HI-2A

RG: Make a definitive statement ?say who you are
AB: I?m Al Bell ?The former owner of STAX records, the place where Sam & Dave were born ...born as a professional recording artist and born as a phenomenon that ah the recorded music industry had not seen before Sam and Dave and we have not seen it since Sam & Dave. It?s in my judgment; they set up what was the most unique presentation of Soul performances that this industry has ever seen. Many of our Soul artist?s come from the church background ?Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett etc. and they would make their adjustments or change a bit as they started singing quote - I don?t like this saying - but, secular music. Well, Sam & Dave didn?t do that in my judgment, Sam & Dave brought the church to the stage ...you had in Dave, the guy the did the street part like you would have with Dr. Watts in the church ??I love the Lord he heard my cry?? and you had Sam, that would come on like a great quartet performer. They were 180 degrees apart as performers but what was so interesting when the two of them came together; there was a magic that I had never seen before, and a feeling that came out of them. The excitement that was there in Sam, and how Sam expressed melodies and how he expressed his lyrics ?Dave was there to set the stage just to give it even more brightness and more brilliance. He was the guy that set it up. It was like ...Here he is? It wasn?t done that way, but that?s the way it came off in terms of their performances. The music industry has never seen anything like Sam & Dave ?Only one time.

RG: When you came into STAX and broke them, well the record I think of that sort of got them out, I guess prior to the big hits ?Take What I Want or You Don?t Know Like I Know ?How would you present them to disc jockey?s to play the records?
AB: Well, the first record that was broken on them was ?You Don?t Know Like I Know? and Hayes and Porter had done a wonderful job of really appreciating the church aspect that was there in Sam & Dave, and that song (YDNLIK) was influenced by an old church song ??You don?t know like I know what the Lord has done for me??. And Sam & Dave performed it like something I had never heard before, and something interesting also happened during that session, when they were recording, Jim Stewart had in his mind doing something different as far as the snare drum was concerned ?what he did was opposed to just playing the snare, he placed the tambourine on the snare and had the drummer use the back of the drum stick and hit that tambourine that had the combination sound ?if you listen to (YDKLIK) you?ll hear that. When I heard it what I did at that time was release that record just prior to Christmas day, and I worked it on Christmas day. I knew that it was a great song, and I knew that it was something that the Soul jocks would feel, so I sent it to them Christmas ?said, play you Silent Night, Jingle Bells, YDKLIK, play Sleigh Ride, whatever, YDKLIK ?and I had them playing it, most of the key Soul & R&B stations at that time on Christmas day ?YDKLIK & Christmas carols ?and the day after Christmas, it exploded, every distributor in they country was calling wanting YDKLIK by S&D. The disc jockey?s felt it ..they fely it because they were getting response from the people but many of them had come from the same background, church background, involved in the church, and the they could feel that in YDKLIK. It set a stage for them that continued to do just one thing, that?s the curve, it just kept going up and Hayes and Porter, the writers and S&D were like one.

RG: When they recorded, were they in separate vocal rooms?
AB: No, side by side ?side-by-side ...I mean, it was side by side in the recording studio, it was side by side on stage it was side by side in everything that they did, and I believe that if it hadn?t been side by side, you would not have gotten the feel and the sound out of them that you got out of them because when Dave did his part, it was always, and I use this as my terminology, he was always setting up the stage for Sam. He would perform his lyrics and tell his story but set it up so that Sam could come in right on top of that and knock the ball out of the park. It was the most beautiful thing 5that I had ever witnessed, just unbelievable, no, side by side.

