Respect Yourself – The Rise and Fall of Stax Records

 

Here are a few links about Robert Gordon’s book Respect Yourself – The Rise and Fall of Stax Records.

Links to two excellent interviews:

http://www.tavissmileyradio.com/robert-gordon-the-rise-and-fall-of-stax-records/

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/16/245398700/the-soulful-swinging-sounds-of-stax-a-look-back

Article about Stax written by Robert Gordon:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/stax/essay1.html

Brief excerpt from the above article:

The success of Stax had everything to do with its new location, an old movie theater on an unassuming corner, McLemore Avenue and College Street, in South Memphis. The neighborhood was transitioning from white to black and most of the label's early stars simply walked in the front door and were given auditions by the open-minded and open-eared founders. The new location had been discovered by guitarist Chips Moman, who was then Jim Stewart's right-hand man. In less than a decade, he would be running one of the most successful labels of all time, American, where hits were recorded on everyone from Elvis to Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield to Herbie Mann. It's likely Moman was drawn to the area because Hi Records, then having instrumental hits with the Bill Black Combo (and later home to Al Green), was located about a mile away, also in a converted movie theater.