today, Dec. 10th - 58th anniversary Otis Redding & Barkays

[bloke]

on direct approach for a landing at the Madison, WI airport, crashed into a lake a couple of miles ahead of the runway.

I believe one of the Bar Kays survived, and another Bar Kay band member (who flew commercial, as the chartered plane was full up) of course also survived.

Steve Cropper (Stax guitarist and superstar/legend - who died just a few days ago) wept while doing the final edit/mix for this incredible hit single and l.p. which was released posthumously.

I was 11 years old, growing up in Memphis, and in the 6th grade. The single was released a few days after New Years, 1968, and the album a month or so later.







As seen, Redding originally composed/recorded/released R.E.S.P. E.C.T, whereas Aretha's hit recording was actually a cover.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otis_Redding

[bloke]

Aretha actually grew up only about ten blocks straight west of Stax recording studios (originally called "Satellite Records", but a name-change was required due to a copyright issue. The same-owners of the attached retail record store retained that name for the store only.). Franklin's birth house is not restored, but is sealed up well and fenced in, with hopes that there may be future funds to convert it into a small museum.

The reason that Stax had a marquee is because it was converted from an abandoned movie theater - the Capitol...and yes, the floor was slanted.
Decades ago, it was bulldozed, and the museum is a reconstruction (though really only the facade is a somewhat accurate reconstruction, which began in early 2001).

Here's a picture of the - then: long-Abandoned - Stax Recording Studio from around 1990:





...and here's the total reconstruction (from the ground up) :




Notice that the high roof (for the original movie theater) - comparing the pictures - was not copied for the museum.


Mrs. bloke and I repair the instruments for the attached charter school, Soulsville Academy, so - every couple of months - we're pulling up to the front entrance to the school just to the WEST of this. We have to make sure that we're past the area of the curb reserved for the tour buses.

In the 1960's this was an impoverished-yet-safe neighborhood.
Today, it's much more impoverished and very unsafe (lots of security at the school).
Directly across the street in a nice new set of buildings (a stark contrast to surrounding streets) less than six months ago two murders occurred in a new one of those "wall-climbing" businesses, called "Rox".
If you've read in the national news about the "Memphis Task Force" (hundreds of Memphis Police, county Sheriff's deputies, state troopers, F.B.I., National Guardsmen, et al), they are very heavily concentrated in the "Soulsville" neighborhood, at this time.

I have (older) close friends who were on the sessions for recording the "SHAFT" (Isaac Hayes) movie soundtrack there in 1971. The noticeable violin rhythm riff in the main title was played by Noel Gilbert (d). He was the assistant concertmaster in the Memphis Symphony, taught violin at Memphis State University (University of Memphis), and created a summertime orchestra (Memphis Concert Orchestra) in order to give Memphis Symphony musicians - as well as himself - some summertime income. He grew up on a farm near the Tennessee River (at least two hours to the east) and was the grandfather of (former) NYPO music director, Alan Gilbert. His son, Robert (Bob), played horn on those sessions as well. I met James Alexander (bass) who was on the SHAFT sessions (and a member of the reorganized Bar Kays band), but he would not remember me. As with Aretha Franklin, he actually was born very near the recording studio - actually directly across the street, at McLemore Clinic. I very strongly suspect that Jack Hale, Sr. and Jack Thomas (associated with the "Memphis Horns" - as the "Memphis Horns" were tied in with Stax...close friends who I worked with - beginning in the early 80's at Tanner Studios - a jingle mill - right after I quit my teaching job at the University of Kansas) were the trombonists on the "SHAFT" session, but I have no way to verify that.


The Gilberts reported to me that there was no written-down music for the "SHAFT" theme...only "do this here / do that there".




Those of you who are fans of (James Garner) "Rockford Files" (TV series) and notice Isaac Hayes appearance in 1974, 1976, and 1977...
Garner was a big fan of Hayes and - after the bankruptcy of Stax - Hayes was broke, and Garner was helping him out...I thought Hayes did a great job on those appearances. The same was true for (some of the same episodes) Dionne Warwick: career and financial slump...I'm sure Garner was helping her out as well.
With renewed interest in the Stax catalog - boosted by the construction of the Stax Museum - Hayes opened up a restaurant in downtown Memphis in 2001 called Isaac Hayes Music Food Passion (with live music), but it had to close its doors by 2007 as traffic to both "Peabody Place" (an eventually-failed downtown mall) and his restaurant within waned, as well as the "real estate bubble" recession hitting. Hayes died of a stroke in 2008.

[MikeS]

Aretha was four or five when her father, Rev. C. L. Franklin, moved to Detroit. He was a figure of tremendous influence in the city, spiritually, culturally, and politically. He also was well known for his singing, as well as preaching.



In 1963 he organized, along with Dr. Marin Luther King, the Walk to Freedom. There were an estimated 125,000 people who took part. My family and I are somewhere in this photo.

[bloke]

Motown/Stax...

[The Brute Squad]

A sad day in music and Madison history.

We have an Elvis story, too. A couple months before he died in '77, he broke up a street fight in what's now a used car lot (I think it was a gas station at the time).

Both stories have commemorative plaques. Elvis's is at the location where it happened. Otis's is I think at the Monona Terrace (an events center near the Capitol).