By Greg Kot, $19.71; Scribner; 320 pages
As one of Chicago's most influential and celebrated figures in music, it could be expected that a biography of Mavis Staples would appear at some point.
With a career that has spanned 50 years and is showing no signs of slowing down, Staples has not only flourished as an artist but her presence has kept the legacy of the Staple Singers, who started as gospel singers in the 1950s, alive and current. That Staples' life story is deeply intertwined with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Sam Cooke, the Band, Bob Dylan, Lou Rawls, Jeff Tweedy, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Mahalia Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Curtis Mayfield, Stax Records and Jerry Butler is no mean feat.
If only Greg Kot's book I'll Take You There, Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March Up Freedom's Highway ( Simon and Schuster publishing ) was up to the task.
It's not that the book is lacking in history. I'll Take You There is workmanlike, detailed and engaging, but there is a dispassion in the writing that fails to ignite the story. Since passion is a key word in describing the music of the Staples, the book does not seem to be all that it could be. Fortunately, Kot does not write about his subject with a reverential tone and he avoids coming off as an uber-fan. But as the popular music critic for the Chicago Tribune for the last 24 years, you would expect Kot to have a unique angle, but nothing doing.
Still, I'll Take You There is a hell of a story and a concrete demonstration of how music and the era in which it was created impact and shape one another. After reading it, one can't deny that Staples and her family have influenced the entire civil-rights movement of the world—not just Black civil rights in the 1960s or LGBT rights in the United States now.
Kot wisely starts the book with "Pops" Roebuck Staples' upbringing in the itinerant South, which sets a solid foundation for the book and all that follows. He was smitten with the blues ( particularly blues guitar ) "Pops" taught himself to play, although his devoutly religious sharecropper father refused to let him do it in the house. After watching his father work himself to death and realizing that this was his future, "Pops" moved to Chicago, got a job in the stockyards, married and started a family. Once he realized that middle daughter Mavis—who was all of 14 at the time—had a stupendous voice, he pulled his clan together and they began a career as local gospel singers in South Side Chicago churches. Then the book takes flight by depicting the Staples as they land two breakthroughs and endure a scandal.
The first is their atypical church performances ( passionate, idiosyncratic and unique ,with "Pops"' blues guitar freaking out staid churchgoers ) and the second is the hit gospel single "Uncloudy Day." Kot gets into the politics and one-upmanship of other gospel performers who attacked the Staples for their unconventional performances and showmanship. Nobody, especially those who are delivering the Lord's word likes an upstart( As much as the Lord's followers hate to admit it, they have a lot in common with drag queens on the runway. ).
After recording more in the gospel vein, the Staples gathered a formidable reputation ( King was an ardent fan and insisted that they perform at his rallies ) while staying true to their roots without going "pop" ( or recording music that strayed outside of gospel ). The Rev. C.L. Franklin and his daughter Aretha, as well as icon Sam Cooke ( who was battling his own wars regarding going pop ), fell into the same trap while Mahalia Jackson, a Chicago neighbor, took Mavis under her wing. Then Mavis cut a solo album with "A House Is Not a Home" as the featured single, igniting a scandal and causing all hell to break loose.
Without a spiritual angle, "A House Is Not a Home" was the betrayal that the gospel audience used as a trump card. But the Staples moved into a far richer territory with the advent of the folk/protest era that fermented in Greenwich Village coffee houses with the likes of a scruffy, skinny Jewish kid from Minnesota named Bob Dylan. At this point it was the early 1960s and the movement toward social and civil issues was finding a new avenue that took what was preached in gospel music into everyday life. The Staples fit right in and at this point Kot delves into the suggested treasures of I'll Take You There.
Signing with Stax Records, the fledging soul label that gave Motown and Atlantic Records ( the home of Franklin ) a run for its money, the Staples landed in Muscle Shoals and cut records that would impact the nation. Kot goes into detail about the musical chemistry of the group: Mavis' stirring vocals, the suggestion of "Pops"' distinct guitar work ( he actually did not play on the records, but several celebrated Muscle Shoals guitarists used his sound as a template ), and the interplay of the vocal harmonies of the group. The single "I'll Take You There"—which Kot points out is really a streaming, buoyant jam session—is the high point of not only the Staples' career ( it hit number one on the pop chars in 1972 ) but also that of Stax records. It was ultimately one of the finest recordings of the last century.
From this point, Kot dutifully ticks off the Staples' history like a schoolboy: massive record sales, an audience that joined Blacks and whites, the highs and demise of Stax Records, the ultimate gospel betrayal ( the smash hit "Let's Do It Again"which was clearly NOT spiritual but sexual ), the rise of disco and its effect on soul, the group's diminished stature, Martin Scorsese's film The Last Waltz, "Pops"' death and Mavis' re-emergence in the last decade. The gems are here in all their richness—Mavis' collaborations with Aretha and Prince; her historic show at Chicago's scruffy "it" venue The Hideout; her appearance at Lollapalooza in 2010 with Jeff Tweedy; and even her duet with Andrew Bird on vocals and violin on "The Weight" at the Hideout Block Party fall 2012.
The details are ultimately the books failing. I'll Take You There reads like a scrapbook rather than a biography and, after reading it, I could say that I knew of its subjects but I did not know them. Granted, there is a lot here that makes the head and heart swim ( i.e., Dylan was so smitten with Mavis that he proposed to her, or the dark, anchorless period just after Pops' death that left Mavis spiritually and musically adrift ) but there is a lack of emotional depth that makes the book feel a little less than it could be.
One thing that haunts and amuses me to this day is the one instant when I got to actually meet Mavis Staples. It was a rainy Fourth of July in 2009 at Taste of Chicago where Staples guested on a rip through "Sweet Home Chicago" during Buddy Guy's set. On my way to the loo I glimpsed Staples a mere three feet away backstage and yelled out, "Hey, Mavis! We hardly ever see you here in Chicago anymore and would love it if you came around more often." Mavis saw me, and with such joy and appreciation said, "AAawww sugah..., you so sweet. I'll try to come back more often." And she certainly has kept her word. I only wish Kot's book had the same lift that meeting his subject did.
