Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd - In Session (CHCH-TV Studios, Hamilton, Canada, 1987)

From about 1983 to 1988, there was a very unusual and interesting program on a Canadian TV station, called "In Session." It specialized in putting two or more musicians together in a recording studio and then filming their collaboration. Here's an episode that united three soul musicians: Steve Cropper, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd.

First off, a bit more about this TV show. I've previously posted two other episodes. One paired Glen Campbell with Jimmy Webb, and the other paired Campbell with Leon Russell. I have since found out that a 1983 episode paired Stevie Ray Vaughan with Albert King. I won't be posting that one, because it has been officially released, and that album is well known and easily available:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Session_(Albert_King_and_Stevie_Ray_Vaughan_album)

But I recently dug deeper, and found some other interesting episodes. I plan on posting at least two more after this one. If anyone knows more about this show, or has more episodes, please let me know, because I haven't been able to find out much. (For instance, I couldn't find the exact date of this episode, and I've even seen conflicting information on the year. So if anyone has more accurate info about that, please let me know.)

Anyway, back to this episode. Cropper, Bell, and Floyd were far from strangers, because they collaborated with each other quite a lot back in the 1960s. All of them were part of the Stax Records hit-making machine. Cropper is best known as a session musician lead guitarist as well as a songwriter (I've posted two Covered albums for him), though he also was a key member of the Stax house band, Booker T. and the MG's. Bell and Floyd were both famous for their singing careers. However, both of them were also very capable songwriters. For instance, Bell wrote his hits "You Don't Miss Your Water" and "Private Number," and well as songs for others, such as "Born Under a Bad Sign" for Albert King. Floyd generally wrote all of his hits, including the classic "Knock on Wood." Many of them, including that one, were written with Cropper. But Floyd also wrote songs for others. For instance, he and Cropper wrote a couple of hits for Wilson Pickett, such as "634-5789 (Soulsville U.S.A.)" and "Ninety-Nine and a Half (Won't Do)."

Cropper and Bell also wrote songs together. For instance, they wrote "Share What You Got (But Keep What You Need)," a minor hit for Bell in 1966. Furthermore, Bell and Floyd wrote songs together. For instance, they co-wrote the 1971 song "'Till My Back Ain't Got No Bone," which was recorded by Bell and later covered by Albert King. Additionally, Cropper often played lead guitar on the songs recorded by Bell and Floyd. So there was a lot of collaboration going on between these three, plus others at Stax like Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and David Porter. 

For this episode, the three of them performed one classic soul hit after another. For most of the songs, at least one of them sang, wrote, or played on the original. They also shared some interesting stories between the songs. If you're a fan of the great Stax records of the 1960s and early 1970s, you really should listen to this.

The music is unreleased. The sound quality is very good. 

This album is 48 minutes long.

01 I Can't Turn You Loose [Instrumental] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
02 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
03 These Arms of Mine (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
04 I've Been Loving You Too Long (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
05 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
06 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay - Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa [Sad Song] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
07 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
08 A Tribute to a King (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
09 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
10 Knock on Wood (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
11 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
12 Hip Hug-Her [Instrumental] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
13 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
14 You Don't Miss Your Water (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
15 talk (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)
16 634-5789 [Soulsville U.S.A.] (Steve Cropper, William Bell & Eddie Floyd)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/MSBFW64m

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/en/gulpelJL5thPLnR/file

The cover image is from this exact TV show episode. From left to right: Steve Cropper, William Bell, and Eddie Floyd. The image is rather low res because it's a screenshot I took from pretty rough video footage. 

Various Artists - Stax-Volt Revue - Njardhallen, Oslo, Norway, 4-7-1967

Here's something a little different. In the 1960s, there were two distinctive and influential record labels when it came to soul music: Motown in Detroit and Stax in Memphis. (Stax is sometimes referred to as Stax/Volt, as it is here, due to Stax having a sister record label called Volt that was basically the same.)

At the time, instead of having individual musical artists doing entire concerts by themselves, it was typical in soul music to have a "revue" with a bunch of different artists. Not surprisingly, the Stax artists were usually packaged together, just as the Motown artists were.

Around 1966 and 1967, there was a huge surge of interest in soul music in Europe. This is because most soul records hadn't been available, and then they suddenly became available, and Europe found out about all kinds of great, classic songs in a short time. The Stax record company realized this and had their Stax revue tour Europe in the summer of 1967. They were greeted by very enthusiastic crowds everywhere they went, even though they were typically all white crowds of people generally new to soul music.

By some lucky chance, one such concert in Olso, Norway, was filmed, and the footage survived. This is very important footage, especially since Otis Redding was the main star and he died about half a year later. This footage has been released as a DVD, but I don't think there's any corresponding album release. So I converted the video to audio and broke it up into mp3s.

The concert starts with a bunch of instrumentals. Some are credited to "Booker T. & the MGs" and some are credits to the "Mar-Keys," but they're the same musicians, including the likes of guitarist Steve Cropper and bassist Duck Dunn. They are then the house band for all the acts in the rest of the concert. (That was typically the case on the records as well.)

After that are relatively brief spots by Arthur Conley and Eddie Floyd. (I must say I'm really surprised Floyd's huge 1966 hit "Knock on Wood" wasn't included.) Then Sam and Dave and Otis Redding got larger slots of about 20 minutes each, because they were bigger acts.

If you're a fan of 1960s soul music, this is a priceless historical document, and a fun listen.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long.

