Memphis Finds Value of Its Soul Roots
Roots of soul music are firmly planted in Memphis, a city that churns out stars.
M E M P H I S, Tenn., June 9 -- The roots of soul music are firmly planted in Memphis, a city that churned out a long list of soul superstars, mostly on the Stax record label.
But the city's tourist trade largely ignored this homegrown soul — until recently.
"The powers that be didn't realize the value and the treasure that they had in the music that we were producing and putting out," said Isaac Hayes, one of Memphis soul's 1960s stars.
Once overshadowed, the Stax legacy will now have a home called Soulsville — a $20 million redevelopment project under construction that will feature a museum and an academy to nurture the next generation.
"We are determined that we are going to provide for any child who wishes to discover whether they have talent," said Deanie Parker, president of Soulsville, "whether it's to sing or to write or to become an engineer or producer … [or] a marketer.
"We want to mentor to these children from the community," Parker added. "And we are hoping that he children who we are going to attract first and foremost are the children who have the potential to be at risk. That's our mission."
Rawer Than Motown
Part of the problem in preserving a Stax legacy had been that soul's image and sound weren't always upbeat like the Motown sound.
"The sound … it wasn't polished," Hayes said. "It was raw. We wrote about our lives. Whatever happened during the day, we wrote about it. Whatever we saw happen to someone else, we wrote about it. We were inspired."
Besides Hayes, the scene's stars included Sam and Dave, Otis Redding and Booker T and the MG's.
Memphis soul reflected the tumult of the times. The unique brand of soul that came out of this city became the soundtrack for the struggles of the civil rights movement.
And because Memphis was home to one of the movement's most painful chapters, many believe the city was slow to celebrate the Stax sound. After Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination here in 1968, the white power structure that controlled the tourist trade turned its back on soul music.
