensed, twenty-track The Best of Wattstax CD here, which offers up highlights from the concert as “hand-picked” by Stax Records. The set kicks off with an amazing performance by R&B legend Kim Weston, singing the ‘Black National Anthem,’ “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” a song that created somewhat of an undeserved controversy when performed at this year’s Super Bowl game. Released by Stax as a single at the time, proceeds were donated to the United Negro College Fund. Weston knocks it out of the park with a powerful, Gospel-tinged performance. It’s a great way to kick off the CD, but then The Best of Wattstax gets mired down by a handful of Gospel performances, highlighted by the ever-welcome Staple Singers (“I’ll Take You There”) and including songs by Deborah Manning and Eric Mercury.

Luckily, The Best of Wattstax rights the ship with Lee Sain’s effervescent take on “Them Hot Pants” and pretty much rocks the house from then on. As talented as Stax’s Gospel artists may have been, people bought the label’s releases for scorching soul, rowdy funk, and lowdown blues tunes, and that’s what you’ll find on 75% of The Best of Wattstax. While mainstream talents like Isaac Hayes (“Theme From Shaft”), Carla Thomas (“B-A-B-Y”), Rufus Thomas (“The Breakdown”), and Eddie Floyd (“Knock On Wood”) put Memphis soul on the map in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, it’s the lesser-known talents like the Soul Children (“Hearsay”), the Rance Allen Group (the funkalicious “Lying On the Truth”), and William Bell (who proves himself to be the equal of anybody on the soul scene with “I Forgot To Be Your Lover”) that has had collectors’ digging through the crates for better than a half-century. Throw in stellar performances by blues legend Albert King (“I’ll Play the Blues For You”), the Temprees (“Explain It To Her Mama”), and the Bar-Kays (“I Can’t Turn You Loose”) and you have one helluva collection!

As mentioned above, Craft is also releasing Wattstax: The Complete Concert in both a six-CD and ten-album vinyl versions that feature every performance from the event, including spoken word interludes. If your bank account allows for luxury this month, or maybe you have a fat tax refund, consider investing in Soul’d Out: The Complete Wattstax Collection, a twelve-CD box set comprised of the entire L.A. Memorial Coliseum concert as well as recordings from the Summit Club, including 31 previously-unreleased performances and a 76-page, full-color book. Really, you can’t go wrong no matter which version you end up buying! (Stax Records/Craft Recordings, released February 24th, 2023)

Also on That Devil Music:
Isaac Hayes’ Stax Classics CD review
Carla Thomas’ Stax Classics CD review
Albert King’s Born Under A Bad Sign CD review

Buy the CD from Amazon: The Best of Wattstax

Archive Review: Albert King’s I’ll Play The Blues For You (1972)

By 1972, Stax Records had seen its glory days come and gone, but there were still a few fires burning brightly at the legendary Memphis soul label. Among the artists keeping the doors open in the early 1970s were soul giant Isaac Hayes, R&B greats the Staple Singers, and extraordinary blues guitarist Albert King. Working in the studio with members of the Bar-Kays, including producer/keyboardist Allen Jones, as well as members of the Movement, Hayes’ backing band, King recorded I’ll Play the Blues For You, a masterful collection of blues-infused contemporary soul that nearly hit #11 on the R&B chart and inched nearly half-way up the top 200 albums chart.   

Albert King’s I’ll Play The Blues For You

Back in 1972, “I’ll Play the Blues For You (Parts1 & 2)” was originally broken into two parts and released as the A and B sides of a 45rpm single. On album, the seven-minute performance is a smoldering, smooth-as-silk jam with plenty of King’s signature bent-string fretwork, an uncharacteristic but effective spoken-word interlude, and a slippery rhythmic groove that adds to the heat of the performance. Taken altogether, the song is like a hot, humid day in Memphis, its emotional underpinnings concealed just below the languid, steamy surface.

King recorded the Ann Peebles’ hit “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home” not long after the R&B diva had a massive chart hit with the song, but in the guitarist’s hands it becomes something else entirely. While Jones’ production doesn’t eschew the mournful soul roots of the original, King’s emotion-drenched vocals, his elegant fretwork, and the addition of Wayne Jackson and the Memphis Horns take the performance into heady territory. By contrast, “High Cost of Living” relies more on King’s screaming guitar notes and the explosive hornplay of Jackson and Andrew Love. King’s vocals wring every bit of romantic angst out of the lyrics, but it’s his razor-sharp blues licks that drive the performance.

