The Soul Man of Memphis

Some Memphians are famous. A few are legendary. David Porter is something rarer: a living legend who never left. The man who co-wrote 'Soul Man' and 'Hold On, I'm Comin'' still wakes up in Memphis, still works in Memphis, and has spent his second act building the city's next generation of music professionals.

His story starts the way most great labor stories do — with a kid working a job, watching a door across the street, and refusing to believe it wasn't for him.

The Kid Bagging Groceries Across the Street

David Porter was born in Memphis on November 21, 1941, and grew up in poverty. As a teenager he bagged groceries at Big D Grocery on East McLemore — directly across the street from Satellite Records, the little studio that would become Stax.

He kept crossing that street. He sold insurance to pay the bills while he pushed his songs. And somewhere in those years he met a meat packer with a gift for melody named Isaac Hayes. A grocery bagger and a meat packer — two working men who would write the soundtrack of American soul.

The First Staff Songwriter

Porter became the first staff songwriter in Stax Records history — the man who turned a record shop with a studio into a hit factory. With Isaac Hayes he wrote roughly 200 songs: 'Soul Man.' 'Hold On, I'm Comin'.' 'B-A-B-Y' for Carla Thomas. 'When Something Is Wrong with My Baby.' 'I Thank You.'

Think about what a staff songwriter is: a working writer, on payroll, delivering hits the way a machinist delivers parts — every week, on deadline, to spec, with soul. Porter professionalized Memphis songwriting and proved a Black man in 1960s Memphis could build an empire with his pen.

An Integrated Shop Floor in a Segregated City

Here is why this app tells his story: Stax was an integrated workplace in a segregated city. Black and white musicians — Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the Memphis Horns, Hayes and Porter — wrote, played, recorded, and got paid side by side, years before Memphis integrated its lunch counters.

Stax didn't just make soul music. It modeled what Memphis could be: people judged by their craft, working one shop floor, sharing one payroll. 'Soul Man' itself was born from the fires of 1967 — Porter and Hayes turned a word that marked Black-owned businesses ('soul') into an anthem of pride the whole world sang.

The Honors

Porter and Hayes were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame together in 2005. He's an inductee of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. His catalog has been sampled by generations of hip-hop and R&B artists — meaning the grooves he cut on McLemore Avenue are still earning, still teaching, still moving crowds sixty years later.

The Second Act: Building Memphis's Music Workforce

Most legends retire on their catalog. Porter built infrastructure. In 2012 he founded The Consortium MMT — a nonprofit that mentors and professionally develops aspiring Memphis music-industry talent: songwriters, producers, engineers, and executives.

Then he went bigger: Made In Memphis Entertainment (MIME) — a full-stack music company headquartered in Memphis, with MIME Publishing, the sync agency Heavy Hitters Music, the distribution platforms Beatroot Music and Beatroot Africa, and 4U Recording studios in Memphis and Atlanta.

That is workforce development — the creative-economy version of what our Career Pathways does for the trades. Porter is building the pipeline he never had: real training, real credits, real paychecks, in Memphis, so the next Hayes-and-Porter doesn't have to leave home to make it.

The Soul Man, In His Own Words

In April 2026, Porter released his memoir, 'The Soul Man: Life of a Songwriter' — the whole road, from the grocery bags to the Hall of Fame, told by the man himself. If this page moves you, buy the book. Legends should get their flowers — and their royalties — while they're here.