Greg Kot

Ripped is 262 pages of the most compelling music-industry journalism I’ve ever read. I know that’s a big statement, but it’s true. I’ve read my fair share of Rolling Stone and other music ‘zines, and this outclasses them all. Here’s what I liked:

1. Kot knows his music. He’s telling the meta-narrative of the music business, but he never hesitates to dive into an analysis of a main player’s album.
2. Kot uses quotes well. When you finish a chapter on NIN, for instance, you show more really fell like you’ve heard from Reznor.
3. Each chapter is a self-contained article, tied thematically to the overarching story. You could pick any chapter out of this book and enjoy it alone.
4. Kot’s analysis of the music industry explains the Top 40-Style slop we’ve been bombarded with since the turn of the century.

If you’re interested in music, business, or both, you’ll enjoy this insightful book. show less

She will not be moved

I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March up Freedom’s Highway by Greg Kot (Scribner, $26).

Chicago Tribune music columnist Greg Kot has the chops to write a great musical biography—and I’ll Take You There: Mavis Staples, the Staple Singers, and the March Up Freedom’s Highway is certainly that—but he also shows a reporter’s ability to provide historical context in his detailed descriptions of the South Chicago that Southern blacks show more inhabited after the Great Migration and in his analysis of the role music played in the development of a cohesive Negro identity in the civil rights movement.

Of course, he’s blessed—quite literally—with Mavis Staples, a woman of depth and power, as a central character. A tiny child who became a tiny woman, Staples has always had a voice that could knock down buildings. With Pop Staples, the family patriarch, to direct and guide the Staples Singers—not to mention adding a “country” style R&B guitar sound—how could they go wrong?

And yet, life happened. Music labels came and went. Gospel music, their bread and butter—and the only kind of music that Pop Staples initially felt worthy of their talent—began to lose listeners. Kot details the changes, both external and internal, that created the evolution of the Staples Singers from a traditional, churchy gospel group to the soundtrack of the civil rights movement—and he locates it in Pop Staples early transformation into a “race man,” insisting on embracing and celebrating his blackness.

While the book does occasionally veer too close to an enriched discography, the power of Mavis Staples’s far-too-deep-and-rich voice does as it does on their records: bring us right back to the point: the music matters, and life’s a long, long walk without some freedom music.

You may be agnostic about God, but when it comes to Mavis Staples, we’re all believers. show less

Full disclosure: I didn't buy this book for Mavis' sake. Other than the Jeff Tweedy penned, "You're Not Alone," I knew nothing of the Staples cannon. I bought this book because of the biographer.

Greg Kot's understanding of music is immense. I've discovered a lot of music over the years through his "Sound Opinions" podcast (co-hosted with Jim DeRogatis). I've also enjoyed his Wilco biography, Learning How to Die and his commentary on the state of the music industry, Ripped.

I'll Take You There show more was everything I had expected. Kot's encyclopedic knowledge of music is on full display as he traces the evolution of Mavis Staples from her father's early days in the South to the launch of the Staple Singers in Chicago to the later years with Jeff Tweedy.

While music is the main thread of the narrative, Kot dips richly into the history of racial discrimination and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

This biography has inspired me to delve into the music of the Staple Singers. I've learned that songs like "I'll Take You There" and "Let's Do It Again" just scratch the surface of their ability. In Pops staples, I've found the dark tremolo-soaked guitar tone I've always been trying to achieve.

The Staple Singers are an important piece of the history of Gospel music. Kot handles their story with grace. show less

Unbelievably, Mavis Staples only came onto my radar in the last few years. How this is even possible, I don't know. It was shortly after hearing her on the radio and being mesmerized by her voice, that the documentary *Mavis!* played at the Hot Docs Festival here in Toronto. I loved it! Shortly after that, I found this book and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. Author Greg Kot does a great job at researching this book and covers the Staple Singers from their earliest roots, through their show more careers at various recording studios and collaborations with Bob Dylan, Prince, Levon Helm, among others; their travels to Ghana and South Africa, and their influence in the days of Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights movement. He goes into great detail about the songs, the music, and touches on the family's personal struggles and tragedies as well.

The only thing missing from this book was a CD! So, to that end, I spent quite some time googling and listened to (and watched, thanks to youtube) several performances. Just wow!

Early recording (1959): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rekp7rRcSFs

The song that is the title of the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY3vgBzgYn4 show less