Open Door Policy announces the return of The Soul Children to Stax, and effectively summarizes the group’s attitude towards music in general and their career.
“If you don’t keep that ‘open door policy,’ then you’ll be blind to different opportunities that will naturally come your way.
You won’t hear the good things other people are doing.”
Open Door Policy was produced by David Porter and his longtime musical associate (and current Stax executive), Lester Snell, who not so incidentally plays a mean piano and composes as well.
The first single from the LP, “Can’t Give Up a Good Thing”, is galloping up the soul charts as Open Door Policy is being released.
Other highlights of the LP are O.B.
McClinton’s “Butt La Rose”, “Strangers” written by Porter and Snell; and a real cooker, “Stir Up the Boogie”.
Fantasy Records out of California decided to revive the Stax label in 1977 and asked David Porter to not only run the new Stax office in Memphis and issue old material, but also sign new artists.
One of the first ones David signed and recorded was the Soul Children.
The ensuing album, Open Door Policy (Stax 4105; ’78), was produced by David Porter and Lester Snell and arranged by Lester.
Norman: “Sessions were very good, and it was good again working with David, because David was our beginning.
He used Lester as the musical consultant.
In the past Lester had worked with Isaac as an arranger, so he was perfect.”
The most significant difference in music is the number of disco cuts.
There are actually only three ballads this time and they are more simple and straightforward than deep and inspirational.
Believing is the prettiest of them.
Can’t Give up a Good Thing – written by Joe Shamwell – is one of the disco dancers, and this particular track became quite popular as a single (Stax 3206; # 19-soul; ’78).
Interestingly, the b-side was a slowed-down, swaying version of Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m yours (not on the album). Jay: “We did it part 1 and part 2. We did it slow, and then we picked it up and did it fast.
That version is somewhere in the catalogue.”
The follow-ups – Summer in the Shade and Who You Used to Be – follow the same disco pattern but missed the charts.
On the opening track, Stir up the Boogie (penned by Henderson Thigpen, James Banks and David Witherspoon), the title says all. Norman: “the disco type of songs were the songs of that era.”
Jay: “That’s what was going on at the time.
They didn’t put the company together to really make money. I think that the company was put together just to have a write-off.
They didn’t care if it happened or not.
So there you go again… Can’t Give up a Good Thing wasn’t a hit for us, as far as I’m concerned, because they didn’t want it to be a hit.
If they’d wanted it to be a hit, they would have got behind it all across the country. They did not do that. They really didn’t want the company to happen any way, for some reason or another.
Only they know the reason.”
After eleven years and some of the best music of the era, the group decided to call it a day.
Jay: “Anita became a pretty big wheel at Federal Express.
She’s retired from there and went to Time-Warner. She doesn’t want this any more, and I can understand that” (laughing).
These days Anita is also engaged in professional business training and coaching.
Tracklist
A1. Stir Up The Boogie, Part II - 3:40
A2. Who You Used To Be - 3:39
A3. Strangers - 3:47
A4. Summer In The Shade - 4:48
B1. Can’t Give Up A Good Thing - 3:46
B2. Butt La Rose - 5:05
B3. Hard Living With A Man - 4:32
B4. Believing - 3:49
- Published By – Swelka Music
- Published By – Benfel Music
- Published By – Robosac Music
- Published By – Groovesville Music
- Published By – Cross Keys Publishing
- Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Stax Records
- Distributed By – Fantasy Records
- Recorded At – Ardent Studios
- Recorded At – Shoe Productions
- Recorded At – North American Recording Studio, Jackson, MS
- Remixed At – Ardent Studios
Credits
- Arranged By [Strings And Horns] – Lester Snell
- Bass – George Journigan, Ray Griffin
- Copyist – Emerson Able
- Drums – Blair Cunningham, Bruce Means, Tim Dancy
- Engineer [Recording] – Mike Daniels, Robert Jackson, Warren Wagner, William C. Brown III
- Guitar – Greg McIntosh, Jimmy McGhee, Michael Toles
- Keyboards – Lester Snell, Swain Schaeffer
- Mastered By – Bo Bohannon, Larry Nix
- Mixed By [Remix] – David Porter, Lester Snell, Robert Jackson, William C. Brown III
- Percussion – Walter V. Person
- Producer – David Porter, Lester Snell
- Saxophone – Andrew Love, Bill Easley, Lewis Collins
- Strings – Memphis Symphony Strings
- Trombone – Bill Flores, Jack Hale
- Trumpet – Ben Cauley, Paul Hill
Notes
