photo #954698

The STAX Records studio and Satellite record shop. I drove by the studio some years ago and, sadly, all that remains is an empty lot with a historical marker placed across the street. It was founded originally as Satellite Records in 1957 by brother and sister Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, changing it's name to STAX in 1961 (STewart AXton). The primary rival to STAX was, of course, MOTOWN. However, the STAX sound was raw and gritty, the MOTOWN sound was smooth and polished. In the late 1960's, America saw the issue of race raise it's ugly head. However, at STAX, the musicians were both black AND white. Color didn't matter. What DID matter .. was the music. Plain and simple. Some years ago, I was privileged to speak one on one with Al Bell. He was on tour with Lloyd Price. In the late 1960's, Al Bell became a new co-owner of the label and it continued under his supervision. However, in 1967 the label had lost one of it's main attractions, Otis Redding, and In 1968, had lost it's distribution with Atlantic Records. Now, I am in no way insinuating that STAX was closed due to Al Bell. During my visit with Al Bell, I had gotten the impression that he was an extraordinary business man and was highly qualified to operate the label, which he did until 1975. In 1977, the label was sold to Fantasy Records out of Berkeley, California. Fantasy now owned the complete STAX catalogue. Of course, Fantasy, not having the natural "soul" of STAX, was issuing no new material. They were, however, reissuing material from the old STAX catalogue The house band for the original STAX studio, was Booker T. Jones and the MG's. "MG's", of course, stood for "Memphis Group" for those of you who didn't already know. Anyway, this is my little descartes for STAX records.