The Staple Singers: Soulful Stax Grooves

The Staple Singers are known for such immortal classics as “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect Yourself.” They’re one of the most legendary groups in the history of soul music. Led by Roebuck “Pops” Staples, and featuring his children Cleotha, Mavis, Pervis, and Yvonne, the group established itself as one of the leading lights in both the gospel and soul genres, as well as a torch-bearer for the civil rights movement. During the 1950s and 60s, the Chicago-based group recorded for several labels, including Vee-Jay, Riverside, and Epic Records. In 1968, The Staple Singers signed with Stax Records, the home of artists like Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, and Booker T & The MGs.

Photo: Courtesy of  Stax Archives

Their first album for Stax, Soul Folk in Action, was produced by guitarist Steve Cropper, who had risen to fame as part of the label’s house band. Cropper also co-wrote several hits for the label, including Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour.” Soul Folk in Action includes the group’s stellar cover of Redding’s “(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay” and a knockout version of The Band’s “The Weight.” While that album and its follow-up, We’ll Get Over, (also produced by Cropper) featuring the memorable song “When Will We Be Paid,” and a cover of Joe South’s “Games People Play,” garnered good reviews, neither record made a significant dent on the charts. In stepped Stax producer Al Bell, who steered the group in a more deeply funk-fueled direction.

Bell produced 1971’s The Staple Swingers, bringing the group together with the famed Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, resulting in a soulful collection that contained the group’s first big hit, “Heavy Makes You Happy (Sha-Na-Boom-Boom).” The group’s next album, Be Attitude: Respect Yourself featured the breakout smashes “Respect Yourself’ and “I’ll Take You There.” From there on, the smooth lead vocals of “Pops” Staples and the emotional, powerful growl of Mavis Staples led the group through a string of hits, live shows and television appearances, including a show-stopping appearance in The Band’s concert film, The Last Waltz. After parting ways with Bell and Stax in 1975, The Staple Singers also worked with producer-artist Curtis Mayfield on the soundtrack to the Sidney Poitier film Let’s Do It Again, solidifying their status as soul music icons.

Earlier this year, Craft Recordings issued a spectacular box set of the group’s Stax output from the years 1968-74, Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection. Spanning 7 discs, the set includes a selection of live tracks from the group’s stellar performance at the 1972 Wattstax music festival, as well as other rarities. The set also showcases a selection of amazing archival photos in its accompanying booklet, as well as comprehensive liner notes from Levon Williams (formerly of the Stax Museum) and folklorist and writer Dr. Langston Wilkins. If you’re a fan of classic soul and gospel, this is essential listening, and a must have for your collection. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection is available in both vinyl and digital formats. Craft Recordings is one of the leaders in releasing carefully curated and lovingly crafted re-issues of essential music like this, which will appeal to both fans and newcomers alike. Follow this link for more information on this indispensable release: https://craftrecordings.com/staplessingers-comegowithme/, as well as this link to a trailer for the box set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFkc0VxZzTc.

The Undersea "Voyages" of Irwin Allen

The Seaview 

Many movie fans know producer-director Irwin Allen as the “Master of Disaster” through his work on big-screen films like The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and The Swarm. However, Allen had a thriving career long before those films were released. He wrote, produced and directed movies such as The Lost World and Five Weeks In A Balloon, as well as spearheading the television series Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, Land of the Giants and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. Voyage was one of Allen’s most successful projects. It began life as a feature film released in 1961. The movie tells the story of the nuclear powered submarine Seaview. While the sub is on its maiden voyage, the crew becomes involved in a race against time to stop a cataclysmic event that could cause…(what else?)...the end of the world!

The state of the art submarine Seaview, designed by Admiral Harriman Nelson (Walter Pidgeon of Forbidden Planet), is on a test run in the Arctic. Suddenly, things go haywire: icebergs are melting, the seas are churning and the sky is literally on fire. Temperatures are rising to dangerous levels everywhere. It turns out the Van Allen radiation belt has been affected by a meteor shower, causing it to catch on fire. After rescuing a stranded scientist, Miguel Alvarez, from an ice floe, Nelson and his colleague Commodore Emery (Peter Lorre of M, Casablanca, many others) head to New York and attend an emergency briefing at the United Nations, where they speak with a gathering of fellow scientists and world leaders.

