If Motown was slick and shiny and unbeatable as a crossover label, Stax Records was greasier, more grit in the mix and, as the title of the new 4-part documentary suggests, Stax: Soulsville U.S.A., more soulful.
In the heart of Memphis’s black neighborhood around the time of the Civil Rights movement, a white man and his sister started and ran the company in harmony with black artists and black executives. The result was an array of top-notch musicians who were fearless underdogs. That’s how companies get tight: when everyone is working toward a common goal from the bottom of the heap.
The film pays special attention to the late, great Otis Redding and his rise to fame before an airplane crash took him far too soon. Isaac Hayes, featured as well, was a man whose voice for African-Americans was as powerful as his voice on records that made him a star and led to an Oscar for Theme From SHAFT.
I would like to have seen more archival footage of the label’s luminaries, but as we learn in the film, there were bigger, more powerful labels that wanted what Stax had and, eventually found a way to get it. I suspect legal issues.
And so, surprisingly, a movie about a music label devotes just as much time to the back-room politics and dirty dealing that took place to take them down. Even the building was reduced to rubble. It’s enough to make you steam, but the people in the film note that the music lives on forever, and nobody can make those great songs disappear.
Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. is currently available to watch on HBO/Max
