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Staple Singers
CDs
The Best of The Staple Singers
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Let's Do It Again /
Freedom Highway /
Pray On, My Child /
Be Altitude: Respect Yourself /
Soul Folk in Action
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The Best of the Staple Singers, as BAM Artists
Music
Commentary by Mtume ya Salaam & Kalamu ya Salaam
--from
Breath
of Life
In 1968, the
Staples signed with Memphis-based Stax Records and
released two albums produced by Steve Cropper and backed
by Booker T. & the MG’s. In 1970, Perivs was replaced by
his sister, Yvonne and, more importantly, Al Bell became
the group’s producer. Bell was responsible for their
greatest commercial success. Bell funkified the Staples
sound. Songs such “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You
There” feature iconic bass riffs that by themselves are
enough to identify the songs.
The Staples sound, now featuring
Mavis as the lead singer, became a funky mix of
contemporary Seventies sounds, gospel harmonies, jazz
elements, and upful messages. All the selections in this
week’s jukebox are from the Stax-period release,
The Best of The Staple Singers.
Here is a wide range of the Staples’ sound. Bob Dylan’s
“The Weight” is given the Stax southern soul treatment
as Mavis’ smoky lead vocals carry the track. Motown’s
Smokey Robinson-penned “You’ve Got To Earn It”
prominently features a harmonica but also includes a
jazz flute & trumpet duo interlude—amazingly, the song
sounds both country and urban. Otis Redding’s “Dock Of
The Bay” is distinguished by distinctive harmony singing
that is far more complex than it initially sounds. Pops
Staples’ heavy guitar vibrato undergirds the song, which
rocks peacefully on a bed of soft strings. It is
completely different from Otis’ original, but at the
same time, this version sounds just right. It’s quite an
accomplishment.
The pieces de resistance, however, are “I’ll Take You
There” and “Respect Yourself.” Pops was great at
crafting succinct and catchy message songs. Even in a
period that included seminal work from Nina Simone,
Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Isaac Hayes and a host of
others, The Staple Singers maintained their reputation
as one of the most popular purveyors of social
commentary in song. Other artists may have been better
known, but there certainly was no other group that
rivaled The Staple Singers as messengers of pride and
empowerment.
—Kalamu ya Salaam
The Staple Singers
are what I like to think of as "honest" music. Meaning,
you get what you see. They’re not coming with tricks or
angles or sleight of hand. They’re serving straight-up
gritty soul grooves with gospel-soaked vocals and maybe
a touch of pop flavoring to allow the whole confection
to go down smoothly. One thing I didn’t realize was that
Pops Staples is a songwriter. I’d assumed that all of
the Staples’ hits were either covers or products of
in-house songwriters. Of course, all of this music is
unimpeachable. It’s classic soul music and honestly, you
can’t say a bad word about any of it. If these records
don’t make you feel good on this pre-Christmas Sunday
morning, you might want to turn in your record
collection and get a new hobby. This is the real deal.
—Mtume ya Salaam
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The
Best of the Staple Singers
The Staple Singers
1.
Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)
2.
You've Got To Earn It
3.
Love Is Plentiful
4.
This World
5. (Sittin'
On) The Dock Of The Bay
6. The
Weight
7.
Respect Yourself
8.
We'll Get Over
9.
I'll Take You There
10. Oh
La De Da
11. Be
What You Are
12.
This Old Town (People In This Town
13. If
You're Ready (Come Go With Me)
14.
Touch A Hand (Make A Friend)
15. My
Main Man
16. City In The Sky
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Response
I’ve always been fond of Mavis. She not only had a
wonderful sultry voice, but, my god, she was beautiful,
too, and they all had those well-groomed ‘fros. They,
this family group, took the Word to the people and they
did it looking good and fresh. What in Hip Hop compares
to "I'll Take You There"--"There's no smiling faces
lying to the races," a place that "nobody is crying,
nobody worried." The Staple Singers took us there. We
were transported to a transposed place, a spiritual
incomparable in today's scratching and commodification
of the worse aspects of our lives in the interest of the
worse kinds of people. They were willing to carry our
load. But what is today's ethic: Are you ready to be
gangbanged, sucker? Where's the bling-bling, nigga?
Most kids these days hip-hop wise ain't talking about "Respect
Yourself." And it seems little know that we can't have ancestor veneration if one does
not respect oneself. "Ain't nobody gonna give a good
gahoot." The world owes us nothing. "Put your hand over
your mouth that will help the solution." And "you dumb
enough to think" that cursing around women you don't
know, will make you a big old man. We ain't got enough
respect going on. And that's a truth overlooked. "If you want love, you got to earn
it." Can we ever get enough of that lesson?
The Staple Singers were as much a part
of the Movement as Trane, Shepp and other jazz artists
that Baraka brought to our attention. Too little has
been written to follow up on
Askia Muhammad Toure’s essay “Keep on Pushing:
Rhythm and Blues as a Weapon,” initially published in
Liberator magazine in 1965 and later in
Black Nationalism in America (1970) edited by
John Bracey, Jr. and August Meier. In short, the Staple
Singers too should be viewed as BAM artists, in the same
way that we usually see Curtis Mayfield, Otis Redding,
Aretha Franklin as part of the popular avant-garde. As
Nikki Giovanni said on her record of the period,
Truth Is On Its Way, such artists made Motown change
their style as well as their tunes. —
Rudy
posted 24 December 2006
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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updated 12 October 2007
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