Staple Singers - Amen! & Why

The Epic releases were not particularly well represented in the previously offered Staples box so only a few of these songs have been previously offered in our Sunday services. Yet another lovely gift from the Elder Clifford.

The Staple Singers straddled the Sacred and Secular worlds like no group before or since. The enormously influential guitar stylings of Roebuck “Pops” Staples, the 'deep beyond her years' vocals of Mavis Staples, and the exalted harmonies of Pervis and Cleotha Staples created a singular sound that somehow managed to be earthy and soaring at the same time.

1965’s Amen! and 1966’s Why were their second and third albums and the first pair of studio recordings for the Epic Label. Both were produced by Nashville Legend Billy Sherrill. Includes the hit “Why (Am I Treated So Bad)".

Liner Notes by Gene Sculatti, Remastered by Mike Piacentini at Battery Studios in NewYork

CD Debuts for Both Albums

The Staple Singers - Freedom Highway

As promised, here is another classic Staples side to help prepare your soul for eternity.  Personally, I find this album comparable in every way to the last post of Circle. 

At several points the group find that incredible vibe which puts the listener into another head space.  Pops guitar is wildly unique in its simplicity and eerieness.

I hope you guys will follow along and grab these Staple albums if you don't have them.  Once I have you properly schooled in their roots, we'll dabble in their secular material.  I will predict that some of you won't even want to bother with it.  While its soulful in its own right, it doesn't even approach their gospel.

Originally released on Epic in 1965 as a live in-church session, Legacy's 1991 reissue of Freedom Highway includes two of the original LP tracks supplemented by some truly spirited late-'60s Epic recordings. Despite the glaring omissions, Freedom Highway never feels like a hastily thrown-together compilation. Instead, it follows an arc that deftly mirrors the religious, political, and social fervor of the '60s as filtered through the warm vibrato of Pops Staples' amplifier and the golden throats of his brood. Gospel standards like "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" and "Wade in the Water" benefit from the full band arrangements, giving them a swift kick of rock & roll that would eventually morph into the soul-funk sound of their popular '70s period. Pops, inspired by his meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr., contributes the wickedly infectious title cut -- one of the two live tracks from the original -- and the incendiary "Why Am I Treated So Bad," a bluesy lament inspired by the hardships of the "Little Rock 9." As always, the vocals and harmonies are nothing short of astounding, most notably on the Mavis Staples-led "Move Along Train" -- never has gospel sounded so sexy. Each song bristles with emotion and resonates deeper with every repeated listen, resulting in an experience that transcends scripture while remaining true to its alternately redemptive and fiery foundations. Freedom Highway captures a family approaching the cusp of catharsis, and its charms lie in the world-weary delivery of its message. Their devotion has been tested and their hands have been bloodied, but their faith has grown into an endless garden because of it, and by the time they reach the spookiest version of "This Train" ever put to tape, listeners will no doubt feel as empowered as the stoic passengers themselves.  - James Christopher Monger/AMG

Columbia 6033
1965

The Johnny Otis Show - Live at Monterey!

If you never had the opportunity to see the Johnny Otis show then I feel badly for you because it was absolutely the best R & B review ever! You felt like you had been to a real SHOW afterwards and the stars you saw were all the real deal. This double set captures them with all barrels blazing at Monterey in 1970.

The Johnny Otis Show Live At Monterey!1. WILLE AND THE HAND JIVE (3:18) (J. Otis) Johnny Otis
2. CRY ME A RIVER BLUES** (4:47) (Arr: Esther Phillips) Little Esther Phillips
3. CLEANHEAD'S BLUES* (4:55) (E. Vinson) Eddie Cleanhead Vinson
4. I GOT A GAL (2:58) (J. Turner) Joe Turner
5. SINCE I MET YOU BABY (2:38) (I.J. Hunter) Ivory Joe Hunter
6. BABY YOU DON'T KNOW (3:01) (R. Milton) Roy Milton
7. PREACHER'S BLUES (3:28) (G Connors) Gene Connors
8. GOOD ROCKIN' TONIGHT (3:27) (R. Brown) Roy Brown
9. THE TIME MACHINE (3:31) (S. Otis)Shuggie Otis
10. MARGIE'S BOOGIE (3:33) (J. Otis) Margie Evans
11. LITTLE ESTHER'S BLUES** BLOWTOP BLUES/ (L. Feather/J. Feather) T BOND BLUES/ (L. Hite) JELLY JELLY (6:50) Little Esther Phillips
12. KIDNEY STEW* (3:08) (L. Blackman-E. Vinson) Eddie Cleanhead Vinson
13. THE THINGS I USED TO DO*** (5:00) (E. Jones) Pee Wee Crayton
14. R.M. BLUES (3:02) (R. Milton) Roy Milton
15. SHUGGIE'S BOOGIE (4:06) (J. Otis-s. Otis) Shuggie Otis
16. YOU BETTER LOOK OUT (4:10) (J. Otis-D. Evans) Delmar Evans
17. GOIN' BACK TO L.A. (2:46) (J. Otis-D. Evans) Johnny Otis & Delmar Evans
18. PLASTIC MAN (4:51) (L. Chandler) Joe Turner
19. BOOGIE WOOGIE BYE BYE (2:38) (J. Otis) Ensemble


