Southern Soul: Part 4
That wasn't to say things immediately fell apart - the hits would keep on coming for several years yet. During 1967 Sam and Dave had enjoyed their glory day with "Soul Man," and they followed it up in January 1968 with "I Thank You" b/w "Wrap It Up," arguably their finest two sides. But an era was coming to a close. The distribution agreement between Stax and Atlantic contained a clause that if Atlantic merged with, or sold out to, another company, Stax could end their contract. When Atlantic was bought by Warners in 1968, Stax chose to sever their ties. Whether a good move or not, it certainly heralded the beginning of the end for the little Memphis label. Success would continue - in many ways greater success than they'd achieved in their first few years - but the family spirit, the struggle which had seen everyone pulling together, would begin to evaporate in a morass of financial and distribution problems.
"In the period between early rock'n'roll and punk, soul represented the breathing space and creativity of the independent labels." |
The '60s - Elsewhere in Memphis
If Stax was the commercial benchmark for soul music, it certainly wasn't the only label out there. In the period between early rock'n'roll and punk, soul represented the breathing space and creativity of the independent labels more than any other style. And it was from these labels, mainly clustered in Tennessee and Alabama, that so much great soul music hit the stores and airwaves.After breaking from Stax in 1962 under relatively acrimonious circumstances, Chips Moman went to Nashville, where he ended up playing guitar on plenty of country demos - a depressing fate that left him drinking heavily and in debt before returning to Memphis to start American Studios, where he found himself recording sides for the Goldwax label, being paid in spare change and booze, until a friend told him "he'd heard about this guy who would give him a hit record for $20 and a bottle of whiskey, and that made me quit drinkin'."
One of the artists Moman had produced for Goldwax was James Carr, another of the great Southern voices. He'd come up through gospel, singing with the Sunset Travelers and the Harmony Echoes before being discovered by manager Roosevelt Jamison, who brought him to Quinton Claunch at Goldwax. Claunch had already recorded O.V. Wright, one of soul's most underrated voices, but lost him over a contract technicality to Don Robey's Duke-Peacock outfit, but Carr made a magnificent substitute, finding his deep style with the powerful "You've Got My Mind Messed Up."
But Carr's finest hour - indeed, one of soul's greatest classics - would come in 1967 with "Dark End Of The Street," possibly the definitive cheating song, one that's since been covered innumerable times by acts as diverse as the Flying Burrito Brothers and Richard and Linda Thompson. Moman and Alabama native Dan Penn wrote the song while a little the worse for wear at a DJ convention in Nashville, their first collaboration. Moman, now out of his alcoholic phase, charged Goldwax $5000 to cut the side (it was recorded at Hi Studios), and it was worth every penny, even if it never really cracked the charts.
Carr was a singer who was equally comfortable with soul and country, and could draw on the heartbreak and ache of both. To hear him on the painful "That's The Way Love Turned Out For Me" or Harlan Howard's "Life Turned Her The Way" is to understand that the connections between soul and country run deep and thick. But for all the good material, Carr never got another "Dark End Of The Street," and his unstable personality had him abusing drugs by the end of the decade. Claunch negotiated a deal for the singer with Capitol after Goldwax closed down in 1970, but he was never able to straighten himself out enough to take advantage of it.
Moman, though, was on a roll. With American Studios established, and a strong house band, including Bobby Emmons on keyboards and Tommy Cogbill on bass, he was making hits with a range of soul and country singers - and all too often it was impossible to tell the difference between the two styles. There was James and Bobby Purify doing "Shake A Tail Feather" and Meriliee Rush with "Angel Of The Morning," with some of the productions appearing on Bell, thanks to a distribution deal Moman signed. Bobby Womack came to American to record his first album for Minit, and stayed as a session guitarist. King Curtis, Joe Simon, Joe Tex, and Dusty Springfield (the superb Dusty in Memphis) recorded there. Even Elvis Presley cut sides there for his From Elvis in Memphis album, including the great "Suspicious Minds" - his most energetic and heartfelt songs for years. Later, Moman would find greater fame producing country albums for Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash - both of whom were but a very short step from soul and R&B - if the distance existed at all. To Hi Records, there never seemed to be much of a gap between the two styles. The label's roots were definitely in country, as its two founders, Bill Cantrell and Quniton claunch, had started out playing in the Blue Seal Pals before moving on to become part of the staff at Sun Records in 1952, where they played on both country and R&B sessions. In 1956, the pair, along with rockabilly Ray Harris, started Hi. The first success came with the Bill Black Combo, who released "Smokie Pt. 2" in 1958. Black, the former bass player with Elvis Presley, was one who made no distinction between musical styles, and his instrumentals were an early fusion of country and R&B - not too dissimilar to trumpeter Willie Mitchell, who led the house band at Danny's in the wide-open town of West Memphis before moving up to become arranger at Hi (one of the few soul labels not to use the basic head arrangements) while still leading his own band, which released a number of sides, including "20-75," the only one to crack the charts, in 1964.
Mitchell was a man of many parts and great vision, getting production as well as arranging credits under his belt, and learning to use the studio. In addition to his work for Hi, he also did a number of outside production jobs, including Bobby 'Blue' Bland's classic R&B record Two Steps from the Blues.
Claunch had sold his interest in Hi in 1960, going on to start Goldwax. And at first it seemed as if he'd made a sound move, since Hi went into decline through the '60s. But that would change with a new decade, and a new face of soul. Memphis had a sound. But then so did Muscle Shoals, a few hours away in northern Alabama.
Related Articles in the 'Southern Soul Primer' Category...
- Southern Soul: Part 1
- Southern Soul: Part 2
- Southern Soul: Part 3
- Southern Soul: Part 5
- Southern Soul: Part 6
- Southern Soul: Part 7
- Southern Soul: Part 8
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