‘We’ll Never Turn Back’
In the 1960s, the Staple Singers’ songs lifted the civil rights movement. Today, Mavis Staples keeps singing for justice.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 28, 2008
When Mavis Staples signed to Anti- Records, label president Andy Kaulkin asked her if she would be interested in revisiting some of the “freedom songs” – protest songs of the civil rights movement – she had sung with her family band, the Staple Singers, in the 1960s.
At first, the singer balked.
“I asked him, ‘Do you think that people would want to hear freedom songs today?’” Staples says. “But as soon as I said that, another thought came to mind – that this is a great idea.
“I’m always talking to my sisters about how much further we have to go with Dr. Martin Luther King’s work. You see something every day that lets you know that the hatred and bigotry is still here.”
So Staples assented and “We’ll Never Turn Back,” one of the most impassioned and important albums of last year, was born.
The Staple Singers provided much of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement with songs including “Freedom Highway,”, “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?”
Family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples was moved to go beyond the pure gospel music the group had been performing after he heard King speak at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
Mavis Staples recalls Pops telling his family after the service, “Listen you all, I really like this man’s message. And I think that if he can preach it, we can sing it.”
Pops wrote “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad),” which became one of King’s favorites. Whenever the Staples sang at his church, Mavis says, King would ask Pops, “‘Now, Stape, you gonna sing my song tonight, right?’ and Pops would say, ‘Oh yeah, Dr. King, we gonna sing your song.’”
Mavis Staples was worried that some of the lessons of the civil rights movement would be lost on the younger generations of today – that they wouldn’t want to hear the old songs or the stories behind them.
But, she says, “They need to know what we went through – what Dr. King went through. Pops always told the songwriters, ‘If you want to write for the Staples, read the headlines.’ And here I am still here, reading the headlines that are still the same headlines I was reading back then. So I’m going to sing about it.
“I watched (the aftermath of Hurricane) Katrina and I thought about Dr. King. I was watching these people floating in the black water. They were standing on rooftops with signs, ‘Help us.’ They were put into a stadium. It’s hot in New Orleans. No air, no water, no food. People were sitting in that stadium dying. It just go me so, it hurt me so bad.”
On “We’ll Never Turn Back,” Staples didn’t revisit her family’s Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” but chose others that were sung during the marches and sit-ins.
“We wrote our own freedom songs, but we sang those songs, the songs on my CD, along with everyone else as we were marching,” she says. “‘We Shall Not Be Moved’ – you know, this is a song that we would sing in a restaurant where they wouldn’t serve us, so we’d sit down and lock arms and sing until the police came and tore us apart and put us in a paddy wagon.”
Directing Staples progress was famed guitarist and musicologist Ry Cooder, whose passion and respect for the music made him the perfect choice to produce the album.
Cooder came to Staples’ home to talk about the songs they’d be working on, but called ahead with one request. “He said, ‘Mavis, do you have one of Pop’s amplifiers at your home?’ I said, ‘No, but I can get one.’ So when Ry came in, he had his guitar. He sat down in the dining room and ran his hand over that amplifier and said, [awestruck] ‘Pops Staples amp….’ He started strummin’. And if that wasn’t Pops…I mean, the same chords, the same chords as when Pops was tuning up and getting ready to play. I just looked at him and said, ‘Shucks, this is gonna be good.’
And it was.
“It got so powerful, I would at times get through a song and I’d want to run around the studio, just joyously, just happy, feelin’ good,” she says. “I’ve been wonderfully blessed, with my career, my life, and being able to sing about it. Because these were things that happened. This is my life.”
In the 1960s, the Staple Singers’ songs lifted the civil rights movement. Today, Mavis Staples keeps singing for justice.
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 28, 2008
When Mavis Staples signed to Anti- Records, label president Andy Kaulkin asked her if she would be interested in revisiting some of the “freedom songs” – protest songs of the civil rights movement – she had sung with her family band, the Staple Singers, in the 1960s.
At first, the singer balked.
“I asked him, ‘Do you think that people would want to hear freedom songs today?’” Staples says. “But as soon as I said that, another thought came to mind – that this is a great idea.
“I’m always talking to my sisters about how much further we have to go with Dr. Martin Luther King’s work. You see something every day that lets you know that the hatred and bigotry is still here.”
So Staples assented and “We’ll Never Turn Back,” one of the most impassioned and important albums of last year, was born.
The Staple Singers provided much of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement with songs including “Freedom Highway,”, “Long Walk to D.C.” and “When Will We Be Paid?”
Family patriarch Roebuck “Pops” Staples was moved to go beyond the pure gospel music the group had been performing after he heard King speak at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.
Mavis Staples recalls Pops telling his family after the service, “Listen you all, I really like this man’s message. And I think that if he can preach it, we can sing it.”
Pops wrote “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad),” which became one of King’s favorites. Whenever the Staples sang at his church, Mavis says, King would ask Pops, “‘Now, Stape, you gonna sing my song tonight, right?’ and Pops would say, ‘Oh yeah, Dr. King, we gonna sing your song.’”
Mavis Staples was worried that some of the lessons of the civil rights movement would be lost on the younger generations of today – that they wouldn’t want to hear the old songs or the stories behind them.
But, she says, “They need to know what we went through – what Dr. King went through. Pops always told the songwriters, ‘If you want to write for the Staples, read the headlines.’ And here I am still here, reading the headlines that are still the same headlines I was reading back then. So I’m going to sing about it.
“I watched (the aftermath of Hurricane) Katrina and I thought about Dr. King. I was watching these people floating in the black water. They were standing on rooftops with signs, ‘Help us.’ They were put into a stadium. It’s hot in New Orleans. No air, no water, no food. People were sitting in that stadium dying. It just go me so, it hurt me so bad.”
On “We’ll Never Turn Back,” Staples didn’t revisit her family’s Why (Am I Treated So Bad),” but chose others that were sung during the marches and sit-ins.
“We wrote our own freedom songs, but we sang those songs, the songs on my CD, along with everyone else as we were marching,” she says. “‘We Shall Not Be Moved’ – you know, this is a song that we would sing in a restaurant where they wouldn’t serve us, so we’d sit down and lock arms and sing until the police came and tore us apart and put us in a paddy wagon.”
Directing Staples progress was famed guitarist and musicologist Ry Cooder, whose passion and respect for the music made him the perfect choice to produce the album.
Cooder came to Staples’ home to talk about the songs they’d be working on, but called ahead with one request. “He said, ‘Mavis, do you have one of Pop’s amplifiers at your home?’ I said, ‘No, but I can get one.’ So when Ry came in, he had his guitar. He sat down in the dining room and ran his hand over that amplifier and said, [awestruck] ‘Pops Staples amp….’ He started strummin’. And if that wasn’t Pops…I mean, the same chords, the same chords as when Pops was tuning up and getting ready to play. I just looked at him and said, ‘Shucks, this is gonna be good.’
And it was.
“It got so powerful, I would at times get through a song and I’d want to run around the studio, just joyously, just happy, feelin’ good,” she says. “I’ve been wonderfully blessed, with my career, my life, and being able to sing about it. Because these were things that happened. This is my life.”