0:00:12 > 0:00:16# Oh, she may be weary
0:00:16 > 0:00:21# Them young girls, they do get weary... #
0:00:21 > 0:00:23It is an epic story.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29That which gave it life nearly killed it, more than once.
0:00:29 > 0:00:31Innocence, naked innocence.
0:00:31 > 0:00:34Good and evil, light and dark.
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Black and white.
0:00:40 > 0:00:47In Memphis in the '60s, people who couldn't dine together, joined together to make music.
0:00:47 > 0:00:52Soul music. At a place called Stax.
0:00:54 > 0:00:56We're rolling. Take one.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05It was a happening, a cosmic happening.
0:01:05 > 0:01:10The door opened, the wind blew in and we were smart enough not to fight it.
0:01:10 > 0:01:14We were doing the kind of music that was unheard of.
0:01:14 > 0:01:18Raw, gritty, gutsy soul.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22We lived every day as though this was the last day we were going to get to do this.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25We knew we had something - we just didn't know what.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30God almighty! How many hits did we cut?
0:01:34 > 0:01:35Stax had the funk.
0:01:35 > 0:01:37Stax had the funk.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39It didn't matter about the colour of your skin.
0:01:39 > 0:01:43We weren't in there doing things to prove we were black and they were
0:01:43 > 0:01:49trying to prove they were white, we were in their proving that music is the sentiment of a man's soul.
0:01:52 > 0:01:58You had segregation in the City of Memphis but you could come in to the doors of Stax Records, where you
0:01:58 > 0:02:04had freedom, harmony, people working together and not making a difference between black and white.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10After Dr King was assassinated, things began to deteriorate.
0:02:10 > 0:02:14We were reduced to our irreducible essence. Naked against the world.
0:02:14 > 0:02:16We're still somebody.
0:02:20 > 0:02:25So much blood, sweat and tears went into that company, from so many of us.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29You've got an environment of camaraderie, the spirit of love and
0:02:29 > 0:02:35then you're going to let some people come, guns strapped on their sides and push people around.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41There was a hole in the boat that wouldn't have sunk the boat without outside influences.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46Truth crushed to the earth shall rise again.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49Once you're part of the music,
0:02:49 > 0:02:50it's till you die.
0:02:50 > 0:02:52- Stax.- Stax. - Stax Records.- Stax.
0:02:52 > 0:02:54Stax Records.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02I am somebody.
0:03:21 > 0:03:25Jim Stewart was a banker by day and a country fiddle player at night.
0:03:28 > 0:03:34His sister Estelle was a former schoolteacher whose main exposure to music was through her teenage son.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38In 1960, they pooled their money
0:03:38 > 0:03:42to rent an old movie theatre in a black Memphis neighbourhood,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45hoping to record country songs.
0:03:53 > 0:03:56Stax Records was an accident.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00Jim Stewart moved into this theatre
0:04:00 > 0:04:02and nature threw him a curve.
0:04:02 > 0:04:07And a flower garden started to grow,
0:04:07 > 0:04:10composed of many different colours and they all came in.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16My sister mortgaged her house
0:04:16 > 0:04:19to set up the recording studio there,
0:04:19 > 0:04:21in that building, which was on McLemore.
0:04:21 > 0:04:25Word got around the neighbourhood and we started getting people coming in,
0:04:25 > 0:04:28musicians, singers, whatever.
0:04:28 > 0:04:31They would come to the studio
0:04:31 > 0:04:33and we'd listen to them - talk with them.
0:04:41 > 0:04:47Robert Talley came by my house and said there was a new recording studio.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50Over down McLemore and College.
0:04:50 > 0:04:55# I done take Very best girl of mine
0:04:57 > 0:04:59- # Yeah
0:04:59 > 0:05:01# I done take
0:05:01 > 0:05:03# Very best girl of mine... #
0:05:03 > 0:05:05He said, you want to go?
0:05:05 > 0:05:08And I said, yeah, let's go see what it's like.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11And that - it was just that simple.
0:05:14 > 0:05:15# The way you lied about me
0:05:15 > 0:05:18# You lied about Louie's too
0:05:18 > 0:05:21- # Oh no, oh no - Yeah... #
0:05:23 > 0:05:26When the flowers began to play their music
0:05:26 > 0:05:30and to demonstrate their creativity, Jim said, I could get into this.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34And Estelle said, welcome.
0:05:34 > 0:05:36HE PLAYS RIFF FROM "CAUSE I LOVE YOU"
0:05:42 > 0:05:44That's the part I play on the baritone sax.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50I told them that day I could also play the piano.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53He was just a kid, about 15 or 16 years old.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57We needed a baritone saxophone, he said, I can play the baritone.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00I knew he could play guitar and trombone, all of this.
0:06:00 > 0:06:04So we gave him the baritone sax and he had that one line...
0:06:04 > 0:06:06HE SINGS
0:06:11 > 0:06:14At that time, really,
0:06:14 > 0:06:17I thought nothing
0:06:17 > 0:06:19about white folk.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23I think that all white folk are the same.
0:06:23 > 0:06:29I'm trying to get my talent out there and they were the ones to give me that chance to expose my talent.
0:06:32 > 0:06:39- So, I shared it, that black-white thing at Stax. - We never looked at colour.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45We looked at people, their talent.
0:06:50 > 0:06:57What Stax was doing, right there in Memphis, which was right there at the crossroads of the south,
0:06:57 > 0:07:01the north, the black, the white, and the blues and the folk,
0:07:01 > 0:07:05was really the axis by which everything turned.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Now if you can imagine,
0:07:13 > 0:07:16nobody's ever heard R&B music before,
0:07:16 > 0:07:21white kids had never heard it. And you can imagine what that did to us.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26It was like going to another planet, a real good planet, you know.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32The band that I had out of high school, all we wanted to play was rhythm and blues.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34This guy come up to me,
0:07:34 > 0:07:37that I didn't have any classes with, so I didn't really know him.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40He introduced himself and "Hey man, I hear you guys have a good band."
0:07:40 > 0:07:41"I'd like to be in your band."
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And I said, well, we're not looking for anybody, what you do?
0:07:51 > 0:07:53He said, I play saxophone.
0:07:53 > 0:07:56I said, how long have you been playing? He said, I've been taking lessons for three months.
0:08:00 > 0:08:03Somewhere in that conversation he told me his uncle had a recording studio,
0:08:03 > 0:08:07which actually turned out to be a couple of microphones
0:08:07 > 0:08:11and a machine in a garage, but hey, in those days it was a recording studio.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Everybody in that band loved the same music,
0:08:19 > 0:08:22in the Mar-Keys, everybody loved black guys' music.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27Here was a bunch of white guys
0:08:27 > 0:08:30trying to do a bunch of black guys' music.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34But we started getting some attention and,
0:08:34 > 0:08:37and we started to get some notoriety.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The first time I walked into a recording studio,
0:08:40 > 0:08:43I cut an number-one record and that was Last Night.
0:09:09 > 0:09:15You hear fresh people having a great time, they got invited to a party they didn't even know existed
0:09:15 > 0:09:20and they were paying us and we just couldn't get over it how much fun we were having.
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Poor old Jim, it was life and death to him.
0:09:25 > 0:09:28He had to sell records and get that groove, man.
0:09:30 > 0:09:35Miss Axton felt Last Night was a hit record and nobody else did.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37And they didn't want to put it out.
0:09:37 > 0:09:43She got her way about it and within three weeks it was through the roof.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56Atlantic Records out of New York heard about Cause I Love You,
0:09:56 > 0:09:58they purchased the master and
0:09:58 > 0:10:00from there it just sort of mushroomed.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06Maybe it was some chord changes, maybe it was a lick,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09maybe it was a song,
0:10:09 > 0:10:11but they started playing it.
0:10:11 > 0:10:13So, my God, this is fantastic.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17And I made a distribution arrangement for it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35SLOW PIANO INTRODUCTION
0:10:47 > 0:10:50# In the beginning
0:10:54 > 0:10:57# You really loved me
0:11:00 > 0:11:03# But I was too blind
0:11:07 > 0:11:10# And I couldn't see... #
0:11:11 > 0:11:13'When I came down here'
0:11:13 > 0:11:17and was listening to the radio and turning on TV,
0:11:17 > 0:11:22it was like turning back the hands of time 15 or 20 years
0:11:22 > 0:11:25from what I was accustomed to in New York.
0:11:25 > 0:11:32People down here were living like in this little sheltered world
0:11:32 > 0:11:37and they were growing up in an era that had already gone by.
0:11:41 > 0:11:44# Now I sit and wonder
0:11:47 > 0:11:50# So how can this be? #
0:11:50 > 0:11:56I couldn't conceive of what would be here, I couldn't imagine when I pulled up in front of a theatre with
0:11:56 > 0:12:03a record store in what used to be the lobby, I thought, well, this has got to be something else. And it was.
0:12:05 > 0:12:11Estelle Axton had turned the theatre's concession stand into the Satellite record shop,
0:12:11 > 0:12:16welcoming anyone who wanted to buy something or just listen.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21Her store soon became THE neighbourhood hangout.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25During the summer time she'd put a little speaker thing out there
0:12:25 > 0:12:27on the door so you can hear it.
0:12:27 > 0:12:29And we'd dance out on the sidewalk.
0:12:29 > 0:12:32Before that I had to drive twenty minutes to Sears to
0:12:32 > 0:12:37look at records and all the records out there were only country records.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42Mrs Axton had a pulse on the creativity.
0:12:42 > 0:12:49She knew what the dance beats were, she knew what sound was popular back then.
0:12:49 > 0:12:54She wasn't involved in production in terms of being in the studio,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57but all of her influence went on in the record shop.
0:12:57 > 0:13:01Hey, you guys need to listen to this, this is the hot new dance,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04this is the hot beat, this is the kind of song we're going for.
0:13:04 > 0:13:08That's how you learn in the music business.
0:13:08 > 0:13:10You talk to that person that's buying that product.
0:13:12 > 0:13:17And that means you know what to make.
0:13:17 > 0:13:21# You don't miss your water
0:13:24 > 0:13:30# Till your well runs dry-y-y-y. #
0:13:38 > 0:13:41When I came to Memphis, everything in Memphis
0:13:41 > 0:13:42was segregated.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45There was not one thing integrated.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Nothing.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50From the cradle to the grave was segregated
0:13:50 > 0:13:54in Memphis, Tennessee, 1959 when I moved here.
0:13:54 > 0:13:57And I never really understood why the graveyards had to be
0:13:57 > 0:14:01segregated because dead people get along well, they don't bother nobody.
0:14:01 > 0:14:05I found my solace, if you will, when we could go inside of Stax,
0:14:05 > 0:14:09you know and those doors closed and not be a part of that.
0:14:17 > 0:14:20At 926 East McLemore, forget skin tone.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23The only tone that mattered came out of your instrument.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29Two white Mar-Keys and two black neighbourhood musicians became
0:14:29 > 0:14:35the greatest recording unit in soul music, Booker T and the MG's.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37The one unit
0:14:37 > 0:14:46which recorded just about all of the Stax product, Steve and Duck and Booker T and Al Jackson.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47I knew Cropper because he was the clerk at Satellite
0:14:47 > 0:14:52and he waited while I listened to tons of records for hours.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56I wound up doing odd jobs like marking tapes and sweeping the
0:14:56 > 0:14:59floor and cleaning the bin and doing whatever I could.
0:14:59 > 0:15:03Every now and then I'd hear music come from behind the curtain.
0:15:03 > 0:15:07I knew there was a theatre back there. I didn't know there was a recording studio.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09ELECTRONIC KEYBOARD PLAYS
0:15:28 > 0:15:35That was the blues that we were playing, that we thought would make a record that would sell for us.
0:15:35 > 0:15:37That was the one we were excited about.
0:15:37 > 0:15:42Jim said if we decide to put this out have you got anything you can put on the B-side?
0:15:42 > 0:15:45So I happen to remember a riff Booker played me a week or two
0:15:45 > 0:15:48prior to that session - it was a pretty good riff.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50ORGAN PLAYS
0:16:18 > 0:16:24I went through the front doors of the theatre into the Stax studios
0:16:24 > 0:16:27and around to studio A and opened the door.
