A Stax Special

In The Beginning

One of the most important companies in R&B history, Stax represented one of the two main strands in American black music (Motown was the other). Ironically but not untypically, the label was founded by a white guy, Jim Stewart, whose musical background was actually in country music.

Stewart originally came to Memphis when he was 18, entering the banking profession but also playing music in a local house band. Like many others before him, Stewart made a couple of his own tape recordings but got little or no interest from any of the local labels. He formed his own label (Satellite) in 1957 and produced his own record and a couple of other releases, including quite a good rockabilly (Don Wallis’ ‘Boppin’ High School Baby’).

Stewart’s sister, Estelle Axton, then took the brave step of mortgaging her home to help finance the purchase of an Amplex mono recorder and, after a one year stint in Brunswick, they set up operations in an old Memphis neighbourhood theatre at 926 East McLemore – they rented the premises for $100 a month, pulled it apart and set up a control room on what used to be the stage area. They also divided the theatre in two, since the original building was too big to house the Amplex recorder, the front part of the building becoming the famous front of studio record shop.

Stewart and Axton were on their way.

The Keys To Greatness

• Stewart records his first black group, the Veltones, releasing ‘Fool In Love’ as Satellite 100. It was picked up for national distribution by Mercury
• Rufus and Carla Thomas became the first artists to record in the Memphis studio. ‘Cause I Love You’ was released in the summer of 1960 as Satellite 102. The track featured Booker T. Jones (only 16 and playing sax rather than his trademark organ of later years).It was the first hit of any note for Stewart, and it proved that Stax’s future was with R’n’B. Stewart himself said “It was like a blind man who suddenly gained his sight“. Although there were a few more country releases, to all intents and purposes, Stax became an R’n’B label

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  Atlantic records got a master lease agreement on all Rufus and Carla Thomas releases, in exchange for a $5,000 advance. A handshake deal also secured first refusal on the distribution of any Stax release. A deal which Stax needed at the time because it gave them real distribution muscle, it was formalised in 1965. It did them no favours in the long term and led to real acrimony when Atlantic sold out to Warners

• ‘Gee Whiz’ by Carla Thomas broke Stax nationwide when it became their first pop hit, reaching #10 on the pop charts. Written by Carla when still a teenager, the record had backing vocals from the Veltones and a string arrangement from Stewart himself
• The ‘Sound Of Stax’ emerges in 1961 with the release of the Mar-Kays ‘Last Night’. The unique house band hybrid, racially integrated players, all working together to create the Stax house style (the prominent horns, large drum sound and high profile organ) typified soul in the 1960s. All these players mutated into the two main components of the core Stax sound – Booker T. and the MGs and the Memphis Horns
• The relationship with Atlantic brings Otis Redding to Stax when the label records a session with Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers. ‘These Arms Of Mine’ is the first Otis release on Stax and April, 1965 sees Otis’ biggest commercial success prior to the posthumously released ‘Dock Of The Bay’ – ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’ reaches #21 on the pop charts
• Sam And Dave were signed by Atlantic in 1965 but were loaned to Stax as fully fledged Stax recording artists. Although their first release was written by David Porter alone, they became the recipients of songs from one of the great songwriting partnerships in soul music – Isaac Hayes and David Porter
• 1965 was simply a great year. Sam and Dave began their enormous run of success, Otis produced the classic ‘Respect and, significantly, Al Bell joined the company as head of promotions. Opinion is divided however on whether the recruitment signalled the end of what was truly special about Stax, replacing it with a more ruthless approach to the business of making records

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  Stax start to take the Blues seriously when Albert King is signed to the label in 1966. Estelle Axton takes credit for convincing the rest of the company that the Blues would sell. ‘Laundromat Blues’ was the first of many successful releases for King on the Stax label, releases which also included ‘Born Under A Bad Sign’, a blues standard subsequently recorded by many over the years

