2023-04-23 19:42:26
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Wattstax concert (actually held on August 20, 1972 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in front of more than 100,000 people), a monumental box set with twelve CDs is released (at the not entirely affordable price of two hundred dollars, despite the elegant packaging with large internal booklet), entitled Soul’d Out. The Complete Wattstax Collection, which reproduces the whole concert, with the exact chronology of the performances, complete with presentations, noises, introductions. Also included are recordings of some concerts held at the Summit Club in September and October and various rarities, with as many as thirty-one previously unreleased. Some of the material had already appeared previously, obviously in the 1973 film of the same name and in the double albums of the same year, entitled Wattstax-The Living World e Wattstax-The Living World 2. The concert had been organized by the famous Stax Records label, one of the most authoritative and representative of the American soul and rhythm and blues scene, to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the incidents that had set fire to the Los Angeles district of Watts in August 1965 and donate the proceeds to charity.
DISORDERS
Seven years earlier, due to a series of indiscriminate arrests of African Americans by the police, six days of very serious riots were unleashed which caused the death of thirty-four people, the injury and arrest of thousands of demonstrators, two hundred million dollars in damages. In the following years, the leader of the Watts community, Tommy Jacquette, had already organized a summer concert, the Watts Summer Festival, to give financial support to the citizens of the area. Taking up the idea of a small neighborhood event, we gradually moved on to a large festival that took place in a huge stadium. The concert took shape quickly, despite a thousand doubts regarding the opportunity to have it performed in a structure of one hundred thousand people. But above all the organization managed to gather a cast of the highest artistic value and depth, to have a star like Isaac Hayes with him who was celebrating his thirtieth birthday that very day and to put tickets on sale at the modest and popular price of one dollar. with the result of making a sensational sold out.
The stage was set up only the day before the concert, placed in the middle of the sports field and built with a height of six meters, in order to allow excellent visibility even from afar and to be able to arrange the artists’ dressing rooms in the part below. Despite the still latent tensions and the fear that such a large crowd might indulge in some excesses, no incidents occurred and the sporadic invasions from the stands on the field were merry and simply dancing. Stax chairman Al Bell recalled, “It was a huge undertaking for us. We were trying to do the unimaginable. We were from across the country from Memphis and had never done anything like this before. We wanted to show the world the kind of people we really are. We have always been so misunderstood. Many whites, when they saw two blacks walking together, thought there was going to be a problem. We had to live with it for a long time.”
FEARS
At the beginning we thought of an event for a maximum of 5,000 people. But when the first names and the certainty that the concert might have been held began to circulate, the choice, albeit a risky one, fell on the Coliseum. Initially granted, paradoxically, with the certainty that it would have been a resounding flop and consequently would have mortified both the label and the black community. Al Bell once more: «When it became clear that Wattstax would, in fact, attract a large audience they came to us and said: ‘you can’t do it here’. They thought of me as a black guy who was from the south and just represented a small black label. They didn’t have the slightest respect, none. Fortunately our lawyers had inserted a clause in the contract so that they might not get out of the agreement».
One of the more delicate problems was the order service. The fear that accidents might happen was very high but at the same time the organizers didn’t want to deal with prohibitions and restrictions that were too strict. “We didn’t want to suggest that we didn’t trust the people who would be in the audience, people who already felt disenfranchised and excluded.” So we relied on common sense and when people climbed over the fences to dance on the field (which the next day would host a Los Angeles Rams football game, risking ruining the turf) Rufus Thomas thought of it from the stage to invite people to return to their places. Everything went smoothly, despite the presence in the audience of many exponents of the Bloods and Crips gangs who kept a low profile and only thought regarding having a good time.
IN VIDEO
To keep track of such an important event, Stax also decided to finance a film, hiring director Mel Stuart and David Wolper’s crew. In between musical performances there are footage of Watts residents recounting their daily lives, insights into local businesses, and interviews, sometimes performed by actors (including Ted Lange). Not only music but also the character actor Richard Pryor and the Reverend Jesse Jackson as “master of ceremonies”. The film created some discontent for having sacrificed the performance of some protagonists in favor of Pryor’s interviews and interventions but the concert is still remembered as something epic. The newly released box set gives us back the spectacular Isaac Hayes songs (with a Never Say Goodbye creepy and the theme of Shaft previously unreleased) and the incredible Staple Singers, with their chilling blend of gospel, soul and blues. Rufus Thomas holds the stage with very long songs (Do the Funky Chicken e Do the Funky Penguin make 25 minutes together) while the Bar-Kays perform a super funky repertoire. The little-known Mel & Tim are excellent, Johnny Taylor’s great voice stands out and the guitar wizard Albert King gives us a blues repertoire. And once more it is worth mentioning the Sons of Slum, followers of Sly and The Family Stone, Eddie Floyd, Dramatics and Emotions.
Bell adds a very effective memory: «You saw children of five or six years, mothers, fathers, grandfathers, grandmothers. It was like a family reunion, like a church service; the same kind of feelings and interactions took place there.” Carla Thomas agrees: “I thought the concert was a very spiritual moment because of Watts’ message for rebuilding and the connection to the community of Watts, and the whole Los Angeles community, and what was going on, and how it was influencing the whole world”. In the end, the concert raised 70,000 dollars to be donated to the community and demonstrated (as the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival in New York from which the cinematographic masterpiece was taken) had already shown Summer of Soul) how African Americans were not an “enemy” and alien entity to American society but were (obviously) an integral, non-violent and seeking equal rights part of it. Al Bell: “We wanted us to see ourselves and the way we are for ourselves and we wanted white America to see us as we really are.”
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