Soul Folk In Action, by The Staple Singers

Soul Folk In Action

by The Staple Singers

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$9.99 USD or more

1.	We've Got To Get Ourselves Together 02:41	info	buy track
2.	(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay 03:10	info	buy track
3.	Top Of The Mountain 03:00	info	buy track
4.	Slow Train 02:46	info	buy track
5.	The Weight 04:34	info	buy track
6.	Long Walk To D.C. 02:30	info	buy track
7.	Got To Be Some Changes Made 02:37	info	buy track
8.	The Ghetto 03:44	info	buy track
9.	People, My People 02:29	info	buy track
10.	I See It 02:58	info	buy track
11.	This Year 01:56	info	buy track

about

In the fall of ’68, the Staple Singers went into the studio to record their first album for Stax, Soul Folk in Action, working with producer Steve Cropper and songwriter Homer Banks. The sessions were set against a backdrop of social and political turmoil, which climaxed with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis. The Staple Singers were known for writing politically charged “message songs,” and the year’s events certainly inspired many of the tracks on this album, including “Long Walk to D.C.” and “The Ghetto.” In their liner notes, Levon Williams and Langston Wilkins write that both of these songs “Truly tapped into the experiences and emotions of Black America at the close of the ’60s. The former is a tribute to the 1963 March on Washington told from the perspective of a poor yet hopeful African American person willing to use their last dimes to make it to the rally … Conversely, the somber and haunting ‘The Ghetto’ takes listeners deep into the isolation and despair of inner-city life.” Also notable to this album are stunning covers of The Band’s “The Weight” and Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” recorded in tribute to the fallen Stax star, who died tragically just a year earlier in a plane crash.

credits

released January 1, 1968

2019, © 2019 Craft Recordings., Distributed by Concord.

license

about

The Staple Singers Chicago, Illinois

The Staple Singers were an American gospel, soul, and R&B singing group.

Roebuck "Pops" Staples (the patriarch of the family) formed the group with his children Cleotha, Pervis, and Mavis. They are best known for their 1970s hits "Respect Yourself", "I'll Take You There", "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)", and "Let's Do It Again." ... more