Answer To The Laundromat Blues

King’s effective cover of the early Curtis Mayfield gem “I’ll Be Doggone” is dominated by the Memphis Horns, the guitarist’s voice lost beneath the brass and Jones’ chiming keyboards. King gets a few punches in, though, his flamethrower solos riding loud in the mix above drummer Willie Hall’s supporting percussion. King offers a sly reference to James Brown at three minutes in, before launching into a high-flying solo. King’s original “Answer To the Laundromat Blues” reprises his 1966 hit “Laundromat Blues” with fiery blues licks, spoken-sung lyrics that would have been controversial by today’s standards, and funky horns propelled by jazzy drumbeats. “Don’t Burn Down The Bridge (‘Cause You Might Wanna Come Back Across)” should have been a massive R&B hit, with King’s edgy vocals and edgier fretwork, a funky rhythmic crosscurrent, and scraps of energetic brass.

This expanded reissue of I’ll Play the Blues For You includes four previously-unreleased tracks, including alternate versions of the title track (sans the spoken interlude and with different horn charts) and “Don’t Burn Down the Bridge,” which benefits from a leaner, meaner arrangement that places more emphasis on King’s incendiary six-string pyrotechnics than on the horns, with bassist James Alexander’s funky steel-chain bass line establishing the song’s rhythmic foundation. That “I Need A Love” remained unreleased until now is a mystery, the song a bluesy, up-tempo R&B romp with precise guitarplay, gritty vocals, and well-timed blasts of sax. The instrumental “Albert’s Stomp” is a short, sharp shock of lightning guitar licks leveled against a thunderous backdrop that revolves around second guitarist Michael Toles’ swirling, psych-drenched rhythms and Jones’ spirited keyboard riffs.     

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Albert King’s eight-year tenure with Stax Records brought him a modicum of stardom and several R&B chart hits, helping to extend his career well into the 1980s. With I’ll Play The Blues For You, King delivered a bona fide classic of 1970s-era blues and soul music, a collection of inspired performances that have withstood the test of time.

For fans wondering if they should upgrade to this new reissue of an otherwise comfortable album, I’d offer a quick ‘yes!’ Aside from the clear-sounding digital remastering and four bonus tracks – two of which are engaging, entertaining new songs – the disc also includes music journalist Bill Dahl’s insightful and informative new liner notes. While reissue CDs too often just slap a new coat of paint on an old album, this modernized version of I’ll Play the Blues For You tunes up the engine and adds a little nitrous for that extra punch. What more could a blues fan ask for? (Stax Records, reissued May 22, 2012)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Albert King’s I’ll Play The Blues For You

Also on That Devil Music: Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign album review

Archive Review: Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign (2013)

When blues guitarist Albert King signed with Stax Records in 1966, he was a known commodity on the blues circuit, but not yet a star, much less an artist with crossover potential. Based in St. Louis during the late 1950s and early ‘60s, King was a popular draw throughout the Midwest U.S. and had recorded sides for labels like King Records, Vee-Jay, Parrot Records, and others and had even released a full-length album, 1962’s The Big Blues, to little acclaim.

Working in the Stax Records studio in Memphis, Tennessee with the label’s house band, Booker T & the MG’s – keyboardist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr. – along with Stax songwriter Isaac Hayes and Wayne Jackson and his Memphis Horns, King recorded a bunch of songs between March 1966 and November 1967 that would later comprise his Stax debut album, Born Under A Bad Sign. Widely considered as one of King’s career milestones, the album would bring the guitarist’s unique vision of the blues to a white rock ‘n’ roll audience and influence young musicians like Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Albert King’s Born Under A Bad Sign

The album starts out big and bold, the familiar strains of the title song kicking out the jams with reckless aplomb as King’s throaty vocals and equally vocal guitar licks moan their tale of woe. King takes a familiar blues theme – that of the luckless loser, the hapless gambler, the failed ladies man – and pumps it up with his stinging notes riding high above Steve Cropper’s tasteful rhythm guitar and Booker T. Jones’ background keyboards.  “Crosscut Saw” would be equally as audacious, the song’s jaunty rhythm bolstered by the rhythmic muscle provided by the Memphis Horns. King’s guitar playing here is just as grand as on the opening tune, if not more so, displaying more texture and a fluid grace, but the vocals are weak and sound washed out.

