Stax Museum of American Soul Music
926 E. McLemore Ave., Memphis, TN, 901-261-6338. Tues-Sun 10-5.
You're walking in Memphis. You're a music fan, so we know where you're heading. The gravitational pull is too strong, and soon you're looking out over that low stone fence at Graceland. That entire wall was lined with people when he died that summer of 1977, right when Punk was really ramping up. Coincidence? I dunno. But it costs $77 to cross that fence, which sometimes is no big deal and other times, man, it's 77 bucks. Especially when we all know he's not really buried there but is running around in South Africa somewhere with Jim Morrison. But if you're light on cash and you still want to commune with the spirit of Elvis, you could go to Sun Studios or Beale Street where the cat hung out -- and you definitely don't want to miss the Stax Museum.
The Stax Museum is a blast. If you're into blues, R&B, soul, early rock, any rock, this place will surprise and excite you. We knew that it would, but it was even better than expected. I urge you to see it and the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi both (not on the same day: they're 75 miles apart) because they go together like two arms of a shirt, but we'll get back to that later.
Stax was one of the classic, groundbreaking record labels of the first few decades of rock, roll and soul. The museum stands on the site of the old studio and pays tribute to what and who made that place legendary. What kind of music? A hit factory of records from the likes of Sam and Dave, Albert King, Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staple Singers, Ike and Tina Turner, Booker T. & the MGs (an interracial instrumental quartet that also served as the company’s rhythm section and house band): sweaty, shakin', good-time music. Open a new tab and play this while you read on.
Your tour starts with a fantastic little documentary on what Stax was all about: a harder-edged R&B that came before Motown, a place that integrated musicians and audiences both, and the magic combo of the blues, gospel and country that swirled around together in this rivertown that inspired singers like young Elvis Presley and the other legends that recorded at Sun Studios. The film is a powerful 10-15 minutes that put us already in a great mood and psyched to see what's next. And it opens directly into a small recreation of an old bleachboard southern church. The effect is powerful: it drives home the message of the film. This place is so well-designed! Now we're ready for anything Stax wants to lay on us.
What follows is a good-sized museum with plenty of rhythm and also enough learning to throw you into Info Overload. We are the geeks who stop to read every panel we come to, but after 2-3 hours our brains shut down. At Stax, you reach IO but with all kinds of lively features and variety thrown in. It's an Easter basket of GitDown! What'll you find in the basket? A working studio room in place of the old one that burned down, producing cool acts like Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats. Isaac Hayes' Oscar and mondo gold-trimmed Cadillac that's even badder than his chandelier Caddy in Escape from New York. (Shut yo mouth!) The Soul Train room, a re-creation of that famous dance floor. Seriously, this joint rocks! This is the only museum we've ever been where I'm watching Mab dancing while she's reading factual info. Because the soundtrack's powerful! She got that swivel in her hips, yes. Maybe they ought to pipe in some infectious Stax rhythms while the little ones are learning times tables and such. 3×3 equals shake your tail feather!
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| 24 carat, fyi |
As far as accessibility, it's all one level with plenty of space, so no problem. The displays and placards are as clear to someone in a chair as to someone standing except in one regard. On a few display cases, like Tina and Ike Turner's, the overhead light glare from behind made things difficult to see from chair height despite my moving around. A detail I'm only remembering now because Stax was such a full visit.
Like a great museum will, Stax alters your understanding and perception. Combined with our experience seeing the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, we come away with a better appreciation of Memphis as a melting pot of musics. On a larger scale, the Mississippi River was a superhighway for commerce and also the Great Migration of African-Americans from the South to the cities of the North, including the music and culture they brought along with them that started important scenes in Memphis, St. Louis, Detroit and Chicago, among others. In fact, Art Bell, marketing director for Stax, is quoted on a placard as regarding Chicago as his market target for breakout or crossover hits. In segregated times, Stax had a harder time getting traction in Eastern markets (New York) and Western (Los Angeles). But if a record broke big in Chicago, then those other large markets grew more receptive. And Chicago was indeed receptive to Stax, because Chicago was part of the same ecosystem of music that traveled along the Mississippi, which came from Delta.
In this way, Bell said, Chicago was a suburb of Mississippi.
Like the send-off of Soul Train used to go, Love, Peace, and Sooouuuul!
[Where were we staying? Tom Sawyer RV Park, West Memphis, Arkansas. Wait'll you see this place...]
