{"id":4959,"date":"2014-07-29T13:21:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T18:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4959"},"modified":"2014-07-29T13:21:39","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T18:21:39","slug":"william-bell-mavis-staples-i-thank-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/?p=4959","title":{"rendered":"William Bell & Mavis Staples – I Thank You"},"content":{"rendered":"

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William Bell and Mavis Staples<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Listen\/Download William Bell and Mavis Staples – I Thank You<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Greetings all<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, not long after I finished reading Greg Kots\u2019<\/strong> most excellent \u2018I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March up Freedom’s Highway\u2019, it just happened to be Ms. Mavis\u2019 75th birthday.<\/p>\n

I have been listening to a LOT of Staple Singers<\/strong> ish the last few years \u2013 especially the Epic era gospel stuff \u2013 and consistently marveling at the pure, soulful power of Mavis Staples<\/strong>\u2019 voice.<\/p>\n

It just so happens that a few months before (I\u2019ve been reading a lot, you see) I had read Robert Palmer\u2019s<\/strong> also excellent \u2018Respect Yourself: Stax Records and the Soul Explosion\u2019.<\/p>\n

Palmer\u2019s book is an indispensable guidebook to the history of that mighty soul label, especially his coverage of Stax\u2019s late 60s rebirth.<\/p>\n

Having been left in the lurch thanks to a shady deal with Atlantic Records, which cost the label their masters (and one of their top-selling acts, Sam and Dave<\/strong>), Stax, led by Al Bell,<\/strong> regrouped with the intention of reestablishing their market presence\/dominance.<\/p>\n

Part of Bell\u2019s ambitious plan was a huge wave of new releases, which brought the label\u2019s talent to the very edge of exhaustion.<\/p>\n

One of Stax\u2019s recent acquisitions, was the Staple Singers.<\/p>\n

Having departed Epic records, the Staples came to Stax, already having loosened up a little bit.<\/p>\n

Their catalog had already started to include non-religious (yet still inspirational) material, like their 1967 cover of the Buffalo Springfield\u2019s<\/strong> \u2018For What It\u2019s Worth\u2019, and their original songs, like \u2018Why Am I Treated So Bad\u2019 had been covered by the likes of the Sweet Inspirations, Bobby Powell<\/strong> and Brian Auger and the Trinity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the cornerstones of Stax\/Bell\u2019s big push was a two-LP set composed of duets, mixing and matching the label\u2019s male talent, like Eddie Floyd, William Bell, Johnnie Taylor<\/strong> and Pervis Staples<\/strong>, with its female stars like Carla Thomas<\/strong>, and Mavis<\/strong> and Cleotha Staples.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Composed of 22 tracks, the \u2018Boy Meets Girl\u2019 collection is, despite the daunting size (and the fact that these were all new recordings) actually quite good.<\/p>\n

With the recording spread between Memphis, Detroit and Muscle Shoals, and a number of arrangers and writers, the resulting tracks are not consistently \u2018Stax-like\u2019 \u2013 there are a number of cuts that sound Motown-ish \u2013 but there\u2019s lots to dig.<\/p>\n

My favorite track from the collection is William Bell and Mavis Staples funky duet on \u2018I Thank You\u2019.<\/p>\n

Originally recorded the previous year by Sam and Dave, the 1969 recording \u2013 produced by Al Bell and Isaac Hayes<\/strong> \u2013 is a something of a lost classic.<\/p>\n

The arrangement is unusual \u2013 the first 45 seconds consist of Bell and Staples trading lines over just congas and tambourines \u2013 but when the band kicks in things get funky.<\/p>\n

The clavinet from the OG is still there, but it gets some company from fuzz guitar, and the drums keep up the heat through the whole record.<\/p>\n

Bell sounds great, and it\u2019s cool to hear Mavis in one of her earliest purely soulful outings.<\/p>\n

The power of her voice was always a revelation, but especially so here. She never soars, or showboats, choosing instead to add subtle but perfectly chosen turns here and there.<\/p>\n

She really is a singer that demands your attention, and her performance here ought to be better known.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately \u2013 though Stax released six singles from the collection \u2013 \u2018I Thank You\u2019 was not among them.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that the reissues (including the version currently on iTunes) of the \u2018Boy Meets Girl\u2019 collection have often been changed to exclude some of the original tracks and add new ones.<\/p>\n

Fortunately for those of you with turntables, the original vinyl version of the set seems to be in plentiful supply and can usually be scored for less than twenty bucks.<\/p>\n

I hope you dig the track, and I\u2019ll see you all on Friday.<\/p>\n

Keep the faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

Larry<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Example\"<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Also, the brand new Funky16Corners ‘Keep Calm and Stay Funky’ stickers have arrived!<\/strong> The stickers are 4″ x 3″ and printed on high quality, glossy stock.<\/strong> They are $2.00 each, with free shipping in the US ($2.00 per order shipping outside of the US).<\/strong> Click here to go to the ordering page.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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).<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Example\"<\/strong><\/a> \"Example\"<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

PS Head over to Iron Leg too.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William Bell and Mavis Staples Listen\/Download William Bell and Mavis Staples – I Thank You Greetings all A couple of weeks ago, not long after I finished reading Greg Kots\u2019 most excellent \u2018I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March up Freedom’s Highway\u2019, it just happened to be Ms. Mavis\u2019 75th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[58,11,14,30,100,12],"tags":[163,166,184,164],"class_list":["post-4959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cover-songs","category-funk","category-funky16corners","category-lp-tracks","category-memphis","category-soul","tag-funk","tag-funky16corners","tag-memphis","tag-soul"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMKgo-1hZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4959"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4984,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4959\/revisions\/4984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/funky16corners.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}