Fifty years ago today, on Friday 9th April
1965, the Staple Singers were recorded during a service at Chicago’s New
Nazareth Church. This was no pop concert or rock and roll circus, but as Pops
Staples gently reminded the congregation from the start, they were there to
worship and sing God’s praises. Despite the presence of recording equipment, “We’re
not here to put on a show.”
The resulting 44 minutes album, Freedom Highway, was released on Epic and featured 11 tracks, mixed
for radio with much of the ambient noise from the church edited out. It’s been
a difficult record to get hold of, unavailable for years, but has now been
afforded a new release with the complete 77 minute/18 track service intact and,
importantly, with every ahem, hallelujah, handclap and cry from the assembled Chicagoans
left in the mix loud and clear. It’s wonderful to hear Pops, Mavis, Yvonne and
Pervis in their natural environment and the effect they have.
The Staples had been recording for over a decade and
their biggest commercial success was still further down the road. Freedom Highway captures them at a transition
point where they expanded their repertoire from old spirituals and traditional
songs (“Samson and Delilah”, “When The Saints Go Marching In”) and Pops’ own
worship songs (“Build On That Shore”, “Help Me Jesus”) to include folk music
(“We Shall Overcome”) and more excitingly the beginning of their own topical
freedom songs which now added commentary and a soundtrack to the civil rights
movement.
A series of attempts to march from Selma, Alabama in
response to the killing of civil rights worker Jimmie Lee Jackson began on 7th
March 1965 and culminated two and half weeks later with 25,000 protestors at
the capitol steps in Montgomery to hear an address by Dr Martin Luther King.
The events stirred Pops to write “Freedom Highway” and it was performed days
after completion here at the New Nazareth Church. The stirring performance and
the reaction from those present already made it already sound like an anthem. “Made up my mind, and I won’t turn around”
sang an impassioned Mavis. She's still singing it to this day.
Backed with Pops’ guitar, Al Duncan on drums and Phil
Upchurch on bass, the Staples put on an incredible show, no matter what Pops
said. Their voices come from deep within in their soul - whether singing in a mournful
style or rejoicing and rattling and shaking the pews - and the interaction with
the congregation warm and frequently funny.
Pops though, for reasons best known to him, announces that after two
beautiful children he had Mavis. “She was so ugly. I looked at my baby and I
could hardly eat, she almost took my appetite”.
Quite what Mavis made of that heaven only knows but one
man who wasn’t happy that evening was Rev. Hopkins who counted contributions to
the collection plate during the mid-session interval. “This is awful. We’ve got
less than 75 dollars. You know this is not right”. Rev. Hopkins had to
practically beg, plead, cajole and embarrass to raise a hundred dollars. “We
don’t charge anything but we must have some more money. The Staple Singers are
one of the best groups in this country. This is their home. If anyone should
support the Staples Singers, Chicago should.” He finally got it but rued “Sure
takes a lot of time trying to raise money in a Baptist church.”
This whole CD is a pure delight from
start to finish and puts the listener right there, up close and intimate with
the Staples. I don't have a religious bone in my body, it matters not, this is powerful, moving, heartfelt music and, lest we forget, fun. What more could one ask? As Pops
Staples says, “I want to make Heaven my home, but I want to enjoy myself a
little down here too”. Amen.
Freedom Highway
Complete by the Staple Singers is available now, released by Epic Legacy
Recordings.
