I'M A POLL MAN - The Stax Records ballot poll (Voting Closes September 22)

http://i.imgur.com/hTFMhVH.jpg

In this poll it's not just about the singles, so you're free to vote for your favourite 15-minute Isaac Hayes love jams. Every track that appeared on Stax or one of its sublabels (Volt, Enterprise, etc) is eligible, as well as actually-Stax recordings that came out on Atlantic/Atco. Rather than trying to police the finer boundaries, I'm deferring to the lists at http://staxrecords.free.fr/list.htm - you can vote for anything linked under STAX BEFORE MAY 68 ("Blue Stax") or STAX AFTER MAY 68 ("Yellow Stax").

The voting form is here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1E8JuSSrTo9_x_8x9ajeyhVeDdiG-3V6j4KWymszA6S0/viewform

You can vote for up to 25 tracks (no minimum). Your #1 will get 30 points, your #2 26, the remaining votes will score 23,22,21,...,1.

For those in search of deep cuts, I've compiled every Stax release I can find on Spotify (if you find anything I've missed, post below): http://open.spotify.com/user/seandalai/playlist/02Wk83tcPi2OKq1aQHyY3T
If you just want the singles, go here: http://open.spotify.com/album/0RPeS6tlJfJt1GQ1XilhkH

Optional subpolls: vote for your five favourite albums and/or your five favourite tracks that cover or sample a Stax song.

Please campaign/debate below! Voting closes September 15th at midnight wherever you are.

OH SHIT

Assume this was meant for ILM...

I don't care what anyone else puts on his or her ballot, except that THIS had better be somewhere in your top 5:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ooyd1K5_DvQ

fp

OH SHIT xp

bump

badump

i have been anticipating this

and also i hope everyone remembers the greatness of "big bird" in addition to "knock on wood"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCYo_tW9TM

I'm pretty familiar with the overground Stax catalogue, so I'm looking forward to digging into the underground half of it.

Perhaps the most "underground" of all...

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/4250591073_a961e3930b.jpg

My parents have a almost virgin copy of this.

OH SHIT

I didn't know that Lena Zavaroni thing was a Stax release!

It wasn't recorded for them, they just handled US distro.

I saw a 2nd hand copy of this in a charity shop..

1) I looked it up later, it was the last thing Stax released before byebye
2) She does "Help me make it through the night" which must be the most inappropriate thing ever in a field of inappropriateness.

(did not buy)

It's very, very wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9Ze1H7tLtY

Anyway, real Stax music. Hopefully this link will work:

The Memphis Soul Sound by Stanley Booth

and also i hope everyone remembers the greatness of "big bird" in addition to "knock on wood"

Fuck yeah. Will be in my top 5. Best heavy metal record ever.

Speaking of covers, some questionable vocals on this thanks to ms justine bateman, but otherwise classic bc of britta phillips
i have seen Satisfaction 1zill times and i could only make it halfway through this today
i urge everyone to watch this movie if possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEcgs8A8ul0

<3 Rufus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCFyKRtlLOI

This song is sung with so much feeling that I don't even care about the sample (which is great, but not even remotely the best part of this song)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DVEX1VWuco

you will never leave me
i'll never grow old
<3 this song soooooooooooo much

One of my favorites!

Does anyone else get errors when trying to post in this thread since it was moved?

yes
i feel like it's broken or something

and then poof, my post is there

Can't bookmark it either.

File under "late-period infidelity jams"

Luther Ingram - If Loving You Is Wrong (I Don't Want To Be Right)
Margie Joseph - Stop! In the Name of Love (Spotify link; the long version isn't on Youtube)
Soul Children - It's Out of My Hands
Mavis Staples - You're Driving Me (To the Arms of a Stranger)

Funny this poll should pop up now. Once every year or so I pull out the first Stax-Volt box and just REVEL in it for a week or two, and discs 2-6 are in my changer at this moment. Current earworm is "Home Grown" by Booker T. and the MGs (trying to see if I can arrange a keyless, hornless version for the trio I play in) but I've also been messing arouind with "Bo-Time" by The Mar-Keys and "Restless" by The Cobras (all Steve Cropper on guitar, he's one of my biggest heroes.) He's also behind Cheryl and Pam Johnson's "That's My Guy," a wtf wonder of tuff girlgroup action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ8sR77Otxo

These albums are beyond essential:

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_500/MI0003/132/MI0003132380.jpg
http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-1396896-1373107505-5009.jpeg
http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-3569145-1341460307-5319.jpeg

From the once-totally-obscure, now slightly-less-obscure, Lou Bond album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Y-x3HEo4E

Righteous protest folk-soul.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhcTu5El0c

New to me: this absolutely devastating William Bell ballad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXo1Yqpj3Kc

Stax do some of the best Christmas songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkz8s1hN8hg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvqahDDcYuQ

Any ballots yet? My target date is next week sometime.

Also, this thread is still fuxxored. It makes me sad.

Bump! Please vote everybody!

(thread showed up in my bookmarks for the first time, maybe something has been fixed?)

and no more posting errors, sweet

My first attempt at a ballot essentially amounted to an Otis Redding (and Otis/Carla Thomas) ballot. Gonna have to do more listening.