0:16:27 > 0:16:33And I witnessed something that I had never experienced before,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38that these two black guys and these two white guys
0:16:38 > 0:16:43were playing music together and I was awestruck.
0:17:01 > 0:17:04Booker is the musician in the group, always has been.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06Duck and I we know how to pat our foot,
0:17:06 > 0:17:10and we know how to dance, we can keep the groove going,
0:17:10 > 0:17:13Booker can do that too but he's the musician, always has been.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And Booker would look at me sometimes like,
0:17:17 > 0:17:18you don't know that?
0:17:35 > 0:17:41It wasn't about the notes of the music or the melody of the song, it was about the groove.
0:17:41 > 0:17:46If you could adapt that song, whatever it was and get it
0:17:46 > 0:17:48with Al Jackson he'd put it in the pocket, that's where the song started to happen.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52That's when we said, OK, that's a take, guys.
0:17:52 > 0:17:54Next song.
0:18:16 > 0:18:20I think our family grew just from us being in the studio
0:18:20 > 0:18:26and it just grew over the years of us spending time in the studio, eating lunch together, eating dinner
0:18:26 > 0:18:30and it became a family that grew around the music.
0:18:32 > 0:18:37When a band arrived from Georgia in the fall of 1962, no one could
0:18:37 > 0:18:42have known that Stax's biggest star would walk in carrying the gear for somebody else's session.
0:18:45 > 0:18:51I remember them pulling up - Johnny Jenkins and the Pinetoppers is who they were.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54This big tall guy gets out of the driver's seat,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57gets the keys, goes around to the trunk, he starts pulling amplifiers
0:18:57 > 0:19:03and microphones and guitars out of the truck, it was like he was setting up for a gig, you know.
0:19:07 > 0:19:13During the session we were having a playback break and Al Jackson says, you know, the guy who was driving,
0:19:13 > 0:19:16Johnny, he's been bugging me to death wanting me to hear him sing.
0:19:16 > 0:19:19Would you take some time and get this guy off my back and listen to him?
0:19:19 > 0:19:26Everybody was tired and a couple of musicians had already left, so it was like well we've got to do this,
0:19:26 > 0:19:30the guy has been sitting here waiting all day, let's see what he sounds like.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32So he played church chords, we call them.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36And we started playing and he started singing These Arms Of Mine.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39And I know my hair lifted out about three inches.
0:19:39 > 0:19:41I couldn't believe this guy's voice.
0:19:42 > 0:19:47# These arms of mine
0:19:49 > 0:19:53# They are lonely
0:19:55 > 0:20:00# Lonely and feeling blue
0:20:01 > 0:20:03# These arms of mine... #
0:20:05 > 0:20:08That moment,
0:20:08 > 0:20:10Otis Redding singing that song...
0:20:12 > 0:20:14When you're in a moment like that, you're not thinking that it's going
0:20:14 > 0:20:17to sell a lot of records, you're thinking...
0:20:17 > 0:20:18you're, you're...
0:20:18 > 0:20:20It's all heart.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24It's all heart and the experience of the moment.
0:20:24 > 0:20:31Time gets frozen there when you're involved in something like that.
0:20:31 > 0:20:40They started working on These Arms Of Mine, and everybody - secretaries, people came out
0:20:40 > 0:20:46of the record shop - everybody got up and came, and was looking inside.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49And when he finished it,
0:20:49 > 0:20:52they had another artist!
0:21:01 > 0:21:05Otis became that power-packed, raw, gutsy, emotional, serious performer.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09I mean, you felt him. You heard the tear in his voice.
0:21:09 > 0:21:10And that captivated me.
0:21:10 > 0:21:15And when I went on the radio to play records, it was Otis Redding and me.
0:21:15 > 0:21:17We were having an affair on the air!
0:21:18 > 0:21:23# Fa fa fa fa-fa fa-fa fa fa
0:21:23 > 0:21:27# Fa fa fa fa-fa fa-fa fa
0:21:28 > 0:21:32# I keep singing them sad, sad songs y'all
0:21:33 > 0:21:37# Sad songs is all I know... #
0:21:37 > 0:21:41But he would come in the door with the whole song, the whole recording
0:21:41 > 0:21:45in his mind, and be able to tell all of us what he wanted.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50He'd come over and sing to us, # Da-da-da-da! #
0:21:50 > 0:21:53And get right in your face and do that to you.
0:21:53 > 0:21:57# Anybody can sing it any old time... #
0:21:57 > 0:22:00He put a spark under Stax. There's no question about it.
0:22:00 > 0:22:02He never ran out of ideas.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Otis going to help you get to a different place because Otis is
0:22:08 > 0:22:13going to come in, Otis is going to hum the horn parts, the bass parts,
0:22:13 > 0:22:15and give you the parts, then go up on the microphone
0:22:15 > 0:22:17and he's going to start stomping pigeon-toe
0:22:17 > 0:22:21and knocking it dead. I mean, he was just unbelievable.
0:22:32 > 0:22:36These were, like, during the '60s, all of the Black Power movement,
0:22:36 > 0:22:39marches and all these things were coming along.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43Otis wrote Respect for that, and he put it
0:22:43 > 0:22:48in the sense of a love relationship but it was about life, really.
0:23:00 > 0:23:03# What you want Honey you've got it
0:23:03 > 0:23:07# What you need Baby you've got it
0:23:07 > 0:23:09# All I'm asking
0:23:09 > 0:23:12# Is for a little respect when I come home
0:23:12 > 0:23:15# Yeah Hey hey hey
0:23:17 > 0:23:18# Oh Lord
0:23:19 > 0:23:22# Do me wrong Honey if you want to
0:23:22 > 0:23:26# Do me wrong While I'm gone
0:23:26 > 0:23:28# All I'm asking
0:23:28 > 0:23:30# For a little respect when I come home
0:23:38 > 0:23:39# Hey little girl
0:23:39 > 0:23:41# You're sweeter than honey
0:23:41 > 0:23:45# And I'm about to give you all of my money
0:23:45 > 0:23:47# All I'm asking, hey
0:23:47 > 0:23:51# Is a little respect when I come home, yeah, yeah, yeah
0:23:51 > 0:23:53# Hey, hey
0:23:55 > 0:23:56# Oh, Lord
0:23:56 > 0:24:00# R-E-S-P-E-C-T Find out what it means to me
0:24:00 > 0:24:04# R-E-S-P-E-C-T Take care TCB
0:24:05 > 0:24:08# Respect Respect is what I want
0:24:08 > 0:24:10# Respect is what I need
0:24:14 > 0:24:16# Got to got to have it
0:24:16 > 0:24:20# Got to got to have it Got to got to have it
0:24:20 > 0:24:24# Give it to me baby Give it to me baby... #
0:24:39 > 0:24:42I grew up in a neighbourhood
0:24:42 > 0:24:45that was obviously segregated, and there was one man
0:24:45 > 0:24:48who had a fruit stand,
0:24:48 > 0:24:50and he raised pedigree bull dogs.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53And that's a place where I was able to go
0:24:53 > 0:24:57and make a little money cleaning up after those filthy bulldogs.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02He said, "Niggers can't do nothing but sing and dance.
0:25:02 > 0:25:03"For some odd reason."
0:25:03 > 0:25:07I realised, "Wait a minute.
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Singing and dancing, you make a lot of money.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13"So that's not a problem.
0:25:13 > 0:25:15That's a positive! That's an opportunity!"
0:25:18 > 0:25:22After high school in Little Rock, Al Bell attended Southern Christian
0:25:22 > 0:25:29Leadership Conference workshops with Martin Luther King, but Bell's vision was economic empowerment.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34He became a top DJ on the east coast before returning south to take a job at Stax.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38We weren't a professional company
0:25:38 > 0:25:42before Al. We didn't have big business going on.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45We had big music going on, but we didn't know how to do it.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47Jim didn't know how to do it. Jim was a banker.
0:25:47 > 0:25:54Al Bell had a beard, and he was announcing blackness, which, you know, wasn't done very much then.
0:25:54 > 0:26:00To sit in that office with this white man, sharing the same telephone,
0:26:00 > 0:26:09sharing the same thoughts, and being treated like an equal human being, was a breath of fresh air for me.
0:26:11 > 0:26:15Al was very creative, but Al, of course, took
0:26:15 > 0:26:21more and more responsibility, not only the promotion but business.
0:26:21 > 0:26:24He's beautiful. He can make anything...
0:26:24 > 0:26:27I mean, the bigger the numbers, the more Al liked it.
0:26:27 > 0:26:30If you'd said, "Al, a billion dollars,"
0:26:30 > 0:26:36he probably would have lit up and shot out the roof, like a rocket!
0:26:38 > 0:26:41He said, "I'm going to make a graph, I'm going to make a thermometer."
0:26:41 > 0:26:44And he says, "At the end of the week's sales, when I get
0:26:44 > 0:26:47"the weekly report, I'm going to colour in the thermometer."
0:26:47 > 0:26:51And that the very top of the thermometer, I had where
0:26:51 > 0:26:54it would explode and out into what I called heaven.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56And that was after we'd achieved a million.
0:27:00 > 0:27:04So, we couldn't wait to come in on Monday morning and see where that mark was going to be.
0:27:04 > 0:27:09They'd come in, and just see that thermometer just increasing, increasing, increasing.
0:27:09 > 0:27:13And as it increased, the morale increased, people got more excited and all of that.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17And eventually it exploded into heaven.
0:27:17 > 0:27:22Stax never suspected that one of the greatest songwriting teams in history
0:27:22 > 0:27:24was developing at their doorstep.
0:27:24 > 0:27:27Isaac Hayes and David Porter, who would ride the highs
0:27:27 > 0:27:33and lows with Stax, were two neighbourhood kids scraping by, hoping to make it in music.
0:27:33 > 0:27:35Isaac lived with his grandmother.
0:27:35 > 0:27:42For some reason, he was an orphan, and sometimes he'd sleep over in the back seat of a car. And David,
0:27:42 > 0:27:47he sold instruments, and he sacked groceries across the street from Stax.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59I was working at a grocery store, singing at a club,
0:27:59 > 0:28:01under the name of Little David, at night.
0:28:01 > 0:28:04Just trying to get in, selling life insurance,
0:28:04 > 0:28:08and I had an old raggedy car. And he didn't have a car.
0:28:08 > 0:28:14And we would ride down the street, and...
0:28:14 > 0:28:19You could tell where we'd been, because we'd leave a trail
0:28:19 > 0:28:24of foam from his seat cushion, falling out the bottom of his car!
0:28:34 > 0:28:37They'd see us with our cases and they'd tease us,
0:28:37 > 0:28:40"Hey, hit makers, how many hits y'all write today?"
0:28:40 > 0:28:43But we just kept trudging on, you know, relentlessly.
0:28:53 > 0:28:57After years of not finding their own sound, Sam and Dave signed
0:28:57 > 0:29:03with Jerry Wexler at Atlantic, who sent them to the hinterland of Memphis to record at Stax.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07Sam and Dave were sure it was the end of their career.
0:29:07 > 0:29:11The tears started streaming down my face.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14I looked at Dave and I said, "Oh my God...
0:29:15 > 0:29:18"How could Atlantic do this to us?"
0:29:35 > 0:29:38# You don't know like I know
0:29:38 > 0:29:42# What that woman has done for me
0:29:42 > 0:29:44# Now in the morning... #
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Sam and Dave are the dynamic duo.
0:29:47 > 0:29:53And I'd also like to refer to Isaac and David as being the dynamic duo of writers.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57That's one of the greatest things that ever happened.
0:29:57 > 0:29:59# ..I ever had
0:29:59 > 0:30:03# I got her back and like a miracle
0:30:03 > 0:30:06# Now everything is all right
0:30:07 > 0:30:11# You don't know like I know
0:30:11 > 0:30:14# What that woman has done for me
0:30:14 > 0:30:18# In the morning, she's my water
0:30:18 > 0:30:23# And in the evening she's my cup of tea
0:30:23 > 0:30:27# Nobody knows, nobody knows
0:30:27 > 0:30:31# Nobody knows like I know
0:30:31 > 0:30:33- # You don't know - You don't know
0:30:33 > 0:30:36- # You don't know - Nobody knows
0:30:36 > 0:30:38- # Nobody knows - My baby don't know
0:30:38 > 0:30:41- # Nobody, yeah - Nobody... #
0:30:41 > 0:30:44Because that was a chemistry.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46Sam and Dave,
0:30:46 > 0:30:50Hayes and Porter. That chemistry works.
