On August 11, 1965, an African American man in Watts was pulled over and as was is so often the case, the officers involved in the stop used brute force and even a pregnant woman was kicked. This was the spark that ignited the Watts Rebellion that resulted in six days of civil unrest calling for equal opportunities for affordable housing and jobs for Black communities. This act of civil unrest resulted in positive change and some in Watts wanted to uplift and unite their community and so created an annual celebration that took place on the anniversary of the uprising called Watts Summer Fest. In 1972, for the seventh annual festival, Memphis-based Stax records (who had recently opened an office in L.A.) proposed adding their catalogue of acts to the festival resulting in Wattstax. It became the second largest gathering of Black people in America, only behind the million-man march. Previously only available as a two-volume soundtrack to the film, Craft Recordings is releasing the concert in its entirety as a 12-CD set as well as a 10-LP box set for the fiftieth anniversary of the epic concert.
The concert begins with a twenty-minute instrumental by Stax’s resident composer Dale Warren and the Wattstax ‘72 Orchestra. It starts with an orchestral feeling with brass, flutes, and percussion playing a marching tune and is soon joined by a keyboard. At about the three-minute mark a guitar joins in as well as full drum set and as the orchestra continues to play it becomes an epic soul jam session. This is followed by “The Star-Spangled Banner” performed by Kim Weston who, after a series of opening announcements, also sings the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The first main act of the day is The Staples Singers who perform excellent versions of their hits “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom)” and “Respect Yourself.” This is followed by a series of artists performing Gospel songs like Jimmy Jones singing “Somebody Bigger Than You and I” and Deborah Manning performing “Precious Lord Take My Hand.” The next big artist to come to the stage is songwriter extraordinaire David Porter. Opening with the soulful “Ain’t That Loving You (For More Reasons Than One)” and then slowing it down with R&B songs “Can’t See You When I Want To” and the Diana Ross hit “Reach Out and Touch (Somebody’s Hand).”
The heat gets turned up when the Funk group The Bar-Kays takes the stage opening with “Son of Shaft/Feel It.” They keep the part going with a lively rendition of the classic Otis Redding track “I Can’t Turn You Loose.” The Queen of Memphis Soul, Carla Thomas, kept the energy high performing her hits “Gee Whiz” and “B-A-B-Y” as well as a cover of “I Like What You’re Doing (To Me)” originally performed by Young & Company. How do you follow the Queen of Memphis Soul? With the King of the Blues, Albert King, of course. King surely got people out of their seats by playing a fiery set of “Matchbox Blues,” “Killing Floor” and “Gotta Be Some Changes Made.” The energy stays high when Rufus Thomas (father of Carla Thomas) takes the stage and plays “The Breakdown” which gets so many people out of their seats that there had to be an announcement for people to take their seats. No sooner does every take their seats that Thomas clucks like a chicken and performs his hit “Do The Funky Chicken” followed by spin off version called “Do The Funky Penguin.” After this set its time for the headliner. Who should take the stage other than the biggest artist on the Stax roster, Isacc Hayes. Taking the stage in a chain vest the band starts right into “Theme From Shaft.” Upon completion of this epic song, Hayes states that the sound wasn’t right and the band performs it again. Hayes booming voice sounds great on Gloria Gaynor’s “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “Soulsville” from the Shaft soundtrack. Hayes closes the show with an upbeat rendition of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” combined with Ray Charles “Lonely Avenue”
The 10-LP and 12-CD box sets both include a 70-page full color book with essays and pictures from the concert as well as pictures of the original program. The box set is a must have for fans of Stax Records artists from the 60’s and 70’s. For those that just want the highlights, Craft Recording have also issued a 1-CD format of The Best of Wattstax and a 2 LP reissue of the original soundtrack of the film, Wattstax: The Living Word.
