Part of Music City Mondays.
Fifty years ago this week, a roster including the Staples Singers, Rufus Thomas, the Bar-Kays, and Isaac Hayes (on his birthday) took to the stage of the L.A. Coliseum and an audience of 100,000 in a concert put together by Stax Records in commemoration of the 1965 riots in the Los Angeles community of Watts — all captured here in this electrifying concert film. Also appearing: Richard Pryor, Albert King, Little Milton, and more.
“...A time capsule par excellence, one that starts with a young, afro-haloed Jesse Jackson leading the crowd in his signature anthem ‘I Am Somebody,’ and concludes with Hayes' charismatic renditions of ‘Shaft’ and ‘Soulsville.’ In between is a living, breathing record of black America coming into its own in a self-confident, aware and angry way.” —Desson Howe, Washington Post (2003)
