Stax Records Story on PBS

[Phenomenal Smith]

Did anyone see this show last night?. While I still love Motown, I gotta say I dig Stax even more than Hitsville, USA. Between Sun Records and Stax, Memphis sure was a happening place back in the day.

 

Here's a LastFm playlist I did with some of the songs that were used on the show.

 

 

(added tag --1992)

[EdgarDiazRocks]

Atlantic had the most talent.

 

Hi Records had the best 1-2 punch in Al Green and Ann Peebles.

[brettac1]

I sort of agree with EDR on Atlantic.

 

But Motown was just amazing. Smokey Robinson was such a genius - I think he said he wrote "My Girl" in 15 minutes or something on that History of Rock 'N Roll show that I watched when I was bored a couple months ago.

 

Though it's not the pure "soul" music of Stax.

 

And it's nice to see another Last.fm user (even though your link for that just takes you to the same PBS page as the first link).

[Fatter than Joey]

I am a huge fan of early blues/R&B/soul, and listen to it non-stop.

 

Stax was distributed by Atlantic, but when Atlantic merged with WB, Stax got dropped. I don't care for much that Atlantic after that point. While Motown had some great albums/artists, I much prefer the early Stax recordings.

 

While a slightly different genre, my preference has been and will always be Chess recordings. There are a lot of Chess record compilations out there, and should be included in any collection that contains English rock bands from the late 60s (Stones, LZ, Tull, etc.). A lot of similar artists can be found on Sun record compilations as well, and while overshadowed by Elvis/Cash/JL Lewis, Sun Records was the genesis for the Memphis R&B sensation.

[Phenomenal Smith]

I sort of agree with EDR on Atlantic.

 

But Motown was just amazing. Smokey Robinson was such a genius - I think he said he wrote "My Girl" in 15 minutes or something on that History of Rock 'N Roll show that I watched when I was bored a couple months ago.

 

Though it's not the pure "soul" music of Stax.

 

And it's nice to see another Last.fm user (even though your link for that just takes you to the same PBS page as the first link).

Oops! I fixed the LastFm link.

 

[JoeHova]

Stax is great, I'll definitely keep an eye out for this documentary. I especially like Wendy Rene. She only cut 3 songs in her career but all 3 of them are excellent. Albert King is another of my favorites. I have that complete Stax/Volt singles box set and the amount of great music on it is staggering.

[Fatter than Joey]

Albert King is another of my favorites. I have that complete Stax/Volt singles box set and the amount of great music on it is staggering.

I do as well -- I give it 2 thumbs up.