Nelson and Emery share their theory that if the heat build-up from the Van Allen belt isn’t stopped, our planet is doomed in a matter of weeks. Nelson believes a nuclear missile fired from the Seaview into the heart of the Van Allen belt will disperse the flames, and things will return to normal. The UN council rejects the idea. Some of the other scientists argue that the problem is only temporary, and the fire will burn itself out. A resolute Nelson returns to the Seaview, where he decides to implement his plan. Along with Captain Lee Crane (Robert Sterling) and the rest of the crew, Nelson races against time to avert disaster. But the presence of an apparent saboteur aboard the sub may derail Nelson’s plan. Can the crew discover the saboteur’s identity, and save the world?

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is an enjoyable, Saturday matinee style sci-fi thriller, produced and directed by the man himself, Irwin Allen. The story for the film is by Allen and veteran screenwriter Charles Bennett. The science of the film’s plot is a little wonky by modern standards, but the ten-year old movie fan inside you should let that slide, and just enjoy the movie on its own terms. It’s clear the film was at least partially inspired by the success of Disney’s hit version of Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. Voyage not only shares a cast member with that Disney film (Peter Lorre), but the Seaview also does battle with a giant squid during course of the movie. One of the film’s main strengths is the Seaview itself, a very cool submarine, featuring the then novel idea of observation windows on the front of the craft. The special effects for the film are by L.B. Abbott, who also worked on Fantastic Voyage and Logan’s Run.

The excellent cast, in addition to Pidgeon and Lorre, also includes veteran stars Joan Fontaine, Henry Daniell, and Regis Toomey. Barbara Eden and Michael Ansara (who were married in real-life at the time) appear as Lt. Cathy Connors and Miguel Alvarez, respectively. As was the case with many films of the 1950s and 1960s, there’s a pop star along for the ride, and this time it’s Frankie Avalon, who plays Lt. Danny Romano, and also gets to sing the title song. Yes, there is a title song for Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea! Here's a link to it, so you may enjoy it in all its 1960s pop tune glory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esNgKybTSZQ.

David Hedison and Richard Basehart

Voyage proved to be a success at the box-office, and Irwin Allen showed some remarkable foresight. He had the models and sets from the film placed into storage, in case the opportunity for a sequel or TV series materialized. That’s exactly what happened in 1964, when a weekly version of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea premiered on ABC. The cast included Richard Basehart as Admiral Nelson, and David Hedison as Captain Crane. Hedison had been offered the role of Crane for the feature film, but turned it down after his experiences working with Allen on the 1960 film The Lost World. Hedison accepted the part on the TV series in order to work with Basehart, an actor whose work he admired. 

The televised voyages of the Seaview started out primarily as Cold War themed espionage stories, along with tales of undersea action and occasional forays into science fiction. When the show switched from black and white to color in its second season, the plots became wilder and wackier, featuring mummies, werewolves, ghosts and a host of alien creatures threatening the crew. As with Allen’s other series, Lost In Space, as Voyage progressed, it became more fantasy-oriented. One welcome addition during the series second year was the Flying Sub, a smaller craft that could be launched from the Seaview and was able to operate underwater and take to the skies as well.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea remained popular, running for four seasons, becoming Allen’s longest running series. The show earned itself a legendary Mad magazine parody, “Voyage To See What’s On The Bottom,” during its original run. The series lived on in syndication, inspiring a generation of kids to assemble their Seaview model kits and play with them alongside their plastic versions of the USS Enterprise. While Voyage has never been rebooted or remade, Irwin Allen did release another undersea science-fiction adventure, the 1971 made for TV movie City Beneath The Sea, a story about the undersea colony of Pacifica. The film not only featured a repurposed Flying Sub, but also cast Voyage star Richard Basehart in a small role. Allen produced one final televised underwater adventure, the 1978 mini-series The Return of Captain Nemo, starring Jose Ferrer.

Thanks to their colorful stories and talented casts, both the film and television versions of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea have remained fan favorites throughout the years. I especially like seeing stars like Vincent Price, Robert Duvall and June Lockhart, among many others, appear in guest roles on the series. Watching the episodes brings back a lot of fond memories for me, and it’s always fun to see Richard Basehart, David Hedison and the rest of the cast remain unflappable (and keep a straight face) while dealing with ever more improbable menaces. The 1961 film has been released on both DVD and Blu-ray, and all four seasons of the TV series are available on DVD. Here’s a link to the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrpM4_fPIT4, and a trailer for the series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZXQEtqqtzk.

