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Most listeners never get to hear demo recordings. Created by songwriters as a guide for recording artists, those demos aren\u2019t meant to be shared with the public. But they\u2019re an important part of the story. A treasure trove of such demos, Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos<\/i> is the latest \u2013 and arguably the most significant \u2013 archival release in recent years.<\/p>\n
From the early 1960s well into the mid \u201870s, Stax Records reigned supreme. With a top-notch stable of recording artists and performers, the Memphis-based label defined and exemplified rhythm and blues and soul music. Stax\u2019s deep bench of artists represented a powerhouse variety of musical flavors, from the gritty, impassioned soul of Otis Redding to the searing blues of Albert King; from the stirring sounds of the Staple Singers to the eclectic productions of The Dramatics; from the uplifting gospel of the Rance Allen Group and the rock-solid instrumentals of Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s to the psychedelic soul of superstar Isaac Hayes. Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Eddie Floyd, The Bar-Kays, Johnnie Taylor\u2026 the list of acclaimed Stax artists is a breathtakingly long one.<\/p>\n
There were several key ingredients central to Stax\u2019s creative successes. Jim Stewart launched the label (first known as Satellite) in the late 1950s; his sister Estelle Axton came on board shortly thereafter. From the late \u201860s onward \u2013 through the label\u2019s fateful associations with Atlantic and CBS \u2013 Stax was helmed by Al Bell. A tightly-knit team of producers, engineers and house musicians provided another part of the Stax backbone: Booker T. Jones and the M.G.\u2019s (Steve Cropper, Donald \u201cDuck\u201d Dunn and Al Jackson Jr.) were joined by Hayes and David Porter \u2013 often augmented by the Memphis Horns \u2013 to create the instrumental components of the signature Stax sound.<\/p>\n
But Stax couldn’t have made the mark on the charts \u2013 and upon popular culture \u2013 that it did were it not for the songwriters. From its earliest days, the label focused on bringing in and cultivating the best songwriting talent. And a remarkable number of Stax songwriters were local: the neighborhoods around Memphis\u2019 McLemore Avenue were teeming with budding songwriters ready to provide words and music for the label\u2019s stable of artists to record and release. As singer\/songwriter William Bell notes, \u201cMost of [us] were neighborhood kids who grew up together from grammar school to high school and on.\u201d He says that they migrated to Stax, which served as a creative outlet. \u201cKudos to Jim Stewart and Ms. Axton for that,\u201d he emphasizes.<\/p>\n
Ever since the dawn of recording technology, songwriters\u2019 demos (demonstration recordings) have been the industry standard; a songwriter cuts a recording to documents the music and lyrics, and to provide at least a signpost for the producers, musicians and featured recording artists to follow. In most cases, those demo recordings are for internal use only, never meant to be shared with the wider public. But in many cases \u2013 especially up to and including during the 1960s \u2013 those songwriters\u2019 demos weren\u2019t preserved or even documented. Tragically, countless demos have been lost forever.<\/p>\n
Those demos are an important part of the story, though. Taken as a whole, they help complete the picture, opening a window into the process of creating the revered body of work that is the Stax and associated label story. And thanks to intrepid music historian and archivist (and two-time Grammy winner) Cheryl Pawelski, a massive cache of Stax songwriters\u2019 demos is now seeing the light of day. Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos<\/i> is a massive seven-disc set bringing together more than 140 demos \u2013 nearly all previously unreleased \u2013 along with illuminating essays from Pawelski, acclaimed music historian Robert Gordon and Stax house songwriter Deanie Parker.<\/p>\n
In August 1960, William Bell\u2019s doo-wop group The Del-Rios was asked to provide backup for a Carla Thomas session. \u201cIt turned out to be \u2018Gee Whiz,\u2019\u201d Bell notes with pride. He would be the first male solo artist signed to Stax. In addition to scoring solo successes with \u201cYou Don\u2019t Miss Your Water\u201d (1961), \u201cPrivate Number\u201d (a 1968 duet with Judy Clay) and \u201cTryin\u2019 to Love Two\u201d from 1976, Bell was an in-demand songwriter at Stax. Still active today at age 83 as a performer and recording artist, the Grammy winning Bell looks back fondly on his days with the Memphis label.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were like a factory,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were young, and had the energy. We would come in 10 in the morning, maybe noon, and we’d write all day until seven or eight at night, sometimes later.\u201d Each of those marathon sessions might yield three or four songs. \u201cWe just wrote continuously,\u201d Bell says.<\/p>\n
As the expansive Written in Their Soul<\/i> vividly illustrates, that factory yielded a great deal of material. \u201cSometimes, we put so many [songs] back in the can, back on the shelf,\u201d Bell recalls with a hearty laugh, \u201cthat we forgot about them until somebody would pull one out!\u201d<\/p>\n