Right now I'm reading the outstanding history of the Stax/Volt record label and recording studio by Robert Gordon,
Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion. In addition to the many insights the book provides into the work of Steve Cropper, Booker T. Jones, Duck Dunn, Al Jackson Jr., Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, and all the rest, it puts the institution of Stax squarely in proper place as part of the history of the great city of Memphis and the civil rights movement in general. One of my favorite parts of the book is author Gordon's account of the Stax/Volt European Tour in 1967, which brought a certain soul sensibility to new parts of the world. Booker T and the MGs were the band for the tour, and they tore it up night after night. I found a compressed version of one of the dates on that tour, the Stax gang playing for an audience in Norway (Oslo, I presume). Jackson and Dunn are amazing, to be sure.
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