Soulsville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records

by Rob Bowman

Walk the halls of the famous studio that produced hits for Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam and Dave, and Booker T. and the MGs. Soulsville, U.S.A. provides the first history of the groundbreaking label along with compelling biographies of the promoters, producers, and performers who made and sold the music. Over 45 photos. Winner of the 1998 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. Winner of the ARSC Award for Best Research in Record Labels.

Genres: Music, History, Nonfiction, Business

416 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1997

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Remember the Stax label and how if you liked one record, you liked all the others as well? You just don't talk to a lot of people who tell you how much they love [a] record label." -- singer / songwriter / musician Darius Rucker

When folks think of R&B / soul music production from the 60's and early 70's it is likely the Detroit-based juggernaut of a hit factory known as 'Motown' that immediately springs to mind. But also operating at the same time, although in a lower profile, was the 'Stax-Volt' company in Memphis, Tennessee. (It should also be argued that Memphis is America's true 'music city,' boasted a hella lot of rock, blues, gospel and the aforementioned R&B / soul music originating from that region.) The company began in 1957, originally called 'Satellite,' but received its new moniker in 1960 - taken from the combing first parts of the names of founders Jim Stewart and Estelle 'Lady A' Axton - and became identified for its signature sound of 'Memphis soul,' featuring lots of punchy horn sections.

Author Bowman's Soulsville, U.S.A. details the rise and fall of the record label in exhaustive, and eventually exhausting, detail. He covers the artists - such as Booker T. and the MGs, Sam & Dave, and Otis Redding - plus the production on their hit tunes - not limited to 'Green Onions,' 'Soul Man,' and 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay' - that all first came to life in a rundown movie theater which was haphazardly converted into a recording studio. The chapters on the mid-60's, when these acts (and the label) were at their creative and popular zenith, were filled with memorable music and musicians.

It was in the final quarter of the book where my attention really began to wane, as the accent is then almost completely on the business / banking side of things and the eventual demise of the company. Also, since the book was published in 1997, Stax has seen 1.) a revival in the 21st century as re-formed label 2.) a museum which is located on the site of the original studio, and 3.) the 50th anniversary tributes (back in 2007) which briefly brought the company back into the spotlight, and help cement its reputation as an important slice of American music history. Those events are understandably not included here, so it'd be great if author Bowman would consider penning an updated version of text. Still, when the book was good it was really good - just like Stax's music!