The frequently-covered Leiber/Stoller R&B classic “Kansas City” is provided an appropriately swinging arrangement, King sleep-walking his almost-spoken vocals atop a rich soundtrack dominated by the Memphis Horns and “Duck” Dunn’s gorgeous walking bass line. Again, whether due to problems with the original tape or the primitive recording technology, King’s voice unintentionally drops into the background at times, but his lively fretwork bursts above the mix nonetheless. King’s original “Down Don’t Bother Me” is an extension, of sorts, of the title track, pursuing a similar hard-luck lyrical tale, but the guitarist’s playing here is phenomenal, meshing perfectly with Perkins’ horns and Al Jackson’s sparse percussion to great effect. King’s vocals are better-balanced here, providing the right amount of emotion to match his anguished guitarplay.

Laundromat Blues

Blues legend Albert King

King tackles the well-traveled Booker T. & the MGs’ composition “The Hunter,” which would later be covered by folks from Free to Koko Taylor, the guitarist adding a bit of bravado to his vocal performance. While the song’s double-and-triple-entendre lyrics are pretty frisky when left on their own, King’s deep voice and deeper blue guitar playing add gravitas to the recording. A cover of Ivory Joe Hunter’s “I Almost Lost My Mind” displays King’s versatility as a singer; his somber, heartbroken vocals bring a strong emotion to the words as his subtle guitar lines tell the rest of the story. “Laundromat Blues” is another gem in King’s catalog, a straight-forward blues-as-betrayal tune that channels the romantic woe into a fine vocal performance and tearful fretwork that sizzles with barely-contained rage and frustration.

The 2013 Stax Records reissue of Born Under A Bad Sign offers five bonus tracks in the form of previously-unreleased alternate takes and an untitled instrumental. The first (unused) take of the title track reveals a few differences but otherwise hits every mark as the take that ended up on the album; by contrast, the alternate take of “Crosscut Saw” includes an extra chorus tacked on the end, features a stronger King vocal performance, and all the houserockin’ guitar banging of the original. The bonus version of “The Hunter” also seems more muscular and self-assured, but the album-closing “Untitled Instrumental” is a revelation, King laying the smackdown on a fatback rhythmic groove, the soulful Memphis horns slung low beneath the guitarist’s raging leads, which run amok across the loose-knit studio jam.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

My colleague Bill Dahl sums it up best in his new liner notes for Born Under A Bad Sign, stating that King would “make more great Stax albums, but he’d never top this one.” King’s performances here are those of a hungry man ready to feast on the world, and they would create an artistic blueprint that the guitarist would hew closely to for the remainder of his career. Although the digital re-mastering provided this 2013 reissue hasn’t cleaned up all of the original audio issues, it has brightened the performances and added extra depth to the sound.

The songs themselves – “Born Under A Bad Sign,” “Crosscut Saw,” “The Hunter,” “Personal Manager,” and “Laundromat Blues,” the album’s first hit single – would become part of King’s canon, superb performances that influenced a generation of blues and blues-rock guitarists to follow. A bona fide classic of electric blues, if you don’t have a copy of King’s Born Under A Bad Sign in your collection, then you don’t have squat! (Stax Records, reissued April 2, 2013)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Albert King’s Born Under A Bad Sign

Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box set

We’ve written about the legendary Stax Records label on That Devil Music.com before. At a time when the music industry was centered on the coasts, the Stax label put Memphis soul on the map in the mid-to-late ‘60s with influential and innovative records by giants like Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas and his daughter Carla, Otis Redding, and Booker T & the M.G.’s. As they approached the decade of the 1970s, the label branched out into blues music with essential recordings by guitarist Albert King and they pioneered ‘70s soul and funk with groundbreaking releases by the great Isaac Hayes. In our house, there’s no such thing as too much music from Stax Records.

Stax Records, now owned by the Concord Music Group, celebrated its 60th anniversary last year with a slew of archival releases including vinyl reissues of vintage LPs by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas; a four-disc Isaac Hayes box set; and individual “best of” CDs by some of the label’s biggest stars. The celebration has continued into 2018 and on October 19th, Craft Recordings, Concord’s archival imprint, will release Stax ’68: A Memphis Story, a five-disc box set that offers the A- and B-sides of every single released by the label during that tumultuous year. The set also includes a 56-page book with in-depth liner notes by writers Robert Gordon, Andrea Lisle, and Steve Greenberg as well as rare and previously-unpublished photos.

More important is the music – more than 120 songs spread across the five CDs – featuring both some of Stax’s marquee stars like Redding, Hayes, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor, Eddie Floyd, and the Staple Singers but also from underrated talents like Mable John, Linda Lyndell, the Soul Children, and the Mad Lads. The year was a tough one for Stax, which had lost its distribution deal with (and control of the label’s back catalog to) Atlantic Records. The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis had a profound effect on the label’s multi-racial roster of musicians, and Stax was already reeling from the December 1967 death of the great Otis Redding.

