So good I went to Memphis

I'm a standard issue white skinned Brit. I grew up in the sixties and seventies. At age 10 in 1967 I was given a transistor radio for my birthday. My life had begun. That same year the BBC reorganised from The Home Service (speech and current affairs for the Serious listener), The Light Programme (popular tunes and light entertainment for the ignorant masses), and The Third Programme (for the entertainment of those listening to the Home Service) to Radios 1,2,3 and 4. Radio1 broadcast on 247 on the medium wave band - pretty cool for 1967 (and I doubt almost anyone got it at the time). They played The Hit Parade, and concentrated on The Charts. Radio 2 was for the parents of those listening to Radio1 ("Turn that bloody row off!"), and Radios 3 and 4 were for those who previously tuned in to The Home Service, and the Third Programme. We can ignore them.
The 'Jocks', now on Radio1, had been struggling to be heard on the pirate ships broadcasting off the coast of uk (see 'The Boat That Rocked'), and we're legitimised by the Beeb. They played Pop music - and I loved it. The Beatles had just released Sergeant Pepper, the Byrd's were flying higher, Otis Redding was giving us this new thing :-'Soul', the summer of love was upon us, and my 'Tranny' turned me into a petty larcenist - stealing batteries from the local shop to keep the sounds coming. We in Blighty didn't have multiple charts. We didn't realise we had any culture other than stiff upper lip, so something called Arunbee wouldn't have registered as anything other than 'foreign', and therefore suspect. So only one pop chart, and everyone had to share it. And we all got to hear the hits from the USA, they were just that: Hits. From Motown or Memphis, New York or LA, they were all American hits, and therefore warranted a listen. If we liked it a record would rise, if not it disappeared. We're a quite simple folk. As I grew so did my eclectic musical tastes.
Underpinning it all was the stuff that I learned along the way. The lyrics of so many seemed to be protests. Stevie Wonder's Living for the City part ii was visceral! The injustice of endemic racism, and the societal acceptance of it were horrifying to me. What is wrong with the Americans?! After a while though the sounds of life progressing began to drown out the drone of the issue for me. Then, one day many years later I'm searching for something new to listen to on Audible and I find 'Respect Yourself'. Oh yeah, Staple Singers. Great song. 'The Stax story'. Let's give it a go. To date I have listened to it three times; travelled to Memphis so I can get a sense of what I read. (It's still around.) I spoke to Jacqueline Smith who has held a decades-long continuous protests outside the Lorraine Motel (Where Doctor King was shot) against the - in her eyes - disgusting monetarising of his death through turning the motel into a museum by some profit-grabbing businessmen rather than putting the profits back to a still largely very poor neighbourhood.
I went down Beale, had a great meal in BB King's place whilst listening to two excellent bands - for the cost of a 2 dollar cover charge.
And went to the Stax Museum. I was accompanied on this trip by my wife. She's not as enthusiastic about music and its history as I am. She 'knows what she likes' . I'd rather over done 'promoting' the music thing - especially Stax - and she was less than excited when we arrived. She got out of the vehicle in the carpark - where there are speakers playing some hits. "Oh I like this one" Smile appears. We go in. While paying the smile broadens. "I remember this one". We carry on through. She's on the Soul Train dance floor - shaking it. "This is great music!".
The point of this travellers' reminiscing? My wife - who wouldn't previously have had cause to consider the plight of a massive sub structure of American culture, learned and appreciated the enormous gift to Black America's life that the Stax label became because I had read this book. We toured the Black Experience wherever we found it, talking to everyone we encountered. Our library is enriched by the books we bought. And our awareness of Black Lives mattering is strong. We were never actively racist, but we were equally ignorant of the day to day life of so many. No longer. All due to this book. It's changed my life.

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1 person found this helpful

Wonderful insight

I loved this book. Although only in my mid teens when the likes of Sam and Dave and Otis became big names in the UK I have such fond memories of my elder brother being hooked on the Stax sound that it all rubbed off on me. I’ve been a fan ever since.
This book is a wonderful insight, a great tribute, a historical music masterpiece and a superb listen.
Thanks to everyone involved, particularly Robert Gordon for your thoroughness in ensuring the full story has been told.
Almost in the words of the Staple Singers ‘I have been taken there!’

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Legendary soul label

I love these type of books wish there was more I'm up to the time when they was taken over by gulf and western in 1968 some legends on this label e.g. Booker t and the mgs Isaac Hayes a very interesting read it's still going today I could listen again and again like another book I have here comes the night Bert berns life story it's up there with motown

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Amazing !!!

Loved every part of it! Tells you how it all started and how they came back with Soul Explosion!

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Very good scene setter

I knew we were due to spend a week in Memphis so I downloaded the book. The historical context information about Memphis made our visit to the Civil Rights Museum far more interesting and while I was listening I knew that we would have to visit the studio as it is today.
I think anyone thinking of visiting either (or both) would find this book illuminates the visits.
The narration is so good, yet oddly unobtrusive that I found myself investigating the reader as well!
I was pleased that it seems equal effort was spent on the good times as the bad times and the detail in places was a credit.
Sometimes it seemed almost like a fiction but two weeks after I'd finished listening, we were standing outside at McLemore & College!

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