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STAX INFOS
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BOOKS
(18 april 1999)

Thanks to Cherrie Holden and all our nice friends on the great southernsoul mailing list (subscribe at www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/southernsoul ), here are some other books dealing with Stax Records:

MEMPHIS BEAT by Larry Nager

It's excellent and covers the musical history of Memphis including the Stax and Hi era.  The foreward is written by Sam Phillips and the book is currently in hardback.

ROAD STORIES by Don Nix

Don Nix was a member of the Mar-Keys at the beginning of Stax then recorded at Stax later as a singer under his own name. He made a fine career on different record labels. There is a copy of Don's book on ebay.com: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=91866796  
Amazon.com has it available too at: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0028646215/qid=924405341/sr=1-1/002-9843606-8871456

THE LAST OF THE SAVAGES by Jay McInerney (Knopf, 1996)

It is a nice escape but also filled with some great blues and Mississippi scenes.

IT CAME FROM MEMPHIS by Robert Gordon

 

RECORDS

STAX FUNX 2
Various artists
Ace/Fantasy CDSXD 128

DO YOUR THING - ISAAC HAYES / SHE'S MY OLD LADY TOO - THEM HOT PANTS (PART 1) - LEE SAIN / DO ME - CARRY ON - JEAN KNIGHT / HOPPIN' JOHN - MELVIN VAN PEEBLES / WHO'S MAKING LOVE - JOHNNIE TAYLOR / MOVIN' DANCER - BOBBY HOLLEY / FUNKY BROADWAY - STEVE CROPPER / IT'S TIME FOR ME TO LOVE YOU - ERIC MERCURY / SANG AND DANCE - THE BAR-KAYS / PLAY THE MUSIC TORONADOS - T.S.U. TORONADOS / MONKEY SCRATCH (PARTS 1 & 2) - BERNIE HAYES / ITCH AND SCRATCH (PART 1) - RUFUS THOMAS / SHAME ON THE FAMILY NAME - CALVIN SCOTT / MR COOL, THAT AIN'T COOL - THE TEMPREES / RUNNING OUT - MABLE JOHN / A MAN NEVER KNOWS - CHRIS & SHACK / BROTHERS AND SISTERS (GET TOGETHER) - KIM WESTON / SOUL MACHINE - REGGIE MILNER / SISTER HOT PANTS - FREDDIE ROBINSON.

While the mighty Stax Records has long been recognized by most punters as the pre-eminent Southern soul label, in the past few years, connoisseurs of seventies black music have begun to also give the label its props as the home of some of the richest fatback-laden, deep-in-the-pocket funk known to mankind. Ace Records' STAX FUNX VOLUME 2, compiled by soul and funk maven Dean Rudland, begins where Volume One left off, presenting twentyone non-stop, pressure-cooking slices of late sixties/early seventies primo funk originally issued on one of the many imprints of "the little label that could".
Highlights abound. Most people will be more than familiar with recordings included here by some of Stax's biggest stars, including Johnnie Taylor's mega-hit Who's Making Love, Isaac Hayes' single version of Do Your Thing and Rufus Thomas' overlooked Itch and Scratch. What is notable about STAX FUNX VOLUME 2, though, is how superbly such well-known commodities are integrated amongst a wealth of less familiar, in some cases downright obscure, recordings that prove once again just how arbitrary commercial success and fame truly were where the soul and funk genres are concerned.
Amongst the lesser-known gems are Jean Knight's undeservedly underrated recordings of Carry On and Do Me, Mable John's final Stax single Running Out, Melvin Van Peebles' greasy Hoppin' John (featuring an early version of Earth, Wind and Fire) and Eric Mercury's epic It's Time For Me To Love You. Clocking in at nine minutes plus and recorded, lyrics and all, impromptu on the floor of guitarist Steve Cropper's TMI studio, It's Time For Me To Love You is nearly guaranteed to drive the price of Mercury's two Stax albums, released on the company's Enterprise subsidiary, up a few notches.
For those who are collecting everything Stax, straight from the company's seemingly endless tape vaults come four previously unreleased tracks; guitarist Freddie Robinson's hilarious rejoinder to Jean Knight's Mr Big Stuff, appropriately entitled Sister Hot Pants, St Louis disc jockey Bernie Hayes's ode to the Monkey Scratch, Chris and Shack's ebullient A Man Never Knows (penned by We Three) and an interesting alternate version of one of the Temprees' final We Produce singles, Mr Cool That Ain't Cool.
STAX FUNX VOLUME 2 makes for a fine addition to Ace's ongoing presentation of the legacy of the mighty Stax Records. Stay tuned for Volume 3.