0:30:50 > 0:30:53And right behind the song You Don't Know Like I Know.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56We knew we had found ourselves,
0:30:56 > 0:31:00and so that's when it changed for us.
0:31:00 > 0:31:07And we became extremely comfortable in her own skin to do hits on anybody, and we got cocky with it.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10They would send these masters up north, and I'd say, "Praise Jesus!"
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Stax threw open its doors to capture the sound of the street.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Feeling was all that mattered.
0:31:24 > 0:31:30Meanwhile, up north in Detroit, another label was packaging R&B for crossover appeal.
0:31:30 > 0:31:32There was no comparison.
0:31:32 > 0:31:36You know, there was only one Joe Lewis, only one Muhammad Ali,
0:31:36 > 0:31:38there's only one Motown.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45# I got sunshine
0:31:45 > 0:31:48# On a cloudy day
0:31:50 > 0:31:54# When it's cold outside
0:31:54 > 0:31:57# I've got the month of May... #
0:31:57 > 0:32:00And Motown was, like, THE company for me.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05Because Berry Gordy was doing what I wanted to see done
0:32:05 > 0:32:09in the marketplace with the record company,
0:32:09 > 0:32:13in terms of how the company was perceived
0:32:13 > 0:32:17and accepted by the larger segment of society.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20When we were cutting hit records,
0:32:20 > 0:32:25we had a factory with multiple amount of producers and writers.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29We had an assembly-line type procedure.
0:32:31 > 0:32:35But Stax and me had that funky stuff....
0:32:35 > 0:32:37Whoom-bop-whoom...
0:32:37 > 0:32:40That big bass thing that come out at you.
0:32:40 > 0:32:43Reached out and grab you. Whoom-a-boom...
0:32:43 > 0:32:48That was the difference between Stax and Motown.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51Motown had the sweet,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53but Stax had the funk.
0:33:00 > 0:33:04Everybody, sing it out loud. # Hey, hey, hey... #
0:33:04 > 0:33:06One more time.
0:33:06 > 0:33:08# Hey, hey, hey
0:33:12 > 0:33:14# Mmm, yeah, yeah, oh
0:33:15 > 0:33:19# I don't need no money
0:33:19 > 0:33:22# All I need is my friend
0:33:25 > 0:33:29# I got all the riches, baby
0:33:29 > 0:33:32# One big man can claim
0:33:35 > 0:33:38# Oh-h-h-h, I guess... #
0:33:38 > 0:33:41For Otis Redding to get a shot at Motown...
0:33:43 > 0:33:50No, they did not have an open-door policy at Motown records. Never.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53# ..talkin' 'bout my girl
0:33:53 > 0:33:55# I got sunshine... #
0:33:55 > 0:34:00They took great pride in saying, "Hitsville USA!"
0:34:00 > 0:34:05And so, in my mind, I thought something should be done to distinguish us
0:34:05 > 0:34:09from Motown, then people would have to look at us as,
0:34:09 > 0:34:12"Oh, this is the one that's different from Hitsville.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15"This is Soulsville."
0:34:23 > 0:34:26As late as 1970, the City of Memphis closed public pools
0:34:26 > 0:34:30rather than abide by court ordered integration.
0:34:30 > 0:34:34But you wouldn't know that at the Lorraine Motel, where Stax artists
0:34:34 > 0:34:39found a refuge for swimming, for socialising and for song-writing.
0:34:39 > 0:34:42The Lorraine was just the hotel.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45It was the hotel for blacks in Memphis.
0:34:45 > 0:34:47Everyone stayed at the Lorraine Hotel.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51If you wanted to meet your friends, any time you went to the Lorraine,
0:34:51 > 0:34:54somebody was there.
0:34:54 > 0:34:59When it was too hot in the summer, we didn't have air-conditioning, and we'd live by the pool.
0:34:59 > 0:35:04Mr Berry would bring us fried chicken, and we'd eat ice-cream and all this kind of stuff.
0:35:04 > 0:35:09And we'd just frolic until the sun goes down. Let's go back to work.
0:35:09 > 0:35:13I'd go in, take my horn out, sit on the edge of the bed...use a mute,
0:35:13 > 0:35:17so that I wouldn't wake up people on another floor.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22We're at the Lorraine Hotel on a night that's raining and storming.
0:35:22 > 0:35:25The lightning was...
0:35:25 > 0:35:29- All of that.- A funny thing when I was writing songs with Eddie Floyd,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32he'd give us the honeymoon suite if he didn't have it booked!
0:35:32 > 0:35:37It was all this plush red velvet stuff everywhere. It was great!
0:35:37 > 0:35:42And I told him the story of when I was a kid, from Montgomery Alabama.
0:35:42 > 0:35:46When it was storming, we used to hide under the bed.
0:35:46 > 0:35:48And we'd be frightened.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51He said, "That's it! That's it!
0:35:51 > 0:35:53"It's like thunder, lightning..."
0:35:54 > 0:35:57# The way you love me is frightening
0:35:57 > 0:36:01# I better knock...on wood
0:36:02 > 0:36:04# Yeah... #
0:36:04 > 0:36:07I'm gonna knock on some wood
0:36:07 > 0:36:08Everybody over here.
0:36:08 > 0:36:10# Knock
0:36:10 > 0:36:11# Oh, yeah
0:36:11 > 0:36:13# Knock... #
0:36:13 > 0:36:16Everybody.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19# All right
0:36:19 > 0:36:21# Oh, yeah... #
0:36:44 > 0:36:49While people fought for integration on the streets of America, at Stax,
0:36:49 > 0:36:53"race," in the words of one musician, "was what you did on the way to the bank."
0:36:53 > 0:36:57Because really Dr King was preaching what we were about inside of Stax.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00We didn't stop to think about it, but that's what he was preaching,
0:37:00 > 0:37:05where you judge a person by the content of their character rather than the colour of their skin.
0:37:05 > 0:37:10The first time we ever stopped at this Dairy Queen,
0:37:10 > 0:37:12it had "coloured only"
0:37:12 > 0:37:15picture on the side of the building.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19You know, "coloured only". And the white in the front.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23We pulled up in the gravel, and when the dust cleared,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27I started to get out, and I saw "coloured only", and I thought,
0:37:27 > 0:37:32"Oh my God, if I go up there with my friends, I'm going to make all these rednecks mad.
0:37:32 > 0:37:36"And if I go up there to the white window, all my friends...
0:37:36 > 0:37:40I had to ride home with a bunch of hornets real mad at me!
0:37:40 > 0:37:44I said, "Here Andrew, take this 5, bring me a cheeseburger and a milkshake.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47"I'll wait for you right here!" And stayed in the car!
0:37:47 > 0:37:53That was during the time when there was a lot of racial unrest in this country, and...
0:37:53 > 0:37:56All the black businesses, if they write "soul"
0:37:56 > 0:37:59on their business, they'll bypass it.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04And I thought about the night of the Passover in the Bible, the blood of the lamb on the door.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09The first-born is spared. I said, "Soul, that's just pride."
0:38:09 > 0:38:12Soul! Soul man.
0:38:12 > 0:38:14Soul man!
0:38:14 > 0:38:17Yeah! So I called David, and I said, "I got one, man."
0:38:17 > 0:38:21# I'm coming to ya on a dust road
0:38:21 > 0:38:25# Good lovin' I got a truckload
0:38:25 > 0:38:28# And when you get it You got somethin'
0:38:28 > 0:38:32# So don't worry cos I'm comin'
0:38:32 > 0:38:34# I'm a soul man
0:38:36 > 0:38:38# I'm a soul man
0:38:40 > 0:38:42# I'm a soul man
0:38:43 > 0:38:47# I'm a soul man... #
0:38:49 > 0:38:53I was a part of that group of African Americans
0:38:53 > 0:38:57that did not have that "let me hold my head down"
0:38:57 > 0:39:01and "yessir, boss" and that kind of crap. I wasn't down for that.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04# I'm a soul man
0:39:06 > 0:39:08# I'm a soul man
0:39:08 > 0:39:11# Yes, I am, I'm a soul man
0:39:13 > 0:39:15# I'm a soul man... #
0:39:18 > 0:39:21I always smiled with everybody, but I'd kick your ass.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26There was a pinnacle part of segregation going out.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29I'm a soul man. I'm thinking, "I'm a black man,
0:39:29 > 0:39:32"I'm going to..." No, he didn't mean that.
0:39:32 > 0:39:39It means that whatever your hardship in your life, if you're able to get up and you...keep moving...
0:39:52 > 0:39:56You could see the crowd building, you know. The society was gonna change.
0:39:56 > 0:40:00You could feel it building. Even my group, you know, the integrated, er,
0:40:00 > 0:40:03instrumental group, you know,
0:40:03 > 0:40:06was a sign that things were about to change.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23Andrew and I always said, "What are we going to do when this is over?
0:40:23 > 0:40:29You know, this will end one day, maybe tomorrow, and we'll be just like we were when we started,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31a couple of kids didn't get an education,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35but know how to play these horns, what are we gonna do?
0:40:35 > 0:40:39Are we gonna have a bait shop, or sell barbecue, and 45s?
0:40:39 > 0:40:41"What are we gonna do?"
0:40:41 > 0:40:46So, when we got to, erm, '67, when we went to Europe,
0:40:46 > 0:40:51and we saw the reaction in the European crowd to what we were doing, we knew that we'd made a difference.
0:40:51 > 0:40:54CROWD CHANT
0:40:57 > 0:40:59LOUD APPLAUSE
0:41:06 > 0:41:09# Listen while I'm talkin' to you now
0:41:09 > 0:41:11# Tell you what I'm gonna do now
0:41:11 > 0:41:13# There's a new thing going around now
0:41:13 > 0:41:15# I'll tell what to put down now
0:41:15 > 0:41:18# You move your body all around And just shake!
0:41:18 > 0:41:20# Go, go now, baby, now
0:41:20 > 0:41:25# That's the way you do it! Shake, shake, shake it, baby... #
0:41:25 > 0:41:28He was very excited about going to Europe.
0:41:28 > 0:41:30And he tried to get me to come along,
0:41:30 > 0:41:34but I'm, you know, I was a wife and a mother.
0:41:34 > 0:41:40He called home at least four or five times a day, he would say, "I blew them away."
0:41:40 > 0:41:43And I'm like, "OK, it's 4 o'clock in the morning."
0:41:49 > 0:41:52We did a lot of halls where rhythm and blues music had not been -
0:41:52 > 0:41:57they were concert halls, symphonic halls, and we were kind of anxious
0:41:57 > 0:41:59cos we didn't know how people were gonna accept it,
0:41:59 > 0:42:02we didn't know what kind of audience was coming.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07The European people went crazy, they went crazy!
0:42:07 > 0:42:09Wow, they like us!
0:42:09 > 0:42:11Huh? You know, they like us!
0:42:19 > 0:42:21# But if you wanna really roll
0:42:21 > 0:42:23# Gotta do the thing with soul
0:42:23 > 0:42:26# Shake, shake with all your might, yeah
0:42:26 > 0:42:28# If you do it, do it right now
0:42:28 > 0:42:33# Let your body loose tonight Lord have mercy, shake!
0:42:33 > 0:42:37# Everybody say shake! One more time, say shake...! #
0:42:37 > 0:42:42To be treated by the bellhops or attendants at the hotels
0:42:42 > 0:42:48in London like stars, we hadn't felt that or experienced that before.
0:42:48 > 0:42:53Dr King said, "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!"
0:43:02 > 0:43:05It changed everybody's perception of themselves,
0:43:05 > 0:43:08cos none of us had ever been paid that much attention.
0:43:08 > 0:43:12That Stax tour just, it gave us a new insight
0:43:12 > 0:43:17to what the world really thought of us, cos we didn't think outside the block we lived on.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21- # Hold on, baby- Hold on!
0:43:21 > 0:43:26- # Gotta hold on - You've got to hold on
0:43:26 > 0:43:31# Hold on, baby! Hold on... #
0:43:31 > 0:43:35We just, you know, we would throw our coats off,
0:43:35 > 0:43:38and spin and turn and sing and...