• ‘When Something Is Wrong With My Baby’ by Sam and Dave was released in 1967. Just another Stax release at the time, it is undoubtedly the duo’s finest moment and is also noteworthy as the only ballad they ever produced while they were recording for the Stax label
• Otis played the Monterey pop festival, which proved to be a massive breakthrough for Redding himself and for Stax and black music in general. It was probably the single most important influencing factor in Redding’s new found ability to crossover to white America
• Atlantic was sold in 1968 and, under the terms of the original contract, Stax chose to exercise the option to declare the contract null and void and go their own way – the success continued, commercial success even increased, but the seeds of the demise were also starting to appear
• From mid 1968, after the break with Atlantic, through to the label’s finish in 1975, Stax had even greater commercial success than that achieved by what became known as Stax Mark 1. For the seriously sad amongst us, this later period is known to all collectors as the ‘yellow period’, purely because the label colour had changed from the blue of the earlier years

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  In 1969, Isaac Hayes went solo and released the extremely influential “Hot Buttered Soul” album, with extended raps on well known tracks such as ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’, which Hayes turned into an eighteen minute opus.As a consequence, however, the Hayes – Porter songwriting partnership dissolved and the two never wrote together again

• In 1971 Hayes paved the way for a certain kind of movie score with the release of the Shaft soundtrack, the title track of which became a hit single. Although the movies themselves were often seen as exploitative and stereotypical, artists such as Curtis Mayfield, with the wonderful “Superfly” score, capitalised on Hayes pioneering work
• Stax gained further success in the pop charts in 1972 and beyond with a return to the label’s roots. The Staple Singers up-tempo gospel sermonising gave Stax two of their rare #1 pop hits, hitting the charts with ‘Respect Yourself’ in 1972 and ‘I’ll Take You There’ the following year
• Business machinations began to take over from the music from around the beginning of 1973 onwards. Although the label continued to have hits (from artists such as Shirley Brown, Johnnie Taylor, The Soul Children, Mel and Tim and The Emotions) a golden success story was drawing to a close.

The Demise

The sale of Atlantic Records to Warner Brothers as far back as November, 1967 probably set the scene for Stax’s eventual downfall.

Initially, it didn’t appear to be a problem, but Otis was gone, others were unhappy and the negotiations with Atlantic got tougher as the latter company argued that they, and not Stax, owned the rights to the Stax back catalogue – a legacy of Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton’s naivety (or trusting nature) when they first got into the business. In the end, Stax couldn’t get a deal out of Atlantic and ended up going it alone by making their own arrangements with Gulf and Western. As part of this process, Estelle Axton was virtually frozen out of the company she helped to found.

Under the new regime, bitterness and acrimony appeared to be rife (rumours that Al Bell was operating divide and rule tactics and freezing out stalwarts such as Booker T. and Steve Cropper didn’t help). Stewart had been a great record man, Bell was a businessman who ran the show with a mixture of personal charm and divisive actions – some people didn’t like the change.  In 1970, Stewart and bell bought the company back from Gulf and Western and became 50-50 partners. But Stewart was tiring of the constant business negotiations and was saddened by his increasing distance from the music itself – he wanted out. In 1972 Bell started to negotiate with Columbia, set up a distribution deal and bought Stewart out. The Stax ‘family’ was now scattered all over the States.

Stewart stayed on as President in name only and the mood within the company changed for the worse – even though at this stage commercial success continued unabated.  In 1973 CBS took another look at the Stax contract and started to cut back on the advances. It started to go downhill pretty fast from this point on, although since it’s not a period that most of the key players much want to talk about, it’s hard to get that clear a picture. The IRS started to investigate the company, a bank audit was carried out and numerous rumours were doing the rounds that ‘kickbacks’ had been common place in much of Stax’s business dealings.

The Federal Grand Jury demanded to see records of the company’s 1973 financial transactions and by January 1975, Stax failed to meet its employee payroll. The Union Planters Bank, which had financed Bell in his dealings with both Stewart and CBS, audited the label and concluded that the business had been seriously mismanaged.  Even then, Stewart showed his commitment, however misguided, to the company he founded by pushing his personal fortune at the problem to try and rescue it, but it was too late. Bell and Joseph Hartwell from the Union Planters Bank were indicted for conspiracy to defraud – Bell was acquitted (and Stewart always argued Bell’s innocence) but Hartwell was convicted, although it was unclear with whom he conspired since Bell was found innocent and no others were ever indicted.

Although Bell was cleared of all charges, Stax was finished – it was all over.