you know the irony of Stax…...and for that matter Fame and Atlantic Records, which I believe was produced from Muscle Shoals Alabama was that quite a few of the musicians were white and a lot of the songs were written by whites and the ownership was white and for the most part I preferred that sound rather than Motown who had a black founder, predominately black musicians and black writers
I love Motown (at least the 60's into the early 70's), as much as Stax, but there is a huge difference in their fundamental styles.
Barry Gordy Jr., the President of Motown, was always targetting the white crossover market, and had dreams of Vegas style shows. First time I saw the Supremes was live at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach in, I believe, 1964. This was shortly after they started having hits with songs like "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", etc. Barry had them incorporate "white" songs into their act to broaden their appeal to white audiences. He did the same with most of his other artists through the years.
Stax, on the other hand, was targeting southern blacks, with much less complex production and orchestration, and often a bit of a rural or "country soul" feel. Often the lyrics would tell stories, much the same as country songs. "Private Number" is a great example of that. The fact that their sound and immense talents involved appealed to white audiences as well was merely a bonus, and they weren't playing Vegas or Miami Beach.
My 170 gig iPod has just about everything released that mattered to me on both labels, and I treasure it all.
