RhoDeo 1508 Grooves

Hello, Vulcan is in mourning today, their most famous intergalactic ambassador has died, his partly earth genes severely shorted his live, as a fullblood Vulcan can reach 200, Spock as a halfbreed had to make do with 83 years. He saved his crew many a time and was well loved even if his ruthless logic drove many a crewmember into the curtains (if they had any). He was the perfect antidote to the American way of shoot first, ask questions later  Live long and prosper Leonard..


Ok so as i wrap up the stax related music for the moment after 25 posts. Its not that there's nothing much left I still have The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 28 albums but those will remain in posting limbo (likely for at least 1 or 2 years, yes i do have long term planning here. And now for some some absolutely blistering funk! .....N'joy

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Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It was a major factor in the creation of the Southern soul and Memphis soul music styles, also releasing gospel, funk, jazz, and blues recordings. While Stax is renowned for its output of African-American music, the label was founded by two business siblings, Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton (STewart/AXton = Stax). It featured several popular ethnically-integrated bands, including the label's house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, and a racially integrated team of staff and artists unheard of in that time of racial strife and tension in Memphis and the South.

Following the death of Stax's biggest star, Otis Redding, in 1967, and the severance of the label's distribution deal with Atlantic Records in 1968, Stax continued primarily under the supervision of a new co-owner, Al Bell. Over the next five years, Bell expanded the label's operations significantly, in order to compete with Stax's main rival, Motown Records in Detroit. During the mid-1970s, a number of factors, including a problematic distribution deal with CBS Records, caused the label to slide into insolvency, resulting in its forced closure in late 1975.

In 1977, Fantasy Records acquired the post-1968 Stax catalog, as well as selected pre-1968 recordings. Beginning in 1978, Stax (now owned by Fantasy) began signing new acts and issuing new material, as well as re-issuing previously recorded Stax material. However, by the early 1980s no new material was being issued on the label, and for the next two decades, Stax was strictly a re-issue label.

After Concord Records acquired Fantasy in 2004, the Stax label was reactivated, and is today used to issue both the 1968–1975 catalog material and new recordings by current R&B/soul performers. Atlantic Records continues to hold the rights to the vast majority of the 1959–1968 Stax material.

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Goes to show that Stax was responsible for some of THE funkiest choons back in the day. Some of the selections here are absolute classics (and don't often feature on other compilations), particularly the Bar-Kays 'Holy Ghost' (the heaviest, fattest, downright funkiest funk tune ever!!) and 'Son Of Shaft', 'Mr Big Stuff', and the two FLB tracks. Guaranteed to get any respectable crowd groovin'!

VA - Stax Funk: Get Up and Get Down (flac 397mb)

01 Isaac Hayes - Theme From Shaft 4:36
02 Dynamic Soul Machine - Moving On 2:38
03 Fat Larry's Band - Castle Of Joy 3:02
04 Sho-Nuff - Funkasize You 2:45
05 Sons Of Slum - What Goes Around (Must Come Around) 3:09
06 Bar-Kays - Holy Ghost 3:38
07 Sir Mack Rice - Dark Skin Woman Part 1/2 4:52
08 Sho-Nuff - You Choose Me 2:24
09 Dramatics - Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get 3:19
10 Isaac Hayes - Theme From The Men 3:57
11 Bar-Kays - Son Of Shaft 3:32
12 Inez Foxx - Circuits Overloaded 3:49
13 Roy Lee Johnson & The Villagers - The Dryer Part 1 & 2 3:53
14 Fat Larry's Band - FLB 4:07
15 Bernie Hayes - Cool Strut Part 1 2:51
16 Mar-Keys - Black 2:37
17 Jean Knight - Mr Big Stuff 2:46
18 Dramatics - Get Up & Get Down 3:09

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Every one of us has a favourite record label. I think for many of us at Ace towers, Stax is pretty much at the top of the pile. The independently owned Memphis label recorded soul for 15 years, both up-tempo and impassionately down. It scored hits in the USA and around the world and gave the world the iconic star quality of both Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes to name but two of its finest. The roll call beyond them is legendary and could take up a whole sleeve note but Booker T and the MGs, Johnnie Taylor, Rufus and Carla Thomas, Sam and Dave, the Bar Kays, William Bell and the Staple Singers all made the label known to fans of good music the world over. But we're record collectors, vinyl extremists and, maybe the odd anorak has an involvement as well, so what really gets us going are the obscurities, the ones that got away. So this is the Memphis Sound, only the funkiest Memphis sound you will ever hear.

VA - Stax Funx  (flac  417mb)

01 24 Carat Black - Ghetto: Misfortune's Wealth 3:42
02 Isaac Hayes - Run Fay Run 2:46
03 Bar-Kays - Coldblooded 3:07
04 The T.S.U. Toronadoes - My Thing Is A Moving Thing 2:50
05 Johnny Taylor - Hi-Jacking Love 3:19
06 Art Jerry Miller - Grab A Handfull 2:08
07 The South Memphis Horns - L.A.S. 4:12
08 Shack - Too Many Lovers 2:44
09 L. V. Johnson - One Pair Of Pants 3:47
10 Rufus Thomas - Rock Back 5:33
11 March Wind - Do The Sweetback 3:02
12 Melvin Van Peebles - Sweetback's Theme 7;33
13 Chico Hamilton - Fancy 3:12
14 Sons Of Truth - I Feel Good 3;19
15 Harvey Scales - Broadway Freeze Part 1 & 2 4:06
16 Rudy Robinson & Hungry 5 - Got It Together Part 1 3:07
17 Chuck Brooks - Love's Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down Part 1 3:19
18 John Kasandra - (What's Under) The Natural Do 3:03
19 Sweet Inspirations - Dirty Tricks 3:04
20 Soul Merchants - Wes 3:09
21 Isaac Hayes - End Theme/Truck Turner 2:04