0:43:38 > 0:43:41That was it!
0:43:50 > 0:43:53They had everybody just, you know, in pandemonium, I mean, they'd faint.
0:43:53 > 0:44:01One of the would just faint, fall out, come out, drag him off stage, then Sam would say, "Good night."
0:44:01 > 0:44:03Dave would come back out, and start again.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06CHEERING AND WHISTLING
0:44:13 > 0:44:16CHEERING
0:44:30 > 0:44:33I've got to tell you, when Sam and Dave finished,
0:44:33 > 0:44:38Otis Redding broke from behind that stage out and grabbed the microphone,
0:44:38 > 0:44:42and he started going from one end of the stage to the other end of the stage,
0:44:42 > 0:44:45I couldn't believe what was going on, it was, "Gotta, gotta, gotta..."
0:44:45 > 0:44:47just the energy that I'd never seen before.
0:44:49 > 0:44:52# But it's all all so easy
0:44:52 > 0:44:58# All you've got to do is try try a little tenderness
0:44:58 > 0:45:00# Yeah, yeah, man
0:45:00 > 0:45:04# All you've got to do is know how to grab her
0:45:04 > 0:45:06# You've got to hold her and squeeze her
0:45:06 > 0:45:09# You've gotta, gotta
0:45:09 > 0:45:13# Gotta, gotta, gotta Try a little tenderness!
0:45:13 > 0:45:15# Say, yeah, tenderness
0:45:15 > 0:45:21# You gotta...make love You've gotta hold her
0:45:21 > 0:45:24# And squeeze her Never leave her
0:45:24 > 0:45:27# Gotta, gotta...
0:45:27 > 0:45:30# Try a little tenderness, yeah
0:45:30 > 0:45:35# All you got to do is take my advice
0:45:35 > 0:45:38# You gotta hold her, squeeze her
0:45:38 > 0:45:39# Don't ever leave her
0:45:39 > 0:45:42# You gotta gotta nah-nah-nah
0:45:42 > 0:45:45# You've got to try a little tenderness
0:45:45 > 0:45:47# Yeah, yeah Lord, have mercy
0:45:47 > 0:45:51# You gotta All you've got to do is...
0:45:51 > 0:45:54# Hold her and squeeze her
0:45:54 > 0:45:58# Never leave her Tcha-tcha-tcha-tcha-tcha...
0:45:58 > 0:46:01# Try a little tenderness
0:46:01 > 0:46:07# Lord have mercy You've got to hold her
0:46:07 > 0:46:11# And squeeze her, never leave her
0:46:11 > 0:46:14# Tcha-tcha-tcha-tcha-tcha...
0:46:14 > 0:46:17A little tenderness! #
0:46:19 > 0:46:23Let me hear it for Otis one more time, ladies and gentlemen!
0:46:23 > 0:46:28The fantastic, unbelievable man of soul, Otis Redding!
0:46:28 > 0:46:33Let me here it for Otis way out in the back there!
0:46:35 > 0:46:40We ended up playing the Monterey Pop Festival, that was the culmination
0:46:40 > 0:46:44of our European Tour, and that was a life-changing experience for me.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50With 50,000 people there, and they had all the hippy guys with the long hair and the torn blue jeans
0:46:50 > 0:46:55and the tennis shoes, and there we were, in silk suits,
0:46:55 > 0:46:59and beetle boots, and sweaters, the like, doing steps.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02So we must have looked like a lounge act or something,
0:47:02 > 0:47:09I don't know what, but it killed 'em, and when Otis walked on stage, it was over for everybody.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12This is the love crowd, right?
0:47:12 > 0:47:15We all love each other, don't we? CROWD: Yeah!
0:47:15 > 0:47:17Am I right? CROWD: YEAH!
0:47:17 > 0:47:20Let me hear you say yeah! CROWD: YEAH!
0:47:20 > 0:47:21All right...
0:47:24 > 0:47:27# I've been
0:47:27 > 0:47:31# Loving you
0:47:33 > 0:47:36# Too long
0:47:38 > 0:47:42# To stop now
0:47:45 > 0:47:50# You are tired... #
0:47:50 > 0:47:54But we got so much attention when we were in Europe,
0:47:54 > 0:48:00and to be invited to do Monterrey, we looked at each other and said, "This is it."
0:48:00 > 0:48:04And at that night, as Andrew and I tipped up a bottle of Jack Daniels
0:48:04 > 0:48:08in our hotel room, he said, "I think we can make a living at this."
0:48:09 > 0:48:12And that was the day that we turned that corner.
0:48:12 > 0:48:1427 years old.
0:48:17 > 0:48:20# And I don't wanna stop now, no... #
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Can you do that one more time?
0:48:30 > 0:48:36Do it just one more time, one more... Just one more time!
0:48:41 > 0:48:45Otis was our standard bearer, I mean, he was THE man, I mean,
0:48:45 > 0:48:52the world was beginning to view Stax as Otis Redding.
0:48:52 > 0:48:55# ..Can't stop now... #
0:48:55 > 0:48:591967 was a meteoric year for Otis Redding.
0:48:59 > 0:49:05After Monterrey, he was embracing a new life with the pop audience.
0:49:05 > 0:49:1127 years old, and at the peak of his creative abilities, he left in December
0:49:11 > 0:49:15on a weekend tour of the Midwest, in his new plane.
0:49:15 > 0:49:19I had spoke with him earlier that morning,
0:49:19 > 0:49:24he won't speak to the kids, and it was like something is not right.
0:49:24 > 0:49:26Something, it was a feeling.
0:49:26 > 0:49:28# ..For too long
0:49:30 > 0:49:32# And I don't want to stop now
0:49:32 > 0:49:36# No, no, no
0:49:38 > 0:49:41# I've been loving you
0:49:41 > 0:49:47# Just a little bit too long... #
0:49:47 > 0:49:49We just happened to turn on the TV,
0:49:49 > 0:49:55and then they said, "Bulletin - plane belonging to Otis Redding...."
0:49:55 > 0:50:00I just put my hands in my ear, I didn't even hear the rest of it.
0:50:02 > 0:50:05And he said, "Man, did you hear about Otis?"
0:50:05 > 0:50:08They all went in the lake, up in Wisconsin.
0:50:08 > 0:50:12I said, you mean, they had a crash?
0:50:12 > 0:50:14He said, "Yes, and they're all gone."
0:50:21 > 0:50:27I can remember the minister, because he was the minister that married us.
0:50:27 > 0:50:29It was just too much
0:50:29 > 0:50:33for my mind, for my body, too much sorrow.
0:50:35 > 0:50:38# I love you, baby I love you, honey
0:50:38 > 0:50:41# Good God Almighty, Good God Almighty, I love! #
0:51:02 > 0:51:07Stax lost their biggest star, and the heart and soul of the label.
0:51:07 > 0:51:10Then, within weeks, they learned that the fine print
0:51:10 > 0:51:15of their distribution deal with Atlantic took from them ownership of everything they'd released.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19Stax found itself gutted,
0:51:19 > 0:51:22a record company with no records.
0:51:22 > 0:51:29I had not read the fine print in the distribution agreement,
0:51:29 > 0:51:36and Gerry Webster, I love Gerry, you know, but we had a serious,
0:51:36 > 0:51:38serious argument.
0:51:38 > 0:51:44It was sort of like, "That's not what you said and that's not what you implied."
0:51:44 > 0:51:47But they'd go, "Yeah, but the paper says this."
0:51:47 > 0:51:51Well, there didn't need to be any paper in the first place.
0:51:51 > 0:51:57As it turned out, Sam and Dave were not really signed to Stax as artists,
0:51:57 > 0:52:01they were signed to Atlantic and loaned out to Stax.
0:52:06 > 0:52:10It was a family thing! That chemistry works,
0:52:10 > 0:52:15so, when they broke that mould, and took us back,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17it all went downhill after that.
0:52:17 > 0:52:23So these were really Atlantic artists, and we were the little guys
0:52:23 > 0:52:26down in Memphis Tennessee who really didn't get it, didn't know it.
0:52:34 > 0:52:41In the face of all these hardships, the Stax family could still rely on each other.
0:52:41 > 0:52:43But in early 1968,
0:52:43 > 0:52:49something happened in Memphis that would banish Stax from its garden.
0:52:52 > 0:52:56When you listen to the music that came out of Stax,
0:52:56 > 0:53:01you would think that Memphis was this sort of special oasis of...
0:53:01 > 0:53:05of inter-group love and affection, and co-existence,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09and that type of thing, but it was really just the opposite.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21It was a very intractable situation, where the power structure in Memphis
0:53:21 > 0:53:28wasn't interested in recognising the humanity of this strata of workers.
0:53:29 > 0:53:34We have an illegal strike here, but this city, like most cities,
0:53:34 > 0:53:39is a product of the times caused by what's happening countrywide.
0:53:46 > 0:53:50The garbage men were not separate people that you didn't see every day,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53my father always taught me to shake their hands and say hello to them.
0:53:53 > 0:53:58They were really a part of the fabric of the society.
0:53:58 > 0:54:00Their fight was everybody's fight.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05Men who break their backs, day after day,
0:54:05 > 0:54:07for peanuts,
0:54:07 > 0:54:10instead of wages!
0:54:15 > 0:54:21They turned to Martin Luther King because there was nowhere else to go with this.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26Not only Memphis,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30but you are reminding the nation
0:54:30 > 0:54:35that it is a crime for people
0:54:35 > 0:54:42to live in this rich nation, and receive starvation wages.
0:54:55 > 0:55:02What I found interesting about the location of Dr King's death,
0:55:02 > 0:55:07that we at Stax had found the Lorraine hotel
0:55:07 > 0:55:09to be our oasis number two.
0:55:09 > 0:55:15I was there when that bullet was fired, I was standing on the balcony,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19I mean, I spent the last hour of his life on earth.
0:55:19 > 0:55:24About a quarter to six, we stepped on that balcony, he stood here, I stood here.
0:55:24 > 0:55:27I got five steps.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29K-pow!
0:55:29 > 0:55:31The shot rang out.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38I looked back and saw he had been knocked from the railing back onto the balcony.
0:55:38 > 0:55:40I rushed to his side,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44there was a gaping hole in the right side of his face.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46Blood everywhere, just bleeding profusely.
0:55:46 > 0:55:51I ran in the room to call an ambulance, you couldn't use the phone without the operator.
0:55:52 > 0:55:56When the operator heard the shot, she left the switchboard,
0:55:56 > 0:56:01I'm beating on the wall saying, "Answer the phone, answer the phone."
0:56:01 > 0:56:08She went in the courtyard, looked up and saw Martin on the floor, and she had a heart attack on the spot.
0:56:08 > 0:56:10She died about four days later.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14I ran back outside, the police were coming,
0:56:14 > 0:56:19and I hollered to them, "Call an ambulance on your police radio, Dr King has been shot!"
0:56:19 > 0:56:21They said, "Where did the shock come from?"
0:56:21 > 0:56:26So that's where the picture comes with us pointing to the building across the street.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28"Where did the shot come from?"
0:56:28 > 0:56:34# All those nights I watched the four walls
0:56:35 > 0:56:39# I didn't have to watch them all alone. #
0:56:41 > 0:56:42The death of Martin Luther...
0:56:47 > 0:56:54The whole complexion of everything changed... it had to.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57We stayed closed,
0:56:57 > 0:57:04the shop, and the studio, for about a week I guess, four or five days,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08because we wanted to respect the people.
0:57:08 > 0:57:12I can tell you that prior to that, as far as I know,
0:57:12 > 0:57:15there was never, ever any colour
0:57:15 > 0:57:18that came through the doors.
0:57:18 > 0:57:19Didn't happen.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24And, erm,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29after that, it was never the same.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33I was devastated,
0:57:33 > 0:57:38and I prayed, I deal with things the same way
0:57:38 > 0:57:41that God dealt with Adam,
0:57:41 > 0:57:48when he walked in the garden, and Adam had hid himself from him, he was Adams's friend, he made Adam,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51they walked and talked together, every day.
