Movie Review: The Other, Funkier Motown

Picture this: it’s 1962, and you’re a white guitar player for a spunky, up-and-coming instrumental band. You’re also connected to an upstart record label in downtown Memphis. Yours is literally the only business in Memphis in which you can legally and safely intermingle with people whose people were from Africa. A car pulls up containing a band that is supposed to be the Next Big Thing. The band gets out, swaggers into the studio looking all confident and important, and then the guy who is bringing in the band’s bags and equipment comes up to you and asks if you would hear him sing. He continues to do this throughout the recording session, and afterwards. Finally, you and your band relent. You sit him down in the studio, and he tells you to “play some of those church chords.” He begins to sing: “these arms of mine. . .” and his voice makes the hair on your arms stand up, and you know you’ve been introduced to destiny.

Your name would be Steve Cropper. You would be the guitarist for a little outfit called Booker T and the MGs. You would write many, many hit songs, tunes that have become a permanent part of the American music songbook, loved by young and old alike. Your band would be legendary, and would back up some of the greatest singers of all time. The best singer of all would be that guy who begged you to hear him sing that night. His name was Otis Redding. One of the songs you would help him write is “Sittin’ On the Dock of the Bay.”

This is one of dozens of great stories on “Respect Yourself: The Story of Stax Records.” It’s a journey that began accidentally, when a white fiddle player and his retired school teacher sister invested money into a broken-down movie house in the black section of Memphis to open a country music recording studio. This was in 1961, when virtually everything in the city was segregated. It’s not clear why and how they opened this place where they did, but they did. His name was Jim Stewart, and hers Estelle Axton. Put the first two letters of their last names together, and you get Stax. Voila, a label is born.

One of the first acts signed by this new label was Rufus and Carla Thomas. You may remember Rufus for his huge hit, Walkin’ the Dog. Bar bands play this tune to death. You may recall Carla Thomas from her work with “Tramp,” playing the foil to Otis Redding. “I don’t care what you say, Otis, you’re STILL a tramp.” In both cases, you need to be a little long of tooth to recall these tunes in their original format.

The label also signed one of the country’s first integrated bands, the Mar-Keys. This band featured the aforementioned Steve Cropper, drummer Al Jackson (RIP), and a horn section that would define horn sections for all time. This band released a huge hit, “Last Night,” which you will recognize when you hear it in the movie. The bass player, guitar player, and drummer later joined forces with Booker T to create Booker T and the Memphis Group (MGs). Legends were popping up all over the place.

Otis was signed, and began to make musical history, but he wasn’t the only one. Atlantic Records heard all this amazing music and signed a national distribution deal with Stax, so we could all hear and marvel at this scorching new sound.

You know the song Mustang Sally? Wilson Pickett. The bane of bar bands everywhere. The song you pretty much have to play each and every time you play somewhere. Well, the original is still a masterpiece, which is why everyone loves it so much. It’s a Stax record, with Booker T and the MGs, and that horn section, as the band. Oh my. Sam and Dave, who made “Soul Man” so good; they were Stax artists. Who wrote “Soul Man?” Oh, this team of writers, David Porter and some fellow named, um, Issac Hayes. The first African American to receive an Oscar for (“I’m just talkin’ ‘bout) Shaft.”

Anyway, all these stories, and many more, are told by those who lived it. Why did Stax records sound so different from Motown records? Why was this label so important to the civil rights movement? What hotel did Stax artists stay at when they needed a break, and a swimming pool (the answer will chill your bones)?

Get this movie, and enjoy some essential American history.