Considering the enormous track listing for the Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box, I’m amazed at the sheer amount of great music Stax released over the course of the year. While not all of the singles were huge hits, they were all of uniformly high quality. Of course, there are the ‘heavy hitters’ – songs like Otis Redding’s posthumous hit “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” Sam & Dave’s classic “I Thank You,” Johnnie Taylor’s smooth-as-silk hit “Who’s Makin’ Love,” and Albert King’s fiery “Blues Power” – but there are also faintly-remembered tunes like Booker T & the M.G.’s “Soul Limbo” and Carla Thomas’s “A Dime A Dozen.” The box set also includes long-lost material by folks like the Memphis Nomads, the Bar-Kays, Shirley Walton, Judy Clay, Billy Lee Riley, and the Epsilons as well as rock ‘n’ roll by cult band Southwest F.O.B. and the first recordings by Delaney & Bonnie and Bobby Whitlock (Derek & the Dominoes).

The Stax ’68: A Memphis Story box retails for roughly $70 (less for a downloadable digital version) but is also available in various “deluxe bundles” from the Stax Records online store. Ranging in prices up to $120, you can get bundles with a cool letter-pressed vintage poster, Stax hat and t-shirt, or all of the swag in the “Superb Bundle.” The release of Stax ’68: A Memphis Story coincides with two exhibits opening at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, Tennessee – “The Sound of ’68” and “Give A Damn! Music + Activism at Stax Records.” Details on both exhibits are available from the museum website.

Buy the box set from Amazon.com: Stax ’68: A Memphis Story

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

Stax Records celebrates 60 great years!

Here at That Devil Music, we got a whole lotta love in our hearts for the legendary Memphis soul label Stax Records. Stax is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and they’re planning one hell of a party! On May 19th, 2017 Concord Music Group and Rhino Entertainment, as part of a joint marketing collaboration, will release specially-curated, budget-friendly collections of some of the best and soul and blues music that ever walked the planet as the Stax Classics series.

The new Stax Classics releases celebrates some of the iconic record label’s greatest stars, each package offering new liner notes, label discographies, and a dozen red-hot tracks from the individual artist’s Stax album releases, both the hits and rare tracks as well. The first slate of Stax Classics releases feature the immense talents of Albert King, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, William Bell, Sam & Dave, and Booker T & the M.G.’s.

There will be plenty to celebrate throughout the year as both Concord and Rhino plan on reissuing a number of classic Stax albums on CD and vinyl. On the schedule is a 50th anniversary vinyl pressing of the great Otis Redding/Carla Thomas album King & Queen (Rhino Records),  Melvin Van Peebles’ best-selling soundtrack to the blaxploitation classic Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song (Concord Music), and Otis Redding’s 1965 gem The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads (Rhino Record).

There will also be some very cool CD box sets coming from Stax in 2017, including the August release of the four-disc anthology Isaac Hayes: The Spirit of Memphis (1962-1976) in honor of the late Isaac Hayes’ 75th birthday, a three-CD Stax 60th anniversary box set, and the fourth volume of The Complete Stax Singles series which includes singles released not only by Stax and Volt Records, but also by Enterprise, Hip, Chalice, and other labels. Both Rhino and Concord Music will also be raiding their respective vaults for high-resolution digital reissues of classic Stax Records albums.

One of the most important and influential American record labels of the 20th century, during an impressive 15-year run Stax Records released more than 800 singles and nearly 300 albums, winning eight Grammy® Awards and an Academy Award, placing 167 hits on the Top 100 pop charts and 243 hit songs on the R&B chart. The roster of legendary blues and R&B artists that Stax Records worked with is truly impressive, including the talents mentioned above as well as folks like the Bar-Kays, Eddie Floyd, O.B. McClinton, Little Milton, the Emotions, Rufus Thomas, Mable John, and too many others to list. Stayed tuned to That Devil Music for more news throughout the year as Stax celebrates the big 6-0!

Buy the CDs from Amazon.com:
Albert King's Stax Classics 
Otis Redding's Stax Classics 
Isaac Hayes's Stax Classics 
The Staple Singers's Stax Classics
Carla Thomas's Stax Classics 
Johnnie Taylor's Stax Classics
William Bell's Stax Classics 
Sam & Dave's Stax Classics 
The Dramatics's Stax Classics 
Booker T & the M.G.’s Stax Classics