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“…You’re Not Alone…”
Father of two,
all-round-good-egg and a respected critic at the Chicago Tribune since 1990 -
GREG KOT has also authored three acclaimed music books - "Ripped: How The
Wired Generation Revolutionized Music", "Wilco: Learning How To
Die" and "Beatles vs. Stones: Sound Opinions On The Great Rock 'n'
Roll Rivalry". This is his 4th musical tome...
Published in
2014 by Scribner of the USA in Hardback (308 Pages) - "I'll Take You
There: Mavis Staples, The Staples Singers, And The March Up Freedom's
Highway" is the first fully sanctioned autobiography of what many feel is
an American institution long overdue hysterical praise - a God given thing of
wonder - the voice and heart of MAVIS STAPLES. I'll be blunt here. I've loved
her voice, her music, her spirit and her healing effect fro my whole life -
having been a lifetime fan since those STAX Records sides in the early
Seventies (the book takes its title from their 1972 hit). I'd high expectations
for "I'll Take You There" and I'm thrilled to say it doesn't
disappoint.
And what a
journey it's been - filled with never-before-told stories of growing up in
segregation Thirties and Forties Mississippi - onwards with Pops and The
Staples Singers to shaking church rafters with Sam Cooke in the Fifties -
becoming both Gospel and cross-over artists in the explosive civil-rights
Sixties - and global bone-fide Soul Superstars in the Seventies. The book then
goes into the desert of the Eighties and re-emerges with Prince in the Nineties
and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco in the Naughties. You wouldn't mind if her last two
albums "You Are Not Alone" (2010) and "One True Vine"
(2013) were no good - now in her late Seventies they're probably the best of
her career.
KOT cleverly
keeps the chapters short and sweet - they last only 6 to 8 pages each and
there's 43 of them - each packed with extraordinary names that crossed the
family's path across nearly 7 decades (Charlie Patton, Howlin' Wolf, Buddy and
Ella Johnson, Lou Rawls, John Carter of The Flamingos and The Dells, Johnnie
Taylor, Mahalia Jackson, Sam Cooke, Bobby Womack, Aretha Franklin, Martin
Luther King, Harry Belafonte, Billy Preston, Levon Helm of The Band and Hilary
Clinton to name but a few). One of fourteen children himself - Roebuck
"Pops" Staples was 18 when he married his childhood sweetheart Oceola
Ware in 1933 (she was 16). By early 1936 and with his trusting wife and two
young kids in tow (Cleotha and Pervis - Pervis would later manage the band) -
hothead Pops defied his father's advice, scrounged for a whole year until he
had the $12 bus fare needed and left the dead-end South for the music of
Chicago. Yvonne Staples came in 1937 and Mavis followed in July 1939. Soon the
family of singing siblings were doing ensemble vocal renditions of Gospel songs
with Dad on his trademark guitar - practising in their apartment as a way to
pass the time. But after they earned $7 one Sunday afternoon by wowing the
Gospel crowds with their sheer spirit and uncanny harmonising - Pops began to
see how he could support his family long term. Little did he know that such a
humble beginning would spawn a musical career lasting way past his sad passing
in 2000.
The beauty of a
book like this is that it covers so much of America' turbulent history - a
virtual step-by-musical-step through Americana. You get example after example
of horrible racism, the civil rights movement and the redeeming
bringing-together power of music. Through interviews - Kot gets the good and
the bad of what happened - and to whom. Yet throughout Mavis remains positive
and forgiving - bad career decisions - broken marriages - never having children
- all of it anchored by family, music and a mighty, mighty faith. The chapters
also document the very real difficulty the family had with their peers as they
tried endlessly shed purist Gospel for their version of righteous Soul - how
their success at Stax elicited howls of `sell out' derision - and how they
toured in places where blacks just didn't go. We get her brief affair with Bob
Dylan, support shows with Rock acts like Love, Steppenwolf and Traffic -
collaborations with Steve Cropper of Booker T & The MG's as she took her
first tentative steps into a solo career in 1969. There's stuff on Iran in
1970, Ghana in 1971, the WattStax Festival in 1972 with "Respect
Yourself" on to headlining an anti-apartheid South Africa concert in 1975.
There's stuff on Vee-Jay, Epic, Stax and Warner Brothers.
Her meeting the
mercurial Prince is described as Holy Ghost Moment and that same collaborative
magic happened again with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. His "You Are Not
Alone" is probably the single most gorgeous song Mavis has sung in damn
near 40 years - full of great message and heart - a hopeful Soulful ballad of
hope ("I wanna get it through to you...you're not alone...every night I
stand in your place..." Isn't that beautiful - much like her good self and
this uplifting book...
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