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Wattstax Revisited

by Nancy Lupo

Wattstax: I am somebody!

California African American Museum

600 State Drive, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, CA 90037

August 9, 2007 - October 28, 2007

The exhibition, Wattstax: I Am Somebody, currently on view at the California African America Museum tells the story of Wattstax ’72. This music festival took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum (the same place where CAAM now stands) on August 20, 1972,

seven years after the infamous riots of 1965. The exhibition also presents the story of director Mel Stuart’s documentary, Wattstax: The Living Word, which was filmed in and around Watts before, during, and after the concert. The film premiered on February 4, 1973 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. It was scheduled to open nationwide when MGM threatened to sue Stax Records over the rights to use the two Isaac Hayes songs that were in the documentary. Both of these songs had previously appeared in their hit movie Shaft. The producers of Wattstax decided to drop the Isaac Hayes songs and put in a new ending, which invariably did not deliver the emotional punch of the original ending.

The two stories are told using original photographs from Wattstax as well as wall text and commentary from some of the key figures responsible for making both the festival and the film realities. The photographs show the musicians as superheroes with The Bar-Kays, clad in white capes and matching bell-bottoms, nearly launching themselves into outer space. Similarly, a black and white photograph of Freddy Robinson shows a rebellious and stylish young man wearing a linen suit with a long fitted jacket and a Spanish hat. The wall text includes the biting commentary of Richard Pryor, at the time a young comic performing in Watts, speaking to comic absurdities of race relations in Watts and throughout the nation.

The story of the film has a happy ending as it has since been re-mastered and released in DVD with the original ending restored. In addition to the original performances by Isaac Hayes, the film has interviews with the residents of Watts going about their normal business at the barbershop, walking to church and eating dinner. It captures the energy and ecstasy of the concert as well as the context within which it took place. What is most surprising is that the footage doesn’t show any of the sinister undertones that are undeniably present in the Woodstock documentary.

(*Images from top to bottom: Wattstax: I am somebody!, August 9 - October 28, 2007, California African American Museum, The Bar-Kays, Courtesy of Stax Records/Fantasy Inc., 2003. Wattstax: I am somebody!, August 9 - October 28, 2007, California African American Museum, Dancing in the Coliseum, Courtesy of Stax Records/Fantasy Inc., 2003. Wattstax: I am somebody!, August 9 - October 28, 2007, California African American Museum, Wattstax Blues Fashion- Freddy Robinson, Courtesy of Stax Records/Fantasy Inc., 2003.)

Posted by Nancy Lupo on 9/23/07