”Please,” says Mavis Staples with one of her characteristically deep, rich laughs, ”Please don`t say I`ve `come back`-because I ain`t been nowhere!”
In one sense, Staples is right. Here in her modestly comfortable Chicago apartment of many years, surrounded by pictures of family, large plants and colorful paintings, it`s clear that, no matter how far she and her family, the Staples Singers, have traveled over the last 30 years, and regardless of how far she goes now with the release of her new, Prince-produced solo album, this city has been, and always will be, home.
”We chose to stay in Chicago,” she says firmly. ”For years, managers and record companies tried to get us to move to California. They felt we would have a better chance of making it. But we were having fun in Chicago. And Chicago had a nice Chi-Town sound. We had people like the Spaniels, the Dells, Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler. And we weren`t really going for a star thing. Our thoughts were always if we could live comfortably (that was enough). We weren`t trying to get rich. We weren`t going for glitter.”
But ”glitter” found the Staples and its deep-voiced lead singer and, contrary to her own statement, took them nearly everywhere, including around the world and up the pop and soul charts scores of times.
And with a strong new album that reaffirms her importance as a brilliant and enjoyable singer, Staples could, indeed, be on the way to a ”comeback.” It has been more than 10 years since her fourth, and last, solo album was released. ”Nobody was asking for Mavis,” she says with characteristic frankness, until Al Bell, the Stax Records` executive who produced many Staples Singers` hits, offered to sign her to his new label.
”I said, `I don`t care. It can be a new label. As long as the Lord let`s me sing, I`m going to sing my butt off and somebody`s going to hear me.` It was just a matter of a day that Prince`s manager called me. A matter of one day.”
Prince first attempted to reach Staples in the spring of 1987. ”My father called me,” she says, chuckling, ”and told me, `Mavis, Prince is looking for you.` I said, `Daddy, stop jivin`!”`
Then Prince`s manager called to say the same thing.
”Maybe six months passed,” she continues, ”and my family and I were going to do a dusties (oldies) show and they called and said, `Prince wants to come to meet you at this show.`
”I actually didn`t know he was there until after we had finished singing. I`m going back to the dressing room and here comes Prince. When I saw him, I was just like these kids. I yelled `Yeah!!!` I know I probably scared him.
”He stayed in the dressing room for maybe 45 minutes. I was doing all the yapping and he was just smiling and looking at me and giving me these one, two word answers.
”Daddy said, `Young man, it`s awfully nice of you to come out here to meet Mavis.` And he just told Daddy, `You can play.` That`s all he said to Daddy, `You can play.`
”I thought, `We`ve got to communicate if we`re going to work together.`
So I started writing letters letting him into my life and letting him know the kind of person I was.
”And it got better. I started hearing from him on the telephone. In London (where Staples had been invited to see the beginning of Prince`s Lovesexy tour), I broke in. I couldn`t stop him. Then he would call me and talk and talk.”
The pairing of this gospel pioneer and ”Mr. Dirty Mind” seems almost unthinkable, yet it turned out to be a musical match made in heaven.
”When I read his lyrics, it comes out beauty,” Staples says of her controversial producer. ”If there wasn`t beauty in him, he wouldn`t have come this far. I don`t think I would have had any hangups anyhow because I don`t judge people.
”Everybody has their own cross to bear. And he wouldn`t write that for me. When his manager called me, I did ask him, `What would Prince write for me?` It wasn`t because of `dirty` lyrics. It was because of what I heard on Vanity and Apollonia. These were teeny bopper songs to me. I said, `I`m an adult.`
”He said, `That`s what he`ll be writing for you, adult songs with a contemporary background.`
”I said, `All right, we can work.` ”
And work they did, producing some of the most consistently powerful and mature music either has done. ”Time Waits For No One,” released on Prince`s own Paisley Park label, translates Staples` strong roots in `50s gospel, `60s soul and `70s funk into state-of-the-art `80s music.
Prince wrote or co-wrote six of the eight tracks, served as executive producer, coordinated virtually all the instrumental backing and played on a number of songs.
”He studied Mavis. He didn`t just come in giving me just anything. He took time to consider me and consider where I came from and what I`ve been doing. It would have been disastrous if he hadn`t done that,” she says.
