US Airways - February 2014 - (Page 136)

Must Read President Hotel in New York and seeing a list of song titles scribbled on a shirt cardboard. "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall" jumped out. "Just the way the words were put together caught your eye," Pervis says. Once Dylan showed him the song, Pervis lobbied Pops to have the Staples record it. It's hardly a "typical" Staples song, wordy and nearly eight minutes long, but Pervis, in a rare lead vocal, gives it an effectively understated reading, a touch of vibrato in his voice as the surreal, often horrifying images parade past: the well-hidden executioner's face, the poison pellets flooding the waters, the young child beside a dead pony. Mavis and the others ring out on the yearning chorus: "Oh, where have you been, my wanderin' son? Where have you been, my darling young one?" The song is both specific and universal, conflating Cold War paranoia with images of biblical Apocalypse. "What I call gospel is truth and nothing else but," MAVIS SINGS WITH A DON'T-BACKDOWN FERVOR. "EVERYWHERE I GO," SHE WAILS, "I'M GONNA LET IT SHINE." Pops said at the time. "Though Bob Dylan is classical 'folk,' to me he's inspirational. His message is truth - he's true gospel as anything you would ever see." The Staples' increasing comfort level with Dylan's songs made them more of a piece with the group's hard-core gospel tunes: the bedrock traditionalism of the stately "Will the Lord Remember Me," the dexterous swing of "I Can't Help from Cryin' Sometime," the roadto-glory hand-clapping of "Let Jesus Lead You." The title song was particularly significant. Composed as a gospel chil- Hungry? Come eat at Scottsdale's best hidden gem! 136 MAY 2012 usairwaysmag.com dren's song during the era when Pops Staples was born, its simplicity and biblical allusions made it an endlessly malleable part of black and folk culture for decades. Sam Cooke covered it, and Ray Charles secularized it (with his '50s composition "This Little Girl of Mine"). In the '60s, it had re-emerged as an anthem for the civil rights movement. It was sung at meetings, rallies, and marches, its self-empowering lyrics tweaked and adapted to suit the situation. "I don't have any sense of the civil rights movement existing without the singing we did in marches, mass meetings, and in jail," Bernice Johnson (later Bernice Johnson Reagon), one of the original Freedom Singers, said decades later in an NPR radio interview. "There is no separation ... If we were there, then we sang." In 1962, the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee had set up the Freedom Singers to spread the message of nonviolence nationwide. The group, consisting of Johnson, Rutha Harris, Charles Neblett, and Cordell Hull Reagon, traveled 100,000 miles in 1962-63 spreading the gospel of civil rights. They had appeared with Mahalia Jackson and Odetta at King's March on Washington in August 1963, and then performed at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island. For the finale, they linked arms with Dylan, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, and the Staple Singers, among others, to sing the movement's anthem, "We Shall Overcome." "This Little Light of Mine" was one of the songs that made the movement run: easy to sing, easily adaptable, defiantly optimistic. On the Riverside album, Mavis tears into the song with a don't-back-down fervor. "Everywhere I go," she wails, and Pops, Pervis, and Yvonne answer, "I'm gonna let it shine." She doesn't let up for the song's twoand-a-half-minute duration, flying above the onrushing tide of voices, bass, and drums. I'll Take You There (Simon & Schuster) is now available in bookstores. http://www.oldtowntortillafactory.com http://www.oldtowntortillafactory.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of US Airways - February 2014

Table of Contents
CEO Letter
From the Editor
Did You Know?
Making It Happen
Diversions: Public Markets
Diversions: Celebration of Fine Art in Scottsdale
Diversions: The Philadelphia Mint
Connections
Style Spotlight: Cruise Control
Adventure: Skiing Salt Lake City
Adventure: Arizona Wet & Wild
Gear Up: Workout Tools
US Airways: History of African Americans in Aviation
Travel Feature: Eleuthera in the Bahamas
Great Tastes: Phoenix Dining
University of California at San Diego
Celebrate Black History Month: HBCUs
Best of Health: Desert Institute for Spine Care
Best of Health: Miami Beach Foot & Ankle Surgery
Visit Tri-Valley, California
Must Read: I'll Take You There by Greg Kot
Puzzles
Readers Resource Index
Your US Airways Guide
Video Entertainment
Audio Entertainment
U.S. and Caribbean Service Map
International Service Map
Airport Terminal Maps
Passenger Info/Contact US Airways
US Airways MarketPlace®
US Airways Fleet/Customs & Immigration
Giving: The Hope Takes Flight Campaign
Window or Aisle?

US Airways - February 2014