The Staple Singers – Step Aside
The Staple Singers
Listen/Download The Staple Singers – Step Aside
Greetings all
I hope that the new week finds you all well.
While I really dig gospel music – especially old school – I have never really been a collector of the sound.
It’s a genre that I don’t know much about, so while I may dip my toe in every once in a while, I have yet to fully immerse myself.
That said, even though their early recordings are firmly in the gospel tradition, I like to think of the mighty Staple Singers as sui generis.
This has everything to do with the guitar of Roebuck ‘Pop’ Staples.
Listening to the group’s pre-Stax recordings is like witnessing a mystical collision of the sacred and the profane, with Pop’s Delta guitar lines winding in and out of the rich harmonies like an interloper.
There are other instruments present (bass, drums) but they’re marked by a plain-ness and subtlety that renders them practically invisible.
Listening to Pop’s guitar (with it’s roots in the masters he heard as a young man, including Charlie Patton, Robert Johnson and Son House) amble through the songs it almost as if the ghosts of those roadhouse men are being chased down a dirt road by the holy spirit.
The song I bring you today is an unusual one that has become a firm favorite of mine since I first heard it.
‘Step Aside’ – written by Pervis Staples – is an almost dirge-like number, with lyrics that cast the struggle for civil rights as a battle (the references to ‘foreign soil’ and ‘foreign land’ are particularly stark).
The moments where Pop steps in with his high tenor to cry ‘Step aside!’ it sounds as if he’s raising his hand and crying out from the amen corner.
It is a remarkable piece of music, that like everything else they did during this period transcends both gospel and soul, turning into something else entirely.
I hope you dig it, and I’ll see you on Wednesday.
Keep the faith
Larry
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Also, make sure that you check out the links below to the Be The Match Foundation and POAC (click on the logos for more info).
Themocracy
Thanks for this Sunday Staples gospel music . They are so healing
I agree. Their stuff is good for the soul.
Joe South’s genius de-tuned guitar intro on Aretha’s “Chain of Fools” was an homage to Pops.
I buh-lee-dat.
Larry –
SO AWESOME!! Thanks, brother. I agree, Pops Staples’ ghostly guitar is so powerful… he’s like the missing link. Note the producer: Billy Sherrill – who had come up out of Muscle Shoals with Rick Hall, then went on to Nashville to create masterpieces like “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones. Vey cool post, Larry. Thanks Again!