'Stax/Volt Revue: Live in Norway'

I knew before I bought "Stax/Volt Revue: Live in Norway" that the music would be great. How could it not be? The DVD features performances by Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Arthur Conley, Eddie Floyd, The Mar-Keys, and Booker T. and the M.Gs at a concert in 1967.

The thing that surprised me was how hard the musicians worked when they were on stage. Sam and Dave, in particular, were dancing fools. When they perform "Hold on? I'm Comin'," for example, Sam Moore explodes into an incredible James Brown impersonation while Dave Prater shuffles from one side of the stage to the other. Even on "When Something is Wrong With My Baby," Moore can't keeps his legs still as the duo hypnotizes the audience with one of the sweetest soul ballads of all time. And I've never seen so much sweat at a concert. In the excellent commentary for the DVD, Steve Cropper of the MGs and Wayne Jackson of the Mar-Keys joke that Redding had to slosh through puddles of sweat to get to the stage.

Even the songs seem more energetic than the versions you'll find on the classic Stax albums. Credit the MGs and the Mar-Keys, who backed all the singers, for that. Cropper and Jackson said they'd never played the songs at such a torrid tempo before. The result was magic.

Redding mesmerized the crowd with renditions of "Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)," "My Girl," "Shake," "Satisfaction" and "Try a Little Tenderness." He got so jacked up that he returned to the stage three times for additional verses of "Try a Little Tenderness." If his music doesn't make you cry, and I'm betting it does, you will when you realize that this musical dynamo, so full of life, would die just a few months later.

Al Jackson Jr., the drummer for Booker T. and the MGs, lived for another eight year, but this concert film makes me realize just how monumental his murder was, too. Cropper and Jackson both say he was the best drummer they ever saw. I understand their sentiment after watching the way he controlled the flow of the concert.

Cropper and Jackson also repeatedly say that no one makes music like this anymore. I think they're right.