STAX: Soulsville, U.S.A. (2024) s01e04 Episode Script
Nothing Takes The Place of You
1
My father
was a landscaping contractor
for Winthrop Rockefeller
of the Rockefeller family.
As a teenager, I delivered
invoices from my father.
And one time, Rockefeller
talked to me about wealth.
He taught me the major financial
world's way of thinking.
One, you don't own
any of the turf.
So if you wanna become
an entrepreneur,
you have to appreciate
that there's someone else
that owns the turf
that you're setting out
to build something on.
Two, after you've gotten
to a certain magnitude,
you begin to infringe on
somebody else's market share.
And that's the major
corporations in this country.
Once you do that, they realize
you're achieving something,
they come in
and they wanna buy it.
"If we can't buy it from you,
we'll try to copy it.
And if we can't copy it,
then we'll destroy you."
The big fish
has to eat the little fish.
I understood the rules
of the game in America,
but after all of our success,
I began to wonder,
why couldn't Stax
become the big fish?
By the '70s,
Stax was on everybody's radar
in the music industry.
Very successful, recognized,
but Stax's presence
on the West Coast
still eluded them.
We decided to open
an office in Los Angeles.
But to have more impact
on the West Coast,
we needed more involvement
in the Black community.
Black folks in Watts
needed help.
We had just gone
through the Rebellion,
you know, six,
seven years before.
There were whole blocks
that had been burned down
and seven years later
they had not been rebuilt.
There's no difference
in Watts now, Watts '65.
Those people were in pain.
We had an obligation and needed
to do something about it.
Al's commitment
to the Black community,
he felt like he should give
something back
and still conduct business
and-and make money.
I understood that he felt
he needed to do that.
We decided to put on a concert
at the Los Angeles stadium
where the Rams play.
The management at the stadium
kinda laughed at us,
"You're some
little record company
from out of Memphis, Tennessee.
You wanna rent this stadium
to put on a concert?
Who do you say
these artists are?"
It became, "Let's bring the
whole entire roster out there."
And we were promoting
the daylights out of it.
Everybody
knew Wattstax, Wattstax.
We worked on it for months,
and every time
you run into anybody,
they'd say, "I'll be there.
I'll be there."
Now it looks
like we may pack this stadium.
So you know how it is
when there's a gathering
of more than one of us
someplace,
the largest segment of society
begins to kind of wonder,
"Are we gonna
have a problem here?"
The LAPD
wanted to patrol the Coliseum.
Nobody liked the Los Angeles
Police Department.
The Rebellion started
because of the LAPD.
Their hiring practices
were to go to the South
and get police from there.
So they hated us in the South,
and then they brought 'em here
to the West.
You got
police that are antagonistic,
who want to do
some cock waving kind of thing
and provoke somebody.
Larry Shaw
and Al Bell said,
"No, we were hiring
our own security."
You just eliminated
a huge problem.
No police, no conflict.
We the people ♪
Hey, now ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
We the people ♪
Yeah ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
Let's bring together our people.
Let's show ourselves that we can
do something for each other
and not be dependent upon
anybody, and we can do it.
But we all are
living on blood, so ♪
Don't let nobody
slip into the mud ♪
'Cause we the people ♪
You tell 'em ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
We decided that
we were going to
charge the people
just one dollar.
And we committed to
give a portion of the proceeds
to all of our civil rights
organizations
and our civic organizations.
Everybody sweatin' ♪
What you give
is what you get ♪
Our music was a reflection
of what goes on in our lives,
and we wanted to show that.
Larry Shaw said,
"Let us do a documentary
so that Black people
can see themselves."
We brought on David Wolper
and Mel Stuart.
The finest documentary people
in Hollywood.
But all of
the behind-the-camera staff
were all white guys.
No. No. No, we didn't want that.
Larry Shaw had a vision.
He wanted the people that lived
and worked in Watts
to speak for theirselves.
And at that time,
UCLA had just graduated
a crop of Black filmmakers.
African Americans
had been pretty much
kept out of the industry.
They needed to find some people
who really knew the community.
And that was us,
"The Wild Bunch."
You know,
the-the-the young guys
that lived in South Central LA.
I was 20-something.
Was just a young guy
with a camera
and happy to have a chance
to use a camera.
And I wanted to show how
beautiful Black folks were.
I was working at a camera shop.
I have quite a meager portfolio,
to be honest.
They looked at the portfolio
and they said to me, uh,
"We're going with somebody else,
but here's some tickets,
and a backstage pass."
Camera six, roll nine!
Wild sound. Wattstax.
Some people ♪
Are made of plastic ♪
Over seven years ago,
the people of Watts
stood together
and demanded to be heard.
On a Sunday this past August
in the Los Angeles Coliseum,
over 100,000 Black people
came together
to commemorate that moment
in American history.
The atmosphere,
it was like a combination
of church, a sporting event,
a revival,
and it was nothing
but Black people
as far as the eye could see.
Today, we are together,
we are unified
and on one accord.
But when we are together,
we got power,
and we can make decisions.
That is why we gather today,
to celebrate our homecoming
and our own sense
of somebodiness.
That is why I challenge you now
to stand together,
raise your fists together,
and engage
in our national Black litany.
-I am
- I am
-somebody.
- somebody.
-I am
-I am
-somebody.
-somebody.
-I may be poor
-I may be poor
-but I am
-but I am
-somebody!
-somebody!
-I am
-I am
-Black
-Black
-beautiful
-beautiful
-proud!
-proud!
-I must be respected!
-I must be respected!
-I must be protected!
-I must be protected!
What time is it?
When we stand together,
what time is it?
Nation Time!
When we say no more,
"Yessir, boss," what time is it?
What time is it?
What time is it?
"Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heartstrings freedom sings
All day, every day."
"And there are words
like Liberty
that almost make me cry.
If you had known what I know,
you would know why."
I had been at a stadium before,
but I had no idea how many
people were up there.
It was just when they told me
it was over a hundred thousand
people, I was like "Wow."
Carla Thomas!
By the time I sang,
I was hyped up on adrenaline.
Hey, boy ♪
We're drifting apart ♪
We keep breaking
each other's hearts ♪
Tell me, how long
can this go on ♪
Before all our love is gone ♪
Tell me now ♪
Can we pick up the pieces ♪
Can we pick up the pieces ♪
And start all over ♪
Yeah ♪
I know we can make it ♪
This time, we can go
all of the way ♪
'Cause I realize
the cost of losing you ♪
Is too high a price ♪
When we first got there,
it was kinda unreal.
I just thought
it was just so wonderful
because I was there
when Stax actually started.
Let's start all over ♪
Yeah, start all over ♪
It was our realization,
the importance of Stax
to the Black community.
Oh, yeah ♪
All right!
Tell the truth
on our equal rights ♪
Yeah! You been lyin'
on the truth ♪
Al, this is a very important
precedent that's being set today
with Black enterprise
being involved
in a tremendous
community project.
Uh, do you think
there's enough of this?
Would you like to see
more of it?
Oh, I think
there should be more of that.
Uh, I hope that today
is just an example
to all Black businessmen,
and other businessmen,
of how we
should begin to participate
and-and-and put money
back into the community
rather than through
token presentations
that we've been doing
in the past.
I hope today is just
a-a-an example
and merely beginning
of what it's really all about.
Right now, we'd like to give
everybody a chance
to get down.
Whoa-oh-whoa-oh-whoa ♪
Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
Woo-hoo ♪
I was born and raised
on 45th Street ♪
Had the problems of a man
at the age of three ♪
Now, my daddy's bad,
I've been told ♪
So my family name
I must uphold ♪
I love by the clock
and I live by the gun ♪
You ever met the father,
you met his son ♪
Woo! ♪
Yeah, yeah ♪
As a sister living
in this community,
what does this day mean to you?
Oh, wow.
It's a day in which
I'm given a chance
to represent people that I love,
people that I'm proud of.
