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If you're a fan of 1960s soul music, this is a priceless historical document, and a fun listen.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