Endited. Please welcome mavis staples. And moderating the Panel Discussion today as a catalyst for social change, hes the executive director of the Grammy Museum in los angeles. Noted music authorities, specifically on music in the 1960s, and author of more than a dozen books. His most recent, this land is your land, Woody Guthrie and the journey of an american folk song. Frequent lecturer at the white house and performance at the white house. Please welcome bob santelli. Thank you for doing this, its an honor to have you here. The last time we got a chance to sit like this we were at the white house talking about soul music and the importance of music in the Civil Rights Movement. Yes, we were, and it was around the same time. So its getting to be a habit. Next year at this time ill look for you. The staples singers are generally recognized in Music History as one of the seminole groups of American History, particularly in the post world war ii period. Yourself and sisters and pops, of course bridge the gap between rhythm and blues, soul music and gospel music. And sometime during that transition of moving from the sacred into the secular, of course, you and your family get involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Talk a little bit about how that happened. You know, back in. Actually we started singing in 1950 and 1960, pops had started hearing dr. King on the radio. Dr. King had a radio program, and pops was hearing his program, we happened to be in Montgomery Alabama on a sunday morning and we didnt have to work on that night. Pops called my sisters and i to his room, he said, listen, you all. This man martin is here Martin Luther king, we didnt know dr. King, pops. He keeps secrets, you know. He said, Martin Luther king, and he has a church here, and id like to go to his sunday morning service. Would you all like to go . Yeah, dad, we want to go. We all got in the car, went down to the church, we were seated, someone let dr. King know we were in the service, and he acknowledged us. He said were glad to have pops staples and his daughters with us this morning. Hope you enjoy the service. Well, we enjoyed the service, yes. When it was over, dr. King was standing at the door and greet th them. My sisters and i we walked past, shook dr. Kings hand, when pops turn came along, he stood there and talked to him for a while. He finally came on, we get back to the hotel, he let us go to our room, he went to his room, then about a half hour later, pops called us to his room again. He said, listen you all, i like this mans message, i really like his message. And i think that if he can preach it, we can sing it. And that was the beginning of our writing of civil rights songs, freedom songs, message songs. And the first one was march of freedoms highway. And then why am i treated so bad . That turned out to be dr. Kings favorite. We would sing before dr. King would speak. Some nights wed be going down the parking lot. Dr. King would yell out, pops you going to sing my song tonight . Oh, yeah, doctor. That was why am i treated so bad. We would sing why am i treated so bad. He wrote that song. There were a time when nine black children were trying to board a school bus. They wanted to attend central high school. This went on for so long, these children would walk proudly with their books and heads held high and they walk into a mob that would spit at them and throw at them and call them names. They never would turn their heads, they would keep on walking. Finally, this went on for so long, the governor of arkansas, the mayor of little rock, and the president of the United States said let those children go to schooling. Were all on the floor, we wanted to see these children board that bus. Children get up to the busby the time they get to the door, a policeman put his billy club across the door. Thats when pops said, why they doing that . Why are they treating them so bad . He wrote that song that evening. Its pretty obvious, and i think most historians acknowledge the fact that music was the fuel of the Civil Rights Movement. If you took away music dr. King gave the courage and strength to push on despite the hardships. Thats right. You grew up in a church, learning gospel music, it was easy for gospel music to get out on to the front lines. Explain how that happened . In church were singing gospel, gospel is truth, this Civil Rights Movement is truth. We needed to give our input what we felt. Were christian people, we mean business. We dont mess around, you all. Once we started singing aint gonna let nobody turn me round and you put some of that gospel up in them songs, people are going to hear that, theyre going to hear music period, people love i dont care what kind of music it is if you sing it you bring in some truth, realness, people see this happen, what youre singing about, its going to move you, motivate you, thats because we wanted to give people a reason to get up in the morning and get started. Get started on your day. Pops was our leader, whatever pops told us, we wanted to do, thats what we were going to do and we loved it any how. I was a teenager. I was the same age as those kids in little rock that couldnt board the bus so i became super interested in the Civil Rights Movement. When we first started, you know, when we went to dr. Kings chur church, i tried to keep it going every album, cd i record, i have some civil rights songs on there every concert that i do today im still singing spreed open songs im not going to let it go, because im a witness, im a living witness. Thank you. Its a part of me and i think the more i continue to sing these songs this generation these kids they werent there. I was there, and im still here, im bringing it to you im still on the battlefield you all im on the battlefield and im fighting every day, im fighting for love, im fighting for hope, and im fighting for peace and i wont stop, i will not stop my father and dr. King dr. King, the greatest you hear whats his name . Mohammed ali, im the greatest of all time. Dr. King im sorry ali, now, you cant beat dr. Martin luther king, and i just