Dad felt it important to get
the man on the street,
the woman on the
in the beauty shop,
the man at the restaurant,
the man on the stoop,
all of these different aspects
of Black people in their lives.
Black is beautiful
because it feels so good.
People have to have something
that they can relate to
for right now.
I don't mean tomorrow,
for right now,
dig what I'm saying?
Woo! ♪
Good God Almighty ♪
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! ♪
Don't mess with me ♪
I wanted Black people to be able
to look into that mirror
and see themselves positively,
and I wanted white people
to be able
to look through
a little peephole
and be able to look inside
and see just a little bit
of what we were all about.
Lord knows I'm the son ♪
Hee-hee! ♪
Woo, oh! ♪
There's a lot more
than putting out music.
Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Can I ask you something?
Ain't I'm clean?
Oh!
Y'all come on in now!
Come right on down front!
I got somethin'
I wanna show you.
I'm talking about
the Funky Chicken.
The deal was, is that
no one's supposed to
get on the field.
Y'all ready?
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
And he invites everybody
in on the field
and they're dancing and having
a good time, you know.
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Oh, oh ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Los Angeles Rams
are gonna play
Woo! ♪
so a problem was brewing.
And then, Larry Shaw
whispers something in his ear,
and what he's saying is,
"Get 'em off the field."
Come on, y'all,
please go to the stand.
Please with a capital P-P.
God bless
the talents of Rufus Thomas.
He was able to control
that crowd.
That's right.
Might be a little slow,
but you just got to go.
Don't jump the fence
because it don't make sense.
And there's one guy
that's on the field
and he's acting a fool.
You know, he's doing all kinds
of crazy stuff.
He don't mean
to be mean,
he just want be seen.
Yeah, that's a brother,
all right.
Somebody told him he's cute
and he want to try
to show it off out there.
It could've been a conflict,
but there were no police inside.
Now, y'all get him off.
Y'all go out there
and get him off.
Get him off, y'all.
Get him on off.
Get him on off.
And finally, the kids rush out,
and he doesn't want to go,
but they don't beat him up
or they're not violent.
It's just like the power
of this this loving mob
just swept him off the field
in a very nice way.
It also kinda showed the unity
that was there that day.
Dad was amazing.
And then I asked him, I said,
"Can we go sit
out in the audience?"
He said, "Are you crazy? No!"
They wouldn't let us go out.
Because I wanted to see,
as the sun was going down,
I wanted to see Isaac.
Brothers and sisters,
we are now
about to bring forth
a bad
bad
bad brother,
Isaac Hayes.
Yeah!
Yes!
Yes!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yes!
So here I am
as a young photographer,
just trying to make his way
in the world.
So I decided I needed to get up
on that platform.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
They had hired, you know,
the slabs of beef brothers,
the big, the big brothers,
but they weren't really
security.
So I was able to waltz
right up the stairway.
I had zero credentials
to be on that stage.
I was just there by sheer luck
and a little audacity.
And I'm a foot away
from Isaac Hayes
in front of everybody.
Soulsville ♪
Black man ♪
Born free ♪
At least that's the way
it's supposed to be ♪
The chains that bind him
are hard to see ♪
Unless you take
this walk with me ♪
Ooh ♪
The place where he lives ♪
Has got plenty of names ♪
Slum, ghetto,
and Black belt ♪
They are one and the same ♪
-And I call it ♪
-Soulsville ♪
Okay, so, this is one
of the photographs
I took of Isaac Hayes
that night.
Wattstax was, for me,
a pivotal moment.
Later, I had the audacity
to think
I need to be one of the keepers
of Black folks' history,
visual history.
'Cause I wasn't gonna leave it
to somebody else.
Little Black boy ♪
Needs a pair of shoes ♪
And this is only a part of ♪
Soulsville ♪
The images,
they chose me.
That was my dream,
to become a cameraman.
And, uh, it came true.
In ‘74, I went to Zaire,
and I filmed
When We Were Kings,
Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
I got the job because I
they saw Wattstax.
This is what I wanted to do
when I was 12 years old
in sixth grade.
I did something.
I did something. You know?
This misery that we have in ♪
Soulsville ♪
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
That day that I stood
on that stage
in Los Angeles, California,
and saw that place,
which was probably
an impossible dream
filled with 112,000
of my people
The highest day in my life,
that day.
I can't even explain how much
that meant to me.
Soulsville ♪
Two thousand
soulful people came together
for the opening of Wattstax.
Wattstax, how about that?
The growth at Stax
from the beginning of the label
till the Wattstax
documentary film
is mind-boggling to comprehend.
Stax, and many people
in the music industry,
begin to think in bigger terms
for Black artists.
And opens up the door for
artists we all know and love.
By '73, Memphis
was in the top five
record producing centers
in the world.
New York, L.A., London,
then Nashville and Memphis,
driven by the success
of Stax Records.
We were all learning
and developing and growing
and changing.
Oh my goodness.
Stax, it was excellence.
It was Black excellence.
You got writers, producers,
publishers, costume people.
There was a company
that was created
as a result of selling
Isaac all of his instruments
and sound systems
and stuff for the road.
So Stax was important
to the economy of the city.
One time,
Jim Stewart called the president
of Union Planters National Bank
to borrow a million dollars.
We paid him back
in less than a year.
And in Memphis, Tennessee,
at that time,
to borrow a million dollars,
especially being
a little old record company
in the music business
and pay that back,
"What the hell
are you all doing?"
"We want to do business
with y'all."
Union Planters National Bank.
To help you get more
out of life.
Up until that time,
Stax had been under the radar
because it was
in an all-Black area.
But word started getting out
that people were making
a lot of money over there.
You know, all the artists
started buying
all the fancy cars
right and left.
King Furs made a lot of money.
I bought my first one there
when I was 21.
Local merchants were making
money because we spent money.
Whites took the money,
but they still resented it.
I remember going to the bank
a couple of times,
and, you know, the tellers
would have an attitude
seeing a Black person coming in
with a nice-sized check.
I had a jeweler
who I brought
a lot of business to.
He told my wife,
"Isaac is getting too big
for his britches."
For most of white Memphis,
it's like, "How did this happen?
How did how did these
Black people in South Memphis
become this big
and have this power?"
We were energized, successful,
and there was nothing in Memphis
to stop it or to change it.
The early '70s were very good
but I'd been doing this
for 15 years or more,
night and day,
seven days a week.
I was getting tired.
One day, Jim said, "Al,
I think we need
to sell the company."
And I said, "No, Jim,
we don't need to sell."
I loved this company,
and my personal mission
is to continue to build
and grow Stax Records.
I couldn't just give it up.
I understood
where Al was coming from,
so I agreed to sell
my interest to Al.
I needed millions
of dollars to buy Jim out.
So I knew I had to get to one of
these major companies out here
and get me some help.
I went to several companies,
but there was no place
in the entire industry
that would offer the kind
of money that we needed,
except CBS.
The leader
in the rock revolution.
CBS Records took in
two billion,
seventeen million dollars.
And that's just
for records and tapes.
Columbia, CBS Records
was the number one
recorded music company
in existence in our industry.
They were all power.
The whole of the industry
bowed to their knees.
But there was a problem.
The Black segment
of the industry
considered CBS racist.
They believed CBS didn't care
about them at all.
It was as though
they were nonexistent.
Where I found some peace
within me to make this decision
was Clive Davis
Oh, yeah ♪
the president
of CBS Records.
Mr. Big Stuff ♪
Who do you think you are,
Mr. Big Stuff? ♪
Clive Davis
A genius.
I explained to him my mission
to expand into the mainstream.
He said, "Well, Al, I think
I can get that done.
I think we can do that."
Clive Davis
saw this as making money
in the R&B business,
that, at that point,
CBS had yet to be making.
The soul music market
was substantial, it was growing,
and for CBS, the opportunity
with Stax was gold.
