Massive Stax Records box set honoring 1968 coming this month
For the legendary soul label Stax Records, there was no bigger year than 1968. Later this month, a five-disc box set titled ‘Stax ‘68: A Memphis Story’ will be hitting shelves to celebrate the milestone, featuring A and B-sides of every single released that year.
Three major events altered the state of Stax in 1968. America reeled following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose death in April of that year occurred practically in Stax’s backyard in Memphis, Tenn. The resulting social, political, and cultural cataclysms profoundly affected the label’s direction.
Musically, Stax was also working overtime to reinvent itself in the wake of Otis Redding’s untimely December 1967 death and the dissolution of a deal with Atlantic Records that gave the label perpetual rights to Stax’s back catalog. When the deal ended, Stax also lost one of their leading artists, Sam & Dave, who were signed to Atlantic, but released their music on Stax.
Redding’s iconic “(Sittin’ on the) Dock of the Bay” and Sam & Dave’s “I Thank You” were the label’s first singles of 1968. The former showed how much Redding was evolving and how much Stax – along with the rest of the world – had lost when he died at the all too young age of 26-years old. Both were essentially the artists’ Stax swan songs.
Without Redding, Sam & Dave and all the fruits of their labor up to that time, not to mention the scuttled deal with Atlantic, Stax could easily have folded. Instead they bore down, found a way forward, and followed it to further glory.
The impact of Redding’s death was felt in Eddie Floyd’s “Big Bird,” written about Floyd’s attempt to fly to Redding’s funeral, but the song’s stomping, rock-informed feel foreshadowed Stax’s decision to widen its net and expand its aesthetic to embrace everything from psychedelic rock to Motown-style sounds.
Shirley Walton’s shimmering, gospel-tinged “Send Peace and Harmony Home” had been written by Al Bell, Eddie Floyd, and Booker T. Jones as a dedication to Dr. King and as a reaction to the escalating tension in the city.
In the middle of the recording session, word arrived of his murder, and a teary-eyed Walton delivered what became an ode to the man’s message in the aftermath of his assassination. “Long Walk to D.C.” was conceived as a tribute to King’s March on Washington, but by the time The Staple Singers cut it for Stax in ‘68, it was equal parts Civil Rights anthem and eulogy.
The Soul Children’s “Give ‘Em Love,” with a propulsive vibe more pop-friendly than funky, was emblematic of Stax’s new openness to Motown influences. The paisley-patterned psychedelia of Dallas rockers Southwest F.O.B.’s “Smell of Incense,” featuring future pop titans England Dan & John Ford Coley, on Stax subsidiary Hip showed the willingness of the R&B hub to rock a bit.
‘Stax ‘68: A Memphis Story,’ out Oct. 19 via Craft Recordings, captures this crossroads in stunning, beautiful detail. In addition to all of the songs released under the Stax banner in 1968, including the company’s sub-labels, there’s also a
56-page book including revelatory, in-depth liner notes by Andria Lisle, Robert Gordon, and Steve Greenberg, as well as rare and previously unseen photos.
The set presents more than 120 songs from an unprecedented creative period in American music. Some tracks are by soul legends Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Booker T. & The M.G.’s and Johnnie Taylor, while some come from the deeper Stax catalog with equally incredible artists like Linda Lyndell, The Soul Children and The Mad Lads.
The collection will also be released digitally, and in the four weeks leading up to the release, one instant grat single download will be offered per week, with all digital pre-orders. This week, it’s “Send Peace and Harmony Home” by Shirley Walton which is available this Friday. The final instant grat track, “Going Back to Memphis” by Billy Lee Riley, is available digitally for the first time and will be available on Oct. 12.
Deluxe bundles featuring a limited edition ‘Stax ‘68: A Memphis Story’ poster, letterpressed using authentic vintage materials from the Globe Collection and Press at MICA, are available at the Stax Records online store (staxrecords.com).