Try to sit out these big polls but feel like maybe I should vote in this one.

Ballot coming soon(ish).

definitely gonna vote, just gonna go down to the wire listening

WAs 'Starting all over again' by Johnny Taylor? I like that one.

Thought it was Mel & Tim.

I will be voting!!!

Ok I'm gonna do this! Tomorrow I'm going to sit down and make a ballot. My love of Stax runs deeper than possibly any love. So many great groups that only released a few singles or one lp, Hot Sauce, Jean Knight, Freddie Robinson, 24 Carat Black, so many other classics. Plus these
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6UMkev5t9A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBDGXKlVQhY

It's sad William Bell never found the fame Otis Redding or Isaac Hayes did, with so many great singles and solid albums.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdx-ydEiEBk

This is me campaigning for my favorite Stax song, I love Ruby so much

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx8Ok6NZyRc

Yes Mel and Tim sorry. They will make my list. Will have to go away and do some digging.

WAs 'Starting all over again' by Johnny Taylor? I like that one.

― Hinklepicker, Sunday, September 8, 2013 3:34 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thought it was Mel & Tim.

― I Am the Cosimo Code (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, September 8, 2013 3:40 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

They both did versions! Prefer M+T myself.

It's sad but the greatest Charmels song was never released as a single or at all until ace records dug it up. I didn't vote for it since it's only on compilations of unreleased recordings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX-vElwT4lQ

dammit, I made the fatal mistake of starting playing the playlists instead of just making a ballot from memory. Now y'all may never see me again.

I forgot about this but I will try to vote!

The thread isn't messed up anymore, so you can bookmark it.

Starting POLL over again

Voting form is blocked for me (stupid work rules). Will you accept an emailed ballot?

Gonna try to get mine in soon. I gave up on trying to absorb post-'68 Stax sufficiently enough for any of it to go on my ballot. But I can't wait for the rollout to listen and learn. My ballot is still very Otis-heavy.

Email ballots are ok - send them to my username @yahoo.co.uk.

It's not really closing today either - I'm on holiday and won't be tallying until the weekend.

phew -- so we have an extra week? should this be noted somewhere?

Email ballots are ok
Thanks - ballot sent.

I was surprised by what came out as my #1 in the end. I guess I like a lot of Stax, esp. the Blue era (16 songs out of 25 in my ballot) but nothing from that period really stands taller than anything else for me. But then when you get to the Yellow era, the 'hit' rate is less but the records are more idiosyncratic and so lend themselves to slightly deeper love.

Got it. Keep voting people!

just threw a very half assed ballot together

I'm gonna try to dig deeper into the catalog, but it's an uphill battle (songs that burrowed into my subconscious decades ago vs. stuff I'm hearing for the first time this week).

Ha, and I just realized I first heard my #1 when I was three. I always wondered why I could never remember a time when I hadn't heard it before.

bump

you can still vote for this until Sunday!

oh good. tomorrow's like the first day in forever that i'll actually have time to just listen to stuff and put together a ballot.

Currently six ballots in the box, would be great to at least double that!

i would love to do this but i will need right up til the deadline and also my ballot will not be researched, just gonna go with the songs i already know/love
but it sounds like even a list of those songs would be worth turning in

i think this thread needs more hype

DID YOU KNOW that {Sittin on} The Dock of the Bay was used in Frederick Wiseman's landmark 1968 verité documentary HIGH SCHOOL?!
I can't find the clip where the song is used, but here is a clip from the movie http://vimeo.com/65241039

yeah definitely vote for what you love, with these label polls nobody is going to hear *everything*

man it's tough to figure out my favorite Isaac Hayes songs because it takes literally HOURS to get through just a few of them

I had to forfeit Isaac Hayes on my singles, but he got a place on albums. Hayes was all about the full length listening experience.

by the time i get to phoenix I will be forty

Ike is a hard call for sure, but I can't deny he's one of my Stax favourites.

Here's a fee lesser known stax singles I love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNdJadwlz2E
This song is all about the booker's organ!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGDuFgjT7Xc
Eddie Floyd's deepest cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s6kZzt4vVk

Eddie Floyd's funkiest cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQX18cfJr
Mable getting hip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9p9MaimFtE
frederick knight!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ao8aApjD0aw

Solo David Porter:

Can't See You When I Want To
I Don't Know Why I Love You
I'm Afraid the Masquerade is Over

by the time i get to phoenix I will be forty

bwahahaha!

lol

Never heard any solo David Porter; gonna do something about that right now.

It's funny, I always wondered why so many of the songs on Isaac Hayes' first few solo records were covers, given his track record as a writer. But I recently re-watched the Stax doc (Respect Yourself) and as Wayne Jackson put it, once Hayes and Porter were split up by Hayes' security detail, "there went all those great songs!" Guess Porter's input was not insignificant.

voted!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ballot sent!

yay!

I VO TED !

So we got 10 ballots...if anyone (LL?) else wants to shoot me a ballot while I'm counting, let me know. Otherwise I'll make it a pretty brief rollout once I have the counting done.

10? :sadface:

i forgot! i'm so sorry! not sure 11 would have made such a big diff though :(

I decided this task was too gargantuan for me to tackle; I just love too many of these songs to quantify them. Looking forward to everyone else's lists though.