Respect Yourself

Stax Records and the Soul Explosion

By: Robert Gordon

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a record company that becomes a monument to racial harmony in 1960’s segregated south Memphis. Their success is startling, and Stax soon defines an international sound. Then, after losses both business and personal, the siblings part, and the brother allies with a visionary African-American partner. Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, they fall from great heights to a tragic demise. Everything is lost, and the sanctuary that flourished is ripped from the ground. A generation later, Stax is rebuilt brick by brick to once again bring music and opportunity to the people of Memphis.

Set in the world of 1960s and '70s soul music, Respect Yourself is a story of epic heroes in a shady industry. It’s about music and musicians - Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, and Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Stax’s interracial house band. It’s about a small independent company’s struggle to survive in a business world of burgeoning conglomerates. And always at the center of the story is Memphis, Tennessee, an explosive city struggling through heated, divisive years.

Told by one of our leading music chroniclers, Respect Yourself brings to life this treasured cultural institution and the city that created it.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2013 Robert Gordon (P)2014 Audible, Inc.

Great, Very Captivating

I never knew the entire story of STAX Records. We have all know Motown's history.

Our history

What a great review of the success and downfall of Stax records .
After reading or listening to this amazing book please plan a trip to Memphis to visit the Stax Museum.

Definite Must Read

After listening to this book I listen to the Stax music with a whole new respect & a different ear.

Great narration

Any additional comments?

I would have preferred a little less of the financial details of the seamy underbelly of the recording industry and lot more musical detail and analysis of the grooves vis a vis the other music of the period - there have been some interviews with Cropper and Art Jackson that could have provided source material for this. That said, the book is well researched and very compelling. It's not trying to be for musicians - it's trying to tell a great story and extrapolate it outward to the history of the civil rights movement and at this it succeeds brilliantly, so I can't ding it down to 4 stars just because I'm a music geek. It does exactly what it sets out to do. It's two concurrent stories - the Stax company and the civil rights movement, seen first through the prism of Memphis (a truly despicable racist disgrace of a city) and then through the personal prism of the many Stax personalities.

Both the author and narrator give the book the feel of a novel although it's non-fiction. The narrator is off the hook - she gives each character a voice and personality and makes the characters 3-dimensional. It's subtle and low-key and it takes a little while for her to ease you into the world of each character but by the end you really what a tremendous performance it is.

Really good listen

What did you love best about Respect Yourself?

The behind the scenes view of the record business back in the day, so to speak. I listened to a lot of this company's music growing up and was fascinated by how it started.

What did you like best about this story?

It didn't gloss over a lot, yet didn't try to nail anyone.

What does Cassandra Campbell bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I probably wouldn't have read it- not much time to read hard copy these days.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No, so much information in the story to absorb, yet it holds you all the way through.

Any additional comments?

Very very good.

A great American music and business story

The story of the founding of Stax records and the colorblind attitude of its founders is a great story of American business and music. I listened to it all the way through, and then again up to 1972. I wanted to hear all of the music mentioned in the book, and having a streaming music service made that mostly possible. I bought all of the Otis CDs and the one-CD version of the Monterey Pop Festival and I am glad I did. The audio book format is not perfect for following up with the music, because you can't mark the name of the band and song you want to check out, like you could in a hard copy. The good thing about the audio book is that if you listen to the book on your phone, and have a streaming service on it, you can go back and forth smoothly. It makes for a very fun experience.

The narrator is good. She tries hard to give each recurring person a distinct voice.

There is a nice video about the Muscle Shoals studio. I did not view the video based on this book. It seems like there might be an interesting book to be written about the recordings in the 60s at Muscle Shoals, Stax and the NYC studios of Atlantic Records. It seems like there are enough vignettes that would be interesting, without the "building the business" angle. Just a thought.

The history of Stax and Memphis

Respect not only tells the history of Stax but the civil right history of Memphis. A must read for music ang history lovers.