"Some 26 acts hit the two stages set up on the football field that afternoon, and legend has it way more than that were ready to go on. The great songwriter and singer William Bell (no relation to Al Bell) remembers the long runway to the stage, wire mesh barely keeping the crowd back and how he had to race a block and a half from the dressing room to the stage, so vast was the Coliseum. And when he peeked out, it was 'both frightening and exhilarating, that many people listening to a show that we were very proud of.' Bell sang his aching ballad 'I Forgot to Be Your Lover,' participated in a gospel number and emceed throughout the day. All of it, he says with amazement, whipping by as if it was just a minute."
R.J. Smith at the Los Angeles Times marks the fiftieth anniversary of Wattstax.
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