The Soulful Three M’s – Mable, Margie & Mavis, Pt. 1
November 20th, 2008 by
Anyone who has read any of my works over the past four decades (yes, it really is four!) will know that I have long had a penchant for soulful female vocalists. Blame it, if you will, on my initial ‘indoctrination’ into the world of black music via the likes of Dionne Warwick, Nina Simone, Esther Phillips and Aretha Franklin. It matters not the genesis of such penchant: what’s true is that through the years that leaning (which resulted in my 1999 book, “The Soulful Divas”) hasn’t waned and while looking at subject matter for this Stax blog, I found myself pondering the comparatively smaller number of soul sisters whose names dotted the Stax and Volt rosters in comparison to other major musical labels of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Motown had a plethora: Mary Wells, Kim Weston, Brenda Holloway, Diana Ross, Thelma Houston, Valerie Simpson, Chris Clark, Blinky – and that’s not counting the female groups (The Supremes, Martha & The Vandellas, The Marvelettes, The Velvelettes, etc.). Over in the Windy City, Chess had its share with Etta James, Sugar Pie DeSanto, Jackie Ross, Mitty Collier, Jan Bradley, Laura Lee, Irma Thomas and so on.
At Stax, for the longest time, there was pretty much only Carla Thomas who ruled the roost as a hitmaker of any consequence. Then, in 1966, along came Mable John, sister of Little Willie John, future preacher and (albeit briefly) a chartmaker for the Memphis diskerie via the classic “Your Good Thing (Is About To End).” There were others – deep soul vocalists like Judy Clay and Ruby Johnson – who enjoyed minimal sales success (possibly due the emotive ‘deepness’ and approach of their singing) thus making Stax essentially a male-dominated company.
Things did start to change in the early ‘70s by which time The Staple Singers (and thus Mavis Staples) and Margie Joseph had joined the roster. There some other names – Kim Weston (through her and husband Mickey Stevenson’s Mikim imprint), former Atlantic hitmaker Barbara Lewis and the distaff half of the brother-and-sister duo, Inez & Charlie Foxx but none achieved any kind of significance during their brief stints with the Stax outfit. Maybe that male dominance made it hard for the company to break through with sustained impact for their ladies of soul (with the notable exception of course of The Emotions, one of a tiny number of female groups at Stax/Volt).
Be that as it may, the truth is the music that Mable, Margie and Mavis (as a group member but as importantly as a soloist) made during their Stax years was glorious. Mable, likely the least known of the trio, went to become the leader of Ray Charles’ Raelets (or Raelettes!) but her work – mostly with Isaac Hayes and David Porter as producers and songwriters – is stellar. Aside from “Your Good Thing,” there were some superb sides like “Taking Up Another Man’s Place” (covered by Aretha Franklin at Atlantic with a version that stayed in the can for decades until recently), “Left Over Love” (something of a Stax perennial, boasting versions by Ruby J, Judy C and Carla T), “Don’t Get Caught” and her own personal theme “Able Mable.” A brilliant UK-compiled collection, “Stay Out Of The Kitchen” focuses on Mable’s final work for Stax and does not include “Your Good Thing” but does feature some outtakes of earlier recordings for the label (such as “Left Over Love”) along with a wonderful Ashford & Simpson tune (“Running Out”), a great version of “I Love You More Than Words Can Say” (also recorded by Otis Redding) and a cover of her late brother’s classic “I Need Your Love So Bad.” For your first taste of one of the three soulful M’s that comprise this blog (Margie and Mavis to follow soon), check out Mable’s one Stax set mercifully still in print!
David Nathan
A/k/a the British Ambassador Of Soul
Owner, www.soulmusic.com,
www.soulmusicstore.com
