When it was announced that HBO (ahem "Max") would be launching a four part docu series on my favorite 60's soul label I was tickled pink. I always approach musical documentaries with trepidation, I think it's because all too often they employ too many talking heads and spoil the soup (I think we can finally breath easy in the hope that documentary makers have stopped using Bono). Hopes were high!
"Soulsville U.S.A" is loosely based on the INCREDIBLE 1997 book by Rob Bowman and fortunately features no one outside of the Stax organization with the only exception being Bowman himself. The label's story is told through archival footage and photos along with interviews and narration by Stax stalwarts Booker T. Jones, label founders Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (the latter through old footage), Carla Thomas, David Porter, Issac Hayes, Dave Moore (of Sam & Dave), Steve Cropper, label exec Deanie Parker and last but not least Al Bell who eventually took control of the label and sadly was instrumental in it's meteoric rise and eventual demise.
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| Estelle Axton in front of 926 East McLemore Avenue |
It is with the inclusion of Al Bell (a DJ who was brought onboard in 1965 originally as a promotions man to raise the label's profile) that the documentary veers off into less about the label and more about Al Bell. It is he who is the most prominent voice in the series leading my old friend Larry Grogan to aptly describe it as "The Al Bell Show, starring Al Bell, as told to Al Bell by Al Bell". Episode 1 "Cause I Love You" deals with the history of the label from it's founding by Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton to the names that made the label big: Booker T and The M.G's (though the later are rarely mentioned outside of "Green Onions" and their work as a backing band), Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave and of course, Otis Redding. Sadly there's nary a trace of anyone else, no William Bell, no Eddie Floyd, no Mar-Keys, no Rufus Thomas or countless others who appeared on the label. Musically this is a "Stax 101" for beginners. The tragic distribution deal with Jerry Wexler and Atlantic records (which unbeknownst to Jim Stewart, for not reading the fine print, gave Wexler and Atlantic the rights to Stax's entire released catalog) is the first of many traumatic incidents in the label's history. There is an extensive and informative section chronicling the famous 1967 Stax U.K. tour with Otis, Booker T and Co. and Sam and Dave as well as Otis Redding's successful appearance at the Monterey Pop Festival. Sadly the follow up was Otis and The Mar-Key's tragic death and the later assassination of Martin Luther King (and the strife both preceding and following his death in Memphis) which are covered in Episode 2 "Soul Man". It's here that crucial facts begin to be conveniently not mentioned. The label's re-invigoration by Bell in the late 60's and early 70's with Johnnie Taylor "Who's Makin' Love (the label's strongest selling single at that point in 1968) and the mega stardom of Stax writer and producer Isaac Hayes as a performer are covered in Episode 3 "Respect Yourself" and also briefly covers the disillusionment and eventual departure of crucial musicians like Booker T. and Steve Cropper with Bell's inane scheme of releasing a staggering 28 albums simultaneously while treating the backing musicians like assembly line workers (and no mention of his use of thugs and threats to bring the understandably unhappy musicians to heel) .
"The company became corporate. A mass production assembly line feeling. That whole concept was so foreign to me I just never accepted it. It was pain added to the other pain for me. I didn't want to leave, I had to leave"
-Booker T. Jones
Despite the fact that Rob Bowman is frequently featured in the series the producers neglected to use his book as a template and as a result decided to downplay the fact that racial tensions within the label were brewing and a backlash of bias that was coming on hard and fast in the wake of Dr. King's assassination. This claimed founder Estelle Axton as it's first victim (Axton's departure is chalked up to "creative differences" in the series). Her beloved Satellite records shop is closed with her departure and turned into studio space. Bowman's telling quote of the series after Bell's sweeping reorg speaks volumes:
"Al Bell's decision to expand has great consequences as to record sales but terrible consequences in terms of morale"
-Rob Bowman
Crucially no mention is made of Al Bell's employment of two unsavory characters of criminal background in the form of Dino Woodward and Johnny Baylor (Baylor was later stopped in an airport in 1972 shortly after the epic Wattstax concert with an enormous sum of cash and a check from Stax for $500,000 in his possession which put Stax on the both the I.R.S. and F.B.I's radar ), nor is there any mention of the physical violence the musicians were threatened with by these unsavory elements. Bell is frequently portrayed in the series as a hapless victim of institutional racism, a well meaning soul caught in a web of unscrupulous contracts and business dealings with the horribly run Farmer's And Mechanics Bank and a disastrous deal with CBS that made the equally horrific deal with Atlantic in the 60's (covered in Episode 2) look minuscule. In truth Bell may have been an unfortunate victim in the case of the Farmer's And Mechanics Bank scandal and the CBS dilemma but his allowing the foxes to guard the hen house backfired, disastrously (also conveniently not mentioned was the paying of Baylor a cool $2.9 million dollars for one year's work in 1972).
Dino Woodward (left), unknown and Johnny Baylor (right)
at the Stax Xmas party, 12/20/68.
Stax bounds back in Episode Three "Respect Yourself" with Issac Haye's career taking off and his "Shaft" score winning a Grammy in 1972 for Best Motion Picture Soundtrack and the label promoting the highly successful Wattstax gig in August of '72 with a huge roster of artists performing (clips of The Bar-kays, Issac Hayes and Carla Thomas and Rufus Thomas from the event are aired). However it's all downhill from there (as chronicled in Episode 4 "Nothing Takes The Place Of You") with mounting problems from CBS when Clive Davis (who forged the distribution deal with Stax) is unceremoniously canned and Stax's products are nowhere to be found in stores as CBS sits on them. Again it's Al Bell blaming his woes on everyone but himself. Al Bell may have talked the talk of "black power" but the end of the day it was green that really mattered.
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| Al Bell pointing the finger at everyone but himself. |
Stax (and Bell's) wild ride comes to a resounding halt when the bailiff's turn up to shut down a slimmed down Stax (having done a too little too late housecleaning/mass lay-off in the wake of the CBS debacle) after the Union Planter's Bank loan to save the label is foreclosed. Bell chalks it up to the white Memphis establishment declaring war on a successful black run enterprise (curiously NOT at the height of their success), never once mentioning about any of the shady dealings and fast and loose bookkeeping going on at the label. But if there's a loser in this story it's Jim Stewart, who, when the label is about to be swallowed up by its creditors sweeps in with his life savings an a valiant attempt to keep the wolves at bay despite being pushed out of the label by this time. It didn't work and Stewart wound up destitute and lost his house as a result but somehow remains proud and dignified of what he was able to accomplish. Depressing footage of a decaying Stax marquee and building being gutted in 1989 are it's epilogue and there's no mention of the label's subsequent takeover by Fantasy records in the late 70's OR the reconstruction and replication of the original building in it's original location. I guess there wasn't time for that during "the Al Bell show".
******The Author is gratefully indebted to Rob Bowman's incredible book "Soulsville" which was instrumental in completing this post******
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