Pops Staples

American gospel singer, songwriter, and guitarist

• Born: December 28, 1914
• Birthplace: Winona, Minnesota
• Died: December 19, 2000
• Place of death: Chicago, Illinois

The patriarch of the gospel-singing group the Staple Singers, Staples brought gospel music into the pop mainstream with a fusion of blues guitar and gospel songwriting.

Member of The Staple Singers

The Life

The youngest of fourteen children, Roebuck Staples grew up picking cotton on a plantation in Mississippi. Despite a strong church-oriented family tradition, Staples gravitated to the Delta-blues style of guitar playing after he heard legendary performers Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. In 1931 Staples joined the Golden Trumpets, a local gospel quartet, and later, once he moved his family to Chicago, he sang and played guitar for the Trumpet Jubilees.

To entertain his children, Staples began to teach them gospel songs. Soon he and his children performed at local churches throughout the Chicago area, and they even booked a weekly time slot on the radio. As they gained more fans, Staples formed the Staple Singers, which included his children on vocals and Staples on vocals and guitar.

The Staple Singers scored their first big hit with “Uncloudy Day,” which combined the lyrics of the traditional hymn with Staples’s blues guitar. In the 1960’s, the Staples expanded their popularity. They signed a contract with the Riverside jazz label, and they recorded “For What It’s Worth,” a Stephen Stills composition. In 1968 they signed a contract with the Memphis, Tennessee-based label Stax, and within five years they had eight hits on the Top 40, including “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.” Their appearances in films, such as Wattstax (1973), Soul to Soul (1971), and The Last Waltz (1978), solidified the Staple Singers’ appeal across many musical genres.

Staples continued recording until the end of his life. One of his last albums, Peace to the Neighborhood, featuring collaborations with Ry Cooder, Bonnie Raitt, and Jackson Browne, was critically acclaimed. His final album, Father Father, won a Grammy Award in 1994.

The Music

Throughout his life, Staples combined gospel and blues music. With the Staple Singers, which he formed in the 1950’s, he expanded his style to include folk, rhythm-and-blues, and funk music, and he often addressed social issues in his lyrics. The inclusion of Staples’s guitar in gospel music often caused controversy, but the music appealed to mainstream audiences and music critics. His rough, yet gentle tenor voice was a perfect counterpoint to his daughter Mavis Staples’s smoky, contralto voice.

Early Works. In the early 1960’s, the Staple Singers broadened their appeal by recording protest songs by Bob Dylan (“Blowin’ in the Wind”) and Stills (“For What It’s Worth”). In 1963, after meeting with civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Staples wanted to write songs that were socially aware. Two such songs, “March Up Freedom’s Highway” and “Long Walk to D.C.,” explicitly address the civil rights marches that occurred in Selma, Alabama, and Washington, D.C. The first verse and chorus of the latter song contain the quintessential Staple Singers’ sound: Staples’s opening guitar solo with heavy reverberation, Mavis’s silky solo that increases in intensity through the first chorus, and the interjections of gospel-influenced backing harmonies provided by the family.

“Respect Yourself.” In 1968 the Staple Singers signed a contract with Stax Records, which infused soul music with the sounds of rhythm and blues and funk. When this sound aligned with the Staple Singers’ gospel influence and the lyrics of social activism, it was a powerful force on the rhythm-and-blues and pop music charts. “Respect Yourself” was the first such collaboration, and it immediately reached the number-two spot on the rhythm-and-blues charts and number twelve on the pop charts. Staples sings in a plaintive, yet evocative blues style that rewords the Golden Rule with references to the Ku Klux Klan.

“I’ll Take You There.” In 1972 the Staple Singers scored another major hit when “I’ll Take You There” rose to number one on both the rhythm-and-blues and the pop charts. Embedded within the verse is a socially conscious message, and the music, modeled on a Jamaican record, is a single extended groove created by Stax producer Al Bell, his rhythm section, and Mavis Staples. The middle stanza consists of Mavis Staples vamping improvised lyrics to the accompaniment of solos from the bass, guitar, and harmonica. Despite its simple lyrical and musical structure, “I’ll Take You There” occupies a high point in the history of Stax Records and the Staple Singers.

Peace to the Neighborhood and Father Father. In the last years of his life, Staples recorded two solo albums that received critical acclaim. The latter one, Father Father, received a Grammy Award in the Best Contemporary Blues group (1994). His first solo effort, Peace to the Neighborhood, provides a summation of his musical life: “I Shall Not Be Moved” and “This May Be My Last Time” allude to Staples’s gospel upbringing; “Down in Mississippi” records the blues style on which he was raised; and “Love Is a Precious Thing” and “Miss Cocaine” continue Staples’s tradition of incorporating socially conscious lyrics into his music.

Musical Legacy

Staples was responsible for popularizing contemporary gospel music. Whether in gospel quartets (the Staple Singers) or on solo albums, Staples brought a mainstream sound to his gospel performances. In addition, his socially conscious lyrics appealed to a wide audience, among them people who might not otherwise listen to gospel. The Staple Singers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and they received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.

Principal Recordings

albums (solo): Peace to the Neighborhood, 1992; Father Father, 1994.

albums (with the Staple Singers): Uncloudy Day, 1959; Swing Low Sweet Chariot, 1961; Hammer and Nails, 1962; Swing Low, 1962; The 25th Day of December, 1962; Gamblin’ Man, 1963; This Little Light, 1964; Amen!, 1965; Freedom Highway, 1965; For What It’s Worth, 1967; Soul Folk in Action, 1968; Will the Circle Be Unbroken, 1969; Landlord, 1970; We’ll Get Over, 1970; The Staple Swingers, 1971; Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, 1972; Be What You Are, 1973; City in the Sky, 1974; Let’s Do It Again, 1975; Pass It On, 1976; Family Tree, 1977; Unlock Your Mind, 1978; Hold On to Your Dream, 1981; This Time Around, 1981; Turning Point, 1984; The Staple Singers, 1985; Sit Down Servant, 1991; Swingline, 1991.

Bibliography

Bowman, Rob. Soulsville, USA: The Story of Stax Records. New York: Schirmer Books, 1997. This substantial chronicle of the dominant recording studio in the 1960’s and 1970’s spends a considerable time recounting the production of the Staple Singers’ two major hits, “Respect Yourself” and “I’ll Take You There.”

Carpenter, Bil. “Staple Singers: God’s Greatest Hitmakers.” Goldmine (August 30, 1996): 19-42. Carpenter surveys the life and work of the Staple Singers in this article.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia. San Francisco: Backbeat Books, 2005. In addition to a lengthy entry on the Staple Singers, this book includes an introduction written by Mavis Staples that, among other things, relates the story of how her father acquired the name Roebuck.