0:57:52 > 0:57:56And all of a sudden, there was a breach, and my prayer was
0:57:56 > 0:58:01that things happen with sex, when the breach came,
0:58:05 > 0:58:09that somebody could remove the breach
0:58:09 > 0:58:14and reclaim that that was almost lost.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23Everything changed, it had to.
0:58:23 > 0:58:27Gone were the heroes, the stars,
0:58:27 > 0:58:33all the records they'd made, yet among the ashes, an ember still burned.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39They said Stax is dead, there will be no more Stax.
0:58:39 > 0:58:44From that moment, there was Stax, I was on the keel,
0:58:44 > 0:58:49to take Stax and those artists to that level of appreciation in this country.
0:58:49 > 0:58:52We had a lot of confidence, and so we were very adamant
0:58:52 > 0:58:54and determined that we were gonna be successful.
0:58:54 > 0:58:58Al Bell, when he came to Stax, he brought that
0:58:58 > 0:59:02large sack of BS with him,
0:59:02 > 0:59:06he could get on the telephone and make things happen. It was great!
0:59:06 > 0:59:09We were all young, and naive, I guess.
0:59:09 > 0:59:16And certainly, our love for what we were doing,
0:59:16 > 0:59:20even at that point, and for Stax records, was unquestionable.
0:59:20 > 0:59:26Al Bell was like a rocket that was already launched, and was orbiting,
0:59:26 > 0:59:29and nothing could stop him.
0:59:29 > 0:59:32He'd dip that phone in BS,
0:59:32 > 0:59:35and everybody at the other end would go, "Yeah!" They'd like it!
0:59:35 > 0:59:39It was during that period of time when the finger snap was developed.
0:59:39 > 0:59:45And the finger snap at that point in time, even though we had the records flipping up and down, you know,
0:59:45 > 0:59:49off the turntable, the finger snap signalled a change.
0:59:49 > 0:59:52BLUESY RIFF PLAYS
1:00:08 > 1:00:12Stax was a company that had been betrayed and almost ruined
1:00:12 > 1:00:17but the music, its soul, refused to die.
1:00:17 > 1:00:21Somewhere in the wreckage, a new vision began taking shape.
1:00:30 > 1:00:36In the process, I started looking for whatever that sound
1:00:36 > 1:00:39could have been or would have been
1:00:39 > 1:00:46that was a merger between Stax and this raw, gritty, gutsy soul
1:00:46 > 1:00:53and Motown in its contemporary, sophisticated, polished soul.
1:00:55 > 1:01:02Who's Making Love was a step off the kerb for all of us cos it was such a sexually charged song.
1:01:02 > 1:01:06# Tell me who's making love to your old lady
1:01:06 > 1:01:10# While you were out making love?
1:01:10 > 1:01:14# Who's making love to your old lady
1:01:14 > 1:01:18# While you were out making love?
1:01:18 > 1:01:21# I've seen so many fellows
1:01:22 > 1:01:25# All in that same old bag
1:01:25 > 1:01:29# Thinkin' that a woman is made to
1:01:29 > 1:01:33# To be beat on and treated so bad. #
1:01:33 > 1:01:35I would have guys who would say,
1:01:35 > 1:01:37"why did you write a song like that?
1:01:37 > 1:01:39"You had me going back home
1:01:39 > 1:01:43"checking to see if my wife was leaving home with somebody."
1:01:43 > 1:01:46I said, "Well, see, you had a guilty conscience."
1:01:46 > 1:01:51# ..I'm sure that you never even dreamed of
1:01:51 > 1:01:55# Somebody was a-lovin' my old lady
1:01:55 > 1:01:58# While I was out makin' love... #
1:02:00 > 1:02:05Who's Making Love sold more copies than any Stax record ever had.
1:02:08 > 1:02:13With the new sound came new songwriters, new musicians
1:02:13 > 1:02:17and new currency in the cash box on which dreams could be built.
1:02:35 > 1:02:38The idea was to try to get as many hit records
1:02:38 > 1:02:42as we possibly can in the market place and then do the impossible,
1:02:42 > 1:02:49let us have a sales conference, let us put together 28 albums and I worked that out on paper,
1:02:49 > 1:02:55bring all these distributors in and let them know that we are formidable, independent record company.
1:03:03 > 1:03:09Everybody believed in everything Al Bell said, "We are going to do 28 albums." "Yeah? When?"
1:03:09 > 1:03:1127 albums was a mercy.
1:03:11 > 1:03:19We had a meeting, everything was explained to us that we have got to rebuild the catalogue.
1:03:19 > 1:03:24I was busy back and forth on the phone pumping everybody up and just driving, driving, driving.
1:03:28 > 1:03:32Soul Explosion venture, Al Bell's baby.
1:03:32 > 1:03:36Al Bell came up with this idea that he was going to explode and flood
1:03:36 > 1:03:37the market with Stax material,
1:03:37 > 1:03:42one was a major success and that was Hot Buttered Soul.
1:03:42 > 1:03:46INTRO PLAYS
1:03:51 > 1:03:57# Mmmm-mmmm
1:04:00 > 1:04:04# I just can't get over losing you
1:04:04 > 1:04:10# So if I seem all broke in two
1:04:13 > 1:04:18# Please walk on by
1:04:18 > 1:04:23# Walk on by
1:04:24 > 1:04:28# Foolish pride... #
1:04:28 > 1:04:33It was just a beautiful thing to see Isaac go from background guy
1:04:33 > 1:04:37to singer with this unique and unusual record, becoming a superstar.
1:04:37 > 1:04:39# You gave me, you put the hurt on me
1:04:39 > 1:04:42# You socked it to me, mama
1:04:42 > 1:04:48# When you said goodbye... #
1:04:48 > 1:04:53I saw something in Isaac Hayes that I had not seen before.
1:04:53 > 1:04:56That bald head, bald heads weren't popular back then,
1:04:56 > 1:04:58but Isaac Hayes had a bald head,
1:04:58 > 1:05:03from a marketing standpoint we could probably do wonders with this guy.
1:05:03 > 1:05:08When Al Bell told me he wanted me to help him out with these acts being recorded
1:05:08 > 1:05:13for the spring sales meeting I said, I want to do an album myself and do it the way I wanted to.
1:05:16 > 1:05:20Because I knew that they weren't and relying on me
1:05:20 > 1:05:25to give them a hit album, because we had 26 other albums
1:05:25 > 1:05:30to pull them through. So I selfishly wanted to do this album.
1:05:30 > 1:05:36# Please walk, walk right on by, baby
1:05:38 > 1:05:43# Oh, there's not doubt in my...
1:05:43 > 1:05:49# I don't you to see me cry, no, no... #
1:05:49 > 1:05:51And it crossed over.
1:05:51 > 1:05:54It just started my whole career.
1:05:54 > 1:05:57A re-birth was blossoming within the walls of Stax,
1:05:57 > 1:06:04but outside in the streets of Soulsville, a darker reality was taking hold.
1:06:04 > 1:06:07One day two young black men came into Stax records and went into
1:06:07 > 1:06:14Jim Stewart's office and laid a big piece of iron on his desk, 357 magnum, my guess, big pistol,
1:06:14 > 1:06:21and said, "If you don't give us 50,000 in the next two days we are going to kill you."
1:06:29 > 1:06:33After Dr King was killed it got pretty, pretty
1:06:33 > 1:06:35intense around there.
1:06:35 > 1:06:40We started experiencing some...
1:06:40 > 1:06:48attitudes that were directed towards both the white side and the black side
1:06:48 > 1:06:50of our oasis.
1:06:50 > 1:06:56Al Bell sent me to... West Memphis, Arkansas
1:06:56 > 1:06:59I bought five .38 pistols.
1:06:59 > 1:07:03He said, "Anybody gives you any shit, pull the trigger."
1:07:03 > 1:07:06The neighbourhood had changed so bad they had to put up an 8ft
1:07:06 > 1:07:11chain-link fence with guards and so forth,
1:07:11 > 1:07:14you almost had to have a laminate to get in and out.
1:07:14 > 1:07:17I was threatened by people outside the company
1:07:17 > 1:07:21threatening to kidnap me, trying to extort money from me.
1:07:21 > 1:07:24I went to the FBI, I got no...
1:07:24 > 1:07:27help whatsoever. "You're on McLemore Avenue,
1:07:27 > 1:07:29"what you doing over there anyway?"
1:07:29 > 1:07:31You know, that kind of mentality.
1:07:31 > 1:07:37So we brought in Johnny Baylor along with his sidekick Dino.
1:07:37 > 1:07:40Johnny Baylor had worked with Sugar Ray Robinson, a former Army Ranger
1:07:40 > 1:07:45he was running a small record label in New York's Harlem.
1:07:45 > 1:07:50Al knew that Johnny Baylor and Dino, these two guys, they were toughs.
1:07:50 > 1:07:54New York tough street guys. And they were killers.
1:07:55 > 1:07:59They were people who did the thing.
1:07:59 > 1:08:04We challenged them, we let them know hey, either do or die, you know,
1:08:04 > 1:08:05that is what it is.
1:08:05 > 1:08:09We are going to protect these artists, we are going to protect Al Bell.
1:08:09 > 1:08:12You know, and there will be no more of this...
1:08:12 > 1:08:17robbery and stealing and stick-ups or whatever they were doing.
1:08:18 > 1:08:24Now after that, Jim was a little further out of control because he had two guys there
1:08:24 > 1:08:28and Jim said, "We will let them be Isaac Hayes' security.
1:08:28 > 1:08:33"He's just getting to where he is going to need some security
1:08:33 > 1:08:37"and we will let them be at the head of Stax security."
1:08:37 > 1:08:42# Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic!
1:08:42 > 1:08:46# I can't sleep at night
1:08:47 > 1:08:49# But that's all right
1:08:52 > 1:08:55# The MD tells me
1:08:55 > 1:09:00# My heart's on strike... #
1:09:00 > 1:09:06Johnny Baylor and Dino were described as our protectors
1:09:06 > 1:09:09and sometimes they...
1:09:09 > 1:09:11appeared to harass us.
1:09:12 > 1:09:18I never will forget this, but Johnny Baylor had grabbed my arm
1:09:18 > 1:09:23and just twisted my arm behind me and had me pushed against the wall.
1:09:23 > 1:09:29And I gave him a really bad punch in a place, I don't think he will ever forget.
1:09:29 > 1:09:35# Hyperbolicsyllabic Sesquedalymistic! #
1:09:35 > 1:09:38It was a conspiracy to takeover the control
1:09:38 > 1:09:40of the most powerful individual
1:09:41 > 1:09:45in his view in the company at that time, which was Isaac.
1:09:45 > 1:09:48He felt if he could do that then he could call shots on whatever he wanted to call.
1:09:48 > 1:09:54And Johnny felt that Isaac should be, should have been...
1:09:54 > 1:09:56out front of David Porter.
1:09:56 > 1:10:00They put a gun up to David Porter's head once and told him to stay away from Isaac.
1:10:00 > 1:10:05He wanted to see Isaac out being number-one, you know.
1:10:05 > 1:10:08Well, there went all that songwriting,
1:10:08 > 1:10:11those magical songs, gone.
1:10:20 > 1:10:23Johnny Baylor stayed around Stax.
1:10:23 > 1:10:28He was the problem solver who would soon become the problem.
1:10:28 > 1:10:32That was the day I went to Jim and told him we'd like to be off the payroll.
1:10:32 > 1:10:35MUSIC CONTINUES
1:10:45 > 1:10:50Estelle Axton got caught up in some of the politics of the company,
1:10:50 > 1:10:57as we got bigger and bigger and bigger I think she was made to be quieter, quieter and quieter.
1:10:57 > 1:11:00I closed the record shop
1:11:00 > 1:11:06because they needed the space for the studio and offices for Stax.
1:11:08 > 1:11:10- So I was lost without- ...
1:11:10 > 1:11:14He and my sister didn't get along,
1:11:14 > 1:11:20it had gotten to the point that I was ready to leave...
1:11:22 > 1:11:27I had a decision to make, a very hard decision to make.
1:11:27 > 1:11:29It involved family, number one.
1:11:32 > 1:11:37In the end, I made the decision that more people's livelihoods
1:11:38 > 1:11:42were at stake than just mine.
1:11:43 > 1:11:51And I made a decision to ask that my sister step down.
