Wattstax was organized by Stax Records as a benefit concert for the seventh Watts Summer Festival, a community event conceived in response to the Watts Rebellion. It took place on August 20, 1972 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with over 100,000 people witnessing a bill featuring much of the Memphis-based label's roster. The likes of the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas, and Albert King played small sets. A mix of other established stars and newcomers, from Eddie Floyd and William Bell to the ...
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Wattstax was organized by Stax Records as a benefit concert for the seventh Watts Summer Festival, a community event conceived in response to the Watts Rebellion. It took place on August 20, 1972 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with over 100,000 people witnessing a bill featuring much of the Memphis-based label's roster. The likes of the Staple Singers, Isaac Hayes, Bar-Kays, Carla Thomas, and Albert King played small sets. A mix of other established stars and newcomers, from Eddie Floyd and William Bell to the Dramatics and Louise McCord, took the stage for one or two songs. During the first announcements, hours before leading the crowd in a galvanizing recitation of his pro-Black poem "I Am Somebody," the Rev. Jesse Jackson declared it "a new day...a day of Black awareness." Wattstax was developed into a concert film with interspersed footage from September and October gigs by other Stax artists at L.A.'s Summit Club. Nominated for a Golden Globe, it entered the National Film Registry in 2020. Starting with Wattstax: The Living Word -- which topped Billboard's Soul LPs chart after the film's February 1973 theatrical release -- Stax released and repackaged portions of the concert and club performances in many configurations well into the 2000s. Craft Recordings' 50th anniversary commemoration maximizes the scope with Soul'd Out: The Complete Wattstax Collection. The lavish 12-disc set is the most comprehensive documentation of the historic event. Craft synchronously reissued Wattstax: The Living Word and The Living Word: Wattstax 2, revised and expanded The Best of Wattstax, and also put together Wattstax: The Complete Concert, devoted strictly to the coliseum performances. Soul'd Out contains all of that and more, with over 30 of the 130 tracks released for the first time. It begins with the mesmerizing, 20-minute opener "Salvation Symphony," previously heard only as an eight-minute edit. Written and conducted by unsung Stax (and Motown) figure Dale Warren, the piece sets the celebratory mood while flashing forward by incorporating the spiritual "Wade in the Water," exuberantly interpreted later by harmonica player Little Sonny. Hearing the many other known highlights in their original context, complete with stage announcements and banter, is a transportive joy. The Staples' knockout set, otherwise obtainable in totality only on the 2003 Wattstax reissue and Come Go with Me: The Stax Collection, can be heard now between a jocular introduction from Melvin Van Peebles and the proclamation of Wattstax Day by Watts activist Tommy Jacquette and John Shaft himself, Richard Roundtree. Isaac Hayes' "Theme from Shaft" is preceded by a newly released first take of that cinematic funk classic and followed by an intro to "Soulsville" in which Black Moses, celebrating his 30th birthday, offhandedly informs the crowd that "We're gonna let the outside world know what's happenin'." Stax executive VP Al Bell accepts an award from the City of Los Angeles before the Rance Allen Group launch into the blistering gospel-funk of "Lying on the Truth," a strong contender for the concert's apex. The heretofore unreleased Summit Club recordings contain a set from Mel & Tim (with "Backfield in Motion" and then-fresh "Starting All Over Again" smoothly segued and stretched to 14 minutes) and a couple sibling-harmony dazzlers from the Emotions (a cooking "Blind Alley" and a nine-minute version of "When Tomorrow Comes"). A copy of Soul'd Out should be in every public library. Stax fanatics will find that it superbly complements the four Complete Stax/Volt Singles boxed sets. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi
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