Personnel: Melvin Moore, trumpet • Gene "Mighty Flea" Connors, trombone • Presten Love, alto and baritone saxes • Richard Aplanalp, soprano and tenor saxes • Clifford Solomon, tenor sax (all tenor solos) • Big Jim Wynn, baritone sax • Shuggie Otis, guitar (Pee Wee Crayton on "The Things I Used To Do") • Jim (Supe) Bradshaw, rhythm guitar (solo on "Good rockin' Tonight"); harp • Johnny Otis, Roger Spotts, Leonard Feather, piano (Ivory Joe Hunter on "Since I Met you Baby") • Lawrence Slim Dickens, Shuggie Otis, bass • Paul Lagos, drums • Johnny Otis, vibes • Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, alto sax and vocals • Johnny Otis, Esther Phillips, Joe Turner, Ivory Joe Hunter, Roy Milton, Roy Brown, Margie Evans, Delmar "Mighty Mouth" Evans, vocals.

Notes taken from the original album release:

The Historic Rhythm & Blue Extravaganza That Rocked the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival

"The blues never has been, to my recollection, the occasion for a more joyous celebration of its uniquely vibrant spirit than on a certain day in the late summer of 1970, when Johnny Otis brought his entire azure-indigo caravan of giants to spread their talents over an afternoon on the fairgrounds at Monterey, California.

Here was the consummate proof that where today's music may set up communication and generation gaps, the blues destroys them. On stage, where Shuggie Otis, 16; rhythm guitarist Jim (Supe) Bradshaw, 23; singers Margie Evans and Delmar "Mighty Mouth" (no relation) Evans, both in their 20's; and the rest of the singing and blowing battalion representing every decade on up to Pee Wee Crayton and Big Joe Turner, both in their very late 50's, and Roy Milton, who's up there at the Social Security borderline.

The same with the roaring receptive, over capacity audience. Those who stood up on their seats hollering and testifying, or boogalooed along the aisles, were mostly in the 15-25 bracket, while others, less extroverted, exchanged reminiscences about the first time they had heard the call of the blues, perhaps at some half-remembered dance in the 30's, or on a 78 record player at high school in the 40's and 50's.

That's what this album is all about. This is no gallery of museum pieces set up to rekindle a lost past, no futile exercise in nostalgia; instead it is a meeting ground were ages, races, and backgrounds coalesce, where grooving together is all that matters.

All the other instrumental touches are emotionally strong, tonally robust products of the synthesis forged during the 1940s between jazz and R&B.

Through it all, Johnny Otis remains in firm control, opening the show by reviving his 1958 hit "Willie And The Hand Jive;" soloing and comping on vibes or piano, emceeing and directing his exuberant band through its casual, largely spontaneous arrangements.

There was a lot of love in the air that day. We all felt it, exchanged not only among musicians and singers, but from bandstand to audience and back. Wondering one moment why so many of the true blues pioneers had been short-changed by society, you asked yourself the next minute how a Shuggie Otis or a Supe Bradshaw could align himself so naturally with a music some thought was obsolescent.

On this day the vitality of the blues ws triumphantly reaffirmed. It happened in Monterey-and not long ago. Thanks to Johnny Otis, who put it all together, and the festival's Jimmy Lyons, who brought it onstage, the whole world of the blues burst on us like sunshine on that bright September afternoon."

- Leonard Feather