The third, final disc in the newly re-minted Wattstax: The Living Word benefit opens with some seriously soulful bumpin’ and grinding: Little Milton’s “Open the Door to Your Heart” and “Backfield in Motion” by Mel & Tim, which is unusual because they recorded this hit for Bamboo Records (owned and operated out of Chicago by Gene “The Duke of Earl” Chandler) in 1969, before the vocal duo signed with Stax.

After Albert King nails down his version of Howlin’ Wolf’s blues standard “Killing Floor,” CD three seems primarily noteworthy for sets by two artists who had been with Stax since its very beginning, Carla Thomas and her poppa Rufus.
 
Carla’s set features some of her most familiar and best-selling Stax singles, “B-A-B-Y,” “I Like What You’re Doing (To Me)” and her breakout hit “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes),” for which the crowd seems to roar in fond remembrance twelve years after its 1960 release. Her set demonstrates how self-assured and polished she had grown since that fawn-eyed debut, and ends with a song she wrote to express her gratitude for her success, “I Have a God Who Loves.”

Poppa Rufus’ subsequent hurricane of rubbery songs named for energetic dances whips the LA Coliseum crowd into a frenzy like almost no other force of nature could. These include tributes to two of his favorite winged, feathered creatures, “Do the Funky Chicken” and “Do the Funky Penguin,” bawdy nursery rhyme lyrics stuffed into thick hot slices of pure, wicked rhythm and horny horns.

Of course, disc three also delivers the ultimate Wattstax highlight, Isaac Hayes’ live performance of “Theme from ‘Shaft’” burning with crackling rhythm guitar and percussion.

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