2 posts tagged “gospel”
I'm not going all Jesus-y on you here or anything, but I've been listening to the Staple Singers quite a bit. You've probably heard "I'll Take You There" (that's on Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, 1972), which is just about the best thing anybody ever did. I like this one, too. It's from The Staple Swingers, 1971.
The Staples started out doing straight gospel in the 1950s, and then took in interest in the Civil Rights thing when that came along. Lots of great music, but the late 1960s and early 1970s were their great period, in my view.
I'll tell you who wrote this song, it was Helen Carter, Anita Carter, June Carter, and Maybelle Carter.
The Carters -- or at least those four -- had a higher tolerance for That Old Time Religion than some of my readers do, and this one, by God, has got That Old Time Religion in horse-doctor's doses. So some may find this stuff merely annoying. But I think it's pretty good music anyhow.
The Louvin Brothers recorded it in 1959 on their Satan Is Real album; Johnny Cash got around to it on Unchained, in 1996. I prefer the latter. The Louvins' version isn't the strongest track on that album. Maybe next I'll give you "The Angels Rejoiced Last Night", which if you don't hear it, you may doubt there's anything much more lachrymose than this thing.
On the reality-of-Satan front, two or three years ago some loon wandered around Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville stenciling "Santa Is Real" on sidewalks and mailboxes. I enjoyed the heck out of that.
