Remembering Stax

PBS recently previewed a documentary on Stax Records. Great movie, great story, great music.

Any studio that gave us Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes has my heartfelt gratitude.

There is a remarkable irony in the Stax saga. The studio was founded by a white guy (Jim Stewart) in a segregated Southern city in the era of Bull Conner and Orval Faubus. They recorded some classic R&B and soul artists. Yet their house band (Booker T. and the MGs) was made up of both black and white musicians.

Stax was an integrated operation in a segregated city. Nonetheless, it thrived. Jim Crow was helpless in the face of raw talent and great grooves.

The irony is that Stax did not survive the 70s. Southern bigotry could not kill it, but the studio was no match for the sharp business practices of the New York record companies. Atlantic Records ended up with the rights to the classic recordings and calmly watched Stax sink into bankruptcy.

The music business, which takes such pride in their liberal and progressive attitudes, had no qualms about letting Stax die. it was just business after all.