Respect Yourself
Stax Records and the Soul Explosion
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Narrated by:
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Cassandra Campbell
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By:
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Robert Gordon
About this listen
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.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Sing to Me
- My Story of Making Music, Finding Magic, and Searching for Who's Next
- By: LA Reid
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Legendary music producer LA Reid - the man behind artists such as Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Kanye West, Rihanna, TLC, Outkast, Pink, Justin Bieber, and Usher - changed the music business forever. Now he tells his story, taking fans on an intimate tour of his life. Sing to Me is a fascinating journey from Reid's small-town R&B roots in Cincinnati, Ohio, and his work as a drummer to his fame as a Grammy Award-winning music producer and his gig as a judge on the hit reality show The X Factor.
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Wow!! What a journey!!!
- By Marty Cohn on 02-06-16
By: LA Reid
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MJ
- The Genius of Michael Jackson
- By: Steve Knopper
- Narrated by: Eric Michael Summerer
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Rolling Stone contributing editor Steve Knopper delves deeply into Michael Jackson's music and talent. From the artist's early days with the Jackson 5, to his stratospheric success as a solo artist, to "Beat It" and "Thriller", "Bad", and "The Man in the Mirror", to his volatile final years, his attempted comeback, and his untimely death, Knopper explores the beguiling and often contradictory forces that fueled Michael Jackson's genius.
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It is ok but no details of his creativity in here
- By Jay on 02-25-16
By: Steve Knopper
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Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
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The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
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Shining Star
- Braving the Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Philip Bailey, Keith Zimmerman, Kent Zimmerman
- Narrated by: Philip Bailey
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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With more than 90 million records sold and eight Grammy Awards throughout its 40-year history, Earth, Wind & Fire has staked its claim as one of the most successful, influential, and beloved acts in music history. Now, for the first time, its dynamic lead singer, Philip Bailey, chronicles the group's meteoric rise to stardom and his own professional and spiritual journey. Never before had a musical act crossed multiple styles and genres with a quixotic blend of astrology, universalism, and Egyptology as Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) did when it exploded into the public's conscience during the 1970s.
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Great book, but needed pro narrator
- By Wayne on 03-23-16
By: Philip Bailey, and others
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Me, the Mob, and the Music
- One Helluva Ride with Tommy James and the Shondells
- By: Tommy James, Martin Fitzpatrick
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Everyone knows the hits: "Mony Mony," "I Think We're Alone Now," "Crimson and Clover," "Crystal Blue Persuasion." They are nuggets of rock and pop history. However, few know the unlikely story of how these hits came to be. Tommy James had been performing in rock bands in the Michigan area since the age of 12. Prompted to record a few songs by a local disc jockey in 1964, Tommy chose an obscurity titled "Hanky Panky," which became a minor local hit that came and went.
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What a ride - excellent story, well told
- By Dave on 03-25-10
By: Tommy James, and others
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My Life with Earth, Wind & Fire
- By: Maurice White, Herb Powell
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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The late Grammy-winning founder of the legendary pop/R&B/soul/funk/disco group tells his story and charts the rise of his legendary band in this sincere memoir that captures the heart and soul of an artist whose groundbreaking sound continues to influence music today. With a foreword by David Foster.
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Maurice--Earth, Wind and Fire
- By Linda Ealey on 02-28-17
By: Maurice White, and others
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Tearing Down the Wall of Sound
- The Rise and Fall of Phil Spector
- By: Mick Brown
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 17 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Phil Spector, born in the Bronx in 1940, grew up an outsider despised by his peers. But he formed a band, and had a number-one hit with "To Know Him Is to Love Him". He quickly became the top producer of early rock and roll and the originator of such girl groups as the Ronettes. Hit followed hit, and for all of them he used a new recording style called the "wall of sound". But the reign of the boy-man who owned pop music was doomed, and Spector spiraled into paranoid isolation and peculiar behavior.
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Descent Into Madness
- By Chris on 06-11-12
By: Mick Brown
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1965
- The Most Revolutionary Year in Music
- By: Andrew Grant Jackson
- Narrated by: Peter Berkrot
- Length: 11 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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During 12 unforgettable months in the middle of the turbulent '60s, America saw the rise of innovative new sounds that would change popular music as we knew it. In 1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music, music historian Andrew Grant Jackson (Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers) chronicles a groundbreaking year of creativity fueled by rivalries between musicians and continents, sweeping social changes, and technological breakthroughs.
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Seems like a good overview
- By wylie smith on 01-12-23
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Never a Dull Moment
- 1971 - the Year That Rock Exploded
- By: David Hepworth
- Narrated by: David Hepworth
- Length: 11 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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On New Year's Eve, 1970, Paul McCartney told his lawyers to issue the writ at the High Court in London, effectively ending The Beatles. You might say this was the last day of the pop era. The following day, which was a Friday, was 1971. You might say this was the first day of the rock era. And within the remaining 364 days of this monumental year, the world would hear Don McLean's "American Pie", The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar", The Who's "Baba O'Riley", Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", and more.
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A blast from the past
- By Amazon Customer on 07-30-16
By: David Hepworth
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Walk This Way
- Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song That Changed American Music Forever
- By: Geoff Edgers
- Narrated by: Geoff Edgers
- Length: 6 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Washington Post staff writer Geoff Edgers takes a deep dive into the story behind "Walk This Way", Aerosmith and Run-DMC's legendary, groundbreaking mashup that forever changed music.
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A MUST LISTEN/READ
- By Aron Teo Lee on 05-17-19
By: Geoff Edgers
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So Many Roads
- The Life and Times of the Grateful Dead
- By: David Browne
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 15 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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No longer dismissed as relics of the hippie era, a new generation has lionized the Dead for creating a culture that paved the way for social networking, free music swapping, and the uncompromising anticorporate attitude of indie rock. Now, fifty years after the band first began changing rock 'n' roll both sonically and psychically, So Many Roads paints the most vivid portrait yet of the Grateful Dead, one of the most enduring institutions in American music and culture.
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Great first book on the Dead
- By robert on 10-30-15
By: David Browne
What listeners say about Respect Yourself
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- ANTHONY THOMPSON
- 06-06-19
Great, Very Captivating
I never knew the entire story of STAX Records. We have all know Motown's history.
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- Janell Nelson
- 03-07-18
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.
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- Paul Brooks
- 01-09-18
Definite Must Read
After listening to this book I listen to the Stax music with a whole new respect & a different ear.
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- A. K. Moore
- 10-29-14
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.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Susan
- 06-22-14
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.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Bill Staley
- 07-16-18
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.
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- Dwayne
- 12-12-21
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.
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