Southern Soul: Part 7
The '70s - Stax
The hits certainly were there at Stax in the early '70s, but it was no longer the same. The perfect time had passed, and in its wake came business. And it wasn't so much the straight corporate aspect of business; it was paranoia and machinations. What had once been a free-and-easy operation, where everyone seemed like family, from artists to office staff, became a place where trust was at a premium, and secrets were being kept. Armed men and guard dogs patrolled the halls.
"Until then it had been dished out on 45s, and albums had been very much an afterthought. Suddenly soul could be album music, and there was an audience for it." |
As Booker T. and the MGs no longer existed, Stax was without a house band, which meant farming out productions. And that meant the Staple Singers' hit "Respect Yourself," which peaked at #12 in 1971, was played by the Muscle Shoals rhythm section - surely an irony of sorts - as was the massive "I'll Take You There." They and Hayes were the company's big artists, but it was Hayes who was the huge money earner.
It began with 1969's Hot Buttered Soul, which to everyone's astonishment went platinum, and hit the airy regions of the pop, jazz, R&B, and even easy listening charts. Two edited singles from the album, "Walk On By" and "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," made both R&B and pop charts. It was a phenomenon - but it was also more than that. The success changed the entire way people thought of soul music. Until then it had been dished out on 45s, and albums had been very much an afterthought. Suddenly soul could be album music, and there was an audience for it.
In many ways, without the unprecedented glory of Hot Buttered Soul (recorded not at Stax, but at Ardent Studios), there might never have been Marvin Gaye's What's Going On or Stevie Wonder's Music of My Mind; it was the sound of soul growing up, even if its real maturity was still a couple of years away. To Be Continued and The Isaac Hayes Movement both maintained the trend, which hit its peak with the Shaft soundtrack - the first black soundtrack to truly hit the mainstream, especially when "Theme from Shaft" went platinum, with the album selling like hot cakes, as would its follow-up, Black Moses. Two Grammys, an Oscar and Golden Globe were among the awards he received for the Shaft soundtrack, in addition to hitting #1 on both the R&B and pop charts (it remained on the pop charts for 60 weeks), with the single also going #1 pop.
Whereas the Stax of the '60s had all been homegrown work, the label, which was now largely helmed on a day-to-day basis by Al Bell, in the '70s they undertook a lot of master purchases or master leases from other labels. The best was Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" in 1971, which had been produced at Malaco Studios by New Orleans native Wardell Quezerque. Initially Stax passed on the disc, and Malaco hadn't been interested in releasing it on their own label, either. Eventually Stax did issue it, and the disc sold a million and a half copies, hitting #1 R&B and #2 pop.
The label even diversified into country. It was, perhaps, an odd move for Stax, but there was money to be made there - the company's credo of the day - and it wasn't a great stretch from where the music had been. O.B. McLinton, who'd had his songs covered by Otis Redding and James Carr, was the prototype, a black singer following in the footsteps of Charley Pride. By his own account, his first album, a mainstream Nashville production, was a disaster. But he self-produced his next record, and over the course of a four-disc career with the label, gave, gave them seven hit country singles. He became the only one of the country acts (whose records all appeared on the Stax subsidiary Enterprise) to achieve any kind of success.
Related Articles in the 'Southern Soul Primer' Category...
- Southern Soul: Part 1
- Southern Soul: Part 2
- Southern Soul: Part 3
- Southern Soul: Part 4
- Southern Soul: Part 5
- Southern Soul: Part 6
- Southern Soul: Part 8
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