Wattstax was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, 1972. The concert's performers included all of Stax's prominent artists at the time. The genres of the songs performed included soul, gospel, R&B, blues, funk, and jazz. Months after the festival, Stax released a double LP of the concert's highlights, Wattstax: The Living Word. The concert was filmed by David L. Wolper's film crew and was made into the 1973 film titled Wattstax. The film was directed by Mel Stuart and nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Documentary Film in 1974.

In 2020, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Festival production

Development

Stax Record's West Coast director, Forrest Hamilton, came up with the idea for the Wattstax concert. Being in Los Angeles during the Watts Riots in 1965, Hamilton later became aware of the yearly Watts Summer Festival that commemorated the revolt. During the Wattstax concert in fact, an issue arose when much of the audience poured onto the field to dance while Rufus Thomas performed "Do the Funky Chicken". Stax executive Larry Shaw immediately asked Thomas to get the audience to return to the stands, leading to a memorable moment in the documentary film when one particular straggler refuses to leave and Thomas makes pointed fun of him.

The dressing rooms for Stax's artists were outside/behind the stadium, and two vans were rented to drive the artists up to the stage and back to the dressing rooms. Portable restrooms were rented (for the artists to use before and after their sets) and placed right under the side of the stage. Colored stage lighting was hammered onto poles on each corner of the stage. Stacked speakers were placed in each corner of the fenced area. Below the stage, a long table was placed to hold several open reel tape recorders, capturing the concert performances for later release on records.

  • 6:32: "Do the Funky Chicken" by Rufus Thomas
  • 6:39: "Do the Funky Penguin" by Rufus Thomas
  • 6:45: "I Don't Know What This World Is Coming to" by The Soul Children
  • 6:52: "Hearsay" by The Soul Children
  • 7:00: Speech by Fred Williamson and Jesse Jackson
  • 7:03: "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right" by Luther Ingram
  • 7:06: "Theme from Shaft" by Isaac Hayes
  • 7:12: "Soulsville" by Isaac Hayes
  • 7:17: "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Isaac Hayes

Film production

The 1973 documentary release of Wattstax includes, in addition to the festival sets by Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, the Staples Singers, the Bar-Kays, and many others, musical performances by artists who were unable to perform during the actual Wattstax concert. The Emotions perform the gospel song "Peace Be Still" from the pulpit of the Friendly Will Baptist Church in Watts in a sequence shot several weeks after the Wattstax concert. Johnnie Taylor performs his 1971 hit single "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" onstage at the Summit Club in Los Angeles in a sequence filmed September 23, 1972. Little Milton performs "Walking the Streets and Crying" in a lip-synced performance staged near train tracks adjacent to the Watts Towers.

Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of Operation PUSH, was the MC of the Wattstax concert. Interspersed between the musical performances is documentary footage of the residents of Watts going about their daily lives, local businesses, as well as interview segments with Black Los Angelians. Rather than being fully candid, these segments feature actors discussing predetermined topics. Among these actors is Ted Lange, later one of the stars of the TV series The Love Boat.

Film releases

As originally edited, the Wattstax film concluded with two performances by Isaac Hayes of hit songs from the motion picture Shaft: "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville." Following Wattstax's premiere on February 4, 1973, at the Los Angeles Music Center, but before its wide release in the United States, Stax Films and Wolper Films were informed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), producers and distributors of Shaft, that Wattstax could not be released with Hayes' performance numbers. MGM's contracts for the music in Shaft prevented any use of those songs in any other film until 1978.

Wattstax was restored and remastered in 2003, using Apple's Final Cut Pro and Cinema Tools to create new film and HD video elements from its original 16 mm film negatives. The original audio elements were used to create a new surround sound soundtrack and new stereo elements for soundtrack album releases. "Theme from Shaft" and "Soulsville" were restored to the film at this time as well.

The restored film first played in limited release in the United States during the summer of 2003. In January 2004, the restored version of the film played at the Sundance Film Festival, followed by a theatrical reissue in June by Sony Pictures Repertory. In September 2004, the PBS series P.O.V. aired a new documentary about the concert and the movie. That same month, the movie was released on DVD by Warner Bros., which obtained the video rights when it purchased the Wolper library (Warner's former sister company, Warner Music Group, coincidentally owns the rights to most pre-1968 Stax recordings). Warner Bros. also acquired the distribution rights from Sony as a result of their ownership of the library of current copyright holder The Saul Zaentz Company.

