Soul Series: In the Beginning - The Genesis of Stax III
- by Joe Nolan
Rufus Thomas
Every evening the little grocery store in Brunswick throbbed with bass notes and rattled with snare hits. The Royal Spades, Axton and Stewart spent every spare minute practicing, recording, writing, attempting to create that something special that resides at the point where inspiration meets entrepreneurial chutzpa: a hit!
By this time Jim had been joined in the studio by Chips Moman. In fact, the lanky, tousle-haired, Moman had slowly become a big part of the family at Satellite after Jim had recorded “Blue Roses.” By now Moman had all but taken over recording in the studio. A sometimes session guitarist and one-time professional card player, the 21-year-old Moman had cut his teeth at Gold Star studio in Los Angeles and on the road with Gene Vincent. Moman had seen first-hand the need for the label to find a base back in the city, and he set about to find a new location as soon as possible.
In the meantime, the-little-label-that-could continued to bang away in Brunswick. The group recorded and released a handful of failed sides ranging from country, to rockabilly, to rhythm and blues. The Royal Spades occasionally played back up on “professional” sessions with local DJs, but there was little sign that their efforts were gathering any real traction. The occasional sweet treat from the ice cream stand that Axton had set up outside the studio provided relief from the Southern summer heat, but did little to relieve the sense of frustration that was gradually becoming palpable in the studio. Just as things were becoming unbearable, the clouds broke and a light shone through.
Chips Moman had been cruising around Memphis and seen a “for lease” sign in the boarded-up box office window of the old Capitol movie theatre on East McLemore. After its hey-day as a movie house, the Capitol had been a country and western club and then a church. The owners were asking $100 a month and Axton and Stewart immediately snapped it up, informing the Royal Spades that they had found a new home, back home in Memphis.
Stewart, Axton and the gang packed up the gear in Brunswick and moved to East McLemore. Immediately the ceiling was removed and the chairs were torn out of the old theatre, while the stage was converted into a control room. Still using the Ampex recorder, the Capitol’s cavernous interior had to be partitioned to create a manageable recording space, and Axton quickly transformed the lobby’s concessions stand into the Satellite Record Shop.
Just like in Brunswick, most of the studio work was done at night when all the principles could get away from their day jobs and the kids could get away from school. Again, the schedule involved endless explorations between the players and with Stewart and Moman, trying to find a unique sound that could make a real splash.
One bleary-eyed night, after hours in the dim studio, hurried footsteps outside the control room were punctuated by a dramatic swinging open of the door and the appearance of none other than Rufus Thomas!
“Hey Jim!” Thomas exclaimed, his familiar, bug-eyed expression even more animated than normal. “I got a song!”
Sources:
Peter Guralnick’s Sweet Soul Music, Harper and Row, 1986
James Dickerson’s Goin’ Back to Memphis, Simon and Schuster Macmillan, 1996
Michael Haralambos’ Right on: From Blues to Soul in Black America, Drake Publishers, 1975
Respect Yourself: The Stax Story, documentary film, produced by Tremolo Productions,
Concord Music Group and Thirteen/WNET New York, for PBS’ Great Performances, 2007
Joe Nolan is a poet, musician and freelance journalist in Nashville, TN. Nolan writes about visual art for the journal, Number, published by the University of Memphis. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.