When we finished talking,
Clive Davis got up,
took my arm, said "Al,
we're gonna march
through this industry together
and show them
what can be done out here."
The deal that Al Bell
and Clive Davis worked out
was the inverse of the typical
distribution deal of the time.
CBS could get a 15% royalty
of the sales
and Stax would get the rest.
Plus, Stax maintained
creative control.
This is a total flip.
The little guy is going to make
a lot more than the big guy,
the corporate behemoth.
No large American
record corporation
had ever agreed to a deal
like this before.
With CBS, things were really,
really happening.
Stax got into spoken word,
country, rock, show tunes.
Would you welcome Lena Zavaroni?
We had signed this little girl.
She had a voice
like Ethel Merman.
Every minute,
he gets bolder ♪
Now he's leaning
on my shoulder ♪
Mama ♪
We were on top of the world.
We were on top of the world.
Whoa, Mama ♪
He's kissing me ♪
Al Bell really
wanted to make Stax Records
a major label
equal to RCA or Columbia.
Yeah ♪
The Stax-Columbia deal
was made October 24, '72
and by May 1973,
Columbia, which was owned
by CBS,
had a problem.
The story begins
with Pat Falcone,
convicted heroin smuggler
with ties to
a large New York mafia family.
Patsy Falcone was arrested
on a drug charge
and a quantity of heroin
was also seized.
In Falcone's address book,
investigators found the name
of a high-level executive
at Columbia Records,
a major record company
in rock music.
A while later, that executive
and Clive Davis,
president of Columbia Records,
were fired on short notice.
CBS is saying nothing
about the dismissal
of Clive Davis
other than an official statement
saying that he's being sued
for misappropriation
of company funds.
They fired Clive Davis.
I said, "Oh my God."
The only reason
I made the deal with CBS
was because of the relationship
with Clive Davis.
And now he's gone.
Clive Davis's
successors get into office.
They start looking
at the various deals
they have with various
companies.
They see the Stax deal
and think this is nuts.
This little company
in this backwater town,
as these New York executives
saw it,
had control of everything.
And so they want to renegotiate
the deal.
I said, "Wait a minute."
I had already signed a deal.
Well, my mind went back to
what Winthrop Rockefeller
taught me
about big fish
eats the little fish.
They try to copy
what you're doing.
Rolling.
They come
and try to acquire
or purchase what you're doing.
And if they can't do that,
then they set out
to put you out of business.
There are rules in this game,
in that world.
But I couldn't accept
that offer.
-What time is it?
-Nation Time!
I don't think Al realized
what he might be up against
when you got powerful executives
at a corporation the size
and scale of Columbia
who decide,
"No, this doesn't work for us.
It's time to renegotiate."
It's like talking to the mafia.
You're not gonna have
your kneecaps broken,
but you're gonna say no?
See what happens.
I was in Washington, D.C.,
doing promotions,
and I went into Waxie Maxie,
ran by a gentleman
by the name of Herbie Cohen,
who has 19 stores
in the Washington, D.C. area.
And I knew Herbie personally.
So I went through
and see the salespeople
getting their aisles together,
tidied up and everything.
I said, "How am I doing
on that new Johnnie Taylor?"
"We don't have it."
"Uh?"
"We don't have Johnnie Taylor."
"Hold on, hold on."
So I ran back up
and I said, "Well, by the way,
I didn't see the Staple Singers.
You got them?"
"We don't have it."
"Uh-huh?"
And I said, "Herbie, why you not
having no product?
What's going on?
You lost your mind?"
And he said,
"No, I ain't lost my mind.
You lost yours.
CBS got you on hold."
"On hold?"
I went to Dallas
with the Staple Singers.
They were opening
at the Fairmont Hotel.
Actually the first Black act
to ever headline
at a Fairmont Hotel.
You got radio spots running
and-and-and all of that,
and they're appearing
right there in town.
You know, it's a tremendous
opportunity to sell product.
So imagine
imagine my confusion
when I'm talking
to the record shops,
and I'm told that,
"Well, we love--
I mean, sales would be going
well if we had some product."
"You don't have product?
CBS is our distributor,
there's an office in Dallas,
and you don't have
Staple Singers product?"
I talked to CBS
every week,
two times a week,
three times a week,
and always gotta start
with, "Al, it's just,
there's no demand for it."
"But there's demand
for product in the market!"
"But, Al, we're not
getting the demand in here."
So, now keep in mind,
CBS is laughing
because they control
your money now.
Stax Records
is continuing to produce product
at the pace and level
that it always has,
but we can't get the product
into the marketplace
because CBS
controls our distribution.
No product out.
If you press it,
they're stockpiling it someplace
where you can't find it.
CBS got in touch with me
and asked me to have
a meeting with me.
Said to me, "Al, what we'd like
to do is make a deal with you
where we will make you
vice president of CBS Corporate.
You have access to all the perks
that executives of your stature
get inside of CBS.
The corporate jets.
We'd like for you to go
around America, speaking
and talking to people
about the beautiful relationship
with CBS
working with Black people.
And when soul music artists
start making demands,
we want you to come in and say,
'CBS is gonna take care of you,
and it can help build your
career and build your life.'"
He said, "And you'll be the most
powerful Black man in America.
What do you think
about that, Al?"
I said, "Let me
let me think about that."
And I disappeared. I left.
There was a desire
to take Stax over,
own it and control it, you know?
"Y'all sing and dance
and do what you do best,
and we'll take care
of the business."
If I'd accepted that deal,
I knew what the end results
of that was going to be.
A contemporary slave.
I couldn't take that.
I can't sell my soul.
At the same time, I wouldn't
knowingly sabotage the careers
of all of those artists at Stax.
So I couldn't do it.
Ultimately,
CBS starts withholding money
from Stax.
Suddenly, there's no income
coming into this company.
I came back to Stax
when the company
fell into financial straits.
We, um, had a substantial debt.
So I put what money
I'd gotten for the sale
back into the company.
We were belt tightening.
We cut back employees.
We cut back until
there was almost no overhead.
We had to work from nothing.
Yes,
it was back scrapping again.
But, you know,
you get knocked down,
the challenge is get back up.
That's how you stay in the game.
During that time,
Al Bell was inspirational.
Al, you know,
was gonna find a way.
We used to call
Al Bell the "hype-meister"
because no matter
how dark the situation,
Al Bell has an upside
to the story.
"It's gonna be okay,
Ms. Crutcher.
Don't worry about it.
It's all right."
We needed to get some revenue.
So Jim Stewart came up
with the idea of Truth Records,
so we could sell records
outside of our deal with CBS
and start making money.
That was Stax refusing
to lay down,
refusing to say,
"Columbia got my hands tied."
- This is, uh, G.
One, two, three, four.
Hello?
May I speak to Barbara?
Barbara, this is Shirley.
Shirley Brown.
She, uh, she was a great artist.
She she would've been,
you know, an Aretha Franklin.
Woman to woman ♪
If you've ever been in love ♪
Then you know ♪
How I feel ♪
And woman to woman ♪
If you were in my shoes ♪
To this day, I can see
Al sitting there
with Jim in Jim's office,
listening to that groove.
You know?
Same thing too ♪
Making music like that,
that's what Stax was built on.
Woman to woman ♪
Now can't you see where
I'm coming from ♪
That's a thing of communicating
and moving you.
Making you feel something.
Woman to woman ♪
At number 22, moving up 4,
here's Shirley Brown
and "Woman to Woman."
Woman to woman ♪
Now, should
I just step aside ♪
And let her take
what's rightfully mine ♪
Oh, woman to woman ♪
Woman to Woman
was the last record I did.
Ironically enough
it was a million seller.
Too little, too late.
Stax
was doing everything they could
to save themselves
from economic strangulation
by CBS.
Suddenly, they have
this much bigger problem
with Union Planters,
who they've had
a long relationship with.
By the mid-'70s,
this bank was in trouble.
They had made an unbelievable
number of shaky loans
and is now being threatened
by the U.S. government
to get its ship straightened out
or go out of business.
