David Porter

David Porter's story goes well beyond writing songs and releasing albums for Stax Records. His recent memoir, The Soul Man, tells how he and his partner Isaac Hayes helped invent a sound rich and enduring enough to define American music from the 1960s to today. Together they wrote and produced hits for Sam & Dave, Johnnie Taylor, and dozens of other artists, and in the process built what became known as the Stax sound, a sound Porter still describes as the pursuit of pure emotional connection.

Porter grew up on a dead-end street in Memphis that also produced Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire and members of the Bar-Kays. He started out singing in church before eventually singing and producing music for Stax. He never learned to read music. None of the great names at Stax did. Instead, they built songs by ear, in the room, together, a process Porter calls “head arrangements,” and it became the foundation for some of the greatest songs in the history of R&B.

Today, Bruce Headlam sits down with David Porter to talk about how he and Isaac Hayes built a signature sound to set themselves apart from Motown, Burt Bacharach and Hal David. He also recalls the writing session that turned a bathroom joke into Sam & Dave's "Hold On, I'm Coming," and the incredible story of how Otis Redding went from an artist's personal driver to a Stax superstar.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from David Porter HERE.

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