Wattstax: The Living Word

Hardly Deluxe.....missing........:
How can a expanded deluxe version drop songs that were on earlier versions? The last time Wattstax was released the 2 CD set included: Staple SIngers - Oh La De Da Eddie Floyd - Lay Your Loving On Me Albert King - I'll Play The Blues For You Albert King - Angel Of Mercy Issac Haynes - Ain't No Sunshine Is a 4 CD set coming? I want EVERYTHING! Don't tell me that the masters were lost between releases. And I doubt that the artists pulled their tracks as they included others. Anyone know what is going on here?

blown away...:
This album is unbelievable and the epitome of a one-of-a-kind/no other like it listening experience... I remember coming across the original WATTSAX album back in the 80's when I was a 70's soul collector in HS... and for the next several years it became staple listening via the tape copies I'd carry around visa vis my Sony Walkmans... Needless to say, the discovery of a second volume of the "mythical" concert blew me away, and I liked it just as much if not more... I loved the album not only because of all the great music... but the way it really took you back to a lost world... at a time when people were celebrating a very vibrant musical and artistic culture. Not to over romantisize... the community had been through a lot of pain, and were healing and rebuilding from the Watts riots... Rather than focusing, however, on what had been "burnt down", the concert was a celebration of what was being built up... and wow... imagine what it must have been like to be at that cocnert... - - As for the film... you know something: I never even DREAMED of being able to see it, because I assumed it was probably one of those lost things... Needless to say, when it came out almost 20 years later after I heard the album the first time, I was definitely THRILLED... (especially after people taunted me of having supposedly seen it on PBS... "Yeah really, anybody got a copy?" I'd ask...) Wishful thinking... O.K. now... look at this: Now only is a three box set out... but tracks that never made the original album, and with the sound cleaned up. - - As Jesse Jackson points out the concert had everything... Gospel, Funk, Blues, Soul, R & B... Listening to the tracks I never heard before is definitely a thrill, though in retrospect I can tell why some were left off the original album... a lot of the performances were POWERFULLY GREAT... but some of the smaller groups sounded like some of the other groups... so the big groups had to take priority. In conclusion - - Just as WOODSTOCK was the big "party like its the end of the world" goodbye to the 60's, WATTSTAX was also somewhat of a final goodbye too, as even that empire would crumble shortly after... Also gone is much of the culture and spirit of the era... The only catch is, I think this was actually filmed and recorded WAY BETTER than WOODSTOCK, and far from being lost in time, its a gift passed through time... Regarding my favorite tracks... Back in the day I leaned towards RUFUS THOMAS and the DRAMATICS (omitted)... as well as the EMOTIONS unbelievably riveting performance... but I'm also majorly digging the newly added stuff... in particular Louis McCord's "Do Your Thing'ish" Better Get a Move On... as well as Lee Sain's THEM HOT PANTS. Of course, STAX in the '60s were the epitome of classic soul... however, this record as well as the (hard to find) SON OF STAX compilation is a great reminder that the label definitely didn't fall short when it came to funk as well... For the complete story read "Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records" by Rob Bowman. O.K. the big question: When's some more SHACK going to get unearthed?

BECAUSE I CAN'T GIVE 6:
5 stars because I can't give 6. I already have most of this but just to get david Porter's 'I Can't See You When I Want To' is worth buying this disc.