1:11:51 > 1:11:58I decided that I'll never have any influence in the future -
1:11:58 > 1:12:00the best thing for me to do is to get out.
1:12:00 > 1:12:05And that's when I sold my part
1:12:05 > 1:12:06and got out.
1:12:14 > 1:12:17She left and the magic was gone.
1:12:17 > 1:12:21You know, this building will never be the same.
1:12:23 > 1:12:25And it was never the same again.
1:12:30 > 1:12:36Jim and Al were now equal partners in a company that was outgrowing it mum and pop roots,
1:12:36 > 1:12:40new demands meant that old ways had to change.
1:12:42 > 1:12:47There was a feeling like mass production going on or assembly-line type feeling.
1:12:47 > 1:12:51Actually at one point they had us operating in shifts,
1:12:51 > 1:12:53three eight-hour shifts.
1:13:01 > 1:13:06The market was changing, where I was spending a whole month working on four,
1:13:06 > 1:13:09five artists and records trying to get a hit single,
1:13:09 > 1:13:12all of a sudden I'm working on four, five or six albums.
1:13:12 > 1:13:16So, I couldn't continue the way things were going at the time.
1:13:21 > 1:13:23It was more or less the group,
1:13:23 > 1:13:28the core group was becoming more and more fragmented.
1:13:28 > 1:13:31SLOW, BLUESY MUSIC
1:13:37 > 1:13:42We were all family and it's tough to break up a family,
1:13:42 > 1:13:47but I just felt that it was going to head for disaster at some point.
1:13:47 > 1:13:51RHYTHM INCREASES
1:13:51 > 1:13:53CROWD CHEERS
1:14:13 > 1:14:19You couldn't help but feel saddened by it, this is Booker T and the MGs
1:14:19 > 1:14:26and they were the sound of the music that was coming out of there.
1:16:06 > 1:16:10APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
1:16:15 > 1:16:18# Starting all over again
1:16:18 > 1:16:20# It's gonna be rough
1:16:21 > 1:16:24# So rough
1:16:24 > 1:16:28- # That we're gonna make it. - Oh, yeah. #
1:16:28 > 1:16:31We just kept on generating more and more revenue,
1:16:31 > 1:16:36kept on daring to be different and kept on defying what they said that couldn't be done.
1:16:36 > 1:16:41# ..On us. But we gotta face it... #
1:16:41 > 1:16:44Al felt like he should give something back to the community
1:16:44 > 1:16:47that we were trying to do the right thing,
1:16:47 > 1:16:55that we were concerned with civil rights and we're taking an active role to show that.
1:16:55 > 1:16:58The whole evolution of Stax was a parallel to
1:16:58 > 1:17:01what was happening in the civil rights movement
1:17:01 > 1:17:03and then when the civil rights movement evolved,
1:17:03 > 1:17:09devolved to some people, into this Black Power movement or wave,
1:17:09 > 1:17:13Stax underwent a transformation as well.
1:17:13 > 1:17:17In terms of advertising, promotion, marketing,
1:17:17 > 1:17:23and research, we're researching black because that's where our product is directed and we're supporting black.
1:17:23 > 1:17:27# Starting all over again
1:17:27 > 1:17:30# Is gonna be slow
1:17:31 > 1:17:33# We...
1:17:33 > 1:17:36# We both know that we can make it... #
1:17:36 > 1:17:39Whenever there was a black cause in the City of Memphis,
1:17:39 > 1:17:43Stax rose to the occasion, Al Bell, Isaac Hayes they made sure of that.
1:17:43 > 1:17:48You know, Stax was not militant, but it was all black.
1:17:48 > 1:17:51You know, we knew the problems that our people were having.
1:17:51 > 1:17:58You're talking about you're dissatisfied with the way the government is run.
1:17:58 > 1:18:01You're complaining about unemployment,
1:18:01 > 1:18:03equal employment,
1:18:03 > 1:18:06housing,
1:18:06 > 1:18:08only you can do something about it.
1:18:10 > 1:18:16Bursting with new life, Stax supported many causes, the Black Knights in Memphis,
1:18:16 > 1:18:19the Angela Davis Defence Fund, the Rainbow-PUSH Coalition,
1:18:19 > 1:18:23its efforts helped drive the black economic renaissance.
1:18:26 > 1:18:29It was a very timely moment in history with politics.
1:18:29 > 1:18:32What was lagging behind was the business development.
1:18:32 > 1:18:35We could never produce our own music.
1:18:35 > 1:18:37We could produce it, but we couldn't distribute it.
1:18:39 > 1:18:41We didn't own our own talent.
1:18:41 > 1:18:46We were doing, at that time because of segregation,
1:18:46 > 1:18:51what every other ethnic group had done in America.
1:18:51 > 1:18:57We had our own hotels, our own banks, our own insurance companies,
1:18:57 > 1:18:59we were building our own economic base.
1:19:02 > 1:19:07Black Pride was more than a slogan, it was a way of doing business.
1:19:07 > 1:19:12Stax embraced traditional black culture and brought it mainstream.
1:19:12 > 1:19:17# See that host all dressed in red
1:19:17 > 1:19:20# He's a-going to trouble the water
1:19:20 > 1:19:26# Looks like the children that Moses led... #
1:19:26 > 1:19:30I loved the Staple singers and I said, "As soon as I can get this company into a point
1:19:30 > 1:19:33"where I can do it I'm going to get the Staple Singers,
1:19:33 > 1:19:37"because I think they can be one of the biggest acts out here."
1:19:37 > 1:19:43We felt really close to Al because we knew him before Stax, you see.
1:19:43 > 1:19:46And my father was like a father to him.
1:19:48 > 1:19:53So you hear in the Staple's message music, that made them among
1:19:53 > 1:19:59popular culture, the church - they became the sound of the streets.
1:19:59 > 1:20:00I like my gospel.
1:20:02 > 1:20:05# Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh...
1:20:05 > 1:20:09# Are you sure your prayers haven't been answered?
1:20:09 > 1:20:11# Now think, brother, think
1:20:11 > 1:20:14# Are you sure your prayers haven't been answered?
1:20:14 > 1:20:16# Now think, think
1:20:16 > 1:20:20# And don't you dare say the Good Lord didn't stop to hear
1:20:20 > 1:20:23# He hears and sees everything you do
1:20:23 > 1:20:25# Stop now and take an inventory
1:20:25 > 1:20:28# To come up with a different story
1:20:28 > 1:20:30# Because he sees every move you make
1:20:30 > 1:20:34# Every wink of your eye...#
1:20:34 > 1:20:36They wanted to put us out of church.
1:20:36 > 1:20:38"Staple Singers singing the Devil's music"!
1:20:38 > 1:20:42And I was letting the people know, the Devil ain't got no music.
1:20:42 > 1:20:44All music is God's music.
1:20:44 > 1:20:52# Ohhh...
1:20:52 > 1:20:55# Ahhh-ahhh... #
1:20:55 > 1:20:56APPLAUSE
1:20:56 > 1:21:01# Ohhh-ohhh...
1:21:01 > 1:21:04# Oh, Lord... #
1:21:04 > 1:21:11I think Al was just trying to stretch us on out further, because he wanted so much for us.
1:21:11 > 1:21:16We want everybody to get this kind of message, take our songs,
1:21:16 > 1:21:20and make your life better, make the world a better place.
1:21:20 > 1:21:24# Ahhh-ahhh...
1:21:24 > 1:21:27# Ohhh...
1:21:27 > 1:21:34# You should save...
1:21:34 > 1:21:38- SOME PEOPLE SHOUT OUT - # ..For you... #
1:21:38 > 1:21:44Lives were changed when they heard Mavis Staples, when she would sing, you just...
1:21:44 > 1:21:47you were another person after you witnessed her.
1:21:47 > 1:21:52# ..For you...
1:21:52 > 1:21:54# Yeah!
1:21:54 > 1:21:56# Yeah!
1:21:56 > 1:21:58# Yeah!
1:21:58 > 1:22:01# Yeah! Everybody say "Right on!" #
1:22:01 > 1:22:07- Right on!- Right on!- Right on! Right on!- Right on!
1:22:07 > 1:22:10We went in for a session.
1:22:10 > 1:22:14And Mack came in the studio, he said, "Pops, I've got one for you."
1:22:14 > 1:22:19I showed 'em the song, and he said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
1:22:19 > 1:22:22Mack, he had this rhythm...
1:22:22 > 1:22:28And he started... # If you disrespect everybody that you run into... #
1:22:28 > 1:22:34# How in the world do you think anybody's supposed to respect you...?
1:22:34 > 1:22:37# Dum-dum-dun-dun...
1:22:37 > 1:22:41# If you don't give a heck about the man with the Bible in his hand... #
1:22:41 > 1:22:47# Mmmm-mmm...
1:22:47 > 1:22:50# Mmmm-mmm... #
1:22:50 > 1:22:56# If you disrespect everybody that you run into
1:22:59 > 1:23:05# How in the world do you think anybody's supposed to respect you? #
1:23:05 > 1:23:09We had hit records. HE LAUGHS
1:23:09 > 1:23:12It was like great apples falling off a tree.
1:23:12 > 1:23:15# Respect yourself
1:23:15 > 1:23:17# Da-da-da
1:23:17 > 1:23:19# Respect yourself
1:23:19 > 1:23:21# De-de-de-de... #
1:23:21 > 1:23:25Al Bell, every time he would go out, he'd come back with something solid.
1:23:25 > 1:23:31Stax Records replaced cotton as the biggest industry in Memphis, Tennessee.
1:23:31 > 1:23:37The Stax corporate staff mushroomed, gathering executives from Motown, Chi-Town and beyond.
1:23:37 > 1:23:41Their interests diversified into more soundtracks, and soon, movie production.
1:23:41 > 1:23:43GUNFIRE
1:23:50 > 1:23:54Shaft - hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt.
1:23:54 > 1:23:59Somebody got the bright idea of producing a black film,
1:23:59 > 1:24:03with a black director, a black leading actor, and a black composer.
1:24:03 > 1:24:07They wanted me to do the music.
1:24:07 > 1:24:10Isaac put the music together, and the rest is history.
1:24:11 > 1:24:15He said, "Dig the tempo of his walking,
1:24:15 > 1:24:18"I want to you to play 16ths on the hi-hat to that tempo."
1:24:18 > 1:24:24So they rolled the machine over to me, I gotta peep over and play the hi-hat...
1:24:25 > 1:24:28In 1972, Isaac Hayes stood on a mountain top,
1:24:28 > 1:24:33winning an Academy Award for his Theme From Shaft.
1:24:33 > 1:24:37His date that night was his grandmother.
1:24:37 > 1:24:43I called her Momma cos that's the only Mother I know, and last night was the highlight of my career.
1:24:43 > 1:24:45So, I felt like she should be there.
1:24:47 > 1:24:50This award, which I accepted last night...
1:24:51 > 1:24:56The first time in the history of the Academy
1:24:56 > 1:25:01a black musician has been honoured,
1:25:01 > 1:25:04receiving an Oscar.
1:25:07 > 1:25:12Isaac's position, to me, was more of a social position
1:25:12 > 1:25:16than a musical position at Stax.
1:25:16 > 1:25:19Isaac became something of a symbol
1:25:19 > 1:25:23that was missing in African American society.
1:25:26 > 1:25:28Dino was hanging out with me at time.
1:25:28 > 1:25:32He said, "Man! Listen to the people!
1:25:32 > 1:25:37"They love you, man! You just like a Moses.
1:25:37 > 1:25:41"You just like... yeah, black Moses!"
1:25:41 > 1:25:45I said, "Whoa, don't do that, man, that's sacrilegious!
1:25:45 > 1:25:46"I ain't no Moses, man."
1:25:46 > 1:25:48"Yes, you are, man, you black Moses!"
1:25:48 > 1:25:53I've got Isaac's albums here, the latest, Black Moses.
1:25:53 > 1:25:56It's got a spectacular ...
1:25:56 > 1:25:59Look at that!
1:26:02 > 1:26:04APPLAUSE
1:26:04 > 1:26:06MUSIC: "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
1:26:16 > 1:26:20I think he really saw that it was a necessary thing
1:26:20 > 1:26:23for people to have an icon like that.
