You can hear almost all of African-American history in the music of the Staple Singers: slave-era folk songs and hymns; the Delta blues, considered the “devil’s music” by the hymn singers; gospel from the northern churches that formed the backbone of black social life after the Great Migration; and protest songs from the civil rights movement. I’ll Take You There,Greg Kot’s new biography of the Staples (family and singers), is at its best when it shows how they lived that history.
Both the Staples and this book lose their way in the mid-1970s. The story diverges from African-American history and instead becomes a dutiful chronicle of the recording sessions for a series of mediocre albums. Perhaps out of reverence for Mavis Staples, whom he interviewed several times and who seems to be both a great talent and a good person, Kot fails to ask the harder, ruder questions, not just about the Staples’ personal lives but about why, for instance, after years of hits and gold records, Mavis had to look for radio voice-over work in the mid-80s. In fairness, it’s hard to write a biography of someone who’s still alive—and who’ll read it. But the reader might be better off stopping around page 220 (the start of the disco era), skipping to the discography on page 289, and listening to the Staples instead.
By Greg Kot (Scribner) Reading Fri 1/31, 6:30 PM Book Stall at Chestnut Court 811 Elm, Winnetkathebookstall.com Free
