Sam & Dave

The Original Soul Men (Historic/Hip-O)

Even as Motown marks 50, Harlem’s Apollo Theatre survives at 75, and Gamble & Huff now brand “T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia),” Southern cousin Stax continues its rebirth both contemporarily with last year’s Steve Cropper & Felix Cavaliere slam dunk, Nudge It Up a Notch, and historically with another audio-visual cache of burnt rubber soul. Sam & Dave don’t rate as high on recognition as The Legacy of Otis Redding or as vault-uable as another label-sanctioned 2007 DVD, Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967, but The Original Soul Men sweats enough Monterey Pop iconography to justify its greater archiving. Most of the 18 song clips are live rather than lip-synced, including a Norwegian “Soothe Me,” Dave Prater the gravel under Sam Moore’s soul-stirring ride and both Miami-met performers delivering on the promise of their friend and peer, Otis Redding. Color footage from London’s Hammersmith Odeon matches a raw stomping of “Hold On! I’m Comin’,” and their debut on Ed Sullivan, 1969, in matching, pistachio-green pin-striped suits, shakes down CBS like Mr. Pitiful torching Ray Charles’ house of worship. Yellow pin-striped pants and red shirts with collars as big as shark fins can’t outdazzle the duo’s live vocal on “I Thank You” later that same year. Sam & Dave’s formal wear had worn down by their final TV appearance, Saturday Night Live‘s “Soul Man” in 1980, a year before the two split and eight before Prater was killed in a car accident. Dress them up again.

This article appears in March 6 • 2009.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.