RG: What was Dave like as a personality?
AB: Dave was straight, the straight guy, the conservative guy, the low-key guy ...very beautiful person, beautiful, beautiful spirit. Very supportive and you could feel that if you listen to him singing, if you really pay close attention to it, you can hear that ...very supportive, and of course, Sam was more of the aggressive guy in terms of his performance and his speaking and he was more out going then Dave ?but somehow or another, in there again it?s the magic. When the two of them were together it was beauty to see. It was beauty to see them doing that in the studio and beauty to see them do that while they were working up the material, and beauty to see them perform on-stage. Dave stayed in that position, I call it the set-up position, but they were singing, he wasn?t really setting it up, it?s just the way that he sang, and the way that he sang set it up for Sam to come in and do his thing. It didn?t conflict, it wasn?t competitive, none of that. It was just two beautiful guys working together to come up with great soul music.

RG: Tell me about their show - You saw their show ?
AB: Sam & Dave absolutely, were two electrifying artist?s on stage that related to there audience, but at the same time you could understand by observing them that they were enjoying what they were doing, and you felt that enjoyment and they moved an audience. You couldn?t sit there and experience Sam & dave without feeling it and moving because they made you move ?they penetrated you and when Sam would come in and hit those melodies the way he would hit them and his body language moved like it moved, you couldn?t sit still ?They would knock you out. Dave might come in and settle you down a minute so Sam could come back and knock you out again (LAUGH) but their performances were unbelievable ?and none of this was choreographed. This is just the way they were on stage ...it was all-natural. it was organic. They might be one way on one show and another way on another show, but it was all-organic with them, and you could feel it, it was natural, it was just natural. They were natural and there performance was natural.

RG: You were in Europe and saw the Euro tour, set that up for us and describe the show leading up to them and then Otis?
AB: Well you know, when we went to Europe, it was literally the first time we felt appreciated ...all of us that were on the tour ..Carla was on the tour, Booker T. and the MGs, Eddie Floyd, S&D, Otis Redding, it was the first time we really felt accepted, and the first time we felt free. There were no colored rest rooms and colored water fountains, and we were treated at the hotels just like the rest of the guests, which was really another world for us coming out of a segregated America at that time. The audience appreciation for the music that was being performed and how they reacted, stimulated and excited all of the artist?s like they had never been excited before. What made it more profound was, here we were before a white audience, throughout Europe, even in some countries the audience couldn't speak English, but they could feel the spirit (LAUGH). It caused not only the artist to feel like they had never felt before but to perform like they had never performed before, because we realized after getting there, wait a minute, we're stars, we're appreciated. It hasn't been like this in America for us, you mean all of these white people are going crazy over us, and it started bringing something out in them, in my judgment, hadn't come out before, and as the tour went it became more and more exciting, and for lack of a better term, more and more competitive. Competitive from a stand-point of I gotta really get out here and do my thing, because I'm being appreciated like this, and I want to do the very best that I possible can which created and interesting kind of dynamic between Otis & S&D, because OTIS was the headliner, he was the star, he was throughout Europe, if it wasn't for Otis, we wouldn't of been on that tour. But Sam & Dave came on just in front of Otis. While leading up to S&D, all of the performances were great so it was put in fire, if you will, on S&D. So they had to come on stage and couldn't be less then great, because they had to come through that fire, I mean, each performance was like..Do I really want to go on So if you go on, you really have to get it, so S&D came out getting it. I saw performances from them like I had never seen before. Any it put pressure on Otis, because Otis had to come out getting it and I saw performances by Otis like I had never seen before at that point in time. I think that beside the Apollo Theatre, I think that some of the greatest performances I had seen, where you all of the STAX artists on stage and you had S&D in particular, was in Europe. It was in Europe where...it was interesting too because I didn't expect that audience to be as responsive and react like that they did to that church flavor that was coming through S&D, because they were the church on stage the literally were, they didn't try to color it, polish it or anything, they just let it flow. And it was surprising to me to see the Europeans react and respond and get into their performances like they did, but they did and S&D came in right there behind Otis...Otis was the king in the Europe at that time, but in terms of their performances on stage, they were right in there right up side Otis and Otis knew it (LAUGH), but it was great for everyone, and it was great to see that kind of music, meaning Sam & Dave, that kind of vocal and melodic performances being appreciated by that audience at that time like that. That was really great.

