When I get ready for church, I weekly pop in a disc that has worship music by the likes of Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Blind Boys of Alabama and The Dixie Hummingbirds. Music that is filled with passion for God. Well, this recording from a service at Chicago’s New Nazareth Church from April of 1965 is going to be on my “Sunday Best” list, as from the opening intro to the benediction you get The Holy Spirit filling every song, sound and emotion during a period when spiritual revival teamed with racial equality in a way similar to when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land.
As “Pops” Staples says at the begining, they are there “to worship with you and to sing God’s praises. We’re here to have a journey.” And they take you on one, from earth to glory and back. Besides Pops (who also plays guitar), Mavis, Yvonne and Pervis Staples sing, preach, shout and heal, while Al Duncan/dr and Phil Upchurch/b supply the gospel groove on hand clappers like “When The Saints” and “Freedom Highway” where the family is fresh from going from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King. Some full scale stomping is the closest most of you will get to a revival on holly rollers like “Help Me Jesus” and “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” where the call and response from “Samson and Delilah” and “Jesus Is All”is like a Pentecostal Benny Goodman big band with the voice of the leader and congregation going back and forth. Some bluesy guitar floats like a dove on “What You Gonna Do?” and the drums and bass build up like thunder from On High on “Build On That Shore.”
Even the most die-hard member of the ACLU could get moved like this, and if you don’t, there ain’t nothin’ in you to move. This is literally the heart and soul of all music that we know.
Sony Legacy