And then it's discovered
that one of their employees
is forging checks.
He's a loan officer
named Joe Harwell,
who just happens to have
the Stax account.
Joe Harwell,
he'd been sent to prison.
I was shocked.
I was shocked.
I thought he was the best banker
in the world.
When the artists came in town,
if they needed to get money,
cash a Stax check,
I would send them to him.
The bank has insurance
that basically says
if there's fraudulent activity
between a bank employee
and a client,
they can collect millions
of dollars and save the bank.
The board of directors
at Union Planters
is comprised of the financial
elite within Memphis.
They were not going to allow
that bank to go down
if they could do
anything about it.
At Union Planters,
the solution is to
connect Joe Harwell to Al Bell.
In Memphis, Tennessee,
what better target
than a record company
that's predominantly
African American
that's making
Black people wealthy?
Our fate becomes their cover.
Union Planters National Bank
filed a 16-count indictment
against me and Joe Harwell
for conspiring to defraud
the bank of $18.9 million.
Can you imagine that
in Memphis, Tennessee?
And a Black man from Arkansas
conspiring to defraud
a white bank
of $18.9 million?
Is that believable?
Is that believable even?
When I went to my trial,
I thought based on the way
these attorneys
were presenting their case,
that the jurors,
two black people,
ten white people,
knowing the world,
that they would do anything
other than find me guilty.
I left the courtroom
that first day
and went back over there
on South Parkway
to my back guest bedroom,
got on my knees beside the bed,
and I opened a drawer.
My mind was I needed something,
and in that drawer
was my Bible
and my .38.
And as I looked at it,
I just grabbed my Bible,
took it out,
stayed on my knees,
and I went
to my Garden of Gethsemane.
Not my will,
but Thy will be done.
And made up my mind that night,
if they are successful
prosecuting me,
then I'll run this business
going forth
and rebuild it from jail.
If the only demon
in this situation that Al Bell
had been fighting
had been criminal,
that would've been one thing.
But he was fighting the most
insidious of all demons,
and that's racism.
He-- It was bigger
than Al Bell.
Al Bell just happened to be
the owner and face
of what it was
that Memphis was trying to kill.
All the charges against Al
caused us to lose credibility.
Nobody wanted to have anything
to do with Stax.
We could not overcome
all these things
coming at us from all sides.
I realized
the company was in trouble
when I went to cash my check.
I was told,
"We've been instructed, uh,
that we can't take
your payroll checks."
Then it got so bad
that uh, uh,
we were getting paid in cash.
I was writing money
out of my checking account,
giving to people,
because they'd say,
"I can't pay my house note.
I can't pay this, I can't pay."
And me giving people money
to take care of some
of their responsibilities.
Bills piling up.
No money coming in.
Employees and artists leaving.
One day,
I got called
into Deanie's office.
She said, "I've got to cut
my department in half
immediately,
and I'm starting with you
because in six months,
none of us are gonna be here."
In the final days,
I-I don't think there was more
than 20 people
left aboard ship to work.
Al was trying
to work things out,
get some money from here,
some money from there.
He definitely believed
he could keep Stax going
if we did one more great record
or one more thing.
I was in my office on McLemore,
and I got a telephone call
from the receptionist.
She said, uh, "Mr. Bell,
there are some police officers
and people from
Union Planters National Bank
that want to meet with you."
I walked up,
and then the officer
from Union Planters
National Bank,
he said, "Take us
to the master tape vault.
We want the master tapes."
I said, "What the heck
are you talking about?"
I looked and saw
a Black federal marshal,
and I said to him,
"What's going on, man?
I mean, what is this for?"
He said, "Well, Al,
Union Planters National Bank
brought an involuntary
bankruptcy proceeding
against you,
and I have to serve you
with that.
They want the master tapes."
I was really getting upset,
really getting upset.
Our most important asset
as a recorded music company
is those masters.
At that point, I really was
ready to go off.
And then the Black
federal marshal,
he said quietly,
"Be cool. They came to off you.
Be cool."
I said, "What?" He said,
"They came to off you, Al."
I said, "Whoa.
I'm facing death out there?"
I turned around, and I start
walking down the halls
and back toward
Studio B
and the master tape vault,
and showed them
how to open the vault,
and let them in.
Everything significant
that we achieved
was in those masters.
I remember calling up
top business people.
I thought, look,
I'm a white guy,
and I knew a few people
that owned certain things,
I thought, maybe
they'll listen to me.
And I remember going
to several people and saying,
"Look, Stax is an institution.
Why don't we save it?"
And nobody cared.
People with all the money
in the world,
who could have done something,
two or three of 'em
could have got together,
not even missed the money,
and-and saved it.
But no one was interested.
I couldn't get anybody
interested.
I went there one day.
It was rubble.
I parked right in front,
climbed up on them bricks
which was, like, 'bout here,
all along,
and laid down on them like this.
Just laid down on the bricks.
That was like
demolishing a pyramid.
So much so much blood,
sweat, and tears
went into that company
from so many of us.
When it ended,
my thought was
all the unfinished music,
you know,
all what could have been.
Think of the great music
that we could have produced
to share with the world.
I mean, you destroy art
like that
that's that's a sin.
After the close of Stax,
I would drive
and park across the street
and look at that vacant lot
and see the weeds there,
building gone
and I would cry.
Do you think people understand
how much a sacrifice
this kind of latter part
of the story was for you?
They have no earthly idea.
They have no earthly idea.
And people that I love
and that are a part of Stax,
and I know they don't.
That I was gonna be going
to jail if they'd convicted,
had been successful in that,
for two life times, 140 years?
That's what I've been through.
Al was acquitted.
By the time that was over,
you know,
he had to move out of Memphis.
He just couldn't take
the city anymore
'cause he how he felt
on what they had done to him.
What about you?
Well, we lost lost our home
and then
and the bank finally,
you know, took it.
And, um
So it was it was
kind of rough for a while.
But, you know, I consider myself
quite lucky, in all.
I loved to get up every morning
and go to work.
Gee whiz ♪
Look at his eyes ♪
Gee whiz ♪
How they hypnotize ♪
He's got everything ♪
The people
who gave their hearts
and minds and soul
to that company,
they made Stax Records.
Oh, oh ♪
Gee whiz ♪
He's all the joy ♪
Gee whiz ♪
Bettye Crutcher,
David and Isaac,
Rufus and Carla,
Booker T.,
Otis.
I hope I'm not his decoy ♪
I merely gave them
the tool
for them to express themselves.
Oh ♪
Our love ♪
There was real soul there.
I hope our love will ♪
Grow and grow ♪
'Cause ♪
We were trying to be that
example of the American ideal.
Those with the power,
they wanted Stax Records
to be erased.
But for years,
people would come to Memphis
from all over the world
and they would pick up
anything they could find
on that corner.
A pebble,
a piece of broken glass,
whatever they could get
that they thought might have
been a part
of that old Stax building,
because they were that excited
and that much in love
with the music that was created
at Stax Records
in Soulsville, USA.
Gee whiz ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
-Each new day ♪
-Each new day ♪
Finds me so blue, yeah ♪
Because nothing,
oh, nothing ♪
Takes the place of you ♪
I read your letters ♪
Oh, one by one ♪
And I still love you ♪
When it's all said and done ♪
Oh, my darling ♪
Oh, my darling, my darling ♪
I'm so blue, yeah ♪
Blue ♪
-Because nothing ♪
-Because nothing ♪
Oh, nothing ♪
Takes the place of you ♪
As I ♪
As I write this letter ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
It's raining, raining,
raining ♪
It's raining
on my windowpane ♪
Ah, and ♪
And I feel the need ♪
Oh, the need of you ♪
Because, see, without you,
oh, without you ♪
Where are you? ♪
Oh, nothing, nothing,
nothing seems the same ♪
My father
was a landscaping contractor
for Winthrop Rockefeller
of the Rockefeller family.