Rob Bowman

 

THE SMELL OF INCENSE
Southwest F.O.B
Sundazed Records SC 11060 ($13.98)

Though not a soul record, this LP, reissued in vinyl format, brings back one of the best records issued on Stax' HIP short lived subsidiary.

Southwest F.O.B's 1968 hit single "The Smell Of Incense" (plucked from the set list of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band) is like your first glance of the Emerald City of OZ; shimmering through the haze of a summer morning, it's a perfect moment forever frozen in time. These Dallas hotshots, featuring the angelic vocals of Dan Seals and John Colley (who would later commandeer the charts as England Dan & John Ford Coley) fused their heavenly harmonies with mindbending Farfisa-organ stylings and fuzz-drenched guitar work. In short, they had everything that was wonderful about mid-'60s rock & roll. This release contains the entire rare 1968 album (HIP-7001), single-only cuts, and unheard alternate versions...plus a 16 page booklet jammed with notes, unseen photos, original poster repros and more.

You can order it at www.sundazed.com as well as Albert King's Born Under A Bad Sign LP, also in vinyl format with a thick cardboard cover like in the good old times.

 

926 EAST McLEMORE volume 1
A reunion of former Stax artists

HIGH STACKS - HS 9801

926 East McLemore CD   Hey Rufus
Another Man's Name
Front-Line
The Last Thing On My Mind
Body Fine
Just In Time
Tricky Dick
Uptown Lady
Let's Get It Together
How Sweet It Would Be
Drum Island
  Rufus Thomas
Ollie Nightingale
Rance Allen
The Mad Lads
The Bar-Kays
The Temprees
Sir Mack Rice
J. Blackfoot
Ben Cauley
Luther Ingram
The Stax Rhythm Section

The cover photo of this new CD shows the Stax studio during the demolition process but with just a little imagination, you could imagine that the building is just being restored and that's the spirit of this wonderful CD.

Bobby Manuel gathered former Stax artists, called his old friends Ben Cauley, Andrew Love, Homer Banks, Larrie Dodson and so on. Larry Nix mastered the whole thing, Deanie Parker wrote the liner notes and Jim Stewart was invited with his sister Estelle Axton for the family photo, in fact, just like in the good all times !

All the tracks could have been recorded at Stax if it still existed and you instantly recognize the magic sound.

Drum Island, dedicated to the late Al Jackson Jr could be an unissued track by Booker T. & The MG's, J. Blackfoot and Sir Mack Rice's tunes bring you back to the "blue Stax" period and some are more "modern", probably what would sound Stax today as this CD is indeed the return of Stax and could have been titled "Stax strikes back" !

Deanie Parker writes : "This recording is a soulful tribute to the late Al Jackson Jr., Otis Redding, 4 of the original Bar-Kays, Ollie Nightingale and Albert King. It is a treat to satisfy our hunger for more of the music Stax produced once upon a time. It is also a treasure that will become as ageless as those created nearly 30 years ago."

A tribute to Otis Redding is already scheduled as well as a Mad Lads album.

Thank you Bobby Manuel for so much joy and excitement and keep on keeping on !

The record is distributed nationally in the US. It can also be ordered at www.highstacks.com


Bobby Manuel, Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart


Photo taken at the 926 East McLemore party,
november 19, 1998 at B.B. King's Club in Memphis.
Left to Right : Ben Cauley, Reid McCoy, Winston Stewart (keyboards),
Joe Arnold, Greg Lundy (drums), James Mitchell, Deljuan Calvin, Jabo
Phillips, a fan from the audience, Scotty Scott, Bobby Manuel.

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