This post is part of the Out To Sea Blogathon, hosted by my fellow blogger Debbie over at Moon In Gemini. I want to thank her for bringing me on board for all of the seagoing fun! You can get more info, and check out the other entries here: https://debravega.wordpress.com/2020/03/06/the-out-to-sea-blogathon-is-here/.

The Future of Star Wars and Star Trek

Two new science-fiction series are thrilling and exciting the fans of their respective franchises. Star Trek: Picard, which returns Sir Patrick Stewart to his iconic role as Jean-Luc Picard, is now streaming on CBS All Access, while Star Wars: The Mandalorian, a spinoff set in the Star Wars universe, recently wrapped up its first season on the Disney+ service. Both series have received praise and acclaim from critics and fans, and each show embraces elements of fan service, while also attempting to forge new ground in their respective fictional worlds. Of the two series, Picard is probably taking the deeper dive into familiar territory during its first run of episodes. The show is set twenty years after Star Trek: Nemesis, the last film to feature the Next Generation crew, and the plot line embraces some elements introduced in the first J.J. Abrams Star Trek film from 2009. A devastating supernova has wreaked destruction on the Romulan home world, and much of their race is spread throughout the galaxy as refugees. Jean Luc-Picard had campaigned for the Federation to assist the Romulans when the supernova originally occurred, but a devastating attack by synthetic beings on Mars derailed the Federation’s response. In the aftermath of the troubling events on Mars, all synthetic beings across the Federation were outlawed and de-activated. A distraught Picard resigns from Starfleet, and retreats to his family vineyard in France.

Patrick Stewart and Isa Briones

The series charts Picard’s involvement in the search for a synthetic being with ties to his old friend Commander Data. After a young woman who visits him and asks for his help is assassinated, Picard discovers she’s a unique kind of android. He’s determined to solve the mystery of her origin, while locating the synthetic being’s twin, who is still alive. Familiar faces from the Star Trek universe pop up, including Brent Spiner as Data, and Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, and stories from previous Trek adventures are referenced as well. Stewart, as usual, is terrific in the role of Picard, who’s now older and wearier than when we last saw him. Stewart is clearly relishing his return to the role, and his interaction with the cast is superb. The supporting cast features Isa Briones, Alison Pill, Santiago Cabrera and Michelle Hurd, who are all excellent as well. It may take non-fans a little while to get up to speed, but the well-crafted, intriguing story is worth your time. The series was created by veteran Star Trek scribes Alex Kurtzman, Akiva Goldsman, Kirsten Beyer, and bestselling author Michael Chabon. Jonathan Frakes, who co-starred as Commander Riker in the Next Generation TV show and films, and has gone on to direct episodes of several Trek series, helmed two episodes of Picard, and is slated to appear onscreen in the series as Will Riker. 

Carl Weathers, Gina Carano and Pedro Pascal

As for The Mandalorian, it’s a standalone adventure set in the world of Star Wars. The show follows the story of a bounty hunter Din Djarin, who ends up becoming the guardian to a child that's from the same species as Yoda. The story is set sometime after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, but you only need a basic familiarity with the Star Wars films to enjoy this thrilling series, which is a combination of the western, science-fiction and action adventure genres. The show does offer some easter eggs and for fans, but focuses on telling a great story that stands on its own terms. The cast includes Pedro Pascal in the title role, and Gina Carano as Cara Dune, a fellow mercenary who ends up helping the Mandalorian protect the mysterious child. Carl Weathers, Nick Nolte, Werner Herzog and Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito are also featured in the series. As you’d expect from a Star Wars production, the series is well-produced and visually stunning, and there are some nice visual references to previous Star Wars adventures.

Star Trek: Picard and Star Wars: The Mandalorian are worth viewing. The writers, directors and producers of shows like these always face a difficult challenge, as they try to please longtime fans while also attempting to bring in new viewers, and crafting a compelling narrative which will appeal to both groups. It’s a very delicate balance, but these shows have managed to successfully walk that tightrope thus far. In some ways, Picard is a more reflective and character driven series than that other CBS All Access show, the sometimes uneven Star Trek: Discovery. The Mandalorian provides the action, humor and excitement of a great Star Wars tale without being weighed down by the history of the franchise. I’ve enjoyed both series, and it'snice to see these long-running franchises try something a bit different that still pays homage to their history. If the future of Star Wars and Star Trek is with terrific series like these, then I say lets have more of them. Here are links to the trailers for both Star Trek: Picard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbXy0f0aCN0, and Star Wars: The Mandalorian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOC8E8z_ifw.