As a teenager, I delivered
invoices from my father.
And one time, Rockefeller
talked to me about wealth.
He taught me the major financial
world's way of thinking.
One, you don't own
any of the turf.
So if you wanna become
an entrepreneur,
you have to appreciate
that there's someone else
that owns the turf
that you're setting out
to build something on.
Two, after you've gotten
to a certain magnitude,
you begin to infringe on
somebody else's market share.
And that's the major
corporations in this country.
Once you do that, they realize
you're achieving something,
they come in
and they wanna buy it.
"If we can't buy it from you,
we'll try to copy it.
And if we can't copy it,
then we'll destroy you."
The big fish
has to eat the little fish.
I understood the rules
of the game in America,
but after all of our success,
I began to wonder,
why couldn't Stax
become the big fish?
By the '70s,
Stax was on everybody's radar
in the music industry.
Very successful, recognized,
but Stax's presence
on the West Coast
still eluded them.
We decided to open
an office in Los Angeles.
But to have more impact
on the West Coast,
we needed more involvement
in the Black community.
Black folks in Watts
needed help.
We had just gone
through the Rebellion,
you know, six,
seven years before.
There were whole blocks
that had been burned down
and seven years later
they had not been rebuilt.
There's no difference
in Watts now, Watts '65.
Those people were in pain.
We had an obligation and needed
to do something about it.
Al's commitment
to the Black community,
he felt like he should give
something back
and still conduct business
and-and make money.
I understood that he felt
he needed to do that.
We decided to put on a concert
at the Los Angeles stadium
where the Rams play.
The management at the stadium
kinda laughed at us,
"You're some
little record company
from out of Memphis, Tennessee.
You wanna rent this stadium
to put on a concert?
Who do you say
these artists are?"
It became, "Let's bring the
whole entire roster out there."
And we were promoting
the daylights out of it.
Everybody
knew Wattstax, Wattstax.
We worked on it for months,
and every time
you run into anybody,
they'd say, "I'll be there.
I'll be there."
Now it looks
like we may pack this stadium.
So you know how it is
when there's a gathering
of more than one of us
someplace,
the largest segment of society
begins to kind of wonder,
"Are we gonna
have a problem here?"
The LAPD
wanted to patrol the Coliseum.
Nobody liked the Los Angeles
Police Department.
The Rebellion started
because of the LAPD.
Their hiring practices
were to go to the South
and get police from there.
So they hated us in the South,
and then they brought 'em here
to the West.
You got
police that are antagonistic,
who want to do
some cock waving kind of thing
and provoke somebody.
Larry Shaw
and Al Bell said,
"No, we were hiring
our own security."
You just eliminated
a huge problem.
No police, no conflict.
We the people ♪
Hey, now ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
We the people ♪
Yeah ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
Let's bring together our people.
Let's show ourselves that we can
do something for each other
and not be dependent upon
anybody, and we can do it.
But we all are
living on blood, so ♪
Don't let nobody
slip into the mud ♪
'Cause we the people ♪
You tell 'em ♪
Got to make the world
go 'round ♪
Got to make the world now ♪
We decided that
we were going to
charge the people
just one dollar.
And we committed to
give a portion of the proceeds
to all of our civil rights
organizations
and our civic organizations.
Everybody sweatin' ♪
What you give
is what you get ♪
Our music was a reflection
of what goes on in our lives,
and we wanted to show that.
Larry Shaw said,
"Let us do a documentary
so that Black people
can see themselves."
We brought on David Wolper
and Mel Stuart.
The finest documentary people
in Hollywood.
But all of
the behind-the-camera staff
were all white guys.
No. No. No, we didn't want that.
Larry Shaw had a vision.
He wanted the people that lived
and worked in Watts
to speak for theirselves.
And at that time,
UCLA had just graduated
a crop of Black filmmakers.
African Americans
had been pretty much
kept out of the industry.
They needed to find some people
who really knew the community.
And that was us,
"The Wild Bunch."
You know,
the-the-the young guys
that lived in South Central LA.
I was 20-something.
Was just a young guy
with a camera
and happy to have a chance
to use a camera.
And I wanted to show how
beautiful Black folks were.
I was working at a camera shop.
I have quite a meager portfolio,
to be honest.
They looked at the portfolio
and they said to me, uh,
"We're going with somebody else,
but here's some tickets,
and a backstage pass."
Camera six, roll nine!
Wild sound. Wattstax.
Some people ♪
Are made of plastic ♪
Over seven years ago,
the people of Watts
stood together
and demanded to be heard.
On a Sunday this past August
in the Los Angeles Coliseum,
over 100,000 Black people
came together
to commemorate that moment
in American history.
The atmosphere,
it was like a combination
of church, a sporting event,
a revival,
and it was nothing
but Black people
as far as the eye could see.
Today, we are together,
we are unified
and on one accord.
But when we are together,
we got power,
and we can make decisions.
That is why we gather today,
to celebrate our homecoming
and our own sense
of somebodiness.
That is why I challenge you now
to stand together,
raise your fists together,
and engage
in our national Black litany.
-I am
- I am
-somebody.
- somebody.
-I am
-I am
-somebody.
-somebody.
-I may be poor
-I may be poor
-but I am
-but I am
-somebody!
-somebody!
-I am
-I am
-Black
-Black
-beautiful
-beautiful
-proud!
-proud!
-I must be respected!
-I must be respected!
-I must be protected!
-I must be protected!
What time is it?
When we stand together,
what time is it?
Nation Time!
When we say no more,
"Yessir, boss," what time is it?
What time is it?
What time is it?
"Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heartstrings freedom sings
All day, every day."
"And there are words
like Liberty
that almost make me cry.
If you had known what I know,
you would know why."
I had been at a stadium before,
but I had no idea how many
people were up there.
It was just when they told me
it was over a hundred thousand
people, I was like "Wow."
Carla Thomas!
By the time I sang,
I was hyped up on adrenaline.
Hey, boy ♪
We're drifting apart ♪
We keep breaking
each other's hearts ♪
Tell me, how long
can this go on ♪
Before all our love is gone ♪
Tell me now ♪
Can we pick up the pieces ♪
Can we pick up the pieces ♪
And start all over ♪
Yeah ♪
I know we can make it ♪
This time, we can go
all of the way ♪
'Cause I realize
the cost of losing you ♪
Is too high a price ♪
When we first got there,
it was kinda unreal.
I just thought
it was just so wonderful
because I was there
when Stax actually started.
Let's start all over ♪
Yeah, start all over ♪
It was our realization,
the importance of Stax
to the Black community.
Oh, yeah ♪
All right!
Tell the truth
on our equal rights ♪
Yeah! You been lyin'
on the truth ♪
Al, this is a very important
precedent that's being set today
with Black enterprise
being involved
in a tremendous
community project.
Uh, do you think
there's enough of this?
Would you like to see
more of it?
Oh, I think
there should be more of that.
Uh, I hope that today
is just an example
to all Black businessmen,
and other businessmen,
of how we
should begin to participate
and-and-and put money
back into the community
rather than through
token presentations
that we've been doing
in the past.
I hope today is just
a-a-an example
and merely beginning
of what it's really all about.
Right now, we'd like to give
everybody a chance
to get down.
Whoa-oh-whoa-oh-whoa ♪
Whoa-ho-ho-ho ♪
Woo-hoo ♪
I was born and raised
on 45th Street ♪
Had the problems of a man
at the age of three ♪
Now, my daddy's bad,
I've been told ♪
So my family name
I must uphold ♪
I love by the clock
and I live by the gun ♪
You ever met the father,
you met his son ♪
Woo! ♪
Yeah, yeah ♪
As a sister living
in this community,
what does this day mean to you?
Oh, wow.
It's a day in which
I'm given a chance
to represent people that I love,
people that I'm proud of.
