RE: The Stax Documentary<\/p>\n
In your review of the Stax documentary you mentioned Stax\u00a0being “screwed by Jerry Wexler” such that\u00a0“Atlantic ends up with all the Masters.”\u00a0However, technically, the\u00a0latter statement is incorrect.<\/p>\n
When Jim Stewart made the deal with Jerry Wexler, Stax (now Concord) actually retained ownership of the Masters. But\u00a0that was because the deal was really a lifetime distribution deal (IN PERPETUITY)\u00a0in which Atlantic (now Warner Brothers) received 50% of all income from Stax Masters as a distribution fee.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the contracts Stax had with their artists (who were almost all Black) provided for a 50\/50 split of income from\u00a0Master use licenses (including uses of the Masters in film, television and advertisements, which are primary sources of income for the artists these days).<\/p>\n
The result is that for every\u00a0dollar that comes in today for the use of a Stax master, Warner\u00a0takes 50% of that dollar (per the Wexler deal) and then sends 50 cents to Concord. Concord, under the artist’s label deal, then takes 50% of that amount and sends the artist 25 cents. So\u00a0Stax\u00a0artists are only being paid 25 cents on the dollar – half of what most artists, even those with bad contracts from the\u00a01960s, are being paid for income from Master use licenses.<\/p>\n
To add insult to injury, Concord was a partner in “Soulsville USA,” which showed how Jerry Wexler took advantage of Jim Stewart’s trust to pull a fast one on Jim. Watching the documentary, I was struck by the fact that my client William Bell is still living with the effects of this onerous deal almost 60 years\u00a0later. Of course, almost every label has voluntarily\u00a0updated\u00a0their\u00a0record\u00a0royalty rates to modern equivalencies, but this particular situation has not been remedied in spite of repeated\u00a0requests over the course of years. I can personally vouch for the efforts of Zelma Redding on behalf of her late husband’s estate, and my efforts on behalf of William Bell who, despite writing songs like ‘You Don’t\u00a0Miss Your Water,” “Born Under A Bad Sign,” and “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” (which has over 50 million streams on Spotify), was not mentioned in the documentary.<\/p>\n
This outdated deal is a grave injustice to\u00a0Stax artists and should be corrected!<\/p>\n
PS, It’s ironic that your review came out on the same day Concord announced the release of a new John Fogerty album. In Fogerty’s\u00a0case, Concord ‘did the right thing’ and restored the song copyrights he\u00a0lost under a bad deal with Fantasy Records, such that the press release touts the\u00a0upcoming album as\u00a0‘a personal reclamation of artistic ownership.’ Would that they would do the right thing for the Black artists from Stax!<\/p>\n
Charles Driebe<\/p>\n
en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Charles_Driebe<\/p>\n
blindambitionmgt.com<\/p>\n
__________________________________<\/p>\n
Subject: Re: Swift?<\/p>\n
“So what’s forever, “Desperado” or “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”? “Hotel California” or “Cruel Summer”?”<\/p>\n
Perfect!<\/p>\n
I’m a Substitute Teacher and several ago, I asked an elementary school class what they wanted to be and several kids said “Influencer!”.\u00a0 Nobody said “Musician”.<\/p>\n
Always enjoy your newsletter!<\/p>\n
Jim Moulder<\/p>\n
__________________________________<\/p>\n
Subject: Re: The Stax Documentary<\/p>\n
I had several heartfelt and fascinating conversations with Al Bell when I interviewed him for the Library of Congress. The film \u201cWattstax\u201d was added to the National Film Registry in 2020.<\/p>\n
He is truly a passionate and caring man who supported those artists out of sheer love for the music and the community. He wanted fans to share the experiences even when most had no money. \u00a0He said they found ways to charge $1 for tickets to Wattstax, most of which went to charity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019s also a songwriter. He wrote \u201cI\u2019ll Take You There,\u201d made famous by The Staple Singers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n He told me that he wrote it after the murder of his brother. He sat crying in an abandoned school bus in his parent\u2019s backyard. While the song only has one verse, he said it was the music that rang so clear in his head. He is soulful to his core.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n I adore that man. If you get the chance to meet him or interview him, take it. It will be one of the most inspiring and uplifting conversations you will ever have.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Stacie Seifrit-Griffin<\/p>\n __________________________________<\/p>\n Subject: Re: The Stax Documentary<\/p>\n I thought it was very good as well. However our family was very disappointed that when Steve Cropper was describing how the MGs cut \u201cGreen Onions\u201d, he failed to mentioned that Stax house bass player, Lewie Steinberg was actually the bass player and credited co\/writer on the session. To make it even worse, they showed a photo of Donald \u201cDuck\u201d Dunn while describing this session. Duck wouldn\u2019t join the MGs for another year after that hit.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lewie is my wife, Diane Steinberg\u2019s uncle. This fact always gets swept under the rug because Duck went on to do great things in his career, while Lewie, who played on several early Stax hits, including \u201cLast Night\u201d by the Mar Keys, was sort of swept under the rug over time.<\/p>\n Kenny Lee Lewis<\/p>\n __________________________________<\/p>\n From: Doug McClement<\/p>\n Subject: Re: Billy Joel<\/p>\n Back in December 1977, Billy Joel was playing his first big Toronto arena show at Maple Leaf Gardens. I was running a recording studio downtown at the time. \u00a0A student from the University of Toronto weekly newspaper interviewed him at his hotel using a portable micro cassette player, and brought the tape to my studio to transfer it to a regular cassette to make it easier to transcribe. When we hooked everything up and she pressed the play button, the tape was blank!!<\/p>\n She started to cry. \u00a0But she gathered herself together, and phoned her contact at CPI, the local promoter, and got a call back from Billy’s road manager saying that he was willing to DO THE WHOLE INTERVIEW OVER AGAIN for her. Keep in mind, this was not the Toronto Star, just a little University weekly. I don’t think many artists, then or now would do something like that. A classy move. \u00a0I’ve never forgotten it. \u00a0(and my future wife and I went to see his show that night, and were blown away by Billy and his incredible band. A true showman! \u00a0Such great songs. \u00a0Good songwriting always wins.)<\/p>\n A few years later, I had to drive from Toronto to Long Island to take a Sound Workshop console back to the factory in Hauppauge for modifications. \u00a0As I drove south along Hwy 87 in the Bronx the sun was setting on Manhattan on my right, \u00a0and suddenly “New York State of Mind” was playing on the radio. \u00a0A New York moment I’ll never forget.<\/p>\n __________________________________<\/p>\n Subject: Re: A Complete Unknown<\/p>\n 10 seconds into A Complete Unknown Timothy Chalamet is riding in a car taking him into New York City for the first time. A voice on the radio in the car mentions the \u201cNFC East New York Giants\u201d. Dylan moved to NYC in 1961. The NFL and AFL were separate leagues until 1970, therefore there were no NFC of AFC until then, only the NFL and the AFL. I saw the movie in the theater and my first thought was \u201cokay quit nitpicking\u201d but again, it was 10 seconds in and turned out to be the gateway to the many other inaccuracies you mentioned. \u00a0Overall it was sloppy.<\/p>\n