1:26:41 > 1:26:43Yeah, right on.
1:26:43 > 1:26:49The African American community in Watts had been scarred by riots in the mid-1960s, leaving 34 dead.
1:26:49 > 1:26:57In August 1972, Stax organised a benefit festival of peace and music in Los Angeles.
1:26:57 > 1:27:03It drew more than 100,000 people, a fifth of the city's black population.
1:27:06 > 1:27:12Soul music sort of rose to it's zenith in terms of what it could do politically,
1:27:12 > 1:27:15economically and culturally, all at once.
1:27:15 > 1:27:17And that was at WattStax.
1:27:22 > 1:27:25# I'm the son of a bad... #
1:27:41 > 1:27:45I'd gone to Watts when it was just smokin' from riots
1:27:45 > 1:27:47and urban frustration, neglect.
1:27:47 > 1:27:53We were in that kind of setting, with that kind of audacity and that kind of ambition.
1:28:01 > 1:28:03# Son of Shaft
1:28:05 > 1:28:07# Don't forget my daddy... #
1:28:07 > 1:28:11Went to the stadium, they kind of laughed at us.
1:28:11 > 1:28:15Some little record company from out of Memphis, Tennessee.
1:28:15 > 1:28:17"Who do you say these artists are?
1:28:17 > 1:28:19"What's the names?"
1:28:21 > 1:28:24# Respect yourself, yeah
1:28:24 > 1:28:27# You oughta respect yourself. #
1:28:37 > 1:28:42# If you're walking round thinking that the world owe you something
1:28:42 > 1:28:44# Cos you're here
1:28:44 > 1:28:47# You're goin' out the world backwards
1:28:47 > 1:28:52# Like you did when you first come here
1:28:52 > 1:28:54# Yeah
1:28:54 > 1:29:00# Keep talking 'bout the present but won't stop air pollution
1:29:00 > 1:29:05# No... Put your hand on your mouth when you cough
1:29:05 > 1:29:08# That'll help the solution
1:29:08 > 1:29:11# Yeah
1:29:11 > 1:29:17# Oh, you cuss around women and you don't even know their names
1:29:20 > 1:29:25# And you dumb enough to think that'll make you a big old man
1:29:28 > 1:29:29# Respect yourself... #
1:29:29 > 1:29:34There had been riots where they'd burned down just about everything.
1:29:34 > 1:29:40You know? And WattStax brought all these 100,000 people together.
1:29:40 > 1:29:44That was largest crowd any of us had ever seen.
1:29:49 > 1:29:54- Hey!- ALL: Hey! - Can I ask you something?
1:29:54 > 1:29:55- ALL:- What?
1:29:55 > 1:29:58- I said, can I ask you something? ALL:- Yeah!
1:29:58 > 1:30:01Ain't I clean?
1:30:01 > 1:30:04APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
1:30:10 > 1:30:12# Come on in, now
1:30:12 > 1:30:14# Come right on down front
1:30:14 > 1:30:16# I got something I want to show you. #
1:30:16 > 1:30:21This was trying to give something back to the neighbourhood.
1:30:21 > 1:30:24Only costed a dollar.
1:30:27 > 1:30:29# ..I'm gonna tell you
1:30:29 > 1:30:30# What you gotta do
1:30:30 > 1:30:32# Flap your wings
1:30:32 > 1:30:34# Feet start kickin'
1:30:34 > 1:30:36# Now you know
1:30:36 > 1:30:38# You doin' the funky chicken... #
1:30:46 > 1:30:51We're still now on this curve of trying to carry forth the resurrection
1:30:51 > 1:30:52and the Ascension.
1:30:52 > 1:30:56And that caused others to realise that they could do the same thing
1:30:56 > 1:30:59in their various ghetto communities across America.
1:30:59 > 1:31:04That is why I challenge you now to stand together,
1:31:04 > 1:31:08raise your fist together,
1:31:08 > 1:31:14and engage in an our national black litany.
1:31:14 > 1:31:21Do it with courage and determination. I am...
1:31:21 > 1:31:25- ALL: I am...- Somebody. - ALL: Somebody.
1:31:25 > 1:31:27- I am...- ALL: I am... Somebody.
1:31:27 > 1:31:29ALL: Somebody.
1:31:29 > 1:31:31- I may be poor... - ALL: I may be poor...
1:31:31 > 1:31:34- I am...- ALL: I am... - Somebody.
1:31:34 > 1:31:35ALL: Somebody.
1:31:35 > 1:31:38- I may be on welfare... - ALL: I may be on welfare...
1:31:38 > 1:31:39- But I am... - ALL: I am.
1:31:39 > 1:31:42- Somebody. - ALL: Somebody.
1:31:42 > 1:31:44- I may be unskilled... - ALL: I may be unskilled...
1:31:44 > 1:31:47- But I am...- ALL: I am- ... Somebody.
1:31:47 > 1:31:51There were many messages, even mixed messages,
1:31:51 > 1:31:56running through that very moment where Al and I had our fists extended.
1:31:56 > 1:31:59We had survived the rubbish.
1:31:59 > 1:32:02Like a sphinx rising from the ashes we had come back to life again
1:32:02 > 1:32:05and there we were at this awesome moment in history.
1:32:07 > 1:32:10The brother all of us have been waiting for.
1:32:10 > 1:32:15Isaac Hayes!
1:32:25 > 1:32:27APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
1:32:30 > 1:32:37I had preached that our music was a reflection of what goes on in our lives and our lifestyles.
1:32:38 > 1:32:44And Larry Shaw said "What we need to do is film this and make it real."
1:32:50 > 1:32:53There was something new in Hollywood movie premieres
1:32:53 > 1:32:57as over 2,000 soulful people came together for the opening of WattStax.
1:32:57 > 1:33:02Among those attending were Stax recording star, Carla Thomas Sonny and Cher,
1:33:02 > 1:33:06recording star Johnny Taylor, superstar Isaac Hayes.
1:33:06 > 1:33:10WattStax was during the grand year of 1972,
1:33:10 > 1:33:13then they started going downhill pretty fast
1:33:13 > 1:33:18because they were spending a great deal more than they were making.
1:33:18 > 1:33:23And I have always been of the opinion that it was riotous living
1:33:23 > 1:33:29more than anything else, because they just haemorrhaged money.
1:33:36 > 1:33:40We were growing so rapidly that we had taken out the loan,
1:33:40 > 1:33:41they gave it to us,
1:33:41 > 1:33:45and I think it was over a couple of years or something like that,
1:33:45 > 1:33:49and in nine months we paid that loan off, and it freaked them out.
1:33:49 > 1:33:52I mean it freaked them out, nine months and you've paid it off,
1:33:52 > 1:33:55from that point forward every time we turned around
1:33:55 > 1:34:00we were getting calls from Union Planters National Bank wanting to know if we needed any money.
1:34:01 > 1:34:04"Hey, it's Duck, I need a loan."
1:34:04 > 1:34:06"Sign a piece of paper."
1:34:08 > 1:34:15"I want to buy a car, but I work for Stax." "OK, it's done."
1:34:15 > 1:34:21The bloated era came when it seemed like we wanted to be a Motown.
1:34:21 > 1:34:25That was bloat in the sense of expensive ideas,
1:34:25 > 1:34:28that didn't seem straight.
1:34:28 > 1:34:30Our eye was not on the ball any more.
1:34:30 > 1:34:32We were looking up in the stands.
1:34:32 > 1:34:36They wanted to buy the Tams basketball team.
1:34:36 > 1:34:41When we've finalised all elements the team will be fully owned
1:34:41 > 1:34:44and operated in the city of Memphis by the Stax organisation.
1:34:44 > 1:34:47All day long, people wandered up and down the halls,
1:34:47 > 1:34:49you wondered, who are those people?
1:34:49 > 1:34:54I'm the director of the statistical department,
1:34:54 > 1:34:57the statistical department is a new department,
1:34:57 > 1:35:00which has been established by Stax recording company.
1:35:00 > 1:35:04So statistical department went to work and said,
1:35:04 > 1:35:08"Let's take this record, Don't Take Your Momma, and analyse it."
1:35:08 > 1:35:14Notice the difference, I want you to notice the strings and the bass is the predominant factor.
1:35:14 > 1:35:16MUSIC PLAYS
1:35:28 > 1:35:32That's getting back to the soul, that's where it's at.
1:35:32 > 1:35:35This is Rufus Thomas with a brand new dance.
1:35:49 > 1:35:52I started dealing with comedy
1:35:52 > 1:35:55and I thought we could be tremendously successful in comedy.
1:35:55 > 1:36:00Remember the essence of life, we're the people of the universe,
1:36:00 > 1:36:03life is beautiful, my parents go, "That nigger is crazy."
1:36:03 > 1:36:07Also, into the movie production we went.
1:36:11 > 1:36:18Despite continued success, Stax couldn't get its records into suburban department stores.
1:36:18 > 1:36:22So, in 1972, not long after Motown sold out to MCA,
1:36:22 > 1:36:27Al Bell struck a unique deal with Clive Davis at CBS Records,
1:36:27 > 1:36:32Stax remained independent but gained major-label distribution.
1:36:32 > 1:36:38CBS dominated every category of music in the entire industry
1:36:38 > 1:36:40other than black music.
1:36:40 > 1:36:44Because of the power of Columbia Records and its branches
1:36:44 > 1:36:49and everything, that would put us in a position where we could reach the white market.
1:36:49 > 1:36:52And in the discussions with Clive,
1:36:52 > 1:36:56Clive was explaining to me how he wanted to penetrate deeper
1:36:56 > 1:36:59into the black market and the black community.
1:36:59 > 1:37:03The white majors don't know how to produce their product,
1:37:03 > 1:37:05so what they do is they go and get a black promotion man
1:37:05 > 1:37:10and say this will solve their problem, black promotion man, we'll sell to the black market.
1:37:10 > 1:37:13Not true, they don't have a black product, you have to get that first.
1:37:13 > 1:37:15Al Bell was God.
1:37:15 > 1:37:20In the rhythm and blues music, you can ask anybody that.
1:37:20 > 1:37:24He dictated what went on in rhythm and blues in those years.
1:37:24 > 1:37:31Clive and Al Bell, they both had a dream and I think they bought into each other's dream.
1:37:31 > 1:37:34In their minds, they knew exactly how they could make it work.
1:37:34 > 1:37:39Clive Davis became the most powerful man in the music business.
1:37:39 > 1:37:43His salary and benefits - 350,000 a year.
1:37:43 > 1:37:48So, it was a bombshell when in May of last year CBS fired Davis.
1:37:48 > 1:37:51The charges against Clive Davis
1:37:51 > 1:37:56stem out of an investigation conducted by a United States grand juries
1:37:56 > 1:37:58here in Newark and in New York.
1:37:58 > 1:38:04But unfortunately, when Clive Davis was taken out of the picture
1:38:04 > 1:38:07no-one else had that vision of that dream at CBS,
1:38:07 > 1:38:11so consequently, Al Bell was out there drifting.
1:38:29 > 1:38:34CBS warehoused Stax's product and withheld payments.
1:38:34 > 1:38:35At the same time,
1:38:35 > 1:38:41Stax long time bank, Union Planters, buckled under a national real estate crash.
1:38:41 > 1:38:45To keep solvent they hired a new president, Bill Matthews.
1:38:51 > 1:38:56One of the first things he did was to start looking around for problems
1:38:56 > 1:39:00and he started turning them up at a pretty sharp rate.
1:39:00 > 1:39:05The bank had something like 10 million extended to Stax records.
1:39:05 > 1:39:10All of a sudden, this guy who they had just brought in,
1:39:10 > 1:39:16he said, "Al, I don't want you to think I'm a redneck from Georgia."
1:39:16 > 1:39:18I looked at him and I said,
1:39:18 > 1:39:25"And I don't want you to think I'm a nigger from Arkansas, so what are you talking about?"
1:39:30 > 1:39:34Union Planters stopped lending money to Stax, accusing them of bank fraud.
1:39:34 > 1:39:39And with no money coming from CBS, the squeeze was on.
1:39:39 > 1:39:43You had a bank who wanted to destroy the record company,
1:39:43 > 1:39:48you had people that just hated that all these blacks were having all this success
1:39:48 > 1:39:52in Memphis, Tennessee, with all these pretty houses and pretty cars.