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Funky genius from the legendary Stax studios! During the 60s, Stax was well known for their work in the soul music field – turning out hit singles by the likes of Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and others – but after 1968, when the label finished their deal with Atlantic, they really started getting down and dirty, and hitting on all burners in the funk department. This tasty set features 21 tracks from those exiting years –many of them only ever issued on singles, and a few of them by some of the label's more famous LP artists – but all of them with a nice Memphis funky groove! Titles include "Turn Your Damper Down" by Rufus Thomas, "Broadway Freeze" by Harvey Scales, "Life Is Funky" by Round Robin Monopoly, "The Dryer" by Roy Lee Johnson, "She's My Old Lady Too" by Lee Sain, "Slipped & Tripped" by The Sweet Inspirations, "Brothers & Sisters" by Kim Weston, "Movin Dancer" by Bobby Holley, "Eli's Pork Chop" by Little Sonny, "A Man Never Knows" by Chris & Shack, "Grab A Handful" by Art Jerry Miller, "I'll Kill A Brick (About My Man)" by Hot Sauce, "Watch The Dog That Brings The Bone" by Inez Foxx, "Sock Soul" by The Bar Kays, and "Getting Funky Round Here" by Black Nasty!

VA - Stax Of Funk. The Funky Truth (flac   409mb)

01 Jean Knight - Do Me 2:48
02 Roy Lee Johnson - Patch It Up 2:27
03 Rufus Thomas - Turn Your Damper Down 2:49
04 Lee Sain - She's My Old Lady Too 2:39
05 Bobby Holley - Movin' Dancer 3:19
06 Kim Weston - Brothers & Sisters 2:47
07 Mable John - Running Out 2:07
08 The Sweet Inspirations - Slipped And Tripped 2:55
09 Inez Foxx - Watch The Dog That Brings The Bone 3:05
10 Hot Sauce - I'll Kill A Brick 2:45
11 Chris & Shack - A Man Never Knows 4:27
12 Little Sonny - Eli's Pork Chop 6:38
13 Bar-Kays - Sock Soul 2:22
14 Art Jerry Miller - Grab A Handful 2:05
15 Harvey Scales - Broadway Freeze 4:03
16 Rufus Thomas - Funky Hot Grits 4:39
17 Mario Van Peebles - Hoppin' John 2:24
18 Roy Lee Johnson - The Dryer 2:20
19 Black Nasty - Getting Funky Round Here 2:41
20 Round Robin Monopoly - Life Is Funky 3:46
21 Soul Children - Who Is She 5:11

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Our first BGP Stax Of Funk gathered up fine reviews and good sales as people discovered that it wasn't just one man operations out of Texas that released great funk. Volume 2 finds us resuming our search for more and what do you know we've come up trumps. Not only that but we have proved this time what a wide spectrum of sounds the funky part of the world encompasses.

This 21-track collection focuses on some of the more obscure and funk-oriented music Stax put out in the first half of the 1970s. There are a few big names here and there, though not represented by famous tracks, such as the Staple Singers, the Bar-Kays, Albert King, and Rufus Thomas, and more moderately famous performers like Sir Mack Rice, Inez Foxx, the Emotions, the Sweet Inspirations, and Jimmy McCracklin. But a lot of the music is by artists most won't have remembered as being on the Stax roster, or on any other for that matter. On the whole it's OK, but not first-division period soul-funk crossover, sometimes recalling other, bigger artists too obviously, as Bernie Hayes does James Brown on "Cool Strut" (complete with "hit it!" exhortations). the Emotions' "From Toys to Boys" certainly sounds influenced by the kind of very early-'70s Motown production heard on some Jackson 5 records, as do to a lesser degree a couple of the other songs. As for the better moments, the blues-tinged "Big Leg Woman" by Israel "Popper Stopper" Tolbert was an actual 1970 R&B Top 20 hit that doesn't show up on many compilations, and the Bar-Kays' "Cold Blooded" is a cool, largely instrumental James Brown-like tune whose arrangement bears influences from both Philly soul and Santana. There's also Albert King's curious 1974 funk remake of "Crosscut Saw." The one previously unissued track is Rufus Thomas' "Do the Side Saddle."

VA - Stax Of Funk Vol. 2 (More Funky Truth)  (flac  406mb)

01 Calvin Scott - Shame On The Family Name 2:49
02 Bernie Hayes - Cool Strut 2:55
03 Reggie Miller - Soul Machine 2:26
04 Sir Mack Rice - Bump Meat 2:43
05 Rudy Robinson & The Hungry Five - Got It Together (Parts 1 & 2) 3:06
06 Israel "Popper Stopper" Tolbert* With The C A Warren Players - Big Leg Woman (With A Short Short Mini Skirt) 3:27
07 Sweet Inspirations - Dirty Tricks 3:03
08 Katie Love - How Can You Mistreat The One You Love 2:45
09 The Emotions - From Toys To Boys 2:31
10 Inez Foxx - Circuits Overloaded 3:45
11 The Staple Singers - Brand New Day 3:53
12 The Bar-Kays - Cold Blooded 3:10
13 Black Nasty - Talking To The People 2:45
14 The Wrecking Crew - Bump And Boogie 2:57
15 Sir Mack Rice - Dark Skin Woman 3:10
16 John Kasandra - Ain't No Sin (To Have Fun) 4:10
17 Rufus Thomas - Do The Side Saddle 4:05
18 Jimmy McCracklin - Stay Away From That Monkey 3:56
19 Albert King - Crosscut Saw 2:50
20 Lee Sain - Them Hot Pants 3:07
21 Stu Gardner - Devil In A Man 4:21

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