loved to hear dr. Kings laughter. You know, he had this jovial laughter. Most times i would look at him, he would look so serious. He might look sad. Thats what ive held on to his laughter, any time i saw dr. King, i saw him as happy its just such an honor and such a wonderful feeling to have been able to stand next to this man and to shake his hand, this great, great man, dr. Martin luther king. We were talking backstage, and i asked you if you and the staples singers were at the march on washington. That was one of the ones you missed. Where were you . We were over there in london, we had no business being there. We recorded, we wrote songs, mar march. Its a long walk to d. C. But i got my walking shoes on. We were singing. You were there in spirit . Yeah. London didnt have nothing for me, they didnt even have no turnip or mustard greens. After everybody got through marching, they went to munching, corn bread, turnip and mustard greens, okra, corn on the could be. Boy, im getting hungry. [ laughter ] bob, you do this to me every time, im so grateful the lord has kept me, and im still here to carry on what my father and dr. King were carrying on we got to keep that legacy alive. Dr. Kings going to be alive, but pops, we have to work on pops legacy. Everybody knows those staples singers. Speaking of pops and the staples singers, one of the great things about the group was, you were able to succeed in the church, you were able to also succeed like sam cooke, taking a song that had some serious messaging, and bring it on to the pop charts, i saw him for like sam cooke. People learned about that learned about the message behind it by hearing it on the radio, on the pop charts. The staples singers were doing the same thing, you had many songs crossover from the black charts to gospel and into the pop charts. That surprised us, we were just singing because we loved to sing. We were singing to sing in church. We never thought wed even be making records or traveling. We werent trying to be stars, you know. We sing for nothing. You didnt have to pay us, we just loved it i think that the best thing could happen is for the news to turn over like that, people, they try to put us out of church. I know a place i couldnt resist that. I had to do it, bob. But the church folk, they started saying the staples singers are singing the devils music. The devils music . I had to do so many interviews, i would tell them, the defrn ilaint got no music. Devil aint got no music, all music is gods music, you have to listen to what we are singing ill take you there is talking about taking you to church, taking you to heaven. Aint no smilin faces lying to the races, where else could we be taking you but to heaven i said you all have to listen to our lyrics, you listen to the song come on and everybody gets up dancing. Ill take you there is a gospel song. The next thing you know, we were invited back to church. The very first song request ill take you there. And the church was rockin, i said, see that, you cant help but move. If it got a beat. Thats with any music, and especially with gospel. That spirit hits you, you got to move. People they take music, they know it makes them feel good they wanted to try to say staples sisters is devils music. You do interviews, all of us did interviews, but my main thing was about the devil. Because i didnt like the way that sounded. The staples singers singing devils music. Wed been Singing Church songs, folk songs people would hear our i just said, pops, daddy, why these blues festivals calling us . We dont sing no blues . He said, mavis, you go back and you listen, we had such a unique sound, you listen to our music, our music has some of everything in it. Thats right. And for years, we sang gospel songs with our father, didnt know pops was playing blues on his guitar. I said, oh, thats why they like you so much. Youre playing the same music. Pops learned from a blues artist in mississippi. Charlie patton. Charlie patton was a boy, a man. He said he would saw Charlie Patton playing the guitar, when he started he wanted to play just like Charlie Patton, and he was making ten cents a day. I said you were making ten cents a day . That was a lot of money back th then. So down on the farm, right in drew, mississippi, he showed us since where he purchased that guitar at a hardware store, they let him put in his 10 cents, they let him put it on leah way until he could get it out. Elvis presley told me one time, miss staples i love the way your father played the guitar. We have a few in this city as well, pops, if you are a true blues musician pops staples goes on your list as one of the great unsung blues players whether its elvis or eric clapton, what a great stylist he was, he had a style that could carry from blues to gospel and r b. In the 60s too, you also we talked about being on the front lines with dr. King, there were people that you met that were starting to come into the movement who werent africanamerican but understood the cause a young man at that time by the name of bob dylan. You met him and saw him and pete seger, others that were on the front lines, talk about your time with them in the 60s. Pete seger, Bob Dylan Bob dylan is one of the worlds greatest poests. We met him in the early 60s, we were in new york about to do a General Electric tv show. Everyone was there. We didnt know folk music, but we started hearing this music, bobs manager said i want you to meet the staples singers. He said, i know the stables singers, pops has a velvety voice and mavis gets rough sometimes and he quoted the song, he said mavis says i dont want to meet him, hes an angry man. He started singing, we started the show. Were standing on the side, dillon started singing and pops said wait a minute, you all, listen to what that kid was saying, he was saying, how many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man. Pops used to tell us stories about when he was in mississippi, he was a boy, he couldnt walk on the same side of the street. If a white man was coming toward him, he was on this side, he had to crossover. Daddy said, we can