RG: Talk about how STAX and Sam & Dave separated?
AB: Ah, well to my dismay and regret and painfully, What had happened was an agreement between STAX and Atlantic, where by in affect in fact, Sam & Dave were signed to Atlantic as Artist?s and were brought to STAX and made available for STAX to produce them. And when Atlantic merged with Warner and Electra to form WEA ..STAX chose not to be a part of that, ?and as a result of that, Atlantic pulled Sam & Dave away from STAX as artist?s that STAX was producing, I don?t want to say anything more then that, and in doing so, regrettably, they pulled part a beautiful relationship that had been built between all of us and Sam & Dave, and took away the underpinning and all of the things that caused them to become the success that they were, and I don?t recall them after that enjoying anything comparable to what happened at STAX, I think, and I?ll say it because it?s my opinion, but I think it was a mistake and an error in judgment to pull them out of the creative environment they were in. It was impossible for them to go and find another Hayes and Porter, who were Sam & Dave as far as writers were concerned, and had that type of chemistry or synergism, you couldn?t re-create that, It was born at 926 East Macnamare(sp?) Memphis TN at STAX records, it was born there, and Sam & Dave were born there. And when they were pulled away, the Sam & Dave that we knew, died that day.

RG: Talk about what it would mean to Sam & Dave to get on a show like Mike Douglas or Ed Sullivan..
AB: Well, for S&D, in America, given the kind of music they were singing and we were producing at STAX, to get on a major TV show, was like heaven, and from them to get on the Douglas show and to reach that audience and have the opportunity to perform there, was absolutely priceless. The excitement and appreciation transcended what they would receive in some personal performances where they were out performing ?because there they knew they were with the people, getting on a show rather where the people that were the greats and well respected & appreciated at a high level in this industry performed. And for them to get on there and perform and be accepted by talent buyers and Douglas, it said more then one can even articulate to them as artist?s ?it was a great feeling ?great feeling to us at the record company too (LAUGH).

RG: Did you have any experience with Bob Nighthawk ?DC, he had a show in ?69, Shade of Soul, that S&D were on ?kind of set up for us
AB: You mean a concert?
RG: He had a brief TV series I believe?called ?Shade of Soul? there will be a clip from it on this collection ?you were around DC a bit, perhaps you could tell us who Bob Nighthawk was?
AB: Well Bob Nighthawk Terry (sp?) first of all, was a friend of mine. He came into DC on radio station WOAO, and he came in doing the night shift, and when he came on the air, he had all of Washington DC listening to him. Because prior to Night Hawk was Al Bell, well, I had all of Washington DC, at risk of sounding whatever, listening to me, because I was doing something different and unique and introduced Soul music in Washington DC when DC was in Doo-Wop and that kind of music, some Motown ?but here I am now with the Wilson Picketts and Joe Texas and the BB King?s, so that was different, well, Nighthawk came in doing the same kind of thing, and he came in as a soul man..he was soulful on the air, he had a baritone voice that was just magnetic, and he knew how to make you feel music. I?ll never forget, I was listening to him one night and he had been playing Motown records by the Supremes and the Temptations and behind that, and the way he made the segway was just wonderful, and he started playing ?The Sky Is Crying? (SING) by Elmore James, ?Look At The Tears Roll Down The Street?(SING) and I couldn?t believe it, he made it work (LAUGH). Now I could make it work, but he made it work behind two Motown songs, and that was, when I would do something like that, I would set it up, but he was able to do that, and how he set up Elmore James and ?The Sky Is Crying?, blew me away? I mean that was pure artistry, great talent. For him, it would have been a natural, for Bob Terry to appreciate Sam & Dave, because he appreciated that kind of talent and those kind of performers and everything. They performed on records like he performed in spirit on the air. They were one of a kind in terms of spirit and attitude and how they performed, that was a natural for Bob Terry, my dear; dear friend. I don?t know where he is today or what happened to him but my dear friend would naturally appreciate Sam & Dave, and play every damn thing they recorded.