The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy.
Told by one of our leading music chroniclers, Respect Yourself is the book to own about one of our most treasured cultural institutions and the city that created it..
And always at the center of the story is Memphis, Tennessee, an explosive city struggling through volatile years.
It\'s about a small independent company\'s struggle to survive in an increasingly conglomerate-oriented world. and the M.
G.\'s, Stax\'s interracial house band.
It\'s about music and musicians--Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, and Booker T.
Set in the world of 1960s and \'70s Soul music, Respect Yourself is a character-driven story of racial integration, and then of black power and economic independence.
A generation later, Stax is rebuilt brick by brick and is once again transforming disenfranchised youth into stellar young musicians.
They fall, losing everything, and the sanctuary they created is torn to the ground.
Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, the heights they achieve result in their tragic demise.
Their success soon pits the siblings against each other, and the brother abandons his sister for a visionary African-American partner.
A white brother and sister build a monument to racial harmony in blighted south Memphis during the civil rights movement.
The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy
