Respect Yourself - by Robert Gordon (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The story of Stax Records unfolds like a Greek tragedy. A white brother and sister build a monument to racial harmony in blighted south Memphis during the civil rights movement. Their success soon pits the siblings against each other, and the brother abandons his sister for a visionary African-American partner. Under integrated leadership, Stax explodes as a national player until, Icarus-like, the heights they achieve result in their tragic demise. They fall, losing everything, and the sanctuary they created is torn to the ground. A generation later, Stax is rebuilt brick by brick and is once again transforming disenfranchised youth into stellar young musicians.

Set in the world of 1960s and '70s soul music, Respect Yourself is a character-driven story of racial integration, and then of black power and economic independence. It's about music and musicians--Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Staple Singers, and Booker T. and the M.G.'s, Stax's interracial house band. It's about a small independent company's struggle to survive in an increasingly conglomerate-oriented world. And always at the center of the story is Memphis, Tennessee, an explosive city struggling through volatile years. Told by one of our leading music chroniclers, Respect Yourself is the book to own about one of our most treasured cultural institutions and the city that created it.

Review Quotes

"A marvelous history . . . Mr. Gordon captures the glory years of Stax in a series of exciting chapters that reflect his fine ear for prose as well as for the music the studio made." --Wall Street Journal

"The voices of the members of the Stax family, and Gordon's deep knowledge of Memphis, give the book a significance that extends beyond a single recording studio." --New York Times Book Review

"To read Respect Yourself is to step back into a time and place . . ." --Chicago Tribune

"The triumphant and tragic story of Memphis' Stax Records . . . receives definitive telling in Respect Yourself . . . Gordon imbues it all with a wealth of fresh insight and perspective." --Austin Chronicle

"A masterful storyteller, music historian Gordon artfully chronicles the rise and fall of one of America's greatest music studios, situating the story of Stax within the cultural history of the 1960s in the South." --starred review, Publishers Weekly

"[Respect Yourself is] wonderful cultural history of not only a record company but also the city of Memphis itself." --starred review, Booklist

"Spellbinding . . . Deep cultural and social history enlivened by a cast of colorful characters." --starred review, Kirkus Reviews

"Respect Yourself is the definitive document of one of America's most important record labels, an engrossing tale of creativity, resilience, and struggle in the face of unprecedented adversity." --Los Angeles Review of Books

"[Gordon] chronicles the exciting rise and ugly fall of his hometown music giant with a historian's rigor, a journalist's persistence, a filmmaker's scope and a musician's swing." --Shelf Awareness

"Respect Yourself is the rare music book with an exciting subject matter, in this case it's the multiple rises and falls of Stax Records, that's also really well written. Author Robert Gordon's lyrical prose and exquisite word choices, are difference maker, elevating the book beyond just a good story, simply told." --Midnight to Six

About the Author