01 Red Beans and Rice [Instrumental] (Booker T. & the MGs)
02 Green Onions [Instrumental] (Booker T. & the MGs)
03 Philly Dog [Instrumental] (Mar-Keys)
04 Grab This Thing [Instrumental] (Mar-Keys)
05 Last Night [Instrumental] (Mar-Keys)
06 In the Midnight Hour (Arthur Conley)
07 Sweet Soul Music (Arthur Conley)
08 Raise Your Hand (Eddie Floyd)
09 You Don't Know like I Know (Sam & Dave)
10 Soothe Me (Sam & Dave)
11 When Something Is Wrong with My Baby (Sam & Dave)
12 Hold On, I'm Coming (Sam & Dave)
13 Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa [Sad Song] (Otis Redding)
14 My Girl (Otis Redding)
15 Shake (Otis Redding)
16 [I Can't Get No] Satisfaction (Otis Redding)
17 Try a Little Tenderness (Otis Redding)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15481730/StxVltRevue_1967_NjardhallnOsloNorwy__4-7-1967_atse.zip.html

The cover is based on the cover of the DVD. However, that was rectangular in shape, in keeping with the concert posters of the time, including fully copying the artistic style. So I used Photoshop to squish things vertically while not squishing the black and white photos that were included in the art. 

Various Artists - BBC Electric Proms, Stax Records: 50 Years of Soul, Royal Albert Hall, London, Britain, 9-1-2017

I've been doing a lot of searching for BBC concerts these days, because their sound quality is almost always fantastic and they're often surprisingly overlooked bootlegs. I've come across some unexpected things, and this is one.

Stax Records was founded in 1957. It was the most prominent American record label for what became known as "southern soul," which had a more rough sound than soul music in the north, like that in Detroit (Motown) or Chicago. In the 1960s and early 1970s, Stax Records was the home to many soul stars like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Booker T. & the MGs, the Staples Singers, and many more.

You can read more about the record company at Wikipedia if you're not already familiar:

Stax Records - Wikipedia

In 2017, the BBC put on a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Stax. It featured most of the Stax stars who were still alive all those years later - Sam Moore (of Sam and Dave), Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Steve Cropper, and Booker T. Jones. In addition, it featured some younger British soul stars who were influenced by Stax: Beverley Knight, James Morrison, and Ruby Turner. There also was Tom Jones, who was star back in the Stax heyday, and was still going strong 50 years later. The show was emceed by British pianist Jools Holland, and backed by Holland, his band, and his orchestra (frequently used for his BBC TV show).

This concert got rare reviews at the time, and deservedly so. Both the younger and older artists did well. This was a "last hurrah" for most of the older artists, due to the passage of time. 

I've already highlighted the singing skills of Beverley Knight with a series of cover versions albums. I didn't include her covers here, since I knew I'd be posting this. So if you like those albums, there's more of her here to like.

I left off one song on purpose. The concert ended with an encore of "Sweet Soul Music." But it was done to start the show, and done much better. The encore seems unplanned, and frankly it wasn't very good, with too many people trying to sing lead vocals and tripping over each other. This concert is stronger without it.

This concert is an hour and nine minutes long. The sound quality is as good as you'd expect from the BBC, sounding like an officially released album.

01 talk (Jools Holland)
02 Sweet Soul Music (Tom Jones, Beverley Knight & James Morrison)
03 talk (Jools Holland)
04 Hard to Handle (Tom Jones)
05 talk (Jools Holland)
06 I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down (Tom Jones & Sam Moore)
07 talk (Jools Holland)
08 Soul Man (Sam Moore)
09 talk (Jools Holland)
10 B-A-B-Y (Beverley Knight)
11 talk (Jools Holland)
12 I Forgot to Be Your Lover (William Bell)
13 talk (Jools Holland)
14 Private Number (William Bell & Beverley Knight)
15 talk (Jools Holland)
16 Knock on Wood (Eddie Floyd)
17 talk (Jools Holland)
18 Try a Little Tenderness (James Morrison & Steve Cropper)
19 talk (Jools Holland)
20 Green Onions [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones & Steve Cropper)
21 talk (Jools Holland)
22 I'll Take You There (Ruby Turner)
23 talk (Jools Holland)
24 [Sittin' On] The Dock of the Bay (Tom Jones & Steve Cropper)
25 talk (Jools Holland)
26 Blues for New Orleans [Instrumental] (Booker T. Jones)
27 talk (Jools Holland)
28 Walking the Dog (Sweetie Irie & Nadia Rose)
29 talk (Jools Holland)
30 Hold On, I'm Coming (Sam Moore & Beverley Knight)
31 talk (Jools Holland)
32 634-5789 (Eddie Floyd & James Morrison)
33 talk (Jools Holland)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701201/VA-BBElectrcPrmsStaxRecrds50YearsSoulRoylAlbrtHall__9-1-2017_atse.zip.html

I found a bunch of good photos of this exact concert (for once). I could have used a photo showing many different stars here, but each of them would be so small that you could barely tell who they are. I decided it was better to chose a picture with just three of the stars, to better show the spirit of the concert. This picture has James Morrison singing into a microphone, with Beverley Knight and Tom Jones looking on.

For the text, I used the Stax Records logo at the top, plus the BBC logo at the bottom. I also found special lettering for the Electric Proms, a series of special BBC summer concerts that ran for a few years.