There is two hours of music on this double soundtrack album, which may be a new standard for time-for-money, but out of the film 's context much of it is filler. The inspiring "I am somebody!" chant of Rev. Jesse Jackson, Kem Weston's black national anthem, Richard Pryor's scathing comedy routines and the comments of Watts residents -- for me, the real highlights of the movie -- are absent from Wattstax. Even the bulk of the music in the film isn't here and in its place is music that wasn't in the film.

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Here lies the main weakness of Wattstax. With the guts of the event and film nowhere in evidence, the only political content left is a plethora of "Right On"'s that is demeaning to what actually took place. The second Staples Singers track has a powerful line, "Today I can say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud, but I'm not saying it anymore, I like the things about me that I used to despise." Yet this is part of a recitation in which "I'm not saying it anymore" is belied, as blacks are given reasons whey they should be able to say it.

The performers who fare best on the album are those who don't say why they should be proud but who perform so professionally it is obvious they are, which is what Wattstax was all about. Rufus Thomas and Albert King stand out because they show their class instead of talking about it.

This marathon on plastic ends with Isaac Hayes saying "Right On!" Right on, indeed straight to the nearest theater showing Wattstax. The movie is not only cheaper, it's more honest.

- Paul Gambaccini, Rolling Stone, 6/7/73.

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