Dad felt it important to get
the man on the street,
the woman on the
in the beauty shop,
the man at the restaurant,
the man on the stoop,
all of these different aspects
of Black people in their lives.
Black is beautiful
because it feels so good.
People have to have something
that they can relate to
for right now.
I don't mean tomorrow,
for right now,
dig what I'm saying?
Woo! ♪
Good God Almighty ♪
Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo! ♪
Don't mess with me ♪
I wanted Black people to be able
to look into that mirror
and see themselves positively,
and I wanted white people
to be able
to look through
a little peephole
and be able to look inside
and see just a little bit
of what we were all about.
Lord knows I'm the son ♪
Hee-hee! ♪
Woo, oh! ♪
There's a lot more
than putting out music.
Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Hey!
-Can I ask you something?
Ain't I'm clean?
Oh!
Y'all come on in now!
Come right on down front!
I got somethin'
I wanna show you.
I'm talking about
the Funky Chicken.
The deal was, is that
no one's supposed to
get on the field.
Y'all ready?
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
And he invites everybody
in on the field
and they're dancing and having
a good time, you know.
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Oh, oh ♪
Do the funky chicken now ♪
Los Angeles Rams
are gonna play
Woo! ♪
so a problem was brewing.
And then, Larry Shaw
whispers something in his ear,
and what he's saying is,
"Get 'em off the field."
Come on, y'all,
please go to the stand.
Please with a capital P-P.
God bless
the talents of Rufus Thomas.
He was able to control
that crowd.
That's right.
Might be a little slow,
but you just got to go.
Don't jump the fence
because it don't make sense.
And there's one guy
that's on the field
and he's acting a fool.
You know, he's doing all kinds
of crazy stuff.
He don't mean
to be mean,
he just want be seen.
Yeah, that's a brother,
all right.
Somebody told him he's cute
and he want to try
to show it off out there.
It could've been a conflict,
but there were no police inside.
Now, y'all get him off.
Y'all go out there
and get him off.
Get him off, y'all.
Get him on off.
Get him on off.
And finally, the kids rush out,
and he doesn't want to go,
but they don't beat him up
or they're not violent.
It's just like the power
of this this loving mob
just swept him off the field
in a very nice way.
It also kinda showed the unity
that was there that day.
Dad was amazing.
And then I asked him, I said,
"Can we go sit
out in the audience?"
He said, "Are you crazy? No!"
They wouldn't let us go out.
Because I wanted to see,
as the sun was going down,
I wanted to see Isaac.
Brothers and sisters,
we are now
about to bring forth
a bad
bad
bad brother,
Isaac Hayes.
Yeah!
Yes!
Yes!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yes!
So here I am
as a young photographer,
just trying to make his way
in the world.
So I decided I needed to get up
on that platform.
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Yeah, yeah!
They had hired, you know,
the slabs of beef brothers,
the big, the big brothers,
but they weren't really
security.
So I was able to waltz
right up the stairway.
I had zero credentials
to be on that stage.
I was just there by sheer luck
and a little audacity.
And I'm a foot away
from Isaac Hayes
in front of everybody.
Soulsville ♪
Black man ♪
Born free ♪
At least that's the way
it's supposed to be ♪
The chains that bind him
are hard to see ♪
Unless you take
this walk with me ♪
Ooh ♪
The place where he lives ♪
Has got plenty of names ♪
Slum, ghetto,
and Black belt ♪
They are one and the same ♪
-And I call it ♪
-Soulsville ♪
Okay, so, this is one
of the photographs
I took of Isaac Hayes
that night.
Wattstax was, for me,
a pivotal moment.
Later, I had the audacity
to think
I need to be one of the keepers
of Black folks' history,
visual history.
'Cause I wasn't gonna leave it
to somebody else.
Little Black boy ♪
Needs a pair of shoes ♪
And this is only a part of ♪
Soulsville ♪
The images,
they chose me.
That was my dream,
to become a cameraman.
And, uh, it came true.
In ‘74, I went to Zaire,
and I filmed
When We Were Kings,
Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.
I got the job because I
they saw Wattstax.
This is what I wanted to do
when I was 12 years old
in sixth grade.
I did something.
I did something. You know?
This misery that we have in ♪
Soulsville ♪
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪
That day that I stood
on that stage
in Los Angeles, California,
and saw that place,
which was probably
an impossible dream
filled with 112,000
of my people
The highest day in my life,
that day.
I can't even explain how much
that meant to me.
Soulsville ♪
Two thousand
soulful people came together
for the opening of Wattstax.
Wattstax, how about that?
The growth at Stax
from the beginning of the label
till the Wattstax
documentary film
is mind-boggling to comprehend.
Stax, and many people
in the music industry,
begin to think in bigger terms
for Black artists.
And opens up the door for
artists we all know and love.
By '73, Memphis
was in the top five
record producing centers
in the world.
New York, L.A., London,
then Nashville and Memphis,
driven by the success
of Stax Records.
We were all learning
and developing and growing
and changing.
Oh my goodness.
Stax, it was excellence.
It was Black excellence.
You got writers, producers,
publishers, costume people.
There was a company
that was created
as a result of selling
Isaac all of his instruments
and sound systems
and stuff for the road.
So Stax was important
to the economy of the city.
One time,
Jim Stewart called the president
of Union Planters National Bank
to borrow a million dollars.
We paid him back
in less than a year.
And in Memphis, Tennessee,
at that time,
to borrow a million dollars,
especially being
a little old record company
in the music business
and pay that back,
"What the hell
are you all doing?"
"We want to do business
with y'all."
Union Planters National Bank.
To help you get more
out of life.
Up until that time,
Stax had been under the radar
because it was
in an all-Black area.
But word started getting out
that people were making
a lot of money over there.
You know, all the artists
started buying
all the fancy cars
right and left.
King Furs made a lot of money.
I bought my first one there
when I was 21.
Local merchants were making
money because we spent money.
Whites took the money,
but they still resented it.
I remember going to the bank
a couple of times,
and, you know, the tellers
would have an attitude
seeing a Black person coming in
with a nice-sized check.
I had a jeweler
who I brought
a lot of business to.
He told my wife,
"Isaac is getting too big
for his britches."
For most of white Memphis,
it's like, "How did this happen?
How did how did these
Black people in South Memphis
become this big
and have this power?"
We were energized, successful,
and there was nothing in Memphis
to stop it or to change it.
The early '70s were very good
but I'd been doing this
for 15 years or more,
night and day,
seven days a week.
I was getting tired.
One day, Jim said, "Al,
I think we need
to sell the company."
And I said, "No, Jim,
we don't need to sell."
I loved this company,
and my personal mission
is to continue to build
and grow Stax Records.
I couldn't just give it up.
I understood
where Al was coming from,
so I agreed to sell
my interest to Al.
I needed millions
of dollars to buy Jim out.
So I knew I had to get to one of
these major companies out here
and get me some help.
I went to several companies,
but there was no place
in the entire industry
that would offer the kind
of money that we needed,
except CBS.
The leader
in the rock revolution.
CBS Records took in
two billion,
seventeen million dollars.
And that's just
for records and tapes.
Columbia, CBS Records
was the number one
recorded music company
in existence in our industry.
They were all power.
The whole of the industry
bowed to their knees.
But there was a problem.
The Black segment
of the industry
considered CBS racist.
They believed CBS didn't care
about them at all.
It was as though
they were nonexistent.
Where I found some peace
within me to make this decision
was Clive Davis
Oh, yeah ♪
the president
of CBS Records.
Mr. Big Stuff ♪
Who do you think you are,
Mr. Big Stuff? ♪
Clive Davis
A genius.
I explained to him my mission
to expand into the mainstream.
He said, "Well, Al, I think
I can get that done.
I think we can do that."
Clive Davis
saw this as making money
in the R&B business,
that, at that point,
CBS had yet to be making.
The soul music market
was substantial, it was growing,
and for CBS, the opportunity
with Stax was gold.