[Ben Winch · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was playing Wilson Pickett in the store one day when a young guy remarked that he 'loved Motown', and it sent me into a spin. Wilson Pickett Motown?! What does that mean, that every poppy/soulful dance-hit of the 1960s is Motown these days? Well I'm here to tell you, apart from the technical error - that Motown was, as I thought everyone knew, based in Detroit (the motor town, geddit?) and Wilson Pickett recorded in New York and Memphis - there's another, deeper error: Wilson Pickett doesn't sound like Motown! Motown is a beat - 4-on-the-floor, about as tight and as meatheaded as you can get.* And it's a melody that's pretty much set in stone, like a nursery rhyme, with here and there a few improvised asides, but nothing like Pickett's drawling, stretched-out delivery interspersed with woops, cries and screams to his heart's content. Me, much as I can enjoy Motown for a song or two or even three if I'm in the mood, and much as I love Motown bassist James Jamerson (see the movie Standing in the Shadows of Motown for a touching memorial to this great player), I get tired of all that glossy up-front punchy monotonous pop-ness pretty quickly, and would far prefer to kick back with some southern music: Solomon Burke or James Carr or Percy Sledge or just about anything recorded at Muscle Shoals, Alabama or - wait for it - Stax Records, Memphis, Tennessee. And y'know what, I'm pretty damn sure they got a term for that kinda music... Now what was it...? Ah! SOUL, as invented by Sam Cooke and Clyde McPhatter and James Brown and Ray Charles. Sweet soul music. And that's what Stax Records was about, and Motown wasn't really a part of it. I mean, power to the folks at Motown, they kind of invented a genre. But Wilson Pickett? 'Mustang Sally', 'The Midnight Hour', 'Land of 1000 Dances'? That's soul, people. And many of those songs, and all of Otis Redding's, and 'Green Onions', and Sam and Dave's 'Soul Man', and even Isaac Hayes's Shaft soundtrack, were recorded at Stax Studios, a converted cinema in a suburb of Memphis where the house band would punch in at 9am every morning and write and record hit songs for a living. So what this book is, see, is the record of an era, because although it sounds quaint to us now - this cinema with the seats ripped out and a sloping floor and a record shop round the side - in fact back then it was not so different to Motown Studios or Muscle Shoals Studios or Fame Studios or probably a bunch I don't even know about. To a musician, to read about this stuff is to yearn for an impossible return to something like innocence, when a production-line ethos didn't have to yield plastic, unlistenable results, and when a song could be written, worked up and recorded in a single day if you were in the zone, or maybe written the day or week before if you weren't, and released not long after, with no committee of shareholders or marketing department to answer to. But more than that, there's politics in this story: the Civil Rights movement, race riots outside the studio, the death of the old Stax - run by a white man, with two white musicians (Steve Cropper and Donald 'Duck' Dunn, familiar to many from The Blues Brothers) as key players in a mostly-black staff - and the birth of the new, all-black model, which made a star of former staff-writer Isaac Hayes and broke all the rules of simple Major-key blues changes that had been dictated by its former chief. It's a fascinating story, if told a little dryly, and if you already like the music it'll open up a whole other facet of it. Otis, yeah I know, he's your favourite. But believe me, there was much, much more to Stax Records than just 'Sittin' on the Dock of the Bay'. Oh, and long live soul! I swear, every one of those guys could sing their asses off, whether they were singing for Stax or not. A golden era, never to be repeated. Bow your heads and give thanks.

The guys from Stax didn't play live much (except for late nights jamming at bars around Memphis), but when they did they usually traveled as a team and made a night of it, with house band Booker T and the MGs providing backing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSM...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIAK9h...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dABcBr...

Plus a little something from the post-Civil Rights era:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lCI63...

* FOOTNOTE: The term 'meatheaded' shouldn't be construed as an insult in this context. In my self-taught musician's lexicon it's just a quality, sometimes a desirable one. Nor is the beat described present in every Motown song, but if you're trying to define Motown as a genre a propulsive, straight-ahead beat is central, and very different to the loping, behind-the-beat groove of Stax's Al Jackson.

[CyLarge · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not for the casual or newbie fan of Stax. It's exhaustive and tediously detailed. Bowman gives each new artist of significance a mini-background history as they come up in the label's timeline. He rightly includes a lot about how segregation and race in Stax's hometown, Memphis (MLK was assassinated there in '68 at a motel that Stax songwriters used all the time), shaped the label and its people, and Bowman even goes into detail about all the legal matters of Stax, including from being screwed by Atlantic to Al Bell's downfall. The book is part history textbook, part novel, part encyclopedia, part ethnomusicology thesis. It's fucking great. I plan to read this again just to take notes.

[Bill Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of the STAX label from boom to bust. More for the hardcore STAX fan than the casual consumer, this book lets it all hang out when it comes to giving the scoop on the dealings between Jerry Wexler, Jim Stewart, and Al Bell. It gives a good play-by-play account of the demise of what was without a doubt one of the best southern studios of the time. Honestly, at times you'll find yourself angry at the way STAX was handled by the big record executives in New York, and then find yourself shaking your head at some of the things the company did in trying to "save" themselves. Being a huge fan of the music that came out of Memphis and Muscle Shoals, this was a must read for me, and I was glad I did.

[Jeff Ballew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredibly in depth look at Stax records, the house of soul, the home of the "Memphis sound." It follows the record label from a small family operation to an international powerhouse, to a bankrupt operation bringing everyone down with it.

This is a dense book, and I wouldn't recommend it to you unless you get really excited by the following links...

