Staple Singers, The - Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection [7LP/ 180G/ All Analog/ Boxed]

Deluxe 180g Vinyl 7LP Box Set Celebrating the Staple Singers' Stax Years (1968-1974); Six Albums Plus Bonus Disc of Live Recordings & Rarities Cut from the Original Analog Masters by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl and Pressed at MRP

Craft Recordings presents a vinyl box set celebrating one of music's greatest gospel and soul groups, The Staple Singers. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection documents all of the group's studio albums released on the iconic Memphis label, spanning 1968-1974, and features the Staples' biggest hits, including "I'll Take You There," "Respect Yourself" and "If You're Ready (Come Go with Me)." The six studio albums were cut from the original analog masters by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl. The final, seventh disc offers rarities, non-album singles and several live recordings from the legendary 1972 Wattstax music festival. The seven discs come in heavyweight 180-gram vinyl pressed at Memphis Record Pressing. Housed in a slipcase, the collection also includes a deluxe booklet with archival photos and new liner notes from American music specialist and curator Levon Williams (formerly of the Stax Museum and the National Museum of African American Music), and folklorist, ethnomusicologist and writer Dr. Langston Wilkins.

By the time that the Staple Singers signed to Stax in 1968, the family quartet – helmed by patriarch Roebuck "Pops" Staples, with daughters Cleotha and Mavis, and son Pervis (later replaced by his sister Yvonne) – had long graduated from the gospel circuit. The Chicago group had become well known in the counterculture and folk scenes and were performing alongside major rock acts like Big Brother and the Holding Company and the Grateful Dead. The Staples had also become formidable voices in the Civil Rights movement, and many of their songs preached a message of empowerment and racial equality.

In the fall of '68, the group 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." 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. 

The Staple Singers returned to the studio with Cropper the following year to record We'll Get Over (1970). Highlights include the standout message song "When Will We Be Paid," as well as covers of tracks like Sly & the Family Stone's "Everyday People" and Gladys Knight & the Pips' "The End of the Road." Though both Soul Folk in Action and We'll Get Over carried powerful messages and tight-knit harmonies, neither had commercial success. And so, for the band's third album, Stax co-president Al Bell (who signed the band) took the helm as producer. With support from the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section (also known as "The Swampers"), the Staple Singers found a winning team with Bell, and the resulting album, 1971's The Staple Swingers, would be their first charting record, peaking at No. 9 on Billboard's top R&B albums. The LP offered a funkier sound from the group, with high-energy singles like "Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom Boom)" and the Smokey Robinson cover "You've Got to Earn It."

The group reunited with the Swampers and Bell for 1972's Be Altitude: Respect Yourself, an album that transformed the Staples into mainstream stars. Peaking at No. 19 on the Billboard 200, the groove-filled album featured their first No. 1 hit – the infectious "I'll Take You There," and "Respect Yourself," a song which Williams and Wilkins declare "Encapsulates the Staple Singers' entire career." The powerful message song not only resonated with African Americans but also with many women across the country as they, too, fought for equal opportunity. The group's 1973 follow-up, Be What You Are, featured the Top Ten hit "If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)," popular single "Touch a Hand, Make a Friend" and the sweetly harmonized "Love Comes in All Colors," while the Staples' final album with Stax – 1974's City in the Sky – includes such highlights as the politically charged "Washington We're Watching You," "Back Road into Town" and "Who Made the Man," which marked a return to the group's gospel roots.

The final disc in Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection offers a selection of live tracks from the Staple Singers' energetic performance at Wattstax, as well as B-sides like "Stay With Us," non-album singles like "Oh La De Da" and rarities that include "Walking in Water Over Our Head" and "Trippin' on Your Love."

Features:
• Deluxe 180g vinyl 7LP box set
• Cut from the original analog masters by Jeff Powell at Take Out Vinyl
• Pressed at Memphis Record Pressing
• Housed in a slipcase
• Includes a deluxe booklet with archival photos and new liner notes from American music specialist and curator Levon Williams (formerly of the Stax Museum and the National Museum of African American Music), and folklorist, ethnomusicologist and writer Dr. Langston Wilkins