When we finished talking,
Clive Davis got up,
took my arm, said "Al,
we're gonna march
through this industry together
and show them
what can be done out here."
The deal that Al Bell
and Clive Davis worked out
was the inverse of the typical
distribution deal of the time.
CBS could get a 15% royalty
of the sales
and Stax would get the rest.
Plus, Stax maintained
creative control.
This is a total flip.
The little guy is going to make
a lot more than the big guy,
the corporate behemoth.
No large American
record corporation
had ever agreed to a deal
like this before.
With CBS, things were really,
really happening.
Stax got into spoken word,
country, rock, show tunes.
Would you welcome Lena Zavaroni?
We had signed this little girl.
She had a voice
like Ethel Merman.
Every minute,
he gets bolder ♪
Now he's leaning
on my shoulder ♪
Mama ♪
We were on top of the world.
We were on top of the world.
Whoa, Mama ♪
He's kissing me ♪
Al Bell really
wanted to make Stax Records
a major label
equal to RCA or Columbia.
Yeah ♪
The Stax-Columbia deal
was made October 24, '72
and by May 1973,
Columbia, which was owned
by CBS,
had a problem.
The story begins
with Pat Falcone,
convicted heroin smuggler
with ties to
a large New York mafia family.
Patsy Falcone was arrested
on a drug charge
and a quantity of heroin
was also seized.
In Falcone's address book,
investigators found the name
of a high-level executive
at Columbia Records,
a major record company
in rock music.
A while later, that executive
and Clive Davis,
president of Columbia Records,
were fired on short notice.
CBS is saying nothing
about the dismissal
of Clive Davis
other than an official statement
saying that he's being sued
for misappropriation
of company funds.
They fired Clive Davis.
I said, "Oh my God."
The only reason
I made the deal with CBS
was because of the relationship
with Clive Davis.
And now he's gone.
Clive Davis's
successors get into office.
They start looking
at the various deals
they have with various
companies.
They see the Stax deal
and think this is nuts.
This little company
in this backwater town,
as these New York executives
saw it,
had control of everything.
And so they want to renegotiate
the deal.
I said, "Wait a minute."
I had already signed a deal.
Well, my mind went back to
what Winthrop Rockefeller
taught me
about big fish
eats the little fish.
They try to copy
what you're doing.
Rolling.
They come
and try to acquire
or purchase what you're doing.
And if they can't do that,
then they set out
to put you out of business.
There are rules in this game,
in that world.
But I couldn't accept
that offer.
-What time is it?
-Nation Time!
I don't think Al realized
what he might be up against
when you got powerful executives
at a corporation the size
and scale of Columbia
who decide,
"No, this doesn't work for us.
It's time to renegotiate."
It's like talking to the mafia.
You're not gonna have
your kneecaps broken,
but you're gonna say no?
See what happens.
I was in Washington, D.C.,
doing promotions,
and I went into Waxie Maxie,
ran by a gentleman
by the name of Herbie Cohen,
who has 19 stores
in the Washington, D.C. area.
And I knew Herbie personally.
So I went through
and see the salespeople
getting their aisles together,
tidied up and everything.
I said, "How am I doing
on that new Johnnie Taylor?"
"We don't have it."
"Uh?"
"We don't have Johnnie Taylor."
"Hold on, hold on."
So I ran back up
and I said, "Well, by the way,
I didn't see the Staple Singers.
You got them?"
"We don't have it."
"Uh-huh?"
And I said, "Herbie, why you not
having no product?
What's going on?
You lost your mind?"
And he said,
"No, I ain't lost my mind.
You lost yours.
CBS got you on hold."
"On hold?"
I went to Dallas
with the Staple Singers.
They were opening
at the Fairmont Hotel.
Actually the first Black act
to ever headline
at a Fairmont Hotel.
You got radio spots running
and-and-and all of that,
and they're appearing
right there in town.
You know, it's a tremendous
opportunity to sell product.
So imagine
imagine my confusion
when I'm talking
to the record shops,
and I'm told that,
"Well, we love--
I mean, sales would be going
well if we had some product."
"You don't have product?
CBS is our distributor,
there's an office in Dallas,
and you don't have
Staple Singers product?"
I talked to CBS
every week,
two times a week,
three times a week,
and always gotta start
with, "Al, it's just,
there's no demand for it."
"But there's demand
for product in the market!"
"But, Al, we're not
getting the demand in here."
So, now keep in mind,
CBS is laughing
because they control
your money now.
Stax Records
is continuing to produce product
at the pace and level
that it always has,
but we can't get the product
into the marketplace
because CBS
controls our distribution.
No product out.
If you press it,
they're stockpiling it someplace
where you can't find it.
CBS got in touch with me
and asked me to have
a meeting with me.
Said to me, "Al, what we'd like
to do is make a deal with you
where we will make you
vice president of CBS Corporate.
You have access to all the perks
that executives of your stature
get inside of CBS.
The corporate jets.
We'd like for you to go
around America, speaking
and talking to people
about the beautiful relationship
with CBS
working with Black people.
And when soul music artists
start making demands,
we want you to come in and say,
'CBS is gonna take care of you,
and it can help build your
career and build your life.'"
He said, "And you'll be the most
powerful Black man in America.
What do you think
about that, Al?"
I said, "Let me
let me think about that."
And I disappeared. I left.
There was a desire
to take Stax over,
own it and control it, you know?
"Y'all sing and dance
and do what you do best,
and we'll take care
of the business."
If I'd accepted that deal,
I knew what the end results
of that was going to be.
A contemporary slave.
I couldn't take that.
I can't sell my soul.
At the same time, I wouldn't
knowingly sabotage the careers
of all of those artists at Stax.
So I couldn't do it.
Ultimately,
CBS starts withholding money
from Stax.
Suddenly, there's no income
coming into this company.
I came back to Stax
when the company
fell into financial straits.
We, um, had a substantial debt.
So I put what money
I'd gotten for the sale
back into the company.
We were belt tightening.
We cut back employees.
We cut back until
there was almost no overhead.
We had to work from nothing.
Yes,
it was back scrapping again.
But, you know,
you get knocked down,
the challenge is get back up.
That's how you stay in the game.
During that time,
Al Bell was inspirational.
Al, you know,
was gonna find a way.
We used to call
Al Bell the "hype-meister"
because no matter
how dark the situation,
Al Bell has an upside
to the story.
"It's gonna be okay,
Ms. Crutcher.
Don't worry about it.
It's all right."
We needed to get some revenue.
So Jim Stewart came up
with the idea of Truth Records,
so we could sell records
outside of our deal with CBS
and start making money.
That was Stax refusing
to lay down,
refusing to say,
"Columbia got my hands tied."
- This is, uh, G.
One, two, three, four.
Hello?
May I speak to Barbara?
Barbara, this is Shirley.
Shirley Brown.
She, uh, she was a great artist.
She she would've been,
you know, an Aretha Franklin.
Woman to woman ♪
If you've ever been in love ♪
Then you know ♪
How I feel ♪
And woman to woman ♪
If you were in my shoes ♪
To this day, I can see
Al sitting there
with Jim in Jim's office,
listening to that groove.
You know?
Same thing too ♪
Making music like that,
that's what Stax was built on.
Woman to woman ♪
Now can't you see where
I'm coming from ♪
That's a thing of communicating
and moving you.
Making you feel something.
Woman to woman ♪
At number 22, moving up 4,
here's Shirley Brown
and "Woman to Woman."
Woman to woman ♪
Now, should
I just step aside ♪
And let her take
what's rightfully mine ♪
Oh, woman to woman ♪
Woman to Woman
was the last record I did.
Ironically enough
it was a million seller.
Too little, too late.
Stax
was doing everything they could
to save themselves
from economic strangulation
by CBS.
Suddenly, they have
this much bigger problem
with Union Planters,
who they've had
a long relationship with.
By the mid-'70s,
this bank was in trouble.
