The Staples Singers - I'll Take You There

I'll Go Wherever You Want

1. Okay… I’ll Take You There… it’s fine, it’s okay. I’m good. *BREAKS OUT IN A COLD SWEAT* It’s just… you know, it’s Mavis Staples telling me she’s going to take me there. I don’t really know where there is, and I don’t truly care. I mean, I have an IDEA… I’m going wherever she wants to take me. What are we talking about??? She’s gonna take me there, and there is Heaven (theologically or sexually). Is it a baseball game in Mexico City, the south of France, or the Zurich airport? It doesn’t matter. AT ALL. I’m going with her. It’s Mavis Staples. This isn’t even a song really. Mavis Staples is out here just telling the players what to do, and we’re all naturally, inherently good with it. You want me to let you take me somewhere? Okay. Whatever you want, Mavis. You want me to play this piano? As you wish. Keep calling me “Big Daddy” and I won’t have words to describe my mood.  I’m upside down. I can’t even think for myself. Keep singing to me like that and I’ll invade a foreign government on your behalf.

2. This is the part where I tell you about the Memphis Horns and their monumental talent and contributions to popular music. I’m legally required to tell you about how they recorded with Aretha, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, the Reverend Al Green, Wilson Pickett, and U2. The Memphis Horns exist as their own sub-genre of soul music in these United States, and are revered for their bountiful, brass-filled, backing contributions to American music. Then the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (That’s a no-shit capital R and capital S) and their achievements. They’re also known as The Swampers. Lynyrd Skynyrd popularized that name, but they were already the go-to, in-demand, top-notch, baddest rhythm section in the galaxy not in either Parliament or Funkadelic. Folks could find them at 3614 Jackson Highway in Sheffield, Alabama smoking joints in the parking lot. Among the folks that found them were Aretha (there is absolutely no reason to use a last name), the Rolling Stones (somewhat famous), Paul Simon (who wanted the same rhythm section the Staples Singers had), Bob Seger (on Night Moves), Bob Dylan (Gotta Serve Somebody), and The Black Keys (the entire Brothers album). They been known to pick a song or two (Yes they do).

3. Stax president Al Bell and Jesse Jackson were kicking it at Jackson’s place in Chicago in the late ‘60s talking about music, among other things that prominent Black leaders in the 1960s would deem important (A mild couple of things). Jackson mentioned that the Staples Singers were dying on the Stax label and suggested he produce the group. Sometime later, Bell’s younger brother was shot and killed. That was his third brother to meet such a fate. After his brother’s funeral in Little Rock, Arkansas, Bell sat down on the fender of the same school bus his father used to haul cotton and crafted "I know a place/Ain't nobody worried/Ain't nobody crying/Ain't no smiling faces/Lying to the races." He later explained his vision to the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section and then traveled to back to Chicago to coach Mavis on the phrasing. If that apocryphal story is to be believed (and honestly it should), then it’s the soul music equivalent of Bertolo to Michelangelo. Craft a magnificent, intimate thing and then assign a destination. You say you’ll take me there? I’ll buy the ticket and take the ride.