1:39:52 > 1:39:56Isaac Hayes is driving around in a custom-made Cadillac
1:39:56 > 1:39:59that cost more at the time than many white folks' houses did.
1:39:59 > 1:40:02Carla Thomas or another artist
1:40:02 > 1:40:05going to Julius Lewis and purchasing a fur coat - cash!
1:40:05 > 1:40:11I'm unimpressed with the racist aspect of this whole thing.
1:40:11 > 1:40:15I would say there was at least as much racism
1:40:15 > 1:40:19manifested on the part of the Stax people,
1:40:19 > 1:40:23who were always trying to use it as a crutch.
1:40:23 > 1:40:24Well, at that point in time,
1:40:24 > 1:40:29we had no sales and no promotion, so I went to my dear friend John Baylor.
1:40:29 > 1:40:35I said to him, "What I need you to do is take your team and go out and promote the Stax product."
1:40:35 > 1:40:38Our stack of cards seemed to come tumbling down
1:40:38 > 1:40:42when Johnny Baylor was getting an airplane in Memphis to Birmingham.
1:40:47 > 1:40:51They asked him to open one of his suitcases for some reason or other,
1:40:51 > 1:40:54I don't know what it was but he did,
1:40:54 > 1:40:57and there was nothing but cash in there.
1:41:04 > 1:41:12That's when IRS and FBI and everyone else came saying, "How does this work? What we do here?"
1:41:16 > 1:41:18I had people threatening my life.
1:41:18 > 1:41:22I'd wake up with toilet tissue in the trees in my yard,
1:41:22 > 1:41:25all kinds of threats on the phone,
1:41:25 > 1:41:28being told by a gentleman that was sent to me by Matthews.
1:41:28 > 1:41:32He's say, "Listen, tell Al, why don't he go down to the Mississippi River bridge
1:41:32 > 1:41:36"and jump off the bridge and make it easier for everybody?"
1:41:54 > 1:42:01They started taking the actions that would put us out of business.
1:42:01 > 1:42:03They easily concluded, I suppose,
1:42:03 > 1:42:09at this point that the future for Stax would look dim, but that is not the case.
1:42:09 > 1:42:11We know the facts, we have not given up,
1:42:11 > 1:42:15and we will pursue legally whatever is necessary in order
1:42:15 > 1:42:18to restore Stax and bring it, from a corporate point of view,
1:42:18 > 1:42:20back into the position of its rightful owners.
1:42:20 > 1:42:24We used to call Al Bell the Hype Meister,
1:42:24 > 1:42:29because no matter how dark the situation,
1:42:29 > 1:42:33Al Bell has the upside to the story.
1:42:36 > 1:42:41He could put you in the palm of his hand, and he did it to me, he did it to everyone.
1:42:41 > 1:42:43"Lord's gonna bless ya."
1:42:56 > 1:43:01To me, I couldn't, I couldn't, I tried to think about it,
1:43:01 > 1:43:04but I could not fathom the company going under.
1:43:04 > 1:43:07It to me was like the Bank of England or the Rock of Gibraltar.
1:43:07 > 1:43:11"Well, they're going to talk over some new deals for the company."
1:43:13 > 1:43:16In the days when it was all closing in,
1:43:16 > 1:43:20and the guy that kept our books and stuff,
1:43:20 > 1:43:24he went over to get our cheques,
1:43:24 > 1:43:28and he came back any he said, "There are no cheques."
1:43:28 > 1:43:31And I'm on the steps of that church with Jim Stewart
1:43:31 > 1:43:34and I'm shaking my head and I said, "Wow!
1:43:34 > 1:43:36"I had all this planned and stuff."
1:43:36 > 1:43:42And Jim reached in his pocket and pulled out 200 American dollars and gave it to me.
1:43:42 > 1:43:45And him ending up with nothing.
1:43:48 > 1:43:50All this - it was a snowball effect.
1:43:50 > 1:43:56I put what money I'd gotten for the sale back into the company,
1:43:56 > 1:44:01plus I pledged my personal assets,
1:44:01 > 1:44:04but it was not enough.
1:44:04 > 1:44:05Too little, too late.
1:44:07 > 1:44:12I saw Jim be really hurt over this,
1:44:12 > 1:44:14because it hurt his children.
1:44:14 > 1:44:21When you give away your children's fortune, you hurt for them.
1:44:21 > 1:44:26And we started watching the demise of everybody slowly.
1:44:26 > 1:44:31They'd come in the lot and start pulling cars and foreclosing homes,
1:44:31 > 1:44:35and stuff like that, and we knew it was on.
1:44:35 > 1:44:37AUCTIONEER SPEAKS QUICKLY
1:44:41 > 1:44:44I really didn't realise what was happening until it was too late.
1:44:44 > 1:44:47I had a change of fortune.
1:44:47 > 1:44:52An elaborate white gold diamond bracelet watch with initials "IH" in emerald.
1:44:52 > 1:44:58Sometimes growth and ambition can wreck a company.
1:45:00 > 1:45:05You push one domino and they all fall.
1:45:06 > 1:45:12A lot of people lost their homes, they lost their families,
1:45:12 > 1:45:16one person committed suicide.
1:45:16 > 1:45:18The offices of Stax here are closed.
1:45:18 > 1:45:21A lot of other problems have also plagued the firm.
1:45:21 > 1:45:24The latest came yesterday.
1:45:24 > 1:45:26A judge declared the firm officially bankrupt.
1:45:26 > 1:45:31They caused a 16-count indictment to be brought against me
1:45:31 > 1:45:38and an officer of the bank alleging that we had conspired to defraud,
1:45:38 > 1:45:41I think it was 16 million, 18 million.
1:45:41 > 1:45:47Harwell was convicted and later on admitted
1:45:47 > 1:45:52that he'd made these dishonest loans to Al Bell,
1:45:52 > 1:45:56to the tune of 10 million or so.
1:45:56 > 1:46:01Al, in fortune indictments, freed on all charges.
1:46:01 > 1:46:07But then, you've got the blood stains in your clothes.
1:46:07 > 1:46:11A lot of people were depending on Stax for a living, you know?
1:46:13 > 1:46:16All the workers that we lost.
1:46:16 > 1:46:22It was just a sad thing, like we was at a funeral or something.
1:46:50 > 1:46:53After the close of Stax
1:46:53 > 1:46:56and after some time had passed,
1:46:56 > 1:47:03several years, I would drive back to Memphis, Tennessee,
1:47:03 > 1:47:09and park across the street from 926 East McLemore,
1:47:09 > 1:47:16and look at that a vacant lot and see the weeds there,
1:47:16 > 1:47:21building gone, and I would cry, I would cry.
1:47:21 > 1:47:24And the tears would run profusely.
1:47:24 > 1:47:28All that we had worked for and lived for -
1:47:28 > 1:47:32there was not even a symbol of that in place.
1:47:32 > 1:47:38It's like someone had tried to wipe all of that off the face of the Earth.
1:47:53 > 1:47:55But all great music has soul.
1:47:55 > 1:48:00It's just that Stax had more of it than so many others.
1:48:00 > 1:48:04I hadn't grown up on this music.
1:48:04 > 1:48:08I saw the Staples some years ago when I first arrived in America
1:48:08 > 1:48:13and I just found myself reduced to tears at this incredible music.
1:48:16 > 1:48:17I think it's called magic
1:48:17 > 1:48:20when you go out there and you find artists
1:48:20 > 1:48:24God-sent artists that become those artists that's timeless.
1:48:26 > 1:48:30As a young person going to the record stores and seeing all the records across the top
1:48:30 > 1:48:34and it all just says "Stax", you just... you want to be a part of that train.
1:48:39 > 1:48:41That's the thing that Stax did over and over,
1:48:41 > 1:48:44they were great songs, but they have a motor to them.
1:48:44 > 1:48:48I think that's what makes the music that was made at Stax really enduring.
1:48:48 > 1:48:52It's very truthful and it's very direct.
1:48:52 > 1:48:53And it just really grooved.
1:48:53 > 1:48:58As best we could, we couldn't play it as good as the players that played on these records.
1:48:58 > 1:49:01But we did our, our version of that. You know?
1:49:01 > 1:49:04We used that same technique. And that was our guiding light.
1:49:08 > 1:49:12The sound at Stax is almost like a good plate of food.
1:49:12 > 1:49:14This sticks to your ribs, it sticks to your soul.
1:49:14 > 1:49:17Soulsville, USA. Says it all.
1:49:17 > 1:49:21I might have made my tracks and my grounds in the rap world,
1:49:21 > 1:49:27that the fabric and the basic necessity of the rap world has groove and rhythm.
1:49:27 > 1:49:30And Stax just did it off the head.
1:49:36 > 1:49:40It never dies. Soul music continuously haunts us
1:49:40 > 1:49:43through every genre of music that we do.
1:49:43 > 1:49:46So, we are here once again,
1:49:46 > 1:49:50the question and the answer is - it never really left us.
1:49:50 > 1:49:54The wealth of experience is just priceless.
1:49:54 > 1:49:58This, it's priceless. And it's mine.
1:49:58 > 1:50:02Stax lost everything in bankruptcy.
1:50:02 > 1:50:04A quarter-century later,
1:50:04 > 1:50:07those same songs were sold for tens of millions of dollars,
1:50:07 > 1:50:13while Fantasy Records made Stax the single most reissued independent label in the world.
1:50:13 > 1:50:18In 2006, Concord records bought and relaunched the label
1:50:18 > 1:50:21signing new talent and old Stax stars.
1:50:21 > 1:50:24But its soul, the music,
1:50:24 > 1:50:26lives as a permanent part of our culture.
1:50:26 > 1:50:32At what point did it become the Stax thing? I don't know that.
1:50:32 > 1:50:34I thought it always was.
1:50:34 > 1:50:361, 2...
1:50:36 > 1:50:38MUSIC PLAYS
1:50:53 > 1:50:57Stax was one person teaching another. It was one writer teaching another.
1:50:57 > 1:50:59There were open doors there all the time.
1:50:59 > 1:51:02Where, no matter who you were,
1:51:02 > 1:51:06you could walk through those doors and realise an opportunity.
1:51:06 > 1:51:10And that is now glorified in the Stax Music Academy.
1:51:10 > 1:51:16I have not stopped feeling good because I realised a part of it is still alive.
1:51:16 > 1:51:20In the end, the studio was rebuilt according to original blueprints.
1:51:20 > 1:51:27Next door, the Stax Academy gives neighbourhood kids the same chance the label did in its day.
1:51:27 > 1:51:32If we did not have the museum. If that building had not been rebuilt the way it was,
1:51:32 > 1:51:35if we didn't have a Studio A now,
1:51:35 > 1:51:37not only would the building have been gone,
1:51:37 > 1:51:40but a part of us would have died.
1:51:40 > 1:51:44But that was our resurrection. And still is.
1:51:46 > 1:51:50So, we now have the Stax Museum of American Soul Music.
1:51:50 > 1:51:53And the Stax Music Academy,
1:51:53 > 1:51:57passing the Stax legacy on, to a new generation.
1:51:59 > 1:52:01And don't you cut that line out of the script!
1:52:09 > 1:52:14# I don't want to lose this good thing
1:52:16 > 1:52:18# That I've got
1:52:18 > 1:52:21# Because if I do,
1:52:21 > 1:52:26# I will surely, surely lose a lot
1:52:28 > 1:52:32# Because our love is better
1:52:34 > 1:52:37# Than any love I know
1:52:37 > 1:52:39# Just like thunder
1:52:40 > 1:52:41# Lightning
1:52:43 > 1:52:46# The way you love me is frightening
1:52:46 > 1:52:47# I'd better knock ...
1:52:48 > 1:52:50# On wood
1:52:50 > 1:52:53# Baby
1:52:57 > 1:53:01# I'm not superstitious about you
1:53:03 > 1:53:06# But I can take no chance
1:53:09 > 1:53:12# You've got me spinning, baby
1:53:13 > 1:53:15# Baby, I'm in a trance
1:53:15 > 1:53:20# Because your love is better
1:53:20 > 1:53:24# Than any love I know
1:53:24 > 1:53:27# It's like thunder, lightning... #