Various Artists — Written In Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
Qobuz archival release review (June 2023)
This mammoth set opens simply: a mellifluous guitar line accompanying Carla Thomas’ angelic, expressive voice. It’s the sparest of demos — just full enough to get the melody and emotional tenor of the tune across. As a cornerstone of Stax Records’ in-house songwriting crew, Thomas penned scores of songs for the label, only some of which were sung by her. Despite this, she, and many of her fellow Stax writers, often had their compositional chops overlooked. Written In Their Soul seeks to remedy that with a huge tranche of original demos: some recorded by Stax artists, some recorded by artists at other labels, and some that never made it past the demo stage. But this seven-disc, 121-track compilation isn’t only stripped-down songs like Thomas’ “Comfort Me.” Some are more robust than others, and few veer far from the essentials. Written in Their Soul is a satisfying collection, due to the strength of the material and, in many cases, the prodigious talents of the songwriters; they just so happened to be incredible performers as well.
Stax was a label that specialized in delivering music renowned for its essential soulfulness so many of these versions don’t sound too far off from the official takes: full band numbers, session run-throughs, and fully-produced funk numbers abound. Still, harmonies — rather than complex band-driven arrangements — tend to provide the sturdiest accompaniments here. Perhaps that’s unsurprising on a number like the Staple Singers’ “The Ghetto,” but it’s also true on many of the cuts designed for solo singers. Fidelity is strong throughout and although some tracks do sound like the demos they are — the tentative and echoey version of “634–5789” sounds like it was recorded during a soundcheck in an empty concert hall — it’s truly remarkable how consistently high the quality level was at Stax.
Although these are great-sounding demos, they are still demos. That puts a much-needed spotlight on both the oft-unheralded compositional talents of performers like Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and William Bell and the ridiculously prolific songwriters who seldom received credit beyond the parenthetical notices on 45 labels. While writers like Bettye Crutcher, Homer Banks, and Mack Rice were responsible for the label’s biggest singles — as well as the equally satisfying material that filled out Stax LPs — they also penned scores of successful numbers for other artists. We not only get to hear Mack Rice’s original demo of “Respect Yourself,” but also the ones he made for the Detroit Wheels (the drug-soul paean “Linda Sue Dixon”) and Aretha Franklin (the bubbling, funky “Without You”). There are also plenty of chances for POV-switching, most notably on “Too Much Sugar for A Dime,” presented here in back-to-back versions by Homer Banks and Bettye Crutcher. Although Banks and Raymond Jackson wrote the song, it’s a little more convincing when Crutcher belts out the lyric about how “we women work so hard” in her more fully fleshed out version.
