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Memphis/Southern Soul 1


Though all soul music shares certain defining characteristics, there are a few dominant types of soul music with unique features. Memphis, Tennessee, was home to Stax Records, Hi Records, American Sound Studios, and lesser concerns such as Goldwax, Pepper, and XL Records. It was the most critical location for what has come to be known as Southern soul music. In 1957, fiddler and banker Jim Stewart started Stax as a country and pop label under the name Satellite Records.

In 1960, Stewart relocated his operation to an abandoned movie theatre in a neighborhood whose demographic was rapidly changing from White to Black. The label developed into a soul music powerhouse. Although the company subsequently made sporadic attempts to record pop, rock, and country records (in addition to jazz, gospel, and Black comedy), its importance lies in the soul recordings released on Satellite, Stax and the Volt, Enterprise, Respect, and Truth subsidiaries between 1960 and 1975.

Aretha Franklin

Aretha Franklin

Stax recordings provided the blueprint for Southern soul at large; therefore, when we define the key characteristics of Stax recordings, we're also sharing the key characteristics of Southern soul. Stax's influence on Southern soul music is evident on recordings by artists such as Aretha Franklin on Atlantic or Etta James's early and mid-1960s Chess recordings cut in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Although no Stax musicians were involved, their way of recording and working together were known and appreciated by others. The video "Muscle Shoals Movie CLIP - Aretha Franklin (2013)" is a documentary about Aretha Franklin, who was recording for Atlantic Records in New York City, going to Stax Records in Muscle Shoals.

Muscle Shoals Movie CLIP - Aretha Franklin (2013) - Documentary HD

Muscle Shoals Movie CLIP - Aretha Franklin (2013) - Documentary HD [ 00:00-00:00 ]

Although the influence of gospel is manifest in all of the regional varieties of soul, gospel had a much more significant impact on Southern soul because of similar performance practices such as more improvisation, lining out traditions, substituting certain words, to name some. As mentioned earlier, a common soul compositional technique-particularly in the South-was to take a gospel song and, by changing the words, transform it into secular soul music. For example, in the 1950s, Ray Charles transformed the song "It Must Be Jesus" (1954) by the Memphis gospel quartet The Southern Tones into "I Got a Woman" . Listen to both and study the comparison in Table 20.1 on the next page.

A Change is Gonna Come

I was born by the river
In a little tent
Oh, and just like the river, I've been runnin'
Ever since
It's been a long
A long time comin', but I know
A change gon' come
Oh, yes it will

Long Walk to D.C.

It's a long walk to DC but I've got my walking shoes on
I can't take a plane, passer train, because my money ain't that long
America we believe, oh that you love us still
So people I'm gonna be under to wipe away my tears