Otis Redding - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI6inA...
Sam & Dave - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_juH0...
Book T & the MGs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-7QSM...
Isaac Hayes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2cHkM...

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating read for any Memphian or fan of Stax. It's extremely in depth and comprehensive, which means there's a lot of great stories and info, but it can also be tough to dig through. It's not purely about music; it covers the personal back stories of many artists and staff, and also gives insight to the cultural climate of Memphis in the 60s and 70s, and even to the business details of operating Stax.

[Abraham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found a remaindered copy online. The first Stax/Volt singles collection change my life, and Rob Bowman wrote the liner notes for that collection and each of the subsequent two volumes. In this book, he follows the Stax story through its rise and ensuing tragedies. It is probably only of interest to soul fans, but for them, it is absolutely essential.

[captain america · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic detail but an extremely dense read.

[Andy Knaggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to imagine anyone could write a more comprehensive history of the legendary soul music label, its triumphs and eventual demise. Couldn't recommend it for everyone - it helps if you have a decent knowledge of the music of Stax's leading acts in the first place. Even then, Mr Bowman's encylopaedic knowledge of soul music left me in the dust. Interesting stuff towards the end about the financial debacle that brought the label to its knees as well. It's not an introduction to Stax, I would suggest it's pretty much the bible of Stax.

[Brian]

I'm about a third of the way through the book... it's an easy to pick up, easy to put down, read a chunk at a time book You needn't be a music nut or fan to enjoy this..... one of the more interesting things so far, is the de facto discussions of race relations in in Memphis in the late 50s and early 60s. Stax was located in a predominantly black area, and was a company run with blacks and whites working side by side in a decidely non-integrated time and place

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting into Stax a lot as I get older, and find that whole Memphis scene tragically under-appreciated. This is definitely a book for fans of the genre, very detailed and specific focusing more on the business-related aspects (probably to save on the length) so it's a long, and not always page-turning read. Still, this book is being called a reference "go-to" for Stax, and it's impressive and worth having in a serious fan's library.

[Fred · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a child of the sixties and a member then of the Atlantic and Stax Appreciation Society I was very interested in this book. I found it a bit heavy and obviously USA centered, but having said that I found it thoroughly riveting and interesting.
The insight into the business world and banking world was fascinating and learning about the backgrounds of the artists we know, Otis, Sam and Dave etc. as well as those who did not feature in the UK was brilliant.

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great in-depth history of Stax. Sometimes it glossed over topics I wanted to know more about, but overall it was fantastic. The 1960s at Stax seemed awesome. The 70s sounded like they tried to do way too much.

*Also found it odd to find the author inserting himself every now and then with a personal observation about music or whatever.

[Colin O'Hara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most detailed history imaginable of one of my favorite record labels of all time, Stax Records. Not for the light-hearted, this almost day-by-day account of the rise and fall of Stax is fascinating for fans of early soul music.

[Stew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bowman is the expert on all things Stax. This is more of a business book than a biography of all the great artists on the Stax roster.
I would have liked to read more on the creative processes of the artists.

[Russell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've picked this one up a couple of times. A good book on the history of Stax & Memphis Soul. Check out Bear Family Records for a more complete history of Memphis soul beyond Stax!

[Joy Idowu · Rating 4 out of 5]

a comprehensive look at the creation of stax
a great look at the other great label of the 60s

[Jonathan Fowler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book - probably because I love the music from Stax.

[Matthew Baube · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on the history of Stax Records, just a little boring when Bowman dives into the financials of Stax unless that interests you or you need it for research.

[Graeme Whitton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a long time Stax fan and have visited the rebuilt museum in Memphis so this book should've been made for me but, sadly, I really struggled with it and couldn't finish it. I appreciate that the author wanted to write the definitive Stax book and I guess he's done that but I just found the endlessly repetitive detail too much to wade through.

There's a great book in here somewhere but, for me, it's obscured by the minutiae.

I will eventually go back to it and will probably end up finishing the book in small chunks.