Wattstax
redux -- this fat double album is a second slice of the
Stax
label experience. Recorded at the
Los Angeles Coliseum
in the summer of 1972 during the label's day-long festival,
Wattstax 2
completes a comprehensive highlight of the whole experience. Because, although it's drawn from the same source as its predecessor, the album has an entirely different tone. What sets
aside from
1
is the inclusion of the day's
spoken word
performances. From
Jesse Jackson
's rousing introduction/call to brotherhood to
Richard Pryor
's comedic interludes,
becomes, for the armchair listener, a happening, not just a concert. But the music is important as well.
Kim Weston
shines with a powerful
"Lift Every Voice and Sing
, while the legendary
Johnnie Taylor
weighs in with some of the decade's best
R&B
, including
"Stop Doggin' Me."
The
Emotions
weigh in with
"So I Can Love You,"
and
Isaac Hayes
contributes
"Rolling Down a Mountainside."
Released one year after
, this compilation falls considerably flat in the wake of what was one of the most brilliant
funk
albums of the age, but that doesn't mean it's not equally as vital -- it is. It's just that the vitality approaches you from a completely different direction. ~ Amy Hanson