They had made an unbelievable
number of shaky loans
and is now being threatened
by the U.S. government
to get its ship straightened out
or go out of business.
And then it's discovered
that one of their employees
is forging checks.
He's a loan officer
named Joe Harwell,
who just happens to have
the Stax account.
Joe Harwell,
he'd been sent to prison.
I was shocked.
I was shocked.
I thought he was the best banker
in the world.
When the artists came in town,
if they needed to get money,
cash a Stax check,
I would send them to him.
The bank has insurance
that basically says
if there's fraudulent activity
between a bank employee
and a client,
they can collect millions
of dollars and save the bank.
The board of directors
at Union Planters
is comprised of the financial
elite within Memphis.
They were not going to allow
that bank to go down
if they could do
anything about it.
At Union Planters,
the solution is to
connect Joe Harwell to Al Bell.
In Memphis, Tennessee,
what better target
than a record company
that's predominantly
African American
that's making
Black people wealthy?
Our fate becomes their cover.
Union Planters National Bank
filed a 16-count indictment
against me and Joe Harwell
for conspiring to defraud
the bank of $18.9 million.
Can you imagine that
in Memphis, Tennessee?
And a Black man from Arkansas
conspiring to defraud
a white bank
of $18.9 million?
Is that believable?
Is that believable even?
When I went to my trial,
I thought based on the way
these attorneys
were presenting their case,
that the jurors,
two black people,
ten white people,
knowing the world,
that they would do anything
other than find me guilty.
I left the courtroom
that first day
and went back over there
on South Parkway
to my back guest bedroom,
got on my knees beside the bed,
and I opened a drawer.
My mind was I needed something,
and in that drawer
was my Bible
and my .38.
And as I looked at it,
I just grabbed my Bible,
took it out,
stayed on my knees,
and I went
to my Garden of Gethsemane.
Not my will,
but Thy will be done.
And made up my mind that night,
if they are successful
prosecuting me,
then I'll run this business
going forth
and rebuild it from jail.
If the only demon
in this situation that Al Bell
had been fighting
had been criminal,
that would've been one thing.
But he was fighting the most
insidious of all demons,
and that's racism.
He-- It was bigger
than Al Bell.
Al Bell just happened to be
the owner and face
of what it was
that Memphis was trying to kill.
All the charges against Al
caused us to lose credibility.
Nobody wanted to have anything
to do with Stax.
We could not overcome
all these things
coming at us from all sides.
I realized
the company was in trouble
when I went to cash my check.
I was told,
"We've been instructed, uh,
that we can't take
your payroll checks."
Then it got so bad
that uh, uh,
we were getting paid in cash.
I was writing money
out of my checking account,
giving to people,
because they'd say,
"I can't pay my house note.
I can't pay this, I can't pay."
And me giving people money
to take care of some
of their responsibilities.
Bills piling up.
No money coming in.
Employees and artists leaving.
One day,
I got called
into Deanie's office.
She said, "I've got to cut
my department in half
immediately,
and I'm starting with you
because in six months,
none of us are gonna be here."
In the final days,
I-I don't think there was more
than 20 people
left aboard ship to work.
Al was trying
to work things out,
get some money from here,
some money from there.
He definitely believed
he could keep Stax going
if we did one more great record
or one more thing.
I was in my office on McLemore,
and I got a telephone call
from the receptionist.
She said, uh, "Mr. Bell,
there are some police officers
and people from
Union Planters National Bank
that want to meet with you."
I walked up,
and then the officer
from Union Planters
National Bank,
he said, "Take us
to the master tape vault.
We want the master tapes."
I said, "What the heck
are you talking about?"
I looked and saw
a Black federal marshal,
and I said to him,
"What's going on, man?
I mean, what is this for?"
He said, "Well, Al,
Union Planters National Bank
brought an involuntary
bankruptcy proceeding
against you,
and I have to serve you
with that.
They want the master tapes."
I was really getting upset,
really getting upset.
Our most important asset
as a recorded music company
is those masters.
At that point, I really was
ready to go off.
And then the Black
federal marshal,
he said quietly,
"Be cool. They came to off you.
Be cool."
I said, "What?" He said,
"They came to off you, Al."
I said, "Whoa.
I'm facing death out there?"
I turned around, and I start
walking down the halls
and back toward
Studio B
and the master tape vault,
and showed them
how to open the vault,
and let them in.
Everything significant
that we achieved
was in those masters.
I remember calling up
top business people.
I thought, look,
I'm a white guy,
and I knew a few people
that owned certain things,
I thought, maybe
they'll listen to me.
And I remember going
to several people and saying,
"Look, Stax is an institution.
Why don't we save it?"
And nobody cared.
People with all the money
in the world,
who could have done something,
two or three of 'em
could have got together,
not even missed the money,
and-and saved it.
But no one was interested.
I couldn't get anybody
interested.
I went there one day.
It was rubble.
I parked right in front,
climbed up on them bricks
which was, like, 'bout here,
all along,
and laid down on them like this.
Just laid down on the bricks.
That was like
demolishing a pyramid.
So much so much blood,
sweat, and tears
went into that company
from so many of us.
When it ended,
my thought was
all the unfinished music,
you know,
all what could have been.
Think of the great music
that we could have produced
to share with the world.
I mean, you destroy art
like that
that's that's a sin.
After the close of Stax,
I would drive
and park across the street
and look at that vacant lot
and see the weeds there,
building gone
and I would cry.
Do you think people understand
how much a sacrifice
this kind of latter part
of the story was for you?
They have no earthly idea.
They have no earthly idea.
And people that I love
and that are a part of Stax,
and I know they don't.
That I was gonna be going
to jail if they'd convicted,
had been successful in that,
for two life times, 140 years?
That's what I've been through.
Al was acquitted.
By the time that was over,
you know,
he had to move out of Memphis.
He just couldn't take
the city anymore
'cause he how he felt
on what they had done to him.
What about you?
Well, we lost lost our home
and then
and the bank finally,
you know, took it.
And, um
So it was it was
kind of rough for a while.
But, you know, I consider myself
quite lucky, in all.
I loved to get up every morning
and go to work.
Gee whiz ♪
Look at his eyes ♪
Gee whiz ♪
How they hypnotize ♪
He's got everything ♪
The people
who gave their hearts
and minds and soul
to that company,
they made Stax Records.
Oh, oh ♪
Gee whiz ♪
He's all the joy ♪
Gee whiz ♪
Bettye Crutcher,
David and Isaac,
Rufus and Carla,
Booker T.,
Otis.
I hope I'm not his decoy ♪
I merely gave them
the tool
for them to express themselves.
Oh ♪
Our love ♪
There was real soul there.
I hope our love will ♪
Grow and grow ♪
'Cause ♪
We were trying to be that
example of the American ideal.
Those with the power,
they wanted Stax Records
to be erased.
But for years,
people would come to Memphis
from all over the world
and they would pick up
anything they could find
on that corner.
A pebble,
a piece of broken glass,
whatever they could get
that they thought might have
been a part
of that old Stax building,
because they were that excited
and that much in love
with the music that was created
at Stax Records
in Soulsville, USA.
Gee whiz ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
-Each new day ♪
-Each new day ♪
Finds me so blue, yeah ♪
Because nothing,
oh, nothing ♪
Takes the place of you ♪
I read your letters ♪
Oh, one by one ♪
And I still love you ♪
When it's all said and done ♪
Oh, my darling ♪
Oh, my darling, my darling ♪
I'm so blue, yeah ♪
Blue ♪
-Because nothing ♪
-Because nothing ♪
Oh, nothing ♪
Takes the place of you ♪
As I ♪
As I write this letter ♪
Oh, yeah ♪
It's raining, raining,
raining ♪
It's raining
on my windowpane ♪
Ah, and ♪
And I feel the need ♪
Oh, the need of you ♪
Because, see, without you,
oh, without you ♪
Where are you? ♪
Oh, nothing, nothing,
nothing seems the same ♪