Album releases

Stax released Wattstax: The Living Word on January 18, 1973. The Living Word sold over 220,000 copies and a second two-disc release, The Living Word: Wattstax 2, followed later that year. Wattstax 2 featured additional live performances from both the concert and related performances seen in the film, as well as studio tracks by other music artists and Richard Pryor.

Coinciding with the preparation for the 2004 reissue of the film, Stax Records (by this time an imprint of Fantasy Records and later Concord Music Group) released the Wattstax: Music from the Festival and Film three-disc collection, containing remastered versions of live performances from the Wattstax concert and the ancillary Los Angeles shows seen in the film. A 35th-anniversary version was released in 2007.

In 2004, Stax released Wattstax: Highlights from the Soundtrack, a single-disc audio CD featuring only the songs included in the documentary film.

Songs in the film

In order of appearance:

  • "Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get", performed by The Dramatics
  • "Oh La De Da", performed by the Staple Singers
  • "We the People", performed by The Staple Singers
  • "The Star-Spangled Banner", performed by Kim Weston
  • "Lift Every Voice and Sing", performed by Kim Weston
  • "Someone Greater Than I", performed by Jimmy Jones
  • "Lying on the Truth", performed by the Rance Allen Group
  • "Peace Be Still", performed by The Emotions
  • "Old-Time Religion", performed by The Golden Thirteen: William Bell, Louise McCord, Deborah Manning, Eric Mercury, Freddie Robinson, Lee Sain, Ernie Hines, Little Sonny, The Newcomers, Eddie Floyd, The Temprees, Frederick Knight
  • "Respect Yourself", performed by The Staple Singers
  • "Son of Shaft/Feel It", performed by The Bar-Kays
  • "I'll Play the Blues for You", performed by Albert King
  • "Walking the Back Streets and Crying", performed by Little Milton
  • "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone", performed by Johnnie Taylor
  • "I May Not Be What You Want", performed by Mel and Tim
  • "Pick Up the Pieces", performed by Carla Thomas
  • "The Breakdown", performed by Rufus Thomas
  • "Do the Funky Chicken", performed by Rufus Thomas
  • "(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want to Be Right", performed by Luther Ingram
  • "Theme from Shaft", performed by Isaac Hayes
  • "Soulsville", performed by Isaac Hayes
  • Produced by: Larry Shaw, Mel Stuart
  • Executive Producers: Al Bell, David L. Wolper
  • Associate Producer: Forest Hamilton, Hnic.
  • Consultants: Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tommy Jacquette, Mafundi Institute, Rev. Jesse Boyd, Teddy Stewart, Richard Thomas, John W. Smith, Sylvester Williams, Carol Hall
  • Cinematography: Roderick Young, Robert Marks, Jose Mignone, Larry Clark
  • Edited by: Robert K. Lambert, David Newhouse, David Blewitt
  • Assistant Director: Charles Washburn
  • Concert Unit Director; Sid McCoy
  • Production Coordinator: David Oyster
  • Music Supervisor: Terry Manning
  • Music Recording: Wally Heider, Inc.
  • Post Production Supervisor: Philly Wylly
  • Concert Artist Staging: Melvin Van Peebles
  • Music Conductor: Dale Warren
  • Lighting: Acey Dcey
  • Production Staff: Jim Stewart, Johnny Baylor, Gary Holmes/Mind Benders, Humanities International, Edward Windsor Wright

See also

  • List of American films of 1973
  • Save the Children (film)
  • Soul to Soul
  • Summer of Soul

References

  • (archived)
  • P.O.V. Wattstax companion Web site (featuring streaming audio of performances and a podcast interview with director Mel Stuart)
  • MP3 audio interview with Stax Records expert Rob Bowman on the radio program The Sound of Young America regarding Wattstax
  • "Remembering the 'Black Woodstock—MSNBC article
  • "Wattstax, Again"—6 June 2003 National Review article by Michael Potemra