As I write this, the sports talk world is consumed by pitcher Mariano Rivera’s unanimous induction into the baseball Hall of Fame. Rivera was perhaps the greatest closer baseball will ever know. When he pitched at the end of the game, everyone knew he would throw his cutter, but knowing what was coming didn’t matter, because it was unhittable. Just about every time. Singer Mavis Staples is a similar mix of incredible quality and consistency, as she demonstrates on Live in London.
Staples is closing in on 80 and shows no signs of aging. Her voice simply hasn’t lost much—not depth, nor emotion, nor intensity—since the 1960s; the vocal equivalent of Rivera’s fastball. And lest the skeptical think Staples cherry-picked an especially strong gig for the recording, she was just as impressive when I saw her open for Bob Dylan in the summer of 2016.
With Staples, like Rivera, you know what to expect as soon as she steps in front of a crowd. Each and every time. Amazingly, despite doing almost 200 shows a year and touring since she graduated high school, her live shows still have a passionate energy. She’s not going through the motions of performing; she’s somehow injecting her performances with a freshness, seemingly managing to be present to her audience and her music each and every night.
And that’s the hook of this album: a talented artist performing great songs. Conceptually, it’s not that different from her 2008 live album, Live – Hope At The Hideout; this is just a different song selection from a different location. But that doesn’t make this set any less worth hearing.
For instance, her cover of the Talking Heads’ “Slippery People” re-conceives the soulfulness of the original. Whereas David Byrne used background vocals to give his manic Latin-pop tune a veneer of soul, Staples installs a funk rhythm that moves and grooves, but also breathes (more so than the hit disco-y version she cut with The Staple Singers in 1984). The Talking Heads famously took Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” for themselves and Staples avenges that by grabbing “Slippery” for herself.
Staples visits some of the music from her recent albums. The songs vary in songwriting quality but you can’t argue with the performances. Everything she puts on the album is elevated. “Take Us Back,” from 2016’s Livin’ on a High Note is faithful the studio version, but swings just a little bit more. “Who Told You That,” from 2017’s If All I Was Was Black, also comes alive. A lot of that heightened energy stems from her live interplay with the guitar. In concert, Staples presses and pushes her vocals against generously loud guitar, only to release the pressure, creating a sense of drama in the release. She lets her impressively tight band challenge her, perhaps knowing they’ll never overshadow her.
The cover of Live in London features Staples with her head bowed down, two fists up in the air, looking either like someone caught deep in thought while dancing, or like a boxer preparing to throw a jab. Both concepts work. Staples has the soul of a dancer. Her sense of beauty and the aesthetics of music is impeccable. But she also has the soul of a fighter, knowing the creation of beauty such comes with a physical price. Live in London shows Staples can not only pay the price, she’s willing to pay it every time she steps on stage.
