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Good article on the concert
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In the long, hot summer of 1965, Memphis soul singer William Bell travelled to Los Angeles with Stax Records’ labelmates Booker T and the MGs and Rufus Thomas to play a club date attended by many people from the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts. “We had such a great reception there,” he said. “It was so popular that people were turned away at the door.”
At the same time, Bell felt tension in the air. “There was a sense in the Black community that something had to give,” he said. “People were tired of being suppressed. It was like a volcano waiting to blow.”
Several weeks later it did in a way so profound it made history – for both righteous and ruinous reasons. On the one hand, what became known as the Watts Riots of 1965 – referred to by others as the Watts Uprising – made clear to the world the depth of anger that Black citizens felt over the racism they experienced in everything from policing to housing to education.
On the other, the protests spiraled into a melee that involved mass arson, looting and shootings that left 34 people dead and a community in greater despair than ever.
In the wake of the rubble, young community leader Tommy Jacquette created an annual Watts Summer Festival meant to benefit the area and bolster the citizens. Little did he know that seven years later, that modest festival would balloon into something enormous and enduring.
In 1972, Stax Records and its artists – including Bell, Isaac Hayes, the Staples Singers, The Bar-Kays and others – returned to Watts to create a benefit concert, dubbed Wattstax, that drew over 100,000, mainly local people. The event, during which not a single violent act took place, was captured in a documentary and a live album that each became classics.
Now, for their fiftieth anniversary, the Wattstax film is returning to theaters joined by a new box set that, for the first time, includes all six hours of the original show. The latter is especially meaningful because so much of the music had never come out before.
“It’s an answer to a prayer,” said Wanda Hutchinson of the vocal group The Emotions, who performed at the event. “There was so much great music that people who weren’t there didn’t get to hear.”
Then again, it’s amazing that the event took place at all given the many obstacles its organizers faced. “This was an enormous undertaking for us,” said Al Bell, who was Stax Records’ president at the time and who is not related to William Bell.
“We were trying to do the unimaginable,” added Deanie Parker, who handled the label’s publicity and who helped organize the event. “We were coming from the other side of the country, from Memphis, and we had never done anything like this before.”
Regardless, Al Bell had been determined to do something for the Watts community ever since he saw that area erupt in flames in 1965. “It was all over television,” he recalled. “I hadn’t seen that kind of rebellion before. It frightened me but I also knew very well what gave rise to it.”…….
He believes that the Coliseum people only agreed to let the show happen there because they didn’t think it would draw that many people. But this was before Stax got busy promoting the hell out the show on Black radio and newspapers, in the streets and in the skies, with streamers advertising it behind prop planes.
Once it became clear that Wattstax would, in fact, draw a huge audience “they came to us and said, ‘you can’t perform here,’’ Bell said. “Luckily our chief attorneys had put a clause in the contract so they couldn’t get out of the agreement.”
They did, however, try to intimidate the Stax executives by stressing that they were liable for any damage caused to the turf on the field the mighty football team, the Los Angeles Rams, would play on the next day.
To mitigate that, the show’s organizers had to take out expensive insurance and they almost needed to use it due to what happened during the set by Rufus Thomas. The singer encouraged the fans to come out of the stands and onto the fields.
“But once we told him that couldn’t happen, Rufus, being the great entertainer he was, made getting them back on the stands part of his performance,” said Bell……
www.theguardian.com
NSFW (because if Richard Pryor)
=====================
In the long, hot summer of 1965, Memphis soul singer William Bell travelled to Los Angeles with Stax Records’ labelmates Booker T and the MGs and Rufus Thomas to play a club date attended by many people from the predominantly Black neighborhood of Watts. “We had such a great reception there,” he said. “It was so popular that people were turned away at the door.”
At the same time, Bell felt tension in the air. “There was a sense in the Black community that something had to give,” he said. “People were tired of being suppressed. It was like a volcano waiting to blow.”
Several weeks later it did in a way so profound it made history – for both righteous and ruinous reasons. On the one hand, what became known as the Watts Riots of 1965 – referred to by others as the Watts Uprising – made clear to the world the depth of anger that Black citizens felt over the racism they experienced in everything from policing to housing to education.
On the other, the protests spiraled into a melee that involved mass arson, looting and shootings that left 34 people dead and a community in greater despair than ever.
In the wake of the rubble, young community leader Tommy Jacquette created an annual Watts Summer Festival meant to benefit the area and bolster the citizens. Little did he know that seven years later, that modest festival would balloon into something enormous and enduring.
In 1972, Stax Records and its artists – including Bell, Isaac Hayes, the Staples Singers, The Bar-Kays and others – returned to Watts to create a benefit concert, dubbed Wattstax, that drew over 100,000, mainly local people. The event, during which not a single violent act took place, was captured in a documentary and a live album that each became classics.
Now, for their fiftieth anniversary, the Wattstax film is returning to theaters joined by a new box set that, for the first time, includes all six hours of the original show. The latter is especially meaningful because so much of the music had never come out before.
“It’s an answer to a prayer,” said Wanda Hutchinson of the vocal group The Emotions, who performed at the event. “There was so much great music that people who weren’t there didn’t get to hear.”
Then again, it’s amazing that the event took place at all given the many obstacles its organizers faced. “This was an enormous undertaking for us,” said Al Bell, who was Stax Records’ president at the time and who is not related to William Bell.
“We were trying to do the unimaginable,” added Deanie Parker, who handled the label’s publicity and who helped organize the event. “We were coming from the other side of the country, from Memphis, and we had never done anything like this before.”
Regardless, Al Bell had been determined to do something for the Watts community ever since he saw that area erupt in flames in 1965. “It was all over television,” he recalled. “I hadn’t seen that kind of rebellion before. It frightened me but I also knew very well what gave rise to it.”…….
He believes that the Coliseum people only agreed to let the show happen there because they didn’t think it would draw that many people. But this was before Stax got busy promoting the hell out the show on Black radio and newspapers, in the streets and in the skies, with streamers advertising it behind prop planes.
Once it became clear that Wattstax would, in fact, draw a huge audience “they came to us and said, ‘you can’t perform here,’’ Bell said. “Luckily our chief attorneys had put a clause in the contract so they couldn’t get out of the agreement.”
They did, however, try to intimidate the Stax executives by stressing that they were liable for any damage caused to the turf on the field the mighty football team, the Los Angeles Rams, would play on the next day.
To mitigate that, the show’s organizers had to take out expensive insurance and they almost needed to use it due to what happened during the set by Rufus Thomas. The singer encouraged the fans to come out of the stands and onto the fields.
“But once we told him that couldn’t happen, Rufus, being the great entertainer he was, made getting them back on the stands part of his performance,” said Bell……
‘It was an out of body experience’: looking back at the Wattstax music festival
In 1972, the largely Black community of Watts came together for a giant music event from Stax Records, captured in a thrilling, re-released documentary
NSFW (because if Richard Pryor)
