On one sweltering scorching August day in 1972, a sea of Black people crammed Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for one of many best live performance occasions of the period. The Wattstax live performance stays a cultural touchstone, a second when Blackness sought to heal itself by celebrating itself.
Expertise the Wattstax live performance.
The Wattstax live performance was greater than soul’s Woodstock, it was a snapshot of the Black-is-Lovely motion in full bloom; an early 70s salve for the injuries brought on by the struggles of the 60s and the hardship of Vietnam, which birthed a way of solidarity and celebration inside a group and tradition. The historic present was born of the Watts Summer season Competition, which had begun in 1966, a 12 months after the Watts Riots, to showcase the group’s vibrant artwork and music. African artwork, a parade, and a magnificence contest have been centerpieces of the annual occasion, with luminaries from Hugh Masekela to Muhammad Ali participating within the late 60s.
Stax Data, dubbed “Soulsville” as an intentional counter to Motown’s “Hitsville” moniker, championed itself as a label with its ear to the road. By the early Seventies, there was no Blacker label topping the charts than Al Bell’s Memphis imprint. Stax noticed a chance in partnering with the Watts Summer season Competition to each create a Black showcase, and garner nice publicity for a label that championed Blackness, donating all earnings going to group charities.
The occasion additionally gave Stax an opportunity to focus on a roster that had gone via a interval of flux on the daybreak of the Seventies. Stax famously misplaced Otis Redding and many of the authentic Bar-Kays in a tragic airplane accident in 1967, and label superstars Sam & Dave (of “Soul Man” fame) moved to Atlantic Data a 12 months later. To mitigate the losses, Bell had spearheaded a surge in releases from mainstay Isaac Hayes, in addition to new stars just like the Temprees and the Soul Youngsters, the now-refurbished Bar-Kays, and the legendary Staple Singers, who’d joined Stax in 1968. These have been initiatives meant to bolster and re-establish the label’s standing. Bell seemed on the Wattstax live performance as an effective way to cement the label’s new voices.
The Wattstax Live performance
Singer Kim Weston (sarcastically, a Motown alumnus) opened the occasion with a soulful rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner,” adopted by a younger Rev. Jesse Jackson, the occasion’s official MC, delivered his rousing and soon-to-be signature “I Am Somebody” speech. Weston then led a cadre of Black youth via the Black Nationwide Anthem, “Lift Every Voice & Sing,” and the tone was set for the present. The Staple Singers have been comparatively new to Stax, however the band’s legacy was already steeped in years of Black protest custom, having carried out at voter registration drives way back to the late Fifties. Their stomping tackle “Respect Yourself” served as an early present spotlight, with Mavis’ distinctive voice main the group via a soul-stirring “I’ll Take You There” that made the LA Memorial Coliseum really feel like a Baptist revival.
The showcase for Stax was greater than efficient; as audiences obtained to see the soul, blues, rock, and pop that the label had change into recognized for dwell. Blues guitarist Albert King delivered requirements like “I’ll Play the Blues For You” and “Killing Floor,” alongside Carla Thomas’ easy throwback pop-soul hits like “Gee Whiz” and “B-A-B-Y.” The Bar-Kays ran via an explosive efficiency of “Son Of Shaft” and introduced themselves as a formidable funk-rock act. Nice performances additionally got here from The Temprees, William Bell, Rance Allen, Rufus Thomas, Luther Ingram, and the Newcomers. There was even a gospel singalong of “Old Time Religion,” that includes a bunch of label artists, led by the likes of Bell and Eddie Floyd.
Due to scheduling points, there have been some notable roster absences. However for many who took the stage, it was a riveting excessive water mark for the label. The undisputed spotlight, nevertheless, was Isaac Hayes’ closing efficiency, which firmly introduced the Memphis legend as a cultural icon. Draped in his distinctive gold-link chain vest, along with his ever-present bald head and shades, Ike poured himself into stellar performances of “Theme from ‘Shaft’” (initially minimize from the following dwell live performance movie attributable to film copyright), “Soulsville,” and “Never Can Say Goodbye.” These performances each affirmed him because the label’s cornerstone and served as a benediction on Wattstax as a complete; Hayes embodying the brand new Black consciousness and the easy cool of Memphis soul. It was a day of Black consciousness crystallized in a single closing set.
The Wattstax Documentary
A live performance movie/documentary known as Wattstax could be launched a 12 months after the present, and it serves not solely as a doc of the performances, however of early Seventies Black life in Watts. Al Bell had recruited filmmakers David Wolper and Mel Stuart for the movie, however used a largely Black movie crew to seize each the present and the interviews all through the group. The doc additionally options footage of the riots, and humorous operating commentary on politics and tradition from Richard Pryor, who was on the cusp of vast stardom and in his sociopolitical prime. In 2004, Stuart recalled assembly Richard Pryor earlier than the legendary comic’s inclusion within the movie. “I started talking to him,” Stuart recalled. “And I said to him, ‘Say, what do you think about women? About sex?’ or ‘What do you think about the blues, or gospel?’ Whatever. And he would wind up with a half an hour off the top of his head, out of nowhere. And we used it. It was marvelous.”
The Wattstax documentary is an unfiltered snapshot of the period, with Black voices discussing Black points with unpretentious, unflinching honesty. It additionally contains performances from Stax artists who didn’t carry out on the precise present, like The Feelings and Johnnie Taylor. Regardless of the enhancing challenges with Hayes’ efficiency, and an R ranking that prevented attracting a large viewers, the live performance movie garnered a Golden Globe nomination for Greatest Documentary.
The Legacy Of The Wattstax Live performance
The Wattstax live performance confronted some complaints. The police presence on the occasion was criticized, and group leaders felt the pageant had gone from grassroots to crassly commercialized. However the spirit of the occasion was highly effective, and has endured many years after the present itself. It was the second-largest gathering of African Individuals at one occasion on the time, with greater than 110,000 individuals in attendance, second solely to 1963’s March On Washington. A complete of $73,000 was raised for the Watts group.
“We believed that Wattstax would demonstrate the positive attributes of Black pride and the unique substance found in the lives, living and lifestyle of the African American working class and middle class,” Bell defined in 2004. “While revealing some insight into their internal thoughts during a time when we were still struggling to be recognized, respected, accepted as human beings and to be granted ‘equal rights’ as enjoyed by every other ethnic group in the larger segment of American society.”
In giving voice to the group at a time when it was so keen to talk for itself, Bell and Stax offered a platform for a tradition that had been maligned and marginalized within the wake of the Civil Rights Motion. Wattstax is a doc, but it surely’s additionally a triumph. As so lots of the struggles of that interval echo right this moment, it’s necessary to have fun what this present was, what it meant (and nonetheless means), and what it displays concerning the Black expertise in America.
We’re republishing this text to have fun the anniversary of the Wattstax live performance in 1972. Black Music Reframed is an ongoing editorial collection on uDiscover Music that seeks to encourage a distinct lens, a wider lens, a brand new lens, when contemplating Black music; one not outlined by style parameters or labels, however by the creators. Gross sales and charts and firsts and rarities are necessary. However artists, music, and moments that form tradition aren’t at all times best-sellers, chart-toppers, or speedy successes. This collection, which facilities Black writers writing about Black music, takes a brand new take a look at music and moments which have beforehand both been missed or not had their tales advised with the correct context.
