August 20, 1972 – The legendary Wattstax concert
By 1972, Memphis-based Stax Records had become much more than a record label. With stars ranging from Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers to Carla Thomas and The Bar-Kays, Stax was one of the most important forces in Black music. And on this day in 1972, the label brought virtually its entire musical family to Los Angeles for an event that would become one of the landmark concerts in soul music history.
Wattstax was held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as part of the annual Watts Summer Festival and was timed to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 Watts uprising. Tickets were priced at just $1, helping attract a massive audience of more than 100,000 people for the seven-hour event.
The lineup was staggering: Isaac Hayes, then at the peak of his fame following the success of Shaft, headlined a bill that also included The Staple Singers, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, The Bar-Kays, Albert King, Eddie Floyd, The Soul Children, Rance Allen, William Bell, Kim Weston and many others.
Often nicknamed the “Black Woodstock,” Wattstax combined gospel, soul, blues and funk with a message that was unmistakably connected to the community it was celebrating.
Fortunately for later generations, the day was also captured on film. Director Mel Stuart’s 1973 documentary Wattstax mixed concert performances with scenes from the Watts community, interviews with local residents and memorable commentary from a young Richard Pryor. The film ultimately became nearly as important as the concert itself, and in 2020 it was selected for preservation in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.
Wattstax captured one of soul music’s greatest record labels at its creative peak while also documenting a particular moment in Black American history. And it all happened on this day in 1972.
