Musical Messages: Mavis Staples selects her greatest songs
Mavis Staples has earned the legacy that most R&B singers only dream of. From making some of the foundational songs of the genre back in the early 1960s to still sounding as breathtaking as ever towards the end of her career, her work with both The Staples Singers and her own solo career is what many people still think of when they think of the sounds of classic R&B. With years of output under her belt, there are still some songs that ring true to her after over half a century.
When looking at her career, one of Staples’s first big highlights wasn’t even on one of her own songs. After hearing Mahalia Jackson sing the song ‘How I Got Over’, Staples was inspired to sing with that same kind of booming presence, eventually working the song into the repertoire with her sisters later down the line.
For any good soul singer, it’s as much about the message of what you’re singing as it is about the actual notes on the page. Given how she got her start in the still-segregated music scene of the early 1960s, songs like ‘If All I Was Was Black’ carried on the same rights that she felt back in the pre-integration movement.
Even though she had the musical (and romantic) admiration of Bob Dylan, Staples always felt that songs like this didn’t need anyone else singing them, telling The Guardian, “This record is all about hope. How we can come together and fix things, and build bridges. If everyone heard these songs, whatever the colour of their skin, they’d fall in love with each other”.
That same desire for change rang true throughout her career, even when she was singing older standards like ‘Blood is Thicker Than Time’. As much as people may not have thought twice about the lyrics, the authority in her voice practically makes you pay attention, sounding like each word is coming from deep within her soul.
That’s not to say that she didn’t know how to let loose and have some fun, as evidenced by their classic, ‘I’ll Take You There’. Whereas most people were looking for change in the world, sometimes it was better just to hear someone sing a catchy song rather than belabour the point too much. This wasn’t just sloganeering for the sake of it. This was a case of Staples fighting for her freedom.
Looking at songs like ‘Freedom Highway’, she was looking to bring a biblical slant to every note she sang. The times may not have been on her side at that point, but whenever she sang a song like ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’, it didn’t matter as long as she knew she had her higher power on her side.
Then again, that kind of dynamic is as old as the beginnings of soul music. Artists like Aretha Franklin made their first steps into singing when going to church, and hearing Staples sing her heart out is enough to know that she did her fair share of testifying when life seemed to have no hope at all.
It’s not like Staples’ influence hasn’t been felt outside of the oldies stations, either, with hip-hop artists like Lauryn Hill bringing that spiritual side of herself into her own music on her albums in the 1990s. Because, as any musician knows, there’s a spiritual power to the song that no one can take away. Every time it feels like the world is on fire, coming together and singing for what you believe in is always that light in the darkness.
Mavis Staples’ favourite Mavis Staples songs:
- ‘If All I Was Was Black’
- ‘How I Got Over’
- ‘Will The Circle Be Unbroken’