Friday, February 16th, 2024
Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.
— Abraham Lincoln
MUS106 Lecture: Stax and Atlantic
- record labels with clear identities
- Sun Records (Memphis): rockabilly
- Chess Records (Chicago): electric blues
- Motown Records (Detroit): …motown
- Atlantic Records (NYC): souls
- Stax Records (Memphis): soul
- All are independent labels. Big 6 labels are more profitable, but by appealing to popular audience, they lose out on distinguishability.
- Atlantic Records: independent souls label in New York
- until 1967, then got bought by Warner ()
- jazz, soul
- founder: Ahmet Ertegun (son of ambassador)
- producer: Jerry Wexler (Artist & Repertoire guy; develops talent)
- He’s the guy who proposed to change the Race chart to Rhythm & Blues
- engineer: Tom Dowd
- originally a nuclear physicist who worked for the military
- the guy who invented the sliding fader on mixing consoles
- the guy who recorded La Verne Baker (also a victim of whitewashing)
- first US studio to use 8-track tape deck
- allows recording 8 instruments at the same time
- extremely expensive
- Atlantic artists
- The Chords
- John Coltrane
- Charles Mingus
- …
- later signed Led Zeppelin (after acquisition?)
- ”Respect” (1965)
- written by Otis Redding
- recorded by Aretha Franklin (1967), an Atlantic artist
- becomes her signature song
- rose to pop #1, R&B #2
- feminist anthem
- Stax Records/Volt Records
- Memphis
- coverted movie theater (no echo, non-parallel walls)
- other enterprises include: Record shop
- partnership with Atlantic Records for distribution, etc
- in-house band: Booker T and the MGs
- head arrangement
- improvisational & collaborative
- parallel to Motown
- integrated band in deep South
- ”Green Onions” (1962): debut singles of Booker T and the MGs
- R&B #1, pop #3
- Otis Redding (1941-1967)
- Macon, Georgia
- gospel background → helped him work as background singer
- as a background singer, recorded “These Arms of Mine”, which caused the record label to sign him on the spot
- wrote “Respect” (1965)
- “Try A Little Tenderness” (1932)
- previously recorded by (but not commercially successful): Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra
- Otis Redding (1966)
- arrangement: Booker T, Isaac Hayes
- polyrhythm (3 overlapping rhythms), including Brazillian Clave
- Monterey Pop Festival (1967)
- first time on an international (?) stage
- ”(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” (1968)
- recorded days before he dies in plan crash
- reminder of in-house bands
- Motown Records; The Funk Brothers
- FAME Studios: The Swampers, FAME Gang
- Stax Records: Booker T & MGs
- ”Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag” (1965) by James Brown
- James Brown: father of souls
- R&B #1, pop #8
- first funk song (?)
- tons of (unregistered) covers, but they just could not match James Brown
- e.g. Freddy Cannon
- whitewashing couldn’t work out for this song
- whitewashing via covers
- predatory practice mines R&B charts, sanitize the song, and obscure Black musical elements
- cultural appropriation: dominant culture take element from the African American culture and claim it as their own
- rock origins (four pillars of influence): pluralism vs cultural appropriation?
- Black artists covering white artists
- ”Satisfaction” by Otis Redding (cover of The Rolling Stones)