”Time” juggles various styles, yet remains consistent and true to the singer. ”Interesting” and ”Jaguar” are crisp, modern pop-funk tunes not unlike Prince`s own.
There are several elegant ballads, including an homage to classic Memphis soul called ”Come Home.” A few tracks even harken back to the Staples`
original soul-folk message song days.
But stylistic diversity was always a family trademark.
”People didn`t know what we were singing when we first started. They had us winning jazz awards. We were at the Grand Old Opry. Our sound was something different and I think it had some of every kind of music in it.”
The Staples Singers-father Roebuck ”Pops” Staples, sisters Yvonne, Cleotha and Mavis and, initially, brother Pervis-began performing in local churches. By the early `50s, they were recording for Vee-Jay Records, the influential Chicago blues, R&B and gospel label, Their early songs (some of which appear on a recent double album reissue, ”The Best of the Staples Singers,” on the revived Vee Jay/Chameleon label) had a fascinating new sound, a taut, modern form of gospel with tantalizing hints of Delta blues and early rock.
Pops, who counts country bluesmen Charlie Patton and Robert Johnson among his influences, had a major role in establishing guitar in gospel and used a distinctly bluesy approach in his playing. The family`s unusual harmonies and Mavis`s deep, rich lead vocals were other distinctive elements in their sound. ”People thought we were old folks,” Staples says with a laugh. ”I was bassing (singing bass) and they swore I was a man or a h-u-g-h lady. I couldn`t be a little, skinny girl.”
The Vee-Jay recordings were both successful and influential. ”Uncloudy Day,” which featured Mavis singing bass lead, is thought to be one of the first million-selling gospel records. ”This May Be The Last Time” was later reworked by the Rolling Stones as ”The Last Time.” Ray Charles and Sam Cooke turned elements of ”Good News” into hits of their own. ”Stand By Me,”
adapted by Ben E. King, became an R & B classic.
But change was in the wind in the `60s and the Staples made a then-controversial switch from gospel to secular soul.
”When Dr. King`s movement came along,” Staples explains, ”Daddy said,
`If he can preach this, we can sing it. The world needs this.` So we started writing protest songs like `March Up Freedom`s Highway,` `Why Am I Treated So Bad?` and `Washington, We`re Watching You.”`
Soon they added pop and funk to their ”soul-folk” sound and had Top 10 hits on Stax Records with ”I`ll Take You There,” ”Respect Yourself,”
”Touch A Hand, Make A Friend” and ”If You`re Ready (Come Go With Me).”
Later, on Curtom Records, they scored their biggest hit, No. 1 on both the R & B and pop charts, with Curtis Mayfield`s ”Let`s Do It Again.”
In the `80s, the Staples occasionally popped up on the charts with songs such as ”Are You Ready?” and the Talking Heads` ”Slippery People” (which featured David Byrne, who later asked Pops to appear in the film ”True Stories”). They continue to work together whenever possible and remain a closely knit family group. During the afternoon of this interview, Pops dropped in and Yvonne, who lives nearby and serves as Mavis`s business manager, called.
”I`ll sing with the Staples Singers `til my dying day. As long as they want to sing, I`m here to sing with them,” Staples says, adding she hopes her new album will boost the family`s career as much as her own.
But ”Time” is already responsible for at least one rejuvenation.
”Prince has inspired me to start back to writing. I had stopped writing years ago. I`m not really a songwriter. I`m not a poet. I can jot down my thoughts and if I can`t put them together like they should be, I`ve got Prince. But they`re my thoughts.”
Staples says the songs also reflect her own personality, but when asked what they reveal about her, she shyly hesitates, at a loss for words for the first time in this long conversation.
”Well,” she says finally, ”Mavis is a person who has experienced quite a bit in life. I`ve seen a lot of cloudy days, but I haven`t allowed them to overtake me. I`ve been through a marriage that didn`t work. That was something that I really wanted in life, to be married and have children.
”I`ve been fortunate, too, to have sisters and a brother and a mother and a father who instilled a lot of love to help me to rise above these obstacles and stumbling blocks.
”I`m just an average human being whom the Lord has gifted with a voice to sing. And I`m grateful. Very grateful.”
