Mavis Staples: the life and career of gospel’s truest legend
Chicago was as good a place to start as any. The Staples Sisters brought a kind of consistency reflective of unifying feelings like resilience, singing from the soul to capture an era of searching for something to bring people together. The churches that housed their singing became places to get lost in a warm embrace, places where, seven decades ago, Mavis Staples first found her voice.
Chronicling all of the details of Staples’ monumentally impressive life is almost impossible, and yet it speaks to a person whose commitment to improving the world—in every sense—stands second to none. After all, this is someone who managed to mesmerise the one and only Bob Dylan, someone who usually dismisses any sort of passion unless it concerns his own disregard for anything mainstream.
Still, Staples had it, right from the moment she entered the creative industry, though came armed with a soul ignited by the flames of justice. This wasn’t just a drive to do well in an arena built to push people down, this was a destiny to dismantle the shackles that kept people bound to scrutiny, or voices that never had the chance to speak up, marred by the prejudices of a far too fractured world.
According to Dylan and countless others, this burden was found in the hidden lines of Staples’ own voice, her song her ultimate weapon, less in an anarchic way but more as a means for pushing for action. “I’ve always liked Mavis Staples ever since she was a little girl,” Dylan once said. “She’s always been my favourite… she’s always had my favourite voice.”
An endorsement shared by many, Staples earned respect through both her immense talent and close and active engagement in the civil rights movement. Her father’s connection to Martin Luther King Jr was one of the initial gateways to the movement’s torchbearers, uniting them under a common cause as she slowly but surely became one herself.
While the counterculture scene channelled its free-spirited energy to call for peace, Staples infused it with even greater fervour, pushing against the barriers of injustice with unshakable determination when hope seemed to run thin. All of this hard work explains her integration into today’s politics, beyond the mantra of her songs, with records like 1965’s Freedom Highway resonating decades later during Barack Obama’s election, and why figures like Martin Luther King Jr could never really get past songs like ‘Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)’.
Instead of spending too long reflecting on her achievements, Staples held a dedication most could only dream of, with releases in the latter part of her career highlighting that there is much more work to be done, even after decades of the push. If All I Was Was Black came at a time when this was at its most fervent, with Staples realising that others might throw in the towel at such a tipping point while she remains more committed than ever.
“There’s just so much going on today in our world that is not right to me. We’re not loving each other the way that we should. Some people are saying that they want to make our world great again, but we’ve never lost our greatness,” she told Billboard. “There’s just so much division. This is the only way that I know to let the world know how I feel is through my songs.”
All of these building blocks could have never been done without someone whose soul remained humble at every turn. For instance, it could have been easy to lean into her own reputation, with words like “trailblazer” reigniting the walls of her own mind like a student suddenly hitting the top of the ladder. However, Staples never really saw it that way, instead knowing that there was always something new to learn, someone different to absorb from, or another dated institution to improve with kindness.
Perhaps this is why, when she met Prince for the first time, her first instinct wasn’t to feel proud. Instead, she fell into the old habit of the ultimate lover of music, a true fan who could do nothing else other than to admire, knowing that being closed-off or egotistical was always one sure path to stagnation. With humility and awe, she formed a friendship with another legendary figure, one with an immediate mutual understanding even in the absence of words.
Even still, Staples keeps going. While she briefly entertained the idea of retirement more recently, she realised her story was far from over and even encouraged Dylan to do the same. Some might say seven decades at it might be more than enough for some, yet Staples remains one of the biggest touchpoints in musical culture history. Not only that, but her impact bleeds further into many of society’s progressions, with a story anchoring music as the ultimate force of unity.
