Of all the 50th anniversaries being marked last year, one of the most extravagant celebrations granted was to Wattstax, the 1972 Stax Records benefit concert that marked the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots that half-named the event.
There has never been any shortage of documentation of the event — a movie and two albums worth of live material both appeared the following year, while 2004 saw a 3-CD collection drawing from both the festival and a couple of tracks from related shows elsewhere. Now, however, the entire shebang is on the streets (Craft Recordings) — a 12-CD set that contains three further shows at the Summit Club, rehearsals and more; a condensed 6-CD package; and this, a 10-LP box of the entire festival. All of the music, all of the speeches, all of the day.
The box itself