sing that so song. We went home, we got bob dylan, we learned blowing in the wind. The answer, my friend is blowing in the wind pops could literally live it, because it was real with him he would tell us a lot of stories, between pops and my grandmother, man, those were the best times sitting on the floor listening to storyies but pete seger, if i had a hammer, id hammer in the he was something, just genius. It was such an honor to meet a man like pete seger. We would go just like we would be invited to blues festivals and wed be invited to folk festivals. I didnt understand. Wed hear a folk song, id say, well, thats the closest theyre singing Something Like gospel. Theyre singing truth. You look out and you see all these flower children with the flower oh, man i just loved it. I would have the best time, newport this year, Newport Rhode island festival is my birthday party. Everybodys invited. Everybodys invited. Yes indeed. Were going to have a time. Its one of the great festivals, right . Yes. With the time we have left as we said before, staples singers often found themselves on the pop charlottes as did people like Aretha Franklin, and there was a word respect. Otis redding writes the great song, and Aretha Franklin sings it. That word takes on new meaning. Respect yourself. Matt rice wrote that, the same guy that wrote mustang sally. He told us, look, were in the studio, its max. Max came in and said, pops, when you sing it, you have to sing dipdittlydee he said, im into the going to sing that. He said, youll have all the little kids doing this, and matt was right. Respect yourself, its my favorite, still my favorite, i think today respect yourself just needs to be recorded all over again, because these some of these children, i wont say all, some of the children man, they dont havent been taught to respect themselves or to respect your elders. You dont talk back to no grown person. If i had talked back to i would have been. I would have gotten off the floor many times i would love to hear someone record respect yourself again, and be explosive like it was back in the 70s, because pops one of the black songwriters told pops, im glad you and your daughters records that song, i was on the bus the other day and i realized after hearing that song, i wasnt respecting myself. Theres a little old lady on the bus, and i let her stand up while im sitting down, and i thought about that song he said, let me stand up and let this lady sit down, pops said, thats what we want to happen. Thats exactly why were singing it. In order to respect fellow man, have you to respect yourself. If you dont respect yourself aint nobody going to give a good cahoot. Mavis staples. Thank you. Thank you, bob. Help me up. Thank you, bob. Thank you, thank you all. [ applause ] all right, i got a new knee, i didnt tell them about my knee. Byebye. For my next guest, taking a completely different tack, instead of talking about music, were going to hear some music first, graham nash, you may remember, if you remember the 1960s as a member of the hollys, one of the Great British invasion groups and then in the 1960s, he comes to america, and in particular to california, falls in love with the weather there, a certain woman, the music, and basically starts a brand new career as a member of perhaps arguably americas first rock n roll group. Crosby stills and nash. Hes been a man of conscience, someone who has written songs and performed songs for the good of the people, the good of the environment, for songs that basically commit to a particular message. Hes been a friend of the Grammy Museums, hes been a friend of all of yours, if youve been following his career. Hes a great individual, incredible musician and songwriter. Please welcome to the stage, mr. Graham nash. [ applause ] how are you all doing . Yikes. Must be David Crosbys stool. Im very pleased to be here, obviously. I got a phone call early 1969 from a friend of mine called hugh romney, he was a beat poet from new york city who now goes by the name of wavy gravy. One of our heroes, he called me and said, you know, the hippies, who disrupted the Democratic National convention in chicago in 68 had been arrested for disruption and needed funds for their defense fund. And would me and david and steven and neal consider going consider going to chicago. I could go, but steven and neil had made other plans earlier and couldnt go. So i wrote this song actually for steven and neil. Okay. So your brothers bound and gagged, and they chained him to a chair wont you please come to chicago just to sing in a land thats known as freedom how can such a thing be fair wont you please come to chicago for the help that we could bring we can change the world we are arrange the world is diein to get better politicians sit yourself down theres nothing for you here wont you please come to chicago for a ride dont ask barack to help you he might turn the other ear wont you please come to chicago or else join the other side we can change the world rearrange the world is dying if you believe in justice if you believe in freedom let the man live his own life those regulations who needs them all throw em out the door somehow people must be free i hope the day comes soon wont you please come to chicago show your face from the bottom of the ocean to the mountains of the moon wont you please come to chicago no one else can take your place we can change the world yes we can we arrange the world is dying in you believe in justice if you believe in freedom let a man live his own life some of those regulations who needs them open up the door [ applause ] thank you. Thank you. Must be 50 years since i tuned my own guitar. Im not sure if youre the same way, but sometimes your life geget s changed from a phone call. I got a call from crosby one day. And david said, book the studio, book the engineer, buy some tape, get the band together, were coming down. And i said, cros, you sound intense. Whats going on . He says, wait until you hear this song that neil young has just written. I said, okay. Pretty intense. Whats it about . He goes, its about kent st