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William Bell On World Cafe

William Bell
David McClister
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Courtesy of the artist
William Bell

Today, we're traveling back 50 years to 1968 Memphis, Tenn. to take a peek inside one of the most influential recording studios, Stax Records. Co-founded by brother and sister Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton, Stax was home to the likes of Otis Redding, the Staples Singers, Booker T. and the MG's, Judy Clay, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, and my guest today, William Bell. Bell's here to tell stories of the wildly productive time that's captured on a new box set called Stax '68: A Memphis Story. The box features all 134 singles that Stax put out that year.

William's also here to talk about what was going on outside of Stax and the politics that you can't separate from the music of that time. While Stax was an integrated space, in William's words, Memphis itself was "staunchly segregated."

In April of 1968, Martin Luther King Jr.was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, which was also a frequent hangout for some of the Stax crowd like Isaac Hayes. Hayes was a friend of Bell's, and so was Otis Redding, whose song "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released in early 1968, shortly after Redding died in December 1967 in a tragic plane crash. That's where we begin with William Bell. Listen in the player.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.
Since 2017, John Myers has been the producer of NPR's World Cafe, which is produced by WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously he spent about eight years working on the other side of Philly at WHYY as a producer on the staff of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. John was also a member of the team of public radio veterans recruited to develop original programming for Audible and has worked extensively as a freelance producer. His portfolio includes work for the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, The Association for Public Art and the radio documentary, Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He's taught radio production to preschoolers and college students and, in the late 90's, spent a couple of years traveling around the country as a roadie for the rock band Huffamoose.