The last album recorded by the band (although it was released before Hey Jude and Let It Be), Abbey Road is the Beatles at their most Beatlesque, and yet each member is in their own zone, venting their frustrations with the group and foreshadowing their post-band life. Exhibit A is the granddaddy, Abbey Road by the Beatles. It’s really a beautiful thing, actually.Įxhibits A, B, and C in this place-scene synergy argument are records consciously connected to place. As it happens, when a place understands itself, and when people commit themselves to the flourishing of that particular place, transcendent and enduring things can come out of it. I wrote about Byrne’s insights into how a place becomes a scene on my blog and I find myself referring back to it a lot. The story of Stax reminded me of a brief passage in David Byrne’s How Music Works where he considered the early days of CBGB in New York, arguably the birthplace of both punk and new wave music. Stax eventually degraded as ambition and greed eroded the sense of common mission, but the body of work that came out of its studios is still important today, and still great to listen to. a few blocks away, and the riots that devastated the Watts neighborhood half a continent away. Stax pointed the way to redemption after the killing of Martin Luther King Jr. Out of Stax came Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, and other soul greats.
At a time when Memphis, like so many southern cities, was deeply and violently segregated, Stax was startlingly integrated, with power sharing at the highest levels of both creativity and administration. Respect Yourself is both inspiration and cautionary tale - it shows how a place can become a scene, and how a scene can come to define a place (and how that same scene can suddenly fall apart). I didn’t read that book till 2020 for some reason, but I’m so glad I finally did.
***Ī few years ago I bought a book that told the story of Stax Records, ground zero of the Memphis Soul sound. I'm about to send out my next edition and I'd love for you to get it.
What follows is an excerpt from the Winter 2021 edition of Middling, my quarterly newsletter on music, books, work, and getting older.
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