Welcome back to the last entry of this 3-week deep dive into the Memphis soul, the soul specifically born in Memphis, Tennessee. I hope you have enjoyed this (Memphis) soul train so far. It’s been a treacherous journey, I’m not going to lie, but it gets better – I swear.
Do you remember where we left off? Last week’s post was about the unfortunate financial troubles of Stax Records which was closed on January 12th, 1976, following the order of federal bankruptcy judge William B. Leffler.
However, as you can tell from the title and my incessant repeating, the story of Stax Records is not over just yet. Let’s dive in.
1976: THE AFTERMATH
Stax Records vice-president and co-owner Al Bell was arrested on charges of bank fraud but was later acquitted on August 1976. If you wish to learn more about these issues, I warmly suggest you read this extract from Stuart Cosgrove’s Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul (2017).
In 1977 Union Planters sold Stax Records (confiscated master tapes and its four-million-dollar publishing arms included) to a holding corporation who later in the same year sold all to Fantasy Records including the copyright to the name “Stax Records”.
In 1981 Union Planters sold for $10 Stax’s McLemore Avenue headquarters to the Southside Church of God in Christ, whose never-realized plan was to build a community center. Unfortunately, the building was razed in 1989. In 1991 a historical marker was put in place where Stax Records once stood.
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STAX RECORDS REVIVAL UNDER FANTASY RECORDS
In October 1977, Fantasy Records announced it was going to revive Stax Records putting long-time Stax writer and producer David Porter in charge.
Stax Records was relaunched in January 1978: Porter managed to re-sign old Stax artists, such as Rick Dees, Shirley Brown, Fat Larry’s Band, and oversaw the creation of a compilation with the unpublished works of Isaac Hayes, Randy Brown, the Bar-Kays, Albert King and the Emotions. The biggest hit during this era was Bar-Kay’s Holy Ghost which charted number 9 in the R&B charts in 1978. Porter left the label the following year.
1980s and 1990s: STAX’S CLASSICS
From 1981 onwards Stax Records only reissued material recorded between 1968 and 1975, as well as unreleased works from the 1960s and 1970s since the masters were owned by Atlantic Records.
In 1988, Fantasy Records released Top of the Stax, Vol. 1: Twenty Greatest Hits, a compilation issued with both Atlantic Records-owned and Stax Records-owned material. The second volume followed in 1991.
Following Fantasy Records’ example, Atlantic issued The Complete Stax/Volt Singles 1959–1968 in 1991 which earned Grammy Award nominations for producer Steve Greenberg and for writer Rob Bowman. In 2001 the nine-disc compact disc boxed set was gold certified.
In 1993 and 1994, Fantasy Records released the Complete Stax/Volt Soul Singles which earned a Grammy Award for Greenberg in 2000. In the same year, Fantasy issued The Stax Story with material dated before 1968. It was, of course, done in agreement with Atlantic Records.
SOULSVILLE FOUNDATION: STAX RECORDS IS A PIECE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN HISTORY
Unfortunately, the predominantly African-American neighborhood where once the Stax Records building stood had fallen into economic decay by the late 1990s. It is in that climate that the Soulsville Foundation was born with the goal of not letting the history of both music and Stax Records die.
As the official website maintains, “The Soulsville Foundation is the parent organization for the Stax Museum of American Soul Music (founded in 2003), the Stax Music Academy and the Soulsville Charter School (founded in 2005)”.John Anderson's article
STAX RECORDS AND ITS LEGACY
In 2004, Fantasy Record was purchased by Concord Records. Just two years later, Stax Records was reactivated as a publisher of new music. The first acts to be signed were Isaac Hayes, Angie Stone, and Soulive.
After the year 2000, many more Stax Records compilation albums were published. The most recent was Soulsville U.S.A. (A Celebration of Stax) in 2017.
In 2012 Stax Records signed Ben Harper whose album Get Up! (2013) earned him a Grammy Award for Best Blues Album.
On April 9, 2013, then USA President Barack Obama and then First Lady Michelle Obama celebrated the Memphis sound by inviting Stax artists, such as Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, to the event In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul. Furthermore, then First Lady Obama led a workshop titled Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul.
In 2023 the compilation of 146 demos, Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos, won Grammy Awards for Liner Notes and Best Historical Album.
In 2024 HBO produced the documentary series Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. retracing the tumultuous history of Stax Records.
The Memphis soul train has arrived at its destination. Stax Records story is both fascinating and heartbreaking. It is quite interesting how a single label can change the landscape of a whole genre and still risk disappearing from modern consciousness. Stax has taken soul and made it its own, and helped kickstart the career of many beloved musicians both on the scene and behind the scenes, like songwriters and producers.
I hope you enjoyed diving into the mostly unknown history of Stax Records and the Memphis sound as much as I did. Do you like this type of content? Let me know in the comments! In the meantime, I wish you a lovely day and see you next Wednesday!
