Album Review: Stax Revue: Live in ‘65!

In 1965, a professional recording was made at the 5-4 Ballroom in Watts, Los Angeles; the recording documented the powerhouse Stax Revue. The recordings sat unissued until 1991-92 when Stax released Funky Broadway: Stax Revue Live at The 5/4 Ballroom. That CD-era release featured Booker T & the MG’s, The Mad Lads, The Mar-Keys, William Bell, Carla Thomas and Rufus Thomas. Now, more than three decades after that release – and 60 years after the performances themselves – a new and expanded set combines those recordings with additional tracks recorded at the Club Paradise in Memphis.

Well, yes and no. Stax Revue: Live in ‘65! isn’t quite that simple. Stay with me here: The second disc features most but not all of the Funky Broadway tracks, albeit in different order. Magnificent Montague’s stage announcements are combined into the tracks (rather then banded separately), and four of five songs by Booker T & the MG’s are left off. But the first disc – the Memphis tapes – captures Jones, Cropper, Dunn and Jackson playing the four songs left off the Watts portion. That first disc also adds a song by The Astors, four by David Porter and one by Wendy Rene.

That second disc also adds a previously unheard recording of Wilson Pickett singing “In the Midnight Hour,” and a full 19 minutes(!) of Rufus Thomas’ “The Dog.” Large swaths of the track are Rufus working the crowd, but it’s a lot of fun even for those of us who weren’t there. And it bears repeating: the band is incendiary.

With all that sorted out, what’s more important is the performances themselves. And they’re a revelation. The Astors’ “Candy” rocks, and hard; its nothing like the sweet pop of its studio counterpart. The backing band – especially Steve Cropper and Al Jackson Jr. – are simply on fire. The soul-stirring “You Don’t Miss Your Water” by William Bell is a revelation; it takes the listener to (secular) church. I’ve read some complaints about the audio quality, but I have no issues with it. The power of the performances and the set’s historical import render such arguments null and void.

The recording quality of the Memphis set is a notch below the Watts ones, but again, it’s perfectly listenable. Booker T & the MG’s take their songs a mite faster than the studio readings, and their approach is at once rawer and more exciting. It’s amusing to recall that many of the group’s hits were on the chart then known as “Easy Listening.” Ain’t none of that easiness here; the quartet leans heavily into the tunes. And when they get subtle and soulful on “Summertime,” the passion oozes out of Booker T’s Hammond.

The appearance of David Porter is especially welcome; as important a songwriter as he is, Porter’s live work isn’t well documented. Even less represented on albums is soul singer Wendy Rene; she released a string of singles on Volt in 1964-5, but never cut an album in that decade. A reading of her 1964 single “Bar-B-Q” is presented in an abbreviated, faded-out recording, but the fact that it exists at all is important.

For all the reasons above, Stax Revue: Live in ‘65! is an essential document, a